ViolaWake FAQ
How is ViolaWake different from Alexa?
Alexa is a consumer assistant ecosystem with its own account, cloud services, hardware integrations, skills, and brand wake word. ViolaWake is not trying to be Alexa. ViolaWake is a developer SDK and Console for custom wake word detection. You train or download a wake word model, run detection locally, and decide what your product does after activation.
Does the SDK work offline?
Yes. Wake word detection runs locally on device. The hosted Console is for account, recording, training, billing, and model management. Once you have a model and the SDK installed, inference does not require a ViolaWake API call.
Does ViolaWake work on Raspberry Pi?
Yes, with the normal caveat that wake word quality depends on the exact hardware and microphone. Test on the Pi model, OS image, microphone, enclosure, and room noise you plan to ship. The documented wake runtime footprint is small, but performance should always be measured on target hardware.
How many training samples do I need?
The Console can run a first test from 10 recordings. That is useful for proving the workflow. Production work needs more data. Collect more speakers, more rooms, different distances, background speech, music, fans, TV, and phonetically similar words.
What is d-prime?
d-prime is a signal detection metric. It estimates how separated the positive score distribution is from the negative score distribution. Higher d-prime usually means an easier thresholding problem. It is not enough by itself. Always pair it with false accept rate, false reject rate, recall, threshold, and real streaming tests.
Can I commercially use the SDK?
Yes. The ViolaWake SDK is Apache 2.0. You can use it commercially under that license. The Console is a hosted service with Free, Developer, Business, and Enterprise plan terms.
Is my voice data private?
The SDK does not send inference audio to ViolaWake. Console recordings are processed to provide the service you requested. Read the Privacy Policy for retention, storage, billing, and email-provider details.
What if I cancel?
Downloaded ONNX models remain yours to use locally with the SDK. Canceling stops paid Console capacity for future training jobs.
Is ViolaWake a Picovoice alternative?
Yes, for developers who want open training code, ONNX model output, Apache 2.0 SDK licensing, and transparent evaluation. Picovoice Porcupine remains a mature proprietary wake word product with strong enterprise positioning.
Is ViolaWake an OpenWakeWord fork?
No. ViolaWake uses OpenWakeWord as an embedding backbone and builds a productized training and SDK layer around it. OpenWakeWord deserves explicit credit as upstream infrastructure.
Can I migrate from Snowboy?
Yes, but not by converting Snowboy model files. Collect or reuse wake phrase samples, train a new ViolaWake model, and test it against your old deployment environment.