As discussed previously in this blog, the proliferation of connected sensors will produce a stream of information back to a cloud-based service provider about what a person is doing throughout the day. Last week saw the announcement of two products that make use of sound sensors (i.e. microphones) as a key part of the product experience.
The one that has got most interest, is the Amazon Echo. This is essentially a voice-controlled Bluetooth speaker with Cloud-based Artificial Intelligence in a similar vein to Apple’s Siri and Microsoft’s Cortana. A YouTube video shows a family going about their daily life assisted by this device, which (was about to write ‘who’) helps them with homework, recipes and organising things. While undoubtedly innovative and compelling, it is clear that the device itself is not going to be a significant money generator for Amazon. Instead, this device furthers Amazon’s goal to be the world’s foremost retailer of physical and digital goods in two ways. First, it will further simplify the purchase process, completing the transition from PC to smartphone and tablet to the ‘device-less’ spoken word. Secondly, it will feed in more contextual data into Amazon’s effective AI-based recommendation engine, making use of the wealth of information it acquires throughout the day. Although this device’s announcement was very much of a surprise to the tech press, it aligns neatly with Amazon’s overall strategy.
The second product, called Point comes from a start-up called Form Devices, who have just passed the $100k mark in Kickstarter funding. Being a nascent start-up, this product has not received the attention that Echo has, yet in common with it, is also a device for the home that listens to what’s going on. However, Point is not a digital assistant, but a home security system that uses a variety of sensors such as sound, humidity and temperature to provide people with reassurance that all is well at home. The key selling point trumpeted by Form Devices is that the absence of a camera makes this an inherently private device, which is immune to the concerns of monitoring associated with other home surveillance systems. In their words, “We found existing home security solutions too invasive. We wanted to know that everything was fine at home, but without having a camera in the living room. That’s why we designed Point.”
In my view, the founders of Form Devices miss the point. While it is true that many people will feel uncomfortable with an always-on camera at home, privacy is not determined by the type of information generated. For example, simply sharing the information of one’s house can provide sufficient information to a would-be burglar that the property is unoccupied. An always-on microphone can have as significant privacy implications as a camera in the living room. Instead privacy needs to be safeguarded by end-to-end security of the device and cloud system, clearly communicated policies as how the information gathered will be used, and above all, trust by the users in the companies providing the service that the data collected will not be abused. Given the acceptance by the public of the vast range of ‘free’ Internet services funded through the monetisation of personal information, and the investment in voice-based interaction systems by most major home entertainment vendors (TVs, games consoles etc), I suspect that privacy concerns will unlikely provide too much of a blocker to this new trend.