Amazon Echo: A solution looking for a problem:
Amazon announced its latest big idea last Wednesday (November 5 th ) a Bluetooth speaker connected with wifi and cloud with a processing chip and 7 microphones; for detailed information, see http://www.amazon.com/oc/echo/ref_=ods_dp_ae Now, there are a lot to be said about this little toy, and as somebody working in the field of Assistive technology for five years, I see a lot of promises for Amazon Echo as an assistive technology device for blind or visually impaired people; the technology, however, looks awfully familiar though…yes, it’s your beloved Virtual assistance sitting in your high-end smartphone whom you are busy neglecting right now! For reasons only God, and Amazon Engineering Department would know, instead of putting “Alexa” in the Fire Phone, they migrated her to a Bluetooth Speaker. That, of course, has consequences; Amazon Echo is of course designed to be stationary, which is why it has seven microphones, to listen to you “anywhere in the room” which of course,