Porcupine Wake Word
C Quick Start

Platforms

• Linux (x86_64)
• macOS (x86_64, arm64)
• Windows (x86_64)
• Raspberry Pi (Zero, 3, 4, 5)

Requirements

• C99-compatible compiler
• CMake (3.4+)
• For Windows Only: MinGW is required to build the demo

Picovoice Account & AccessKey

Signup or Login to Picovoice Console to get your AccessKey. Make sure to keep your AccessKey secret.

Setup

1. Clone the repository:

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/Picovoice/porcupine.git

Usage

1. Include the public header files (picovoice.h and pv_porcupine.h).
2. Link the project to an appropriate precompiled library for the target platform and load it.
3. Download a language model.
4. Download a keyword file based on the desired language and the target platform.
5. Construct the Porcupine Wake Word object:

static const char* ACCESS_KEY = "${ACCESS_KEY}";

const char *model_file_path = "${MODEL_FILE_PATH}";
const char *keyword_file_path = "${KEYWORD_FILE_PATH}";
const float sensitivity = 0.5f;

pv_porcupine_t *porcupine;

const pv_status_t status = pv_porcupine_init(
    ACCESS_KEY
    model_file_path,
    1,
    &keyword_file_path,
    &sensitivity,
    &porcupine);

if (status != PV_STATUS_SUCCESS) {
    // error handling logic
}

6. Pass in frames of audio to the pv_porcupine_process function:

extern const int16_t *get_next_audio_frame(void);

while (true) {
    const int16_t *pcm = get_next_audio_frame();
    int32_t keyword_index;
    const pv_status_t status = pv_porcupine_process(porcupine, pcm, &keyword_index);
    if (status != PV_STATUS_SUCCESS) {
        // error handling logic
    }
    if (keyword_index != -1) {
        // detection event logic/callback
    }
}

7. Release resources explicitly when done with Porcupine:

pv_porcupine_delete(porcupine);

Custom Keywords

Create custom keywords using the Picovoice Console. Download the custom wake word file (.ppn) and create an instance of Porcupine Wake Word using the custom keyword model.

Non-English Languages

Use the corresponding model file (.pv) to detect non-English wake words. The model files for all supported languages are available on the Porcupine Wake Word GitHub repository.

Demo

For the Porcupine Wake Word SDK, we offer demo applications that demonstrate how to use the wake word engine on real-time audio streams (i.e. microphone input) and audio files.

Setup

1. Clone the repository:

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/Picovoice/porcupine.git

2. Build the microphone demo:

cd porcupine
cmake -S demo/c/. -B demo/c/build && cmake --build demo/c/build --target porcupine_demo_mic

Usage

To see the usage options for the demo:

./demo/c/build/porcupine_demo_mic

Ensure you have a working microphone connected to your system and run the following command to detect porcupine:

./demo/c/build/porcupine_demo_mic \
-l lib/${PLATFORM}/${ARCH}/libpv_porcupine.so \
-m lib/common/porcupine_params.pv \
-k resources/keyword_files/${PLATFORM}/porcupine_${PLATFORM}.ppn \
-t 0.5 \
-a ${ACCESS_KEY} \
-d ${AUDIO_DEVICE_INDEX}

For more information on our Porcupine Wake Word demos for C, head over to our GitHub repository.

Resources