Artificial Intelligence (AI) sounds like something out of a sci-fi novel, but it has become one of the fastest growing trends of 2017. Samsung has added its own AI to replace the old S-Voice, Bixby, on its latest Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus smartphones (though not fully; Bixby Voice has not yet arrived on the handsets), but the Korean giant plans to extend Bixby beyond just smartphones. Samsung is working on a smart home Bixby speaker, a credible report out of Korea claims.
The smart home speaker will use Bixby to the fullest, though Bixby’s rollout has been delayed due to struggles with the English language after the company announced full Bixby integration for the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus at its March 2017 announcement. Samsung said some days after the announcement that Bixby would not be ready for the April 21st launch of the new phones, making the English language support struggle a second delay for the handsets.
The origin of smart home speakers as the consumer public knows it stems from Amazon who launched its Amazon Echo device back in November 2014.
Google released its own smart home speaker, Google Home, with Google Assistant integration, at Google I/O 2016 last year and credited Amazon with its innovative product. The Apple HomePod is the fruit company’s response to Amazon’s success, and Samsung, as the owner of its open-sourced, Internet-of-Things (IoT) SmartThings platform, looks to integrate all of its functionality in one device (a smart home speaker with Bixby and voice command operation would achieve this integration beautifully).
Samsung has been granted patents for a Bixby-integrated smart home speaker in its home country.
Via: The Inquirer
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