Friday, May 29, 2015

Got my Amazon Echo today

Quite some time ago I ordered the Amazon Echo.  Echo is a virtual assistant that is voice controlled. It has a range of questions it can answer and also functions it can perform. It is a bit like Siri on an iPhone.

So far I have only installed it (very simple), added some functions, and tested it. Echo has a good voice recognition system and also understands commands well. I am also quite surprised with the quality of the sound, for instance when Echo plays music.

You give a command by saying "Alexa, play xxxx". Alexa is the wake up word. It is possible to be anywhere in the room and still control Echo. To thus who watched Star Trek is feel very similar to say "Computer, xxxx".

Echo do not really have any interface, except for a thin light "circle" on top of the Echo that can change into different colors and also pulsate and 'circle'. I think this is one of the first new devices that we will more off, of course they will disappear into our houses or furniture and not be visible at all in the future. But, even if Echo works well so far, does this kind of interaction work over time. Is this how we want to interact? I will come back to Echo again when I have used it for some time.