David's
<Tech Repair\>
Your friendly neighborhood IT Guy
davidstechsupport
Starting your digital assistant
This page is split into the following parts:
Before you get into it, please understand that this is from my personal experience working on RISE, my digital assistant. Any software, extensions, and tools here are what I use.
I will also explain everything along the way for easy understanding
Introduction
So, you want to get started on your very own digital assistant? You've picked a great place to start, now before we get into this, there are some things you need to understand about this page.
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This is not a full guide for building an assistant from start to finish, this is just for getting started.
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I will provide some of my own personal code to help you get started
Alright, now that we got that out of the way, lets get started on what you need to begin your project.
Software
This is what I use for RISE, theres not a whole lot of software that goes into a digital assistant since the magic happens with the code.
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Visual Studio Code
This is the editor that all the code goes into, to easily explain it, you type code, press RUN, and BOOM, your code exicutes the commands you gave it
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Python 3.10 (this is the version I use)
It makes coding easier, faster, and more powerful. It’s simple to learn, has thousands of helpful libraries, and is widely used for AI, automation, websites, apps, and digital assistants.
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PIP updated to the latest version, use this code in command prompt or a terminal to upgrade to the latest version:
python -m pip install --upgrade pip
PIP is what supplies Python with packages that allow the assistant or project to run and complete tasks, packages like "Speechrecognition" are what allow python to hear verbal commands
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Visual Studio Code Extensions
I use a few extensions, and I'll share them with you and what they do, some are just cosmetic while others are actually helpful
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Low Eye Strain Dark neon - Helps keep my eyes from getting sore after long sessions
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Better Comments - This allows you to leave better notes in your code
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Boookmarks - Navigate your code more easily
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Image Preview - Adds a small version of anyimages from your code to the left-hand side next to the line number
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Code Spell Checker - I know I need an assist with the spelling from time to time
PIP Packages
There are a lot, and I mean A LOT of PIP packages that I have (nearly 700 that I have installed over time at the time of writing this page) but I am only going to list the essential ones to get you started and explain each for you
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speechrecognition - Converts voice to text
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openai - Connects AI models and chat systems
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keyboard - Detects keyboard shortcuts
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pyttsx3 - Converts text to chat
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requests - Internet and API requests
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pyaudio - Input for microphone audio
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pyautogui - Controls the mouse and keyboard
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flask - Optional web dashboard and API
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python-dotenv - Stores your API keys
Here are a few commands to know for the packages:
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Upgrade PIP: python -m pip install --upgrade pip
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PIP list: This will list every package you have installed
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PIP install: This will install packages
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pip install --upgrade "package_name". This will check for updates to installed packages
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Application Programming Interface (API)
Website Scraping
Setting up hardware
Keywords
How to convert the assistant to an EXE file
This is for when you complete the assistant and want it to be a full program instead of a file. This will turn the Python file into an Executable file (exe) that will allow your new assistant to launch and operate without any extra software running alongside it. The process is pretty simple and only requires a few minutes to initiate then the rest of the time will depend on the speed of your computer.
Step 1: Get the PIP package "Pyinstaller"
Step 2: Navigate to the folder that stores your project then run the following command:
pyinstaller --onefile main.py