This Desktop Robot Only Responds in GIFs

Meet Peeqo, an open-source robotic assistant that creator and NYU ITP graduate Abhishek Singh describes as “the love child of Amazon Echo and a Disney character.”

The desktop bot was brought to life using a Raspberry Pi and two Arduino Minis, along with multiple servos, four microphones, a camera, a USB speaker, a NeoPixel ring for notifications, and an LCD screen.

For voice recognition, Peeqo uses Google Speech API and API.AI to detect his owner’s commands and respond to queries, respectively. Aside from that, Peeqo can also become a full-fledged entertainment system capable of playing Spotify tunes and swaying to the beat.

You would think that something like this can be a bit distracting, but in fact, it’s just the opposite. This adorable assistant was designed for those who spend way too many hours in front of the computer and often need some delight and entertainment to get through the day.

Singh has even developed a Chrome extension that uses Peeqo to keep track of his productivity and motivate him to steer clear of social media when he should be working. Once he tells it to block a certain site, the robot voices his displeasure in the form of, you guessed it, a GIF.

Want to build one of your own? You’ll find everything you need to know about the project on Imgur and on its official webpage here.