Amazon is engaged on constructing a pair of good glasses to deal with its Alexa voice assistant, and a house safety digital camera that may very well be linked to its present Echo linked gadgets to additional increase their capabilities, in response to a report within the FT citing folks accustomed to the corporate’s plans.
The newspaper says one or each of those merchandise may very well be launched earlier than the top of the 12 months, alongside updates to present Echo gadgets.
An Amazon spokesperson declined to remark, saying firm coverage is to not touch upon rumors or hypothesis.
According to the FT, the good glasses are supposed to be purely an earbuds-free housing for Amazon’s Alexa AI — with a bone-conduction audio system that will allow the wearer to listen to Alexa with out the have to be wired in.
With no cellular platform of its personal to construct on, Amazon has a strategic drawback vs Google and Apple as a result of it can not bake its voice AI into smartphone the place thousands and thousands of engaged customers might simply summon it — therefore the corporate engaged on a plethora of different linked gadgets to attempt to put Alexa inside earshot anyway.
The thought for the glasses, which might be its first wearable, could be to just do that: Enable Alexa to be summoned from wherever, vs the present scenario the place customers are barking instructions at static in-home audio system.
The FT experiences the glasses would wirelessly tether to a consumer’s smartphone for connectivity. They are additionally apparently being designed to appear to be a daily pair of spectacles, in order that they may very well be worn comfortably and unobtrusively.
The paper notes that Amazon employed Babak Parviz, founding father of Google Glass, in 2014, and says he’s been carefully concerned within the challenge. It additionally factors to a number of different Glass researchers, engineers and designers having moved to Amazon’s labs — per evaluation of their LinkedIn profiles.
And whereas Google Glass roundly didn’t ignite shopper curiosity — which could be partly blamed on its awkward, geeky look, together with the inclusion of a digital camera and a small display screen positioned within the eyeline — the FT says Amazon’s specs would doubtless eschew each digital camera and display screen to keep away from the danger of comparable considerations, whereas additionally maximizing battery life.
That does imply the glasses seem like much more fundamental than the AR specs Apple has been rumored to be engaged on — but in addition prone to come to market loads sooner.
Of course if Amazon’s glasses include an at all times listening microphone they’d nonetheless symbolize a privateness concern — although it’s not clear if that’s Amazon’s intention at this stage, or whether or not the wearer would want to the touch the glasses to summon the AI’s ear.
The ecommerce large has been ramping up its linked gadgets portfolio ever because it outed the unique Echo good speaker in November 2014 — a tool we dubbed “a tad baffling, but also intriguing” on the time.
The speaker went on to change into one thing of a shock hit for Amazon, whose prior cellular forays had badly flopped. And whereas it has by no means damaged out Echo gross sales figures, it’s clear the concept of a sensible speaker has excited big curiosity from trade, dovetailing with rising hype round voice interfaces as the following massive consumer interplay shift, as computing turns into more and more embedded into the atmosphere the place it may not be viable (or fascinating) to have a lot of screens.
Rivals have been quickly placing out their very own AI-powered Echo clones, corresponding to Alphabet’s Google Home good speaker (rumored to quickly be coming in a smaller type issue too). Apple can be now getting in on the good speaker sport, with the Siri housing HomePod.
Meanwhile Amazon has doubled down on Echo, turning its single breakout product right into a full class portfolio — with an entry stage possibility (~$50 Echo Dot), a conveyable speaker (Echo Tap), a speaker-plus-screen for in-home video comms (Echo Show), and a fashion-focused selfie-taker and magnificence assistant (Echo Look).
If the FT’s sources are on the cash the following Echo-branded addition may very well be an ‘Echo Protect’ safety digital camera.
If that is true, Amazon can be enjoying catch up right here because the class has loads of opponents. Google, for instance, already has such a product — its Nest division acquired Dropcam in 2014.
But regardless of some extant tech large (and startup) competitors, dwelling safety is a mainstream concern and thus a preferred class in its personal proper. So the house may very well be a route for Amazon to get extra mainstream customers launched to and comfy with its Alexa AI.
The FT says Amazon’s secretive Lab 126 product growth division has been tasked with finding out the good dwelling market to find out which gadgets would make sense for Amazon to construct subsequent.
It additionally experiences that the deliberate Internet-connected Echo digital camera would have the ability to tie into Amazon’s present Echo merchandise — by, for instance, permitting customers to view the video feed on the Echo Show’s display screen.
There’s a possible privateness threat right here too if a safety digital camera Echo machine may very well be configured to connect with any digital camera within the Echo household — given the Echo Look is meant to be situated in a bed room, for instance.
Or certainly, if it might connect with any Echo machine’s microphone to listen in on the audio in numerous rooms within the dwelling.
So once more it stays to be seen how Amazon handles integration between its rising portfolio of Echo gadgets to keep away from the danger of the tech coming throughout as relatively too creepy to be snug.
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