On Thursday, Amazon announced plans to provide its software and hardware to third-party manufacturers. This will allow other device makers to replicate the ability of Echo to identify and react to voice commands even in large or noisy rooms. The kit comes with the beam forming technology, 7-mic circular array not forgetting the voice processing software used by Amazon on the Echo.
In a recent statement, the director for Alexa, Priya Abani said that since Echo Dot and Amazon Echo were introduced, device and third party manufacturers have been asking the company to provide the tools and technology to incorporate the Alexa experience on their products. By providing the Alexa technology and tools to other device makers, Amazon will maximize the ability of Alexa to sell its services and goods.
Good News for Amazon Fans
At the end of the day, this could be an advantage to Amazon fans. With the already existing speaker setup, fans will have much to gain. They will be in a position to converse with Echo as well as Alexa. Amazon has already signed agreements to introduce the Alexa voice assistant in smartphones and cars. Some of the companies Amazon has entered into partnerships with include the manufacturer of Huawei Mate 9 and Ford Sync. The new developer program could see the abilities of Echo voice recognition built in garage door openers, kitchen appliances, PCs, and various other products.
Reliable sources have it that the company is working on ways to improve the technology behind its Echo line of devices. It wants to improve the technology to allow for easier pick up of voice commands and avail it to third-party device manufacturers. This includes the array of microphones that allows Echo to effectively pick up speech in fairly noisy rooms and the company’s proprietary software that helps recognize wake words, reduces background noise and cancels out echoes especially in large open rooms.
The company plans to avail the tech as a development kit. However, it will not be open to everyone. Amazon is offering the tech to outside OEMs on an invite-only basis. Interested parties are currently submitting their applications for reviewing through the company’s website.
It is not easy to tell when these devices will be available on the market. Amazon is offering the new development kit only to third party manufacturers it has relationships with. However, the program is open, and anyone can ask to be invited. Judging by the way Amazon is offering its resources to third party developers willing to make their devices compatible with Alexa, the likelihood of the company expanding its voice recognition program is very high.
More about The Echo
The Echo is a cylinder made using a matte-black metal. It is 9.25 inches tall and contains a 2.5-inch woofer, a 2-inch tweeter and seven microphones circling the top waiting to catch voice commands. Upon hearing “Alexa,” this is its wake-up word, a light ring at the device’s very top signals that it is ready for commands.
The quality of sound is very impressive. Although it doesn’t match that of a high-quality multi-unit system, it delivers a full and clear sound. Moreover, the voice of Echo vocal avatar is strikingly humanlike. It lacks the wooden articulations common in many computerized vocalizations. Echo is very accurate when it comes to recognizing speeches.
The Echo device is designed for music listening. Upon logging the device into a Wi-Fi network, it perfectly streams music from one the five subscription services including Amazon Music, Amazon Prime Music Library, TuneIn, iHeartRadio, and Pandora. In case you haven’t subscribed to one of these, your music streaming over Echo’s Bluetooth connection will be limited. Additionally, Echo offers access to the audiobooks service owned by Amazon.
People find Echo effective because of its ease of control. With simple voice requests, users can have their entire music collection shuffled by the device. Moreover, users can play specific genres, playlists, songs or albums. The device is also easy to pause, lower or raise the volume and play the next song with simple voice requests. Echo excellently recognizes what has been said even with background noise, music playing and from an adjacent room.
Also Read: Amazon Introduces a New Facial Recognition System
Conclusion
The recent move by Amazon to avail the technology behind Echo to third party device manufacturers will help make things easier. People should now expect the voice recognition abilities of Echo built into garage door openers, PCs, kitchen appliances and many other products. The company is offering a development kit to interested parties on an invite-only basis. Amazon’s proprietary software recognizes wake words and reduces background noise. According to Amazon, it has designed the development kit to be easily compatible with some of the leading chipset solutions. This implies that the kit is meant to be used by products powered by various silicon and CPUs. The company has listed Raspberry Pi, Intel x86, and ARM Cortex in the application form as the selection options. The program’s aim is to make things easier for partners to run Alexa into their devices.
