Smart speaker

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The Google Home Mini smart speaker released in 2017 Google home Mini.jpg
The Google Home Mini smart speaker released in 2017

A smart speaker is a type of loudspeaker and voice command device with an integrated virtual assistant that offers interactive actions and hands-free activation with the help of one "hot word" (or several "hot words"). Some smart speakers can also act as a smart device that utilizes Wi-Fi 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. [1] Some smart speakers also include a screen to show the user a visual response.

Contents

As of summer 2022, it is estimated by NPR and Edison Research that 91 million Americans (35% of the population over 18) own a smart speaker. [2]

A smart speaker with a touchscreen is known as a smart display. [3] [4] It is a smart device that integrates conversational user interface with display screens to augment voice interaction with images and video. They are powered by one of the common voice assistants and offer controls for smart home devices, feature streaming apps, and web browsers with touch controls for selecting content. The first smart displays were introduced in 2017 by Amazon (Amazon Echo) and Google (Google Home/Nest)

Accuracy

According to a study by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America released In March 2020, the six biggest tech development companies, Amazon, Apple, Google, Yandex, IBM and Microsoft, have misidentified more words spoken by "black people" than "white people". The systems tested errors and unreadability, with a 19 and 35 percent discrepancy for the former and a 2 and 20 percent discrepancy for the latter. [5]

The North American Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics (NAACL) also identified a discrepancy between male and female voices. According to their research, Google's speech recognition software is 13 percent more accurate for men than women. It performs better than the systems used by Bing, AT&T, and IBM. [6]

Privacy concerns

The built-in microphone in smart speakers is continuously listening for "hot words" followed by a command. However, these continuously listening microphones also raise privacy concerns among users. [7] These include what is being recorded, how the data will be used, how it will be protected, and whether it will be used for invasive advertising. [8] [9] Furthermore, an analysis of Amazon Echo Dots showed that 30–38% of "spurious audio recordings were human conversations", suggesting that these devices capture audio other than strictly detection of the hot word. [10]

As a wiretap

There are strong concerns that the ever-listening microphone of smart speakers presents a perfect candidate for wiretapping. In 2017, British security researcher Mark Barnes showed that pre-2017 Echos have exposed pins which allow for a compromised OS to be booted. [11]

According to Umar Iqbal, an Assistant professor at Washington University in St. Louis, research indicates that data from consumer interactions with Alexa was used to targeted advertisements and products to consumer with over 40% of transmitted data lacking proper encryption raising privacy concerns. [12] Furthermore data indicates that due to the Smart Speakers ability to always capture audio, it begins to pick up on external conversations from consumers not related to commands given to the smart speaker. Things such as other members in the household, consumers on the phone and even Tv audio can be picked up by these speakers and stored for future use by companies. [13]

Voice assistance vs privacy

While voice assistants provide a valuable service, there can be some hesitation towards using them in various social contexts, such as in public or around other users. [14] However, only more recently have users begun interacting with voice assistants through an interaction with smart speakers rather than an interaction with the phone. On the phone, most voice assistants have the option to be engaged by a physical button (e.g., Siri with a long press of the home button) rather than solely by hot word-based engagement in a smart speaker. While this distinction increases the privacy by limiting when the microphone is on, users felt that having to press a button first removed the convenience of voice interaction. [15] This trade-off is not unique to voice assistants; as more and more devices come online, there is an increasing trade-off between convenience and privacy. [16]

Factors influencing adoption

While there are many factors influencing smart speaker adoption, specifically with regards to privacy, Lau et al. define five distinct categories as pros and cons: convenience, identity as an early adopter, contributing factors, perceived lack of utility, privacy, and security concerns. [7]

Smart speakers also benefit from their instant integration into the life of the consumer. Some capabilities of smart speakers are but not limited to setting alarms, sending voice messages to other smart devices in the home, the ability to send messages for you, instant answers to basic questions for any subject such as mathematics, geography, history, science and literature, and the ability to create task lists that can pair with your phone to remind you later on. Although these tasks can be completed by a phone, consumers tend to lean towards smart speakers due to factors such as their range being much greater then that of a phone and the need to not have to physically interact with the speaker to get the voice assistant as with most smartphones, certain parts of the phone must be interacted with to activate the speaking assistant. [17]

Another reason for the adoption of smart speakers has been the use of smart speakers to help assist those with disabilities. While most technology is limited by it needs for the user to be able to physically interact with the device, smart speakers are not bound by these limitations and can serve as an excellent tool for those who are unable to use their arms or legs. [18]

Security concerns

When configured without authentication, smart speakers can be activated by people other than the intended user or owner. For example, visitors to a home or office, or people in a publicly accessible area outside an open window, partial wall, or security fence, may be able to be heard by a speaker. One team demonstrated the ability to stimulate the microphones of smart speakers and smartphones through a closed window, from another building across the street, using a laser. [19]

Virtual assistantOwned byDevicesNo. of usersLanguages (dialects)Notes
Alice Yandex
  • Yandex Station
  • Yandex Station Mini
  • Irbis A
  • LG Xboom AI ThinQ WK7Y
  • ELARI SmartBeat
  • Prestigio Smartmate Маяк Edition
30 million Yandex devices in CIS (January 2019)Russian, TurkishYandex Station went on sale in July 2018
AliGenie Alibaba Group ChineseWent on sale in August 2017
Amazon Alexa [20] Amazon 31 million Echo devices in U.S. (January 2018) [21] Summer 2019: English (US, UK, Ireland, Canada and Australia); French (France and Canada); German; Italian; Japanese; Portuguese (Brazilian) and Spanish (Spain and Mexico) [22] [23] [24]
Siri Apple, Inc. Summer 2019: Arabic, Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin), Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Norwegian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, and Turkish [24]
DuerOS Open Platform [25] Baidu Xiaoyu, RavenH, Aladdin ceiling-mounted smart speaker-lamp-projector [26] [27] ChineseXiaoyu went on sale in spring 2017. [25]
Clova Naver Corporation, Line Corporation Japanese and KoreanIntroduced summer 2017 [28]
Google Assistant [20] Google Google Home series: Home, Home Max, Home Mini, Nest Hub, Nest Hub Max, [20] Nest Mini, Nest Audio, Nest Wi-Fi (point only)14 million Google Homes in U.S. (January 2018) [21] Summer 2019: Danish, Dutch, English (U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, India and Singapore), French (France and Canada), German (Austria and Germany), Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese (Brazilian), Spanish (Spain and Mexico) and Swedish [29] [24]
Beijing LingLong, part of JD DingDong Mandarin and Cantonese for Greater ChinaIn cooperation with Chinese AI firm iFlytek. Went on sale November 2016. [30]
Microsoft Cortana Microsoft Harman Kardon INVOKE October 2019: English (US, UK, Canada, Australia and India); Chinese (Simplified); French; German; Italian; Japanese; Portuguese (Brazil); Spanish (Spain and Mexico) [31] Support for Cortana on the Harman Kardon INVOKE was officially discontinued on March 9, 2021. [32] [33]
Safety Labs SironaSafety Labs IncSirona.TVEnglish (US, UK, Canada, Australia and India);
Xiaowei [25] Tencent forthcoming [25] Chinese
Bixby Samsung Electronics Galaxy Home [34]
Hallo Magenta Deutsche Telekom Hallo MagentaGerman
Smart Speakers

See also

Related Research Articles

A voice-user interface (VUI) enables spoken human interaction with computers, using speech recognition to understand spoken commands and answer questions, and typically text to speech to play a reply. A voice command device is a device controlled with a voice user interface.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Virtual assistant</span> Software agent

A virtual assistant (VA) is a software agent that can perform a range of tasks or services for a user based on user input such as commands or questions, including verbal ones. Such technologies often incorporate chatbot capabilities to simulate human conversation, such as via online chat, to facilitate interaction with their users. The interaction may be via text, graphical interface, or voice - as some virtual assistants are able to interpret human speech and respond via synthesized voices.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Google Nest</span> Brand of smart home products by Google

Google Nest is a line of smart home products including smart speakers, smart displays, streaming devices, thermostats, smoke detectors, routers and security systems including smart doorbells, cameras and smart locks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cortana (virtual assistant)</span> Discontinued personal assistant by Microsoft

Cortana was a virtual assistant developed by Microsoft that used the Bing search engine to perform tasks such as setting reminders and answering questions for users.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amazon Fire TV</span> Line of digital media players and microconsoles by Amazon

Amazon Fire TV is a line of digital media players and microconsoles developed by Amazon since 2014. The devices are small network appliances that deliver digital audio and video content streamed via the Internet to a connected high-definition television. They also allow users to access local content and to play video games with the included remote control or another game controller, or by using a mobile app remote control on another device.

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 a 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", "Computer", and other options. 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.

Mycroft was a free and open-source software virtual assistant that uses a natural language user interface. Its code was formerly copyleft, but is now under a permissive license. It was named after a fictional computer from the 1966 science fiction novel The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Google Nest (smart speakers)</span> Line of voice-enabled smart speakers and displays by Google

Google Nest, previously named Google Home, is a line of smart speakers developed by Google under the Google Nest brand. The devices enable users to speak voice commands to interact with services through Google Assistant, the company's virtual assistant. Both in-house and third-party services are integrated, allowing users to listen to music, control playback of videos or photos, or receive news updates entirely by voice. Google Nest devices also have integrated support for home automation, letting users control smart home appliances with their voice command. The first device, Google Home, was released in the United States in November 2016; subsequent product releases have occurred globally since 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Google Assistant</span> AI-powered digital assistant from Google

Google Assistant is a virtual assistant software application developed by Google that is primarily available on home automation and mobile devices. Based on artificial intelligence, Google Assistant can engage in two-way conversations, unlike the company's previous virtual assistant, Google Now.

Amazon Alexa, or, Alexa, is a virtual assistant technology largely based on a Polish speech synthesizer named Ivona, bought by Amazon in 2013. It was first used in the Amazon Echo smart speaker and the Amazon Echo Dot, Echo Studio and Amazon Tap speakers developed by Amazon Lab126. It is capable of natural language processing for tasks such as voice interaction, music playback, creating to-do lists, setting alarms, streaming podcasts, playing audiobooks, providing weather, traffic, sports, other real-time information and news. Alexa can also control several smart devices as a home automation system. Alexa capabilities may be extended by installing "skills" such as weather programs and audio features. It performs these tasks using automatic speech recognition, natural language processing, and other forms of weak AI.

The Lenovo Smart Assistant is a Google assistant enabled smart speaker developed by Lenovo. The device was announced at CES 2017 and released to the U.S. market in May 2017. A Harman Kardon version of the speaker was also announced at the event. The speaker uses the Amazon's Alexa voice service, and can be controlled through the Alexa companion app. The inside of the device includes eight microphones, a W-Fi chip, Intel Celeron N3060 processor, and a large speaker. The device shell is white, with a gray, green or orange woven overlay over the speaker.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amazon Echo Show</span> Touchscreen smart speaker produced by Amazon

Amazon Echo Show is a smart speaker that is part of the Amazon Echo line of products. Similarly to other devices in the family, it is designed around Amazon's virtual assistant Alexa, but additionally features a touchscreen display that can be used to display visual information to accompany its responses, as well as play video and conduct video calls with other Echo Show users. The video call feature was later expanded to include all Skype users.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Witlingo</span> Software as a service company

Witlingo is a B2B Software as a Service (SaaS) company that enables businesses and organization to engage with members of their communities by using the latest innovations in Human Language Technology and Conversational AI, such Speech recognition, Natural Language Processing, IVR, Virtual Assistant apps on Smartphone platforms(iOS and Android), Chatbots, and Digital audio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sonos One</span> Smart speaker with voice control built in

The Sonos One is a smart speaker developed by Sonos, announced on October 4, 2017 and released on October 24. The speaker contains a six-microphone array, allowing use of the virtual assistants, Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. In 2018, the smart speaker added support for Apple's AirPlay 2.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Invoke (smart speaker)</span> Cortana-powered smart speaker by Harman Kardon

Invoke was a smart speaker developed by Harman Kardon. It was 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 enabled calendars, reminders, commutes, to-do lists, and home automation features, among others.

AliGenie is a China-based open-platform intelligent personal assistant launched and developed by Alibaba Group, currently used in the Tmall Genie smart speaker. The platform was introduced in 2017, along with the Tmall Genie X1, at Alibaba's 2017 Computing Conference in Hangzhou.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Meta Portal</span> Line of smart displays by Facebook

Meta Portal is a discontinued brand of smart displays and videophones released in 2018 by Meta. The product line consists of four models: Portal, Portal+, Portal TV, and Portal Go. These models provide video chat via Messenger and WhatsApp, augmented by a camera that can automatically zoom and track people's movements. The devices are integrated with Amazon's voice-controlled intelligent personal assistant service Alexa.

Virtual assistants are software technology that assist users complete various tasks. Well known virtual assistants include Amazon Alexa, and Siri, produced by Apple. Other companies, such as Google and Microsoft, also have virtual assistants. There are privacy issues concerning what information can go to the third party corporations that operate virtual assistants and how this data can potentially be used.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Voice computing</span> Discipline in computing

Voice computing is the discipline that develops hardware or software to process voice inputs.

References

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  19. ↑ "Lasers can silently issue 'voice commands' to your smart speakers". 5 November 2019. Archived from the original on 2019-11-05. Retrieved 2019-11-06.
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