This is a github repository of my Mini Kinyarwanda Voice Assistant Project in the Intelligent Robotics class
# MiniKinyaVA
🎤 Kinya Voice Assistant
An intelligent voice assistant designed to understand and respond in Kinyarwanda, offering seamless speech interaction through advanced speech-to-text and text-to-speech capabilities.
🌟 Key Features
🎙 Voice Input – Captures spoken Kinyarwanda
✍️ Speech-to-Text (STT) – Converts Kinyarwanda speech into text using NeMo-based models
🧠 Natural Language Understanding – Processes queries via rule-based logic and ChatGPT
🔊 Text-to-Speech (TTS) – Synthesizes high-quality Kinyarwanda speech with MB-iSTFT-VITS2
💬 Interactive Interface – Gradio-powered web interface for real-time conversations
📝 Overview
Kinya Voice Assistant enables natural, fluid conversations in Kinyarwanda. It operates through a three-step pipeline:
Speech Recognition – Transcribes spoken input into text
Query Analysis – Understands intent and formulates responses
Speech Synthesis – Converts responses into natural-sounding audio
🖼️ Demo Snapshots
Terminal Execution
Gradio UI
Usage Example
🛠️ Technical Architecture
🔹 Speech-to-Text (STT)
Powered by NVIDIA NeMo
Utilizes pretrained Kinyarwanda models from RW-DEEPSPEECH-API
Supports multiple audio input formats
🔹 Natural Language Processing
Hybrid approach combining:
Rule-based matching for simple commands
ChatGPT for complex conversation handling
Custom intent detection
Supports greetings, general queries, and contextual dialogue
🔹 Text-to-Speech (TTS)
Based on KinyaTTS
Employs the MB-iSTFT-VITS2 architecture
Outputs natural and expressive Kinyarwanda speech
⚙️ Installation & Setup
Prerequisites
Python 3.x
NVIDIA GPU (for local deployment)
Google Colab (recommended for ease)
Installation
bash
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Edit
pip install -e /path/to/Inference/ # KinyaTTS
pip install "numpy 1.26.0"
pip install Cython
pip install gradio
pip install openai # Required for ChatGPT integration
🚀 Running the Assistant
Open kin_assistant.ipynb in Google Colab
Mount Google Drive containing model files
Execute all cells to …