Babytalk is a culturally relevant alphabet toy for babies, built to teach phonics through the sounds and cultural references.
The device plays 26 recordings of family voices, each tied to a word the baby will likely encounter through their parents’ heritage. Family members can contribute to the baby’s constellation of voices by recording their part through the companion app.
The project took me through building a 5x6 button matrix from scratch, soldering and connecting multiple components, handling raw 8-bit PCM audio on an Arduino Nano ESP32, and integrating MX mechanical switches — plus CAD modeling in Onshape, 3D printing, and laser cutting for the housing.