Here's what's next for always listening devices
August 28, 2017
Here are some of the things that will be appearing over the next 10 (or more) years to make always listening better and different.
Ten years ago, I tried to explain to friends and family that my company Sensory was working on a solution that would allow IoT devices to always be “on” and listening for a key wake up word without “false firing” and doing it at ultra-low power and with very little processing power. Generally, the response was “Huh?”
Today, I say, “Just like Hey Siri, OK Google, Alexa, Hey Cortana, and so on.” Now, everybody gets it and the technology is mainstream. In fact, next year, Sensory will have technology that’s embedded in IoT devices that listens all those things (and more). But that’s not good enough.
Here are some of the things that will be appearing over the next 10 (or more) years to make always listening better and different:
- Assistants that see. I hate it when I say OK Google to my Home and my phone responds. Or worse, when a device false fires and I left the volume on really loud. Many of these devices will be getting vision in the coming years (Amazon’s Echo Look already does) and their ability to see what device I’m talking to will make it easier for them to respond from the correct device.
- No wake words. In a room with multiple people, we sometimes direct questions by saying the name of the person we want to talk to first. But we don’t do this when we are having a dialog back and forth, and we certainly don’t do it if there’s just one person in the room. Our Assistants should respond to questions without having their names said.
- Multiple assistants on single devices. Why can’t I have a device that I can shop on with Alexa, search info with Google, or control my appliances with Bixby? Amazon should be fine with that but Google wouldn’t. Certain cloud assistants will allow it and others won’t, and we’ll start seeing products that combine multiple assistants into one product. This could create some strange and interesting bedfellows.
- Portable assistants. I unplug my Echo and move it from room to room when I’m listening to music. I already have two Echos and one Home (and a few other Alexa devices) and I don’t want to buy one for every room. Why can’t I throw Google Home in my backpack for music while biking? What about an always on wearable assistant? This will require ultra-low power wake words that perform great.
- Privacy controls. The intelligent assistants’ capabilities are directly proportional to the privacy we’re willing give up. The better they know us, the better they can get us what we want. Today, we just sign our privacy away. In the future, there likely will be settings that we can control.
- Embedded always on assistants. Power consumption should be low enough that assistants can be embedded into our bodies for augmented intelligence, memory, and of course medical checkups. Within 20 years, our bodies will become enhanced with sensors (microphones, cameras, etc.), memory, and processors that augment our personal capabilities and are directly wired to our brains.
Todd Mozer is the CEO of Sensory. He holds over a dozen patents in speech technology and has been involved in previous startups that reached IPO or were acquired by public companies. Todd holds an MBA from Stanford University, and has technical experience in machine learning, semiconductors, speech recognition, computer vision, and embedded software.
