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Empathic Voice Interface | Sample Python Implementation

Jumpstart your development with Hume's Empathic Voice Interface!

Overview

This project features a sample implementation of Hume's Empathic Voice Interface using Hume's Python SDK.

Prerequisites

The Hume Python SDK supports Python versions 3.9, 3.10, and 3.11 on macOS and Linux systems.

Setting up a virtual environment (optional)

You can create a virtual environment using either conda from Miniconda or Anaconda, or the built-in venv module in Python. Below are instructions for both methods.

After activating the virtual environment using either method, you can proceed with the installation of dependencies.

Using conda

  1. Install conda using Miniconda, the free minimal installer for it.
  2. Create a new virtual environment. 
    # Create a new conda environment named 'evi-env' with a specific Python version
conda create --name evi-env python=3.11
  3. Activate the virtual environment. 
    # Activate the conda environment
conda activate evi-env

Using venv

To create a virtual environment with venv, run the following commands in your terminal:

  1. Create a new virtual environment. 
    # Create a virtual environment in the directory 'evi-env'
python -m venv evi-env
  2. Activate the virtual environment. 
    # Activate the virtual environment
source evi-env/bin/activate

Package and system dependencies

Below are the necessary steps to install the required packages and system dependencies for using environment variables, EVI, and handling audio input/output.

Environment Variables

The python-dotenv package can be used to load variables from a .env file into the process's environment. This practice is for configuration settings that shouldn't be hard-coded into the code, such as API keys.

To install it, run:

pip install python-dotenv

To get your API credentials, log into the Hume Platform and visit the API keys page.

Implement your credentials by editing the provided placeholder .env.example file.

  1. Rename the file to .env.
  2. Place your API credentials inside.

Upon doing so, the .env file becomes a persistent local store of your API key, Secret key, and EVI config ID. The .gitignore file contains local env file paths so that they are not committed to GitHub.

(Note: .env is a hidden file so on Mac you would need to hit COMMAND-SHIFT . to make it viewable in the finder).

EVI and audio input/output

The hume package contains Hume's Python SDK, including the asynchronous WebSocket infrastructure for using EVI. To install it, run:

pip install "hume[microphone]"

For audio playback and processing, additional system-level dependencies are required. Below are download instructions for each supported operating system.

macOS

To ensure audio playback functionality, you will need to install ffmpeg, a powerful multimedia framework that handles audio and video processing.

One of the most common ways to install ffmpeg on macOS is by using Homebrew. Homebrew is a popular package manager for macOS that simplifies the installation of software by automating the process of downloading, compiling, and setting up packages.

To install ffmpeg using Homebrew, follow these steps:

  1. Install Homebrew onto your system according to the instructions on the Homebrew website.

  2. Once Homebrew is installed, you can install ffmpeg with:

    brew install ffmpeg

If you prefer not to use Homebrew, you can download a pre-built ffmpeg binary directly from the FFmpeg website or use other package managers like MacPorts.

Linux

On Linux systems, you will need to install a few additional packages to support audio input/output and playback:

  • libasound2-dev: This package contains development files for the ALSA (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture) sound system.
  • libportaudio2: PortAudio is a cross-platform audio I/O library that is essential for handling audio streams.
  • ffmpeg: Required for processing audio and video files.

To install these dependencies, use the following commands:

sudo apt-get --yes update
sudo apt-get --yes install libasound2-dev libportaudio2 ffmpeg
Windows

Not yet supported.

Usage

This minimal implementation of Hume's Empathic User Interface (EVI) demonstrates how to authenticate, connect to, and display output from the interface in a terminal application.

Below are the steps to run the project:

  1. Create a virtual environment using venv, conda or other method.
  2. Activate the virtual environment.
  3. Install the required packages and system dependencies.
  4. Execute the script by running python quickstart.py.
  5. Terminate the script by pressing Ctrl+C.