Create your own Amazon Echo

Matrix Labs recently released the Matrix Creator, a powerful Raspberry Pi accessory that adds a whole bunch of sensors to the miniature computer (including a microphone array, temperature, UV, pressure, and more), letting you extend a Raspberry Pi into a full-fledged development device with a ton of different uses.

And as a follow-up to the Matrix Creator, the company is going even smaller with the Matrix Voice — a cheaper version of the creator that focuses on one thing: voice recognition.

That makes it even easier to use the Matrix Voice to do something like build your own Amazon Echo using Amazon’s Alexa Voice Service — which we actually did here at The Verge using the larger Matrix Creator last summer. That means instead of the wide range of sensors, the Voice just has a microphone array and a ring of LED lights. But it’s also far cheaper, available for $55 on Indiegogo instead of the Creator’s $99.95 price tag. A slightly more expensive version that adds a built-in microcontroller with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth is also available for $65.

Obviously, Matrix Labs is hoping that buyers will take the Voice and use it to make other things, too — the whole idea of both the Creator and the Voice is to offer a bigger range of possibilities for developers to easily try out new hardware integrations without needing to buy a range of expensive sensors.

The usual warning on crowdfunded products applies with the Voice (although Matrix Labs has successfully shipped the Creator, which was similarly funded, so there is a good track record there).

The Matrix Voice has already been fully funded on Indiegogo, and hopes to ship in May.