(Image: FCC)
It appears Samsung is working on a competitor to Amazon Alexa and Google Home, with its own take on a voice assistant speaker, according to a filing with the US Federal Communications Commission spotted by Ausdroid.
Samsung isn’t commenting officially. However, the FCC leak has images of a small, white speaker allegedly called the “Samsung Scoop”.
Documentation points to an internal microphone and Bluetooth within the speaker — likely to take voice commands like the Amazon Alexa and connect to smartphones. Functionality isn’t discussed in the filing, so it’s not clear what type of commands or information the Scoop is able to serve up.
Exact dimensions of the Scoop aren’t known. It has a wrist strap, which suggests portability.
Amazon has found a hit with the Alexa, a speaker with a voice assistant that serves users with the ability to use natural language to get weather information, queue songs, request an Uber, and more through its artificial intelligence software Alexa.
Google is also looking to the smart home with the introduction of Google Home in May. While it won’t be available until later this year, Google showed the Google Assistant software that uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to get to know users over time based on their behavior patterns, and preferences.
The Information reports Amazon sold one million Echo speakers in the last half of 2015, and it’s aiming to sell three million in 2016. Samsung could be looking to get in on some of the speaker action, especially since it could push the hardware to its Galaxy smartphone owners.
(via CNET)
