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This interactive storytelling radio is the ultimate lockdown DIY project

If you’re looking for a challenging stay-at-home DIY project, we got you covered. The interactive storytelling radio by making duo 8 Bits and a Byte is the ultimate way of spending a housebound weekend.

8 Bits and a Byte are two makers who love tinkering with electronics (in particular, Raspberry Pis). Their bizarre portfolio range from a talking toaster to an internet controlled bubble machine.

Recently, they had the equally brilliant and preposterous idea of turning a Cold War-era radio into a voice-enabled, interactive storyteller.

The interactive storytelling radio built by 8 Bits and a Byte

Do you remember the choose-your-own-adventure books that were popular in the Eighties? Basically, the appliance built by 8 Bits and a Byte is an audio version of those. The radio tells a story and you can control the plot with spoken commands.

All you need to assemble such a technological marvel is a transistor radio (8 Bits and a Byte use a Bjazzo Ts by Telefunken), a Raspberry Pi, a speaker, a Google AIY Voice Kit v1 (that’s an effortful DIY yourself project in its own regard) and some artificial intelligence voodoo from Google (in particular, their natural language understanding platform Dialogflow). Sounds easy, doesn’t it?

🧰 For more detailed instructions, you can have a look at the project’s page on Instructables and watch the Youtube tutorial below. Also, you can support 8 Bits and a Byte on Patreon. Happy retrofitting!

Credit header image: 8 Bits and a Byte