BLURB - Echo. Echo. Echo.

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BLURB - Echo. Echo. Echo.
CodenStuff
The Amazon Echo. The Amazon Echo. The Amazon Echo.

We all live in a technological world now with our smart phones, game consoles, tablets, laptops, watches, wrist bands, computers, robots that hoover your floors..heck you can even get fridges that do your food shopping for you.

Since the arrival of Siri on the iPhone people have been using voice recognition IA in their day to day lives, some perhaps because they were lonely and wanted someone(-thing) to talk too. You can use Siri to find out the weather, time, date, search for things, play music and so much more but this has all been taken up a notch with the arrival of in-home devices like the Amazon Echo. Now the whole family can have a relationship with an inanimate device with a synthesized voice....watch the video:





So, this is the Echo, described by Amazon as ".. a hands-free speaker you control with your voice." - doesn't anyone push buttons anymore?

The Echo has several powerful microphones built-in to enable you to communicate with it from a distance, for example you could be in the kitchen making a cheese toasty and want to listen the Echo to play your favorite music while you watch the cheese melt. Nice. It also comes with an "expertly tuned speaker" so you can listen to your music with 360° immersive sound.

Let's have a read of what Amazon say the Echo can do.

Amazon Echo provides hands-free voice control for Amazon Music, Prime Music, Spotify and TuneIn. Plus, Echo is Bluetooth-enabled so you can stream other popular music services such as iTunes from your phone or tablet.

Echo has been fine-tuned to deliver crisp vocals with dynamic bass response. Its dual downward-firing speakers produce 360° omni-directional audio to fill any room with immersive sound.

Tucked under the light ring is an array of seven microphones that use beam-forming technology and enhanced noise cancellation. With far-field voice recognition, Amazon Echo can hear you ask a question from any direction—even in noisy environments or while playing music.


When you want to use Echo, simply say the wake word, "Alexa", and Echo lights up and streams audio to the cloud, where the Alexa Voice Service is leveraged to recognise and respond to your request. Learn more about voice recognition on Echo.

Alexa—the brain behind Amazon Echo—updates through the cloud automatically and is continually learning, adding new functionality and skills. The more you use Echo, the more it adapts to your speech patterns, vocabulary and personal preferences.

Use Amazon Echo to switch on the lamp before getting out of bed, turn up the thermostat while reading in your favourite chair, or dim the lights from the couch to watch a film—all without lifting a finger.


Echo works with smart home devices such as lights, switches, thermostats and more from WeMo, Philips Hue, Hive, Netatmo, tado° and others. Learn more about compatible smart home connected devices, including starter kits for easy setup.

To use the Echo you have to say the listen word "Alexa". Why is it always a girls name, Siri, Cortana, Alexa. They should use Brad or Bob or Phil..Dave, perhaps.

The Echo also comes in DOT form, if you'd like to know more please check out the link below:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Amazon-SK705DI ... words=echo ... words=echo

Do you have one of these?
Would you like one in your home?
Are these devices just silly and pointless?

I would probably have one but get bored of it quite quickly.

Google are also getting in on the act with their Google Home device:
https://madeby.google.com/home/

When will Microsoft release theirs.
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hungryhounduk
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Re: BLURB - Echo. Echo. Echo.
hungryhounduk
Hey

I keep seeing this advertised on the telly, ( not that I watch a lot of telly ) and while it might seem a great bit of tech, too me it just seems they made it for lazy people :) or just another bit of junk to clutter up your home and gather dust....We have Phones that can do the very same thing ( even the cheap Chinese phones have it ) So while it maybe the best thing too sliced bread for some, I think people who buy it will get bored with it really quick.

If it could Think and make decisions on it's own by Brain Waves then it would be very useful.

This is just my Opinion

Chris
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