Amazon Is Working on a Device Called Dylan That Can Tell How You Are Feeling
Bloomberg is reporting that Amazon is working on a wearable that can read your emotions. According to the report which was based on documents from the online retail giant themselves, says the device will be worn on the wrist and will be synced to a smartphone app.
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The device has microphones that capture the users' voice and can tell from the tone and pace what sort of mood they are in. The technology will reportedly get better at understanding its user over time and eventually be able to give advice as to how to deal with other social situations.
Dylan can read your mind
Bloomberg says they have no information when and even if the device will ever become a reality. According to their source inside Amazon, the project was being worked on recently and has been given the codename Dylan.
Amazon has not commented.
Exactly what the benefit of having a wearable that might b able to give a good guess as to how you feel is yet to be seen. Hopefully, we are not so defunct as humans that we need Artifical Intelligence to remember how we feel.
Wearables are a huge and ever-expanding market. The most popular are devices that can monitor heart rate and movement that sync with apps to give users information about the status of their health and fitness. The Apple watch even goes as far as to have an ECG monitor that can send alerts if the person is experienced irregular heart rate.
Can Amazon record everything you say?
If the mood-sensing device does eventuate, there will be no doubt a lot of questions about privacy issues. Amazon's home assistant devices like Amazon Echo record users and store that information on file - and that's just in your home. Imagine if you were wearing a passive listening device everywhere you went.
Not only is recording everything you say a slight worry, but as Amazon's primary business is retail, there is no doubt they would use the data it collects for targeted advertising.
Earphones to pet robots
The team behind Alexa’s voice recognition is said to be working on this device too. Aside from being a cool/creepy idea, this possible device indicates Amazon's hunger to become a leader in the wearables/voice recognition industry.
Other products reportedly in the lineup for the future include a set of wireless earphones that will contain the Alexa voice software and a dash-mounted speaker and microphone device called ‘Amazon Auto’ that the company says they already have a 1 million pre-orders for.
Another wild idea is a digital pet that would act as a mobile Alexa. The digi-dog has been nicknamed Vesta,” after the Roman goddess of the hearth, home, and family, and it can navigate through homes like a self-driving car.