Charlie Kindel is an American tech executive and the chief product and technology officer at SnapAV. [1] He formerly held roles with Control4, Amazon, and Microsoft. Much of his career has been spent focused on smart home products. [2]
Kindel was born in Vail, Colorado. [3] He earned a bachelor's degree in systems engineering from the University of Arizona in 1990. [4]
Kindel joined Microsoft in 1990. [5] He was named general manager of Windows Home Server in 2004, remaining in that position until 2009, when he became general manager of the Windows Phone developer experience. [6] [7] [8]
In 2011, Kindel left Microsoft to create BizLogr, serving as chief executive officer. [7] [9] The calendar scheduling startup launched in 2012, [7] and was later renamed FreeBusy. [10] The company created the mileage-logging app MileLogr. [11]
Kindel joined Amazon in 2013, becoming director of Alexa Smart Home, [7] [8] remaining there until April 2018. [8] [10]
In August 2018, he joined home automation systems provider Control4 as senior vice president of products and services. [2] [12] After Control4 merged with SnapAV, Kindel was named chief product and technology officer of SnapAV, [13] remaining there until November 2020. [14]
Trend Micro Inc. is an American-Japanese multinational cyber security software company with global headquarters in Tokyo, Japan and Irving, Texas, United States, with regional headquarters and R&D centers in Asia, Europe, and North America. The company develops enterprise security software for servers, containers, & cloud computing environments, networks, and end points. Its cloud and virtualization security products provide automated security for customers of VMware, Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform.
Synaptics is a publicly owned San Jose, California-based developer of human interface (HMI) hardware and software, including touchpads for computer laptops; touch, display driver, and fingerprint biometrics technology for smartphones; and touch, video and far-field voice technology for smart home devices and automotives. Synaptics primarily sells its products to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and display manufacturers.
Microsoft Defender Antivirus is an anti-malware component of Microsoft Windows. It was first released as a downloadable free anti-spyware program for Windows XP, and was later shipped with Windows Vista and Windows 7. It has evolved into a full antivirus program, replacing Microsoft Security Essentials, as part of Windows 8 and later versions.
A voice-user interface (VUI) makes spoken human interaction with computers possible, using speech recognition to understand spoken commands and answer questions, and typically text to speech to play a reply. A voice command device (VCD) is a device controlled with a voice user interface.
An intelligent virtual assistant (IVA) or intelligent personal assistant (IPA) is a software agent that can perform tasks or services for an individual based on commands or questions. The term "chatbot" is sometimes used to refer to virtual assistants generally or specifically accessed by online chat. In some cases, online chat programs are exclusively for entertainment purposes. Some virtual assistants are able to interpret human speech and respond via synthesized voices. Users can ask their assistants questions, control home automation devices and media playback via voice, and manage other basic tasks such as email, to-do lists, and calendars with verbal (spoken?) commands. A similar concept, however with differences, lays under the dialogue systems.
Control4 is a provider of automation and networking systems for homes and businesses, offering a personalized and unified smart home system to automate and control connected devices including lighting, audio, video, climate control, intercom, and security. The Control4 platform interoperates with more than 13,500 third-party products and is available in over 100 countries. As of August 2018, it manages 370,000 homes. The company is based in Salt Lake City, Utah. Control4 was a publicly traded company from 2013 until 2019, when it merged with SnapAV.
The transition from Windows 7 to Windows 8 introduced a number of new features across various aspects of the operating system. These include a greater focus on optimizing the operating system for touchscreen-based devices and cloud computing.
Joe Belfiore is an American business executive who has held various roles at Microsoft since August 1990, mostly in the field of user experience. He is currently the Corporate Vice President in the Experiences and Devices division of Microsoft. A frequent speaker, Belfiore has appeared at many Microsoft conferences, often giving demos on stage. He has also hosted a TED Talk.
ecobee is a Canadian home automation company that makes smart thermostats, temperature and occupancy sensors, smart light switches, smart cameras, and contact sensors.
Windows 8.1 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was released to manufacturing on August 27, 2013, and broadly released for retail sale on October 17, 2013, about a year after the retail release of its predecessor. It was Microsoft's operating system for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablet PCs and media center PCs until it was succeeded by Windows 10 on July 29, 2015. Windows 8.1 was made available for download via MSDN and Technet and available as a free upgrade for retail copies of Windows 8 and Windows RT users via the Windows Store. A server counterpart was released on October 18, 2013, entitled Windows Server 2012 R2. Microsoft ended mainstream support for Windows 8.1 on January 9, 2018, and extended support will end on January 10, 2023.
Terry Myerson is an American venture partner at Madrona Venture Group and an operating executive at The Carlyle Group. Myerson was previously an Executive Vice President at Microsoft, and head of its Windows and Devices Group.
Cortana is a virtual assistant developed by Microsoft which uses the Bing search engine to perform tasks such as setting reminders and answering questions for the user.
tado° is the European leader in intelligent home climate management. As the only cross-manufacturer platform, tado° Smart Thermostats and services connect with any kind of heating or cooling system. Customers benefit from energy-saving technology such as Geofencing and Open Window Detection, as well as from remote heating diagnostics. Founded in Munich, 2011, and with 180 employees, tado° reshapes the way energy is consumed for more comfort, savings, and wellbeing at home. www.tado.com
Invoxia is a French consumer electronics company known for the design and development of innovative smart devices that use artificial intelligence, such as the first GPS tracker on the market to use LoRa technology, the first connected speaker outside the Amazon ecosystem to use the Alexa voice system and a line of GPS trackers for preventing bike theft and monitoring pet activity. For the B2B market, it provides fleet tracking and asset management services. It also provides industrial IoT services including hardware design and development and the training and integration of neural networks.
Amazon Echo, often shortened to Echo, is an American brand of smart speakers developed by Amazon. Echo devices connect to the voice-controlled intelligent personal assistant service Alexa, which will respond when a user says "Alexa". Users may change this wake word to "Amazon", "Echo", “Ziggy” or "Computer". The features of the device include voice interaction, music playback, making to-do lists, setting alarms, streaming podcasts, and playing audiobooks, in addition to providing weather, traffic and other real-time information. It can also control several smart devices, acting as a home automation hub. The smart speaker needs to use Wi-Fi to connect to the Internet as there is no Ethernet port.
Thomas Reardon is an American computational neuroscientist and the CEO and co-founder of CTRL-labs. Formerly, he was a computer programmer and developer at Microsoft. He is credited with creating the project to build Microsoft's web browser, Internet Explorer (IE), which was the world's most used browser during its peak in the early 2000s. He founded CTRL-labs in 2015 with neuroscientists from Columbia University. Following the acquisition of CTRL-labs he leads the neural interfaces group at Facebook Reality Labs.
Amazon Alexa, also known simply as Alexa, is a virtual assistant technology developed by Amazon, first used in the Amazon Echo smart speaker and the Echo Dot, Echo Studio and Amazon Tap speakers developed by Amazon Lab126. It is capable of voice interaction, music playback, making to-do lists, setting alarms, streaming podcasts, playing audiobooks, and providing weather, traffic, sports, and other real-time information, such as news. Alexa can also control several smart devices using itself as a home automation system. Users are able to extend the Alexa capabilities by installing "skills" such as weather programs and audio features. It uses NLU, speech recognition and other weak AI to perform these tasks.
A smart speaker is a type of speaker and voice command device with an integrated virtual assistant that offers interactive actions and hands-free activation with the help of one "hot word". Some smart speakers can also act as a smart device that utilizes Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and other protocol standards to extend usage beyond audio playback, such as to control home automation devices. This can include, but is not limited to, features such as compatibility across a number of services and platforms, peer-to-peer connection through mesh networking, virtual assistants, and others. Each can have its own designated interface and features in-house, usually launched or controlled via application or home automation software. Some smart speakers also include a screen to show the user a visual response.
Essential Products was an American technology company and manufacturer founded on November 9, 2015 by Andy Rubin and based in Palo Alto. The company developed, manufactured, and sold Essential Phone and accessories for it, including 360 Camera for Essential Phone. The company closed on February 12, 2020, stating that it was developing a new handset, but that there was "no clear path to deliver it to customers".
Invoke is a smart speaker developed by Harman Kardon and powered by Microsoft's intelligent personal assistant, Cortana. Voice interaction with Cortana provides features such as setting alarms, facts, searches, weather, news, traffic, flights, and other real-time information. Additionally, the speaker's Cortana integration with one's Microsoft Account enables calendars, reminders, commutes, to-do lists, and home automation features, among others.