It’s your voice interface with Amazon: “Alexa, do this or that.” Up until now you’ll have been commanding Alexa using your Amazon Echo or Dot device in your home. But the next development on the cards seems to be a pair Amazon Alexa spectacles that (obviously) you can wear and keep about you most of the time and control Alexa using them.
It’s all part of the tech trend towards what they call ‘wearables’. Devices that you can interact with and access services via the internet using gadgets that you wear. Perhaps the most pervasive example so far is the Apple Watch that you do see some people wearing and using.
And it’s not the first time that a company has toyed with integrating technology with a pair of spectacles. Google Glass was very much in the news for a while. But, controversially, those specs included a camera that was (needless to say) sometimes used for nefarious purposes.
The Alexa specs will simply offer voice control although it’s not clear whether this will connect to a home network or have a wider application. Indeed, details are scant and, as yet, unconfirmed so it will be interesting to see what the eventual outcome will be. An announcement is predicted to be made imminently.
Google Glass was short-lived. So it will be interesting to see if the Alexa specs fare any better. Apparently the Alexa devices will offer what’s termed as a bone-conduction audio system. That technology will transmit sounds directly into the wearer’s head by vibrating the skull and headphones won’t be required. That all sounds rather scary.
Amazon Echo is doing very well in the US. It is said to now have a 76% share of the smart speaker market over there, according to research firm CIRP. There are apparently with 15 millionEcho devices in American homes. The equivalent Google Home clocks in at a distant second taking the remaining 24% of the market.
