Amazon Echo: A solution looking for a problem:

Amazon announced its latest big idea last Wednesday (November 5th) 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, deprived of her the portability and 4G LTE her smartphone cousins enjoy, she needs to sit comfortably in a room where there is Wifi.


Another issue to remember is that Amazon Echo isn’t for everybody, if you are hard of hearing or have speech impediment, you may find yourself unable to take advantage of the “smart” speaker, and unless Amazon provides an alternative interface, “Alexa” is going to frustrate you as much as Siri does. Having said all that, being an amazon Prime Member, I’d still likely buy one to play with, because there is nothing like a talking-girl-speaker waiting for you in an empty nest waiting to take your command and answer your questions, especially when you have another one sitting in your pocket.

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