AI · Tip
DIY FRIEND AI Pendant Hardware and Software Stack
Bill of materials and architecture to build an open-source AI necklace
A DIY recipe for building the FRIEND wearable AI pendant created at the Mistral x Cerebral Valley hackathon. It combines roughly $20 in off-the-shelf micro-hardware with a low-code mobile app interface. The setup captures audio, transcribes conversations, and generates proactive feedback and summaries using cloud AI APIs.
How it works
Hardware: Seeed Studio XIAO nRF52840 Sense board (Bluetooth LE, onboard IMU and PDM mic); battery from Amazon (a.co/d/2UbB7Sz). Software: two Flutter apps built in FlutterFlow so you can modify them without code; OpenAI for chat and summaries; Whisper for audio transcription (Deepgram to be added). Author says he'll publish how to build it.
What it's for
- Assemble an open-source wearable AI recording pendant for around $20
- Stream low-power Bluetooth audio to a mobile device for continuous transcription
- Customize an AI companion companion app using low-code FlutterFlow interfaces
Key points
- Hardware core built on Seeed Studio XIAO nRF52840 Sense with onboard PDM mic and BLE
- All-day continuous operation powered by a small lithium polymer battery
- Mobile frontend built in FlutterFlow for easy no-code app modification
- Audio transcription pipeline using OpenAI Whisper with planned Deepgram support
- Conversational analysis and daily summaries powered by OpenAI models
Pricing
Open source. Approx. $20 for hardware parts; software uses pay-as-you-go AI API keys
Details
- Type
- Tip
- Category
- AI
- Topic
- AI Wearables
- Open source
- Yes
- Platforms
- iOS, Android, other
- For
- Hardware hackers, AI builders, and developers interested in wearable computing
- Alternative to
- Humane AI Pin, Rewind Pendant, Limitless Pendant, Rabbit r1
- Tags
- wearables, diy hardware, transcription, flutterflow, whisper, esp32
Why it was saved
- @kodjima33: Concrete DIY recipe: ~$20 of parts plus a no-code app stack.
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