Willow – Open-source privacy-focused voice assistant hardware

Hacker News

As the Home Assistant project says, it's the year of voice! I love Home Assistant and I've always thought the ESP BOX[0] hardware is cool. I finally got around to starting a project to use the ESP BOX hardware with Home Assistant and other platforms. Why? - It's actually "Alexa/Echo competitive". Wake word detection, voice activity detection, echo cancellation, automatic gain control, and high quality audio for $50 means with Willow and the support of Home Assistant there are no compromises on looks, quality, accuracy, speed, and cost. - It's cheap. With a touch LCD display, dual microphones, speaker, enclosure, buttons, etc it can be bought today for $50 all-in. - It's ready to go. Take it out of the box, flash with Willow, put it somewhere. - It's not creepy. Voice is either sent to a self-hosted inference server or commands are recognized locally on the ESP BOX. - It doesn't hassle or try to sell you. If I hear "Did you know?" one more time from Alexa I think I'm going to lose it. - It's open source. - It's capable. This is the first "release" of Willow and I don't think we've even begun scratching the surface of what the hardware and software components are capable of. - It can integrate with anything. Simple on the wire format - speech output text is sent via HTTP POST to whatever URI you configure. Send it anywhere, and do anything! - It still does cool maker stuff. With 16 GPIOs exposed on the back of the enclosure there are all kinds of interesting possibilities. This is the first (and VERY early) release but we're really interested to hear what HN thinks! [0] - https://github.com/espressif/esp-box

Visit product View on Hacker NewsMay 15, 2023

Share card

Actual performance

581points

138comments

Made the leaderboard

Launch Intel predictions

Analyze your own launch →

Indie HackersFits the IH revenue-focused audience · Strong signals: ios · Missing: supports, reddit linkedin, podcasting

83%83% predicted probability of success on Indie Hackers, based on ML models trained on real launch data.

best fitHighest predicted score across all platforms for this description.

Product HuntOn track for Day 1 leaderboard · Strong signals: activity, open · Missing: mac, agents, macos

78%78% predicted probability of success on Product Hunt, based on ML models trained on real launch data.

Hacker NewsStrong engagement from HN community · Strong signals: open source, io · Missing: https docs, excited, just released

60%60% predicted probability of success on Hacker News, based on ML models trained on real launch data.

nativeThis product was originally launched on this platform.

TrustMRRLess likely to generate early MRR · Strong signals: ios, way · Missing: mobile apps, personal, entrepreneurs

37%37% predicted probability of success on TrustMRR, based on ML models trained on real launch data.

AppSumoMay struggle as an AppSumo deal · Strong signals: platform, host · Missing: plus, intuitive, reviews

36%36% predicted probability of success on AppSumo, based on ML models trained on real launch data.

Acquire.comPre-revenue stage for this audience · Missing: arr, mrr, revenue

18%18% predicted probability of success on Acquire.com, based on ML models trained on real launch data.

BetaListMay not resonate with beta-testers · Strong signals: audio · Missing: web3, chat, crypto

0%0% predicted probability of success on BetaList, based on ML models trained on real launch data.

Correct prediction on native model

Similar products

Willow: the fastest and most private open source voice assistant66%Launch Intel prediction score: how likely this product is to succeed on its source platform, based on its name, tagline, and description.

Willow: the fastest and most private open source voice assistant

Hacker News12

PiratePx – Open Source Privacy focused analytics57%Launch Intel prediction score: how likely this product is to succeed on its source platform, based on its name, tagline, and description.

PiratePx – Open Source Privacy focused analytics

Hacker News30

100% open-source voice assistant – as a HAL900070%Launch Intel prediction score: how likely this product is to succeed on its source platform, based on its name, tagline, and description.

100% open-source voice assistant – as a HAL9000

Hacker News18

SharedBills26%Launch Intel prediction score: how likely this product is to succeed on its source platform, based on its name, tagline, and description.

Privacy focused bill splitting

Product Hunt+7

Lambda – An Open-Source Privacy-Focused Social Media App48%Launch Intel prediction score: how likely this product is to succeed on its source platform, based on its name, tagline, and description.

Lambda – An Open-Source Privacy-Focused Social Media App

Hacker News1

Open-source and privacy focused offline translation in the browser56%Launch Intel prediction score: how likely this product is to succeed on its source platform, based on its name, tagline, and description.

Open-source and privacy focused offline translation in the browser

Hacker News6

Open Source, Privacy-Focused and Beautiful Show Downloader and Tracker55%Launch Intel prediction score: how likely this product is to succeed on its source platform, based on its name, tagline, and description.

Open Source, Privacy-Focused and Beautiful Show Downloader and Tracker

Hacker News3

Open Source Voice Assistant for Simplicity62%Launch Intel prediction score: how likely this product is to succeed on its source platform, based on its name, tagline, and description.

Open Source Voice Assistant for Simplicity

Hacker News1

Privacy Focused Voice Journal42%Launch Intel prediction score: how likely this product is to succeed on its source platform, based on its name, tagline, and description.

Privacy Focused Voice Journal

Hacker News2

Aether AI37%Launch Intel prediction score: how likely this product is to succeed on its source platform, based on its name, tagline, and description.

The First Privacy Focused AI

Product Hunt+11

Browse all products Analyze your launch