Roger Fingas
Apple's rumored Amazon Echo competitor could reportedly include a camera for facial recognition, but may have to wait until 2017 to hit store shelves.
Apple has explored the idea of having a camera automatically detect who's in a room, using this to load personal preferences in things like music or lighting, sources told CNET. This might be similar to the Kinect sign-in option for Microsoft's Xbox One, which lets multiple people share a console more easily.
With or without a camera, Apple's device could ship by year's end but is more likely to arrive in 2017, the sources said. The product is said to be in enough of a tentative state that Apple could still kill the project entirely.
Rumors about an Echo-like device first emerged on Tuesday, suggesting that Apple will use an enhanced Siri to respond to commands and questions, much like Amazon's Alexa voice assistant. Another parallel would stem from the Apple hardware's support for HomeKit, since the Echo can also be linked up with various smarthome accessories.
On Thursday however a report suggested that Apple might simply upgrade the Apple TV, putting a microphone and speaker into the set-top. Such a device might not be a true Echo competitor though, since without satellite microphone/speaker units it would only ever work in rooms with a TV.
Andrew Orr
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Wesley Hilliard
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25 Comments
Nope.
Sounds like the future. And if all the face recognition, listening for the "hey siri" command, and home settings are able to be managed locally, there shouldn't be any significant privacy concerns. [Thankfully Apple is a trustworthy company that's been very consistent regarding making privacy a top priority, unlike some others, who go out of their way to circumvent privacy, and receive record setting fines for doing so..] I could easily see how you could just come home and wave 'hi' to the Apple TV and it will reply "hi john/jane, glad your're home" (in background air conditioning, lights, shades adjust, message is sent to sig other, etc).
If we have to wait until 2017, please Apple, ffs, at least release an integrated Apple Home iOS app in the meantime (i.e with iOS 10).
As an aside, it's going to be strange having a generation of kids that will grow up thinking that tech objects can be sentient. It'll actually probably be quite a shock when they grow up and realize that they're just machines, kind of like finding out santa clause doesn't exist. ..oops, spoiler alert!This fits in very well with my thoughts from the previous thread:
Great thought! And with primesense not only will gestures be a possibility, but also face tracking and autorfocus for the camera. Also, if combined with a microphone array it could localize voices, which would improve communication with the hub in an environment with multiple people, or with background TV noise, etc. This could be supplemented by using your watch or phone to interact with the home hub when out of earshot, or possibly also API enabled 3rd party speakers as has been mentioned.
This rumor makes sense. The TV is the literal hub of the home, and it makes sense for the AI to be based there (not wherever someone happens to leave the speaker). These type of products should be about a shared experience in the home, it should bring people together (whereas the iPhone functions as your personal hub). This way you don't have people fighting over who gets to have the hub next to them. At a surface level, anchoring the home hub at the TV may seem limiting, but in reality this setup enables better organization and facilitates the connected home, especially if there are multiple people, and especially if some of those people are chronologically challenged.
tl;dr: While iPhone is your personal hub, the Apple TV/siri will be the (shared) hub of the home.
Rumored product delayed until 2017!