Kangying's Website | Your Pocket Research Whisperer

A Pocket-Sized AI That Reads Papers to You 📚🔊

Just a fun little weekend project—but it turned out surprisingly powerful.

Imagine carrying a personal research assistant in your pocket. One that searches papers, summarizes them, syncs notes to Notion, and even reads them out loud—all without needing a phone or computer.

With an ESP32-S3 microcontroller and an n8n-powered AI agent, I built a low-cost voice assistant that does exactly that.

🎒 Imagine this:

You’re walking around with a tiny device in your pocket that:

📡 Connects to Wi-Fi autonomously
🔍 Searches for academic research
✍️ Generates summaries using AI
📤 Sends notes directly to your Notion workspace
🔊 Speaks the summary aloud using on-device audio playback

All you need is Wi-Fi—once it’s connected, the agent runs autonomously. No phone, no laptop, just plug in and go.

⚙️ Under the Hood: What Makes It Tick

Here’s a breakdown of the tech stack and magic behind it:

Voice Recording & Audio Handling
Using the Recorder module, the device captures raw audio, converts it into WAV format with a custom MicroPython create_wav_from_raw() function, and sends it to the OpenAI Whisper API for speech-to-text transcription.
Natural Language Understanding
Transcribed text is sent to a custom GPT agent hosted via n8n webhook, which intelligently responds in the same language as input — even handling Unicode text like Japanese or Chinese.
Screen Display
The device displays both the user’s voice input and the AI response on the onboard LCD, with colored, paginated output for clarity and flair.
Touch Control
Start and stop recording with a simple screen tap. No buttons, no UI overhead — just responsive design.
Audio Playback
The system can also broadcast summaries as audio, making it the perfect assistant for hands-free reading while walking or commuting.

All of this runs without any external device. No phone. No laptop. Just Wi-Fi.
10 minutes to set up, a lifetime of geeky joy.

📸 Here’s a peek at the actual build:

Youtube video

This was built in a single day, but I’m just getting started. I’ll be sharing:

🧠 The full MicroPython codebase
🔗 My n8n automation workflows
🔊 Audio playback enhancements (featuring the ES8311 DAC)

Whether you’re into automation, embedded AI, or just love building cool stuff—stay tuned.

Hashtags for the curious: #Microcontroller #ESP32S3 #AIVoiceAssistant #Notion #MicroPython