OK not a TM story but still we thought perfectly suited for LIPS. Scary stuff we’d say. Amazon Echo devices could one day capture, process, and record audio spoken before the wake word for commands like “Play some music, Alexa.”
Amazon has filed a patent application with the US Patent and Trademark Office describing a technology that would allow the Echo and other Alexa-enabled devices to capture what you say before a wake word, like “Alexa,” is uttered. Currently, Alexa devices only record and send audio to Amazon servers if a wake word is detected. Should Amazon decide to develop or implement the technology, an Alexa-enabled device would constantly record and delete what you say using the device’s local memory storage.
The patent application, which was made public today, offers insight into Amazon’s ambitions to expand the capabilities of its voice recognition technology. Alexa devices currently can’t understand commands when the wake word comes after or in the middle of a sentence. But images in the patent application offer “Play some music, Alexa” and “Play some music, Alexa. The Beatles, please” as examples.
Depress yourself further at . https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/nicolenguyen/amazon-echo-record-audio-before-alexa-wakeword-patent
