| --- |
| title: Pocket Pikachu — A Pokémon You Talk To, On-Device |
| emoji: ⚡ |
| colorFrom: yellow |
| colorTo: red |
| sdk: gradio |
| sdk_version: 6.17.3 |
| app_file: app.py |
| pinned: true |
| license: apache-2.0 |
| short_description: On-device talking Pikachu — MiniCPM5 + VoxCPM voice on GPU |
| models: |
| - openbmb/MiniCPM5-1B-GGUF |
| - openbmb/VoxCPM-0.5B |
| - Systran/faster-whisper-small.en |
| tags: |
| - track:wood |
| - sponsor:openbmb |
| - achievement:offbrand |
| - achievement:offgrid |
| - gradio |
| - hackathon |
| - build-small-hackathon |
| - minicpm |
| - voxcpm |
| - on-device |
| - local-llm |
| --- |
| |
| # ⚡ Pocket Pikachu — a Pokémon you actually talk to (VoxCPM on ZeroGPU) |
|
|
| A clickable, talking digital pet that runs in-process on a single GPU. Click the |
| mic (or type), and your pocket Pikachu **hears you, thinks, and talks back** — no |
| cloud APIs. Built for the **Build Small** hackathon: every model is ≤ 4B params. |
|
|
| **Stack — in-process on ZeroGPU:** |
|
|
| | Role | Model | Where it runs | |
| |-------|-------|---------------| |
| | 🧠 Brain | `openbmb/MiniCPM5-1B-GGUF` (Q4_K_M) | OpenBMB, via `llama-cpp-python` — CPU | |
| | 🗣️ Voice | `openbmb/VoxCPM-0.5B` | OpenBMB, cute female ref + pitch↑/tempo↓ styling — **GPU** | |
| | 👂 Ears | `Systran/faster-whisper-small.en` | CTranslate2 int8 — CPU | |
|
|
| > **Why no NeMo/Nemotron here:** `nemo_toolkit[asr]` cannot build on a ZeroGPU |
| > Gradio Space — its multi-GB dependency tree plus a CUDA `torch` OOM-kill the |
| > CPU build container (`exit 137`), and the streaming model has no `transformers` |
| > path. Nemotron runs in the **native macOS PocketDM app** instead. This Space's |
| > upgrade over its free-CPU sibling is **VoxCPM** (OpenBMB's neural voice) on GPU. |
| |
| ## How it works |
| |
| `app.py` is a single Gradio Blocks app. Per-turn inference runs inside one |
| **`@spaces.GPU`-decorated** function (`run_turn_gpu`) so the GPU is attached for |
| the turn; models lazy-load on first use. A turn flows: |
| |
| 1. **Mic / text in** — `gr.Audio(sources=["microphone"])` or a textbox. |
| 2. **Transcribe** — **faster-whisper `small.en`** turns speech into text (CPU). |
| 3. **Reply** — **MiniCPM5-1B** generates Pikachu's response with the same system |
| prompt + keyless tool-fact grounding (time / weather / web lookup) as the |
| desktop companion (CPU via llama.cpp). |
| 4. **Speak** — **VoxCPM-0.5B** synthesizes the reply on the **GPU** in a |
| consistent cute female voice (bundled reference clip + pitch-up/tempo-down |
| ffmpeg styling), played via `gr.Audio(autoplay=True)`. |
| |
| Custom (non-stock-Gradio) UI: sunny gradient, bobbing sprite, chat bubbles, |
| daily check-in, hero + "what can it do" sections. |
| |
| ## Why it qualifies |
| |
| - **Best MiniCPM Build (`sponsor:openbmb`)** — built on **OpenBMB's MiniCPM5-1B** |
| (brain) and **VoxCPM-0.5B** (voice). |
| - **Off the Grid (`achievement:offgrid`)** — no cloud APIs; every model runs |
| locally in the Space process. |
| - **Off-Brand (`achievement:offbrand`)** — fully custom UI beyond stock Gradio. |
| - **Thousand Token Wood (`track:wood`)** — a whimsical talking desktop pet. |
| - **Tiny / ≤4B** — MiniCPM5-1B, VoxCPM-0.5B, faster-whisper-small all well under |
| 4B. (The native app adds NVIDIA Nemotron-0.6B for streaming ASR.) |
| |
| ## Hardware |
| |
| Runs on **ZeroGPU** (`zero-a10g`) — the free, quota-based GPU available to |
| members of the `build-small-hackathon` Team-plan org (org-billed, no personal |
| cost). The voice (VoxCPM) runs on the GPU; the brain (llama.cpp) and Nemotron ears on mac or |
| (faster-whisper) run on CPU. |
