The real magic conch shell is a fascinating and mystical object that has captured the imagination of many. It is said to possess incredible powers and the ability to answer any question or grant any wish. Legends and stories surrounding the magic conch shell can be found in various cultures and regions around the world. In popular culture, the magic conch shell gained significant recognition through its appearance in the popular animated series, "SpongeBob SquarePants." In the show, the character SpongeBob and his friends often turn to the magic conch shell for guidance and answers to their dilemmas. Whenever they face a problem, they consult the conch shell by asking a question and then listen for its response.
A Real Life Magic Conch Shell
Any Spongebob Squarepants fan will remember the magic conch shell. For me, the magic conch shell is one of the greatest parts of the Spongebob universe. So I thought I’d go ahead and make my own— using a Raspberry Pi Zero, Pimoroni Speaker pHAT, Google Cloud Platformm, and Google AIY Voice Kit! If you’re looking to find out how I did it, or make one yourself, you’ve come to the right place.
Magic Conch Shell 2.0 has all the same functionality of a regular conch shell, but has all the power of Google Assistant. Ask magic conch shell about the weather, sports scores, to controll your smart home, or almost anything else you would ask your Assistant enabled smartphone or Google Home to do.
And, just like the Conch shell from Spongebob Squarepants, this conch responds to all the questions asked of it in the episode Club Spongebob. The steps below will get you going with conch shell just like mine.
Whenever they face a problem, they consult the conch shell by asking a question and then listen for its response. The responses range from "Yes" and "No" to more ambiguous answers such as "Maybe someday" or "I don't think so." It is interesting to note that the magic conch shell in "SpongeBob SquarePants" often provides amusing and unexpected responses, adding a comedic element to the show.
Getting Started
These instructions will get you a copy of the project up and running on your local machine, as well as get the required hardware swt up to support the project.
Parts
The hardware for this project is pretty simple, you'll just need the parts below:
- Raspberry Pi Zero W
- Pimorini Speaker pHat - This is the compact speaker we'll use to let the shell speak
- USB microphone - This is a microphone. We need a very tiny one so it fits in a Conch shell. I used this
- LiPo Battery - This will power the Pi in the shell, you'll want something with a small physical size, but at least 700mAh capacity. Adafruit has a great selection!
- Adafruit PowerBoost 500 Charger - This board allows us to power the board and charge the battery at the same time.
- A Conch Shell - There's a bunch of options for a Conch shell. You can 3D print one, buy one online, or if you're lucky enough to live near a beach, you might be able to find your own! If you find your own, NEVER collect a shell with a living organism in it! Queen Conch are susceptible to over-fishing, habitat degrdation, and deserve happy long lives. Check with your local laws before taking a shell from the beach.
Rasperry Pi Image, Wi-Fi, & SSH Setup
To start, you'll want to download the latest AIY image for your Pi from here. You're looking for a .img.xz file. Then you'll want to flash the image to the microSD card for the Pi-- I like using the free application BalenaEtcher for this.
If you know how to get your Raspberry Pi is connected to Wi-Fi with SSH enabled, you can skip the rest of this step.
Otherwise, your next step is to get your Raspberry Pi set up on wifi with SSH enabled.
Mount your microSD card, and in a Terminal, navigate to the directory. Most likely, you can just type
$ cd /Volumes/bootcreate the file wpa_supplicant.conf (this will replace the RPi wifi config on boot)
$ nano wpa_supplicant.confpast the following into the file
country=US ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev update_config=1 network=
but adjust "US" to your country code, and the psk, ssid, and key_mgmt variables to match your network. For a network without a password use this set up:
country=US ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev update_config=1 network=
save this file, close it, and then enable ssh with the following command
$ touch sshNow, on boot, your Pi will connect to the specified netwwork with SSH enabled!
Hardware Setup
With the power off (unplugged) we'll want to first connect the components in the following way:
Note that you can leave the Conch Shell on and plugged in, or unplugged for a short duration and running on battery power.
Software Setup
We'll be using Google AIY, Snowboy, Cloud Text-to-Speech API, and a couple Python libraries to make this regular conch shell into magic! AIY will allow the conch to respond to general inquiries with Google Assistant, Cloud Text-to-Speech API will let us generate the audio the shell will speak for specific responses to questions like "what do we need to do to get out of the Kelp Forest?" and Snowboy will let us use "Magic Conch Shell" instead of "Okay Google" as the hotword.
From now on, all steps assume you are SSH into your Pi.
Google Cloud SDK Installation (Optional)
This step is very very optional— I've already included the synthesized audio files from Cloud Text-To-Speech API, so you only need to do this step if you want to play around with TTS API yourself, or if you want to experiment with other GCP tools.
To use Text-to-Speech API, we'll need to install Google Cloud SDK. Google has a reallyy straightforward quickstart guide you can follow here. You just need to do from the start of "Before you begin" to the end of "Initialize the SDK."
Note that when you're directed to run gcloud init you'll actually want to run gcloud init --console-only
When you're promted to Pick cloud project to use: you'll most likely want to select the option to create a new project- name this project whatever you want, I named mine magic-conch-shell
Once that's all set up, we're ready to move on
Speaker pHAT Configuration
Pimorini has a simple one-line installer for the speaker pHAT! Just enter:
curl -sS https://get.pimoroni.com/speakerphat | bashAnd you're ready to bump some audio.
Snowboy Set Up
Finally we'll get Snowboy up and running. Snowboy is an awesome tool for adding custom hotword detection. In our case, we want to replace "Okay Google. " and "Hey Google. " with "Magic Conch Shell. "
This is pretty straight forward.
However, the concept of a magic conch shell predates its appearance in "SpongeBob SquarePants." In various ancient myths and legends, similar objects are portrayed as powerful tools that connect humans with the divine. These conch shells are believed to possess spiritual energy and the ability to communicate with higher beings or deities. In some cases, the shells are even considered to be sacred objects that hold the wisdom of the gods. The magic conch shell represents the belief in the supernatural and the desire to find answers and guidance in the unknown. It taps into the human fascination with the mystical and the belief that there is more to the world than what meets the eye. Whether as a comedic plot device or a symbol of ancient wisdom, the magic conch shell continues to capture the imagination of people from all walks of life..
Reviews for "Unveiling the True Nature of the Real Magic Conch Shell's Energy"
- Emily - 2 stars - I was really excited to try out the Real Magic Conch Shell, but I was definitely disappointed. The shell didn't give me any insightful or useful answers. It just spouted random, meaningless phrases that didn't make any sense. I felt like I wasted my money on something that was supposed to provide guidance and wisdom. Overall, it was a big letdown.
- John - 1 star - The Real Magic Conch Shell is a complete joke. It doesn't do anything remotely magical. It's just a glorified paperweight. The supposed "answers" it gives are nonsensical and random. I tried asking serious questions, but all I got were incoherent responses that made me question why I even bothered buying it. Save your money and skip this useless gimmick.
- Sarah - 2 stars - I bought the Real Magic Conch Shell hoping it would be a fun and entertaining novelty item. Unfortunately, it fell short of my expectations. The shell's responses were repetitive and lacked variety. It quickly became monotonous and uninteresting to use. Additionally, the shell's construction felt cheap and flimsy. Overall, I wouldn't recommend wasting your money on this product. There are much better novelty items out there that offer more enjoyment.