Infotainment systems have become a common feature in our daily lives, starting with in-car entertainment (ICE) systems (also known as In-Vehicle Infotainment or IVI), which evolved from the basic radios and cassette players to include features such as navigation and connecting to smartphones over Bluetooth for access to one's music library, and much more. Another big feature is to provide the driver with hands-free functionality so that they can start a phone call and control the radio without having to take their eyes off the road or their hands off the steering wheel.

As smartphones became more popular, providing their users with constant access to news, weather, and entertainment, the arrival of onboard assistants that use a voice-driven interface, both on smartphones and ICEs, ultimately led to the arrival of speech-driven infotainment systems aimed at in-home use. These usually consist of a speaker and microphone, along with the required hardware for the voice-driven interface and access to the required internet-based services.

This chapter will mostly focus on this type of voice-driven infotainment system. In Chapter 10, Developing Embedded Systems with Qt, we will take an in-depth look at adding a graphical user interface.

The goals which we want to achieve here are the following:

• Play music from a Bluetooth source, such as a smartphone
• Play music from an online streaming service
• Play music from the local filesystem, including USB sticks
• Record an audio clip and repeat it when asked
• Control all actions with one's voice, with buttons for some actions

In the next sections, we'll look at these goals and how to accomplish them.