The Drum Awards for Marketing - Extended Deadline

-d -h -min -sec

Technology Amazon

Amazon seeks to crack accents for updated Alexa voice assistant

Author

By John Glenday, Reporter

February 28, 2017 | 2 min read

Amazon is quietly working behind the scenes to build in ability to distinguish between different accents for its Alexa voice assistant, potentially enabling it to differentiate between different voices.

Reports in Time suggest that the new feature is being referenced internally as ‘Voice ID’ and is being designed to allow certain commands to be restricted to particular people such as only allowing the primary account holder to make purchases.

Such an ability would also negate instances of wayward systems inappropriately acting upon commands picked up erroneously from nearby television sets, something which has become a recurring issue for voice activated gadgets.

Another potential pitfall stems from privacy concerns with Amazon currently embroiled in a legal tussle after it invoked the First Amendment right to free speech in attempt to have an Echo warrant dismissed for a murder suspect.

Amazon is said to have been working on the new software since summer 2015 but there is as yet no word on how close the firm is to cracking the challenge, let alone releasing a commercial product.

Current generation versions of Alexa do allow multiple user profiles to be registered but these require use of a laborious PIN registration system for purchases, something Amazon is keen to streamline.

Technology Amazon

More from Technology

View all

Trending

Industry insights

View all
Add your own content +