Wednesday, May 24, 2017

Amazon Echo Collecting Big Data

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/603380/alexa-gives-amazon-a-powerful-data-advantage/

Amazon is known for many things, but small isn’t usually a word used to describe them. Recently, Amazon has been using a small device to collect massive amounts of data and that device is the Echo. Wirelessly connected and Bluetooth enabled, Echo can have a virtual assistant named Alexa that is willing to assist you in almost any way that a digital friend can – such as searching the web for the weather, the score to tonight’s game or if there will be traffic on the way to work this morning, all at your verbal request.

But the Echo isn’t just performing your requests, it’s also recording them; all of its actions are recorded, and through this process, Amazon is able to collect massive amounts of data. This item is unique because the range of its possible actions are so vast, that it can collect data of so many different things.


The attached article also goes beyond the normal limits of speech recognition and will only continue improving. As competitors such as Google launch similar hardware, Amazon, as it always does, will need to keep improving itself. The article even outlines the possibility that the Echo will soon be able to listen to two voices speaking to it simultaneously. It will be extremely interesting to watch what new types of devices companies use to collect data.

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