Comparing Open Voice Projects: Neon AI, OpenVoiceOS AI, and Mycroft AI

Neon AI is part of a collaborative and supportive community in which our organizations work together and build upon each other’s efforts in conversational AI. Here’s an outline of the differences between conversational AI offerings from Neon, OVOS, and Mycroft. 

Code Fork Overview: 

Neon AI 2.0, OpenVoiceOS (Manjaro), and Mycroft Mark II Core

Mycroft originated as a kickstarter, building the first iteration of its open source code in 2016, which OVOS and Neon have forked into their own projects.  

Neon AI forked Mycroft’s code in 2017, using it to develop our own conversational voice user interface, called “Neon”. Neon AI is also an official Mycroft partner, and hosts a strong community fork of Mycroft AI.

The Open Voice Operating System community created their own Mycroft fork in November 2021 referring to it as OVOS. In their own words, “You can think of OVOS as the unsanctioned “Mycroft Community Edition.” OpenVoiceOS “aims to be a full operating system that is free and open source.”  For their OS and core AI, they use only Apache2, or BSD licensed code.

Independent, cooperative development:

The Neon AI project has introduced 4 new releases and gained over 500 commits per month in the past year. As leading members of both the OVOS and Mycroft communities, the Neon AI team continues to deliver custom skills and core capabilities for all three platforms.

The Mycroft community has introduced 2 versions of new Mycroft core software this year. Mycroft has contributed code such as skill and dialogue resource files which were then adopted into the OpenVoiceOS fork. 

OpenVoiceOS has over 100 updates in 2022, progressing to version 0.0.4, and has contributed user resource files which were adopted by Neon AI. 

The OVOS team members are all current or past members of Mycroft or Neon AI. As such they are able to make sure their work is compatible and usable on all three platforms. 

To oversimplify a bit, Neon AI is built on top of OVOS’ code, offering additional features. Neon AI also builds on and now diverges somewhat from Mycroft’s platform, choosing to offer different features with a greater focus on voice privacy and additional support for business use.
 

Features

 

Neon AI 2.0

OpenVoiceOS
Manjaro

Mycroft Mark II
Dinkum

WIFI SETUP OPTIONS

Mobile WiFi Setup:

Device “hotspot” to connect to preset network from phone or pad.

No

No

Yes

On-Device WiFi Setup:

Custom setup connection existing wifi with external keyboard (on-screen keyboard not available in beta release).

Yes

Yes

No

On-Screen Keyboard

Yes

Yes

No

COMPATIBILITIES

     

Raspberry Pi (generic)

Yes

Yes

Last update 2021

Mycroft Mark II

Yes

Yes

Yes

Docker

Yes

Work in Progress

No

CONFIGURATION

     

Data Privacy

Yes

Yes

Partial Available

Offline Mode

Yes

Yes

No

Color Theming

Yes

Yes

No

Non-Paired Mode

Yes

Yes

No

API Access w/o Pairing

Yes

Yes, most skills

No

On-Device Configuration

Work in Progress

Yes

No

Online Configuration

No

?

Yes

SUPPORT

     

Generic Pi Support

Yes (Respeaker)

Yes (Respeaker)

No

CUSTOMIZATION

     

Open Build System

Yes

Yes

Some Parts*

Re-configure WiFi

Yes

Yes

No

*Mycroft Mark II build tools are not public. Picroft is available for builds through June 2021. 

SPEECH TO TEXT (STT) and TEXT TO SPEECH (TTS)

STT
On-device and on-premises

Nemo (Mozilla DeepSpeech, Kaldi, .. in progress) 

Kaldi

Grokotron (unfinished)

TTS
On-device and on-premises

Coqui, Mimic, Pico, Larynx

Coqui, Mimic, Pico, Larynx

Mimic

Skill Intents

English
Ukrainian in Progress

English

English

STT
Cloud support services

Google

Google

Requires technical expertise – Google

TTS
Cloud support services

AWS Poly, Larynx, Mimic
(more available)

Larynx, Google
(more available)

Requires technical expertise – Mimic
(more available)

Foreign Language Support

Neon AI’s project is uniquely customized with strong foreign language support, emphasizing accessibility of this technology to global partners, customers, and the open source developer community. 

On-device and on-premises Neon AI supports over 25 languages. Current lists of supported languages are available here for STT – huggingface.co/neonbohdan – and here for TTS – huggingface.co/spaces/neongeckocom/neon-tts-plugin-coqui

Behind the Software

Neon AI is backed by NeonGecko, a full-service company specializing in conversational AI and voice user interfaces. Neon AI is available at any level of support that fits your project – from a standalone open source voice AI program free for anyone to download and build upon, to a team of developers who will work with you to design solutions and adapt our suite of software to meet your needs. 

OpenVoiceOS offers an active programming community supporting a free, downloadable open source operating system and voice AI. The project is open to new members, and the software is available for anyone to fork and customize.

Mycroft AI brings their Mark II hardware to the table, capable of running their own free, downloadable Mycroft AI, the OVOSproject, or Neon AI. Mycroft is open to additional organizations joining their ecosystem.