We’re generally fans of the work of the team at Teenage Engineering, but to call the launch of the Rabbit R1 “controversial” would be an understatement. The Humane Ai Pin (yes, they refuse to capitalize the “I”. No, we don’t know why) is even worse, and has attracted everything from ridicule to accusations of inappropriateness. But while there are real reasons to believe our current AI fever is a bubble about to burst, AI can have real benefits. So you can get this at a fraction of the cost of a Rabbit R1 or Humani Ai Pin, ComfySpace designed the Rappit.
Rappit is “an AI friend you can talk to,” with the closest comparable consumer product being the Teenage Engineering Rabbit R1, which costs about $200 And requires a monthly subscription, while you should be able to build a Rappit for around $20 (plus the cost of 3D printing filament). It won’t have the display or fancy analog scroll wheel of the Rabbit R1, but its AI will be on a similar level. That’s because it uses Google’s Gemini AI, an LLM (Large Language Model) similar to ChatGPT and all the other AIs that have popped up recently. Gemini has many, many Problems, but it’s arguably better than the Rabbit R1’s Perplexity AI engine.
To make your own ComfySpace Rappit, you will need a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W and a power supply. If you want it to be portable, you can add four AA batteries and a battery holder. These are safer and easier to implement than just rechargeable lithium batteries. You can then use the files provided to 3D print the case and then put everything together.
The ComfySpace smartphone app helps you set up the software. It is essentially a client interface that runs on the Raspberry Pi and connects to the Google Gemini API. Queries entered on the Raspberry Pi are sent by the software to Gemini on the Internet, which then generates and returns a response. The Rappit device does not contain any hardware to accept text or voice input or to output results, so the user interacts with the Rappit software through their smartphone.
Is this more convenient than just talking to Gemini through a smartphone app or web interface? Probably not. But the same goes for the Rabbit R1 and the Humane Ai Pin. The Rappit is at least a low-cost project that you can learn something from.
