Amazon Unveils Chip Enabling Alexa to Control Third-Party Devices
September 20 2018 - 2:26PM
Dow Jones News
By Laura Stevens
SEATTLE -- In a bid to control the smart home of the future,
Amazon.com Inc. is offering makers of electronics a small chip that
would let people use their voice to command everything from
microwaves and coffee machines to room fans and guitar
amplifiers.
The online retail giant is hoping big manufacturers will sign up
to incorporate the Alexa-enabled chips -- which cost a few dollars
each -- in lower-end, everyday household devices.
The plan, if successful, could give Amazon an advantage over
other tech companies such as Alphabet Inc.'s Google, Apple Inc. and
Microsoft Corp., which are all racing to use voice assistants to
control everyday devices to promote their services, as well as
glean consumer data.
The announcement came Thursday at a press event in Amazon's new
Spheres building, where executives revealed a flurry of new Echo
speaker devices and other electronics powered by its Alexa voice
assistant. The products, which included a $50 Echo for cars and a
new home security system, shows Amazon's intention to put Alexa at
the center of people's lives. It also unveiled a raft of
improvements to Alexa, highlighting capabilities that allow it to
whisper and hold conversations.
Amazon's effort to turn Alexa into the home's central operating
system is full of challenges. For decades, the vision of a
Jetsons-like connected smart home to remotely open the garage, turn
on the porch lights and fire up the oven has been slowed by gadgets
that are too expensive, too difficult to configure and are
incompatible with other products.
Amazon is looking to unite a scattered industry where many
manufacturers have chosen to develop their own connected devices
and rent space in the cloud to power them. The company must prove
it can push Alexa into the mainstream beyond its Echo speaker
devices, and lure more than just the early adopters who outfit
their homes with smart devices.
"The response we're seeing from customers is indicating that
there are now many cases where voice is a simpler interface," such
as using a light switch, said Daniel Rausch, vice president of
smart home, in an interview. It is "as basic as coming home with
your hands full of groceries and being able to turn on the lights.
No one likes to walk through a dark house."
To demonstrate its technology, Amazon has incorporated a circuit
board and a button to access Alexa into its private-label
microwave. Amazon said customers could either press the button or
use an Echo speaker -- which connects via Wi-Fi -- to command the
microwave to do things like defrost a half-pound of chicken, or set
it up to automatically to reorder a favorite type of popcorn on
Amazon.
"What this microwave does is keep track of how many times you
cook popcorn and make sure you never run out," Mr. Rausch said.
Write to Laura Stevens at laura.stevens@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 20, 2018 15:11 ET (19:11 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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