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Amazon Is Reportedly Working On Alexa-Enabled Smart Glasses (techcrunch.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the always-connected dept.

According to the Financial Times (Warning: source paywalled), Amazon is working on building a pair of smart glasses to house its Alexa voice assistant. The report also mentions a home security camera that is in the works, capable of linking up to Amazon's existing Echo connected devices. TechCrunch reports: According to the FT, the smart glasses are intended to be purely an earbuds-free housing for Amazon's Alexa AI -- with a bone-conduction audio system that would enable the wearer to hear Alexa without the need to be wired in. The FT reports the glasses would wirelessly tether to a user's smartphone for connectivity. They are also apparently being designed to look like a regular pair of spectacles, so they could be worn comfortably and unobtrusively. The paper notes that Amazon hired Babak Parviz, founder of Google Glass, in 2014, and says he's been closely involved in the project. It also points to several other Glass researchers, engineers and designers having moved to Amazon's labs -- per analysis of their LinkedIn profiles.

32 comments

  1. This is exciting! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    I can imagine zero uses for this!

    1. Re:This is exciting! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I can think of one - replay arguments with dear wife before opening my mouth a second time.

  2. Interesting by JohnFen · · Score: 1

    Take Google Glass and literally remove everything that made it useful. Sounds like a win!

    1. Re:Interesting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Given that there was nothing useful in Google Glass in the first place, they're removing nothing?

    2. Re:Interesting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I was the king of the hipsters and looked down on everyone when I was wearing Google Glass. You can't put a price on that.

    3. Re:Interesting by JohnFen · · Score: 2

      There was a lot useful in Google Glass, mostly around AR. The reason it failed wasn't a lack of usefulness.

    4. Re:Interesting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Google glass! VR! 3D printing! AI! Private space! Meet the new future, same as the old future...

    5. Re:Interesting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When out and about e.g. on holidays in a place I dont know
        I could imagine
      a gps that when I ask for a location show me an unobtrusive arrow in front of my field of vision indicating the direction
      look at something (art, buildings, a place of interest) and get relevant information just by asking
      shoping aroung and get info about the item im looking at, including nearby competitors pricing
      looking at someone and get a info card about the individual
      Gaming, imagine a pokemon kind of game where you have to find something in the city and there are clues and magic markings in buildings and were the participants get an overlay so they look like 18 century people
      and i didnt start thinking on uses in the work place, retail, health services.............

    6. Re:Interesting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe it could help you to not fuck up line breaks, you dumbass nygger.

      Write it correctly to get around the bullshit censorship (on a site that claims to support the American First Amendment!!) Write the letter "i" as ampersand-i-acute-semicolon. Without the hyphens of course. Then it looks like this: nígger. See? It just has a slight accent-mark on the 'i" character. Bullshit political censorship: averted.

    7. Re:Interesting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Until you got a kick in the face for being intrusive, sociopathic arshole, How do you like them glass shards in your eyes, hm?

  3. Mira, joto. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Que chingados es tu pinche problema, maricon?

    1. Re: Mira, joto. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Will Alexa-enabled smart glasses help us send all the beaners back to Mexico pronto?

  4. People will think you are talking to yourself by jfdavis668 · · Score: 1

    Alexa, tell me a joke. Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha...

    1. Re:People will think you are talking to yourself by coofercat · · Score: 1

      "Alexa! This meeting is really boring - Turn on fake eyes so I can go to sleep without anyone knowing"

    2. Re:People will think you are talking to yourself by JohnFen · · Score: 1

      That's an amateur move. The pros know how to sleep with their eyes open while occasionally writing down some gibberish "notes".

  5. One should never by taustin · · Score: 1

    keep all of one's suck in one basket. If you drop it, you'll get suck all over your shoes.

  6. Alexa by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Amazon will increase my websites Alexa rank soon :D

    Download android paid apps and games for free

  7. Alexa, how can l look even more pretentious? by elrous0 · · Score: 1

    Already answered.

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  8. Re:PROOF! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Climate Change is FAKE NEWS!

    Your father was a turkey baster because your mom went to a sperm bank.

  9. That might prevent smart birds ordering ... by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

    https://www.thesun.co.uk/fabul...

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  10. More surveillance by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 1

    Do I need to elaborate?

    1. Re:More surveillance by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 1

      The report also mentions a home security camera that is in the works, capable of linking up to Amazon's existing Echo connected devices.

      Hey, so Amazon can snoop around your house, and suggest that you need a new toaster or coffee table.

      That would be very nice of them, wouldn't it . . . ?

      --
      Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
    2. Re:More surveillance by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 1
      I used to scoff furiously at people who didn't believe that protecting their privacy was all that important because "they aren't doing anything to be ashamed of so why should they care?". I'd ask them how they'd feel if I came around and installed cameras and microphones in their houses so they could be watched and listened to 24/7/365; they'd always scoff at me and say "nobody is ever going to do that, that's ridiculous!". And now here we are, in 2017, and these same people are probably the ones installing internet-connected cameras and audio monitoring devices all through their homes, likely without a thought or a care in the world about who might be watching or listening. They are fools.

      Joking about all that surveillance gear being used for something as pedestrian as collecting marketing data

      Laugh-out-fucking-loud, I'd be so much happier if that's all they were doing with it!

  11. Yet another... by VeryFluffyBunny · · Score: 1

    ...silicon valley wearable that makes you look like a dork and none of your friends want to hang out with you anymore because, you know, constant surveillance.

    --
    Debate is a form of harassment. Do not question my truth.
  12. Equal opportunity insult by markdavis · · Score: 1

    "Glasshole" knows no brand :)

    1. Re:Equal opportunity insult by just+another+AC · · Score: 1

      I always kind of thought it more suited an Apple type brand.

      Google just never had enough salesmanship to turn "condescending self importance" into "cool" which is the hurdle these things must clear. Amazon will fail for the same reason.

      Only Steve Jobs era Apple could've pulled it off.

  13. Color me impressed when..... by mark-t · · Score: 2

    .... the tech cannot be distinguished from regular eyewear by any kind of cursory examination.

    I have no interest in spying on people, but I do very much like the idea of having a life-recorder with which I can record my day's experiences without my having to reach for another recording device such as my smart phone, and I could go back later and review things that I experienced that I might wish to review some detail on for posterity that would otherwise be forever lost simply on account of an imperfect memory and the fact that I didn't have my phone ready to record at that precise moment.

    However, I don't particularly want to get my ass handed to me by people who think I'm wanting to spy on them every time I go out wearing such a device... or interested in uploading content to the internet or whatever, so I would rather that the device be completely invisible to onlookers.

    --
    File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
    1. Re:Color me impressed when..... by Gilgaron · · Score: 1

      As with many things suggested on Slashdot these days, that's a Black Mirror episode... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    2. Re:Color me impressed when..... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm usually first in line for neat toys, but wearables are the sort of thing where a walled garden has no place... and Amazon is notoriously unrelenting about their walled garden.