PATTERN RECOGNITION: The future, this year
Amazon’s Alexa stole the show at CES, signalling that this will be a big year for voice assistants
Talking to yourself in your house has become more of a reality after a slew of new products that use Amazon’s voice assistant were unveiled last week at CES 2017, where the big trends for the coming year unfold. The trends this year, in no particular order, include more sophisticated drones, 4K-resolution televisions, virtual reality and artificial intelligence. LG stole the TV show with a screen light enough to hang on the wall. The LG Signature W is a mere 2.57mm thin and 77inch/1.9m wide. Artificial intelligence may be the most interesting development, but the hottest announcement at CES is Alexa. Amazon’s voice assistant has previously only been available when using Amazon’s Echo home speaker. With an array of microphones, which wake up when you say "Hey Alexa", you can tell the voice service to play music, control your home’s lighting or air-conditioning (if they’re wired up), and — obviously — buy things from Amazon’s e-commerce store.A range of enabled speakers similar to Ech...
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