The author of the text wants to build a mute/unmute button for video calls using a Raspberry Pi Pico and MicroPython. The tutorial requires several hardware components, including a Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller, a push button, a breadboard, jumper wires, and a USB cable. The author also needs Python 3 installed on their computer. The tutorial uses CircuitPython, a variant of MicroPython that supports HID devices, to build the project. The author installs CircuitPython firmware on the Raspberry Pi Pico board, writes a short application that prints a message when the button is pressed, and emulates a keyboard by sending a key to the computer through the USB connection.