The Billy Bass Assistant is a Raspberry Pi–powered voice assistant embedded inside a Big Mouth Billy Bass Animatronic. It streams conversation using the OpenAI Realtime API, turns its head, flaps it’s tail and moves his mouth based on what he is saying.
This project is still in BETA. Things might crash, get stuck or make Billy scream uncontrollably (ok that last part maybe not literally but you get the point). Proceed with fishy caution.



Features
- Realtime conversations using OpenAI Realtime API
- Personality system with configurable traits (e.g., snark, charm)
- Physical button to start/interact/intervene
- 3D-printable backplate for housing USB microphone and speaker
- Support for the Modern Billy hardware version with 2 motors as well as the Classic Billy hardware version (3 motors)
- Lightweight web UI:
- Adjust settings and persona of Billy
- View debug logs
- Start/stop/restart Billy
- Export/Import of settings and persona
- Hostname and Port configuration
- MQTT support:
- sensor with status updates of Billy (idle, speaking, listening)
billy/saytopic for triggering spoken messages remotely- Raspberry Pi Safe Shutdown command
- Home Assistant command passthrough using the Conversation API
- Custom Song Singing and animation mode
Source: billy-b-assistant (Github)
Robin Edgar
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