A recently published Apple patent suggests that the company could be planning to introduce Face ID and 3D hand gestures to its HomePod line of products. The patent specifically refers to a voice-controlled assistant such as a “countertop speaker,” and would allow such devices to recognize faces, as well as hand waves and other basic…
“Many consumer electronics OEMs want to get into the fast-growing market for smart speakers, but they don’t want to use another brand’s wake word or risk their customers’ privacy and personal data to do so. Sensory now has an affordable solution that offers these companies access to a user-friendly voice UX for Bluetooth speakers that…
“Based on iris recognition, the system is designed to be embedded into a mirror, and to automatically identify a driver with just a glance.” Gentex is once again showcasing cutting-edge connected car technologies at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show. Among its new offerings is HomeLink Connect, a mobile app that’s designed to pair with a…
This year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2019) is a big one for Pindrop, which has taken the opportunity to announce its expansion beyond the call center market. The company’s flagship solution has thus far been aimed primarily at delivering anti-fraud security to call centers, combining voice recognition with the analysis of metadata associated with inbound…
“With TrulySecure Sound ID, we’re making it possible for companies to create smart always-listening products that can alert us of things happening within our homes that we may not hear, and safeguard our home and family from potentially dangerous situations.” Todd Mozer, CEO, Sensory A new kind of home security solution is the product of…
Xiaozhu, an Airbnb-like service based in China, has announced that it has brought in $300 million in its latest financing round, and will use part of the capital influx to develop smart home technology, which could involve biometrics. The funding round was led by Advantech Capital and Yunfeng Capital, a venture capital firm backed by…
Apple is hoping to leverage last week’s excitement about its new product announcements into some extra enthusiasm for its HomePod smart home speaker system, with a software update enhancing its capabilities. It’s essentially an AI upgrade. On the HomePod, Siri, Apple’s virtual AI assistant, can now search for songs by their lyrics, and perform other…
“…a key security component of all of this is voice recognition.” Google is highlighting the home security solutions enabled by its virtual assistant and third party hardware in a new blog post. Authored by Google Smart Home Ecosystem Director Michele Turner, the post highlights several new and recent offerings. Arlo Security Lights, for example, can…
“…users can remotely unlock the door through the mobile app to let friends, family, or other authorized users gain entry.” Samsung SDS has won a major industry award for its latest biometric door lock solution: The SHP-DR900 took the Gold Prize in the category of Smart Home Innovation at the 17th Beijing International Consumer Electronics…
“The table lamp-sized device is equipped with a camera and facial recognition technology allowing it to personally identify the different members of a household…” A Boston-based tech company is aiming to shake up the Alexa- and Google-dominated smart speaker market. Called Jibo, the company’s eponymous offering was launched last October, and has now been upgraded…
Apple is the key pioneer behind the mobile biometrics revolution, which it launched with the introduction of its Touch ID system in 2013. Now, with rival Samsung establishing itself as another biometrics innovator in its promotion of mobile iris scanning, Apple is facing pressure to reassert itself in this technological field. Yet little is known…
First unveiled at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference, the HomePod represents the next branch in Apple’s product line. It’s aimed at competing with devices like Amazon’s Echo, offering users what is essentially an immobile robot assistant – you can ask it to play music, to dim connected smart lights, even to offer a traffic update…
The HomePod firmware code dump is quickly turning into Apple’s Panama Papers, with respect to leaks pertaining to this year’s new iPhone. To recap: Code for the HomePod, Apple’s forthcoming smart home device, was mistakenly posted online at the end of last month, and developers were quick to trawl it for hints about features in…
Newly discovered code for Apple’s HomePod firmware suggests that the next iPhone could be able to recognize your face even if it’s lying on a nearby table. It’s another finding from what’s turning into a trove of information – albeit largely unconfirmed info – from code meant for developers working with Apple’s forthcoming smart home…
Another dive into Apple’s HomePod code has turned up a new pearl: Apple appears to be bringing facial recognition to Apple Pay. The new findings come immediately after the revelation that lines of code for the firmware of HomePod, Apple’s forthcoming smart home hub device, appear to refer to an infrared facial recognition capability in…
Lines of code for the firmware of Apple’s forthcoming smart home device, the HomePod, appear to offer further evidence that Apple is planning to incorporate infrared facial recognition into this year’s new iPhone. Revealed in a tweet by developer Steve Troughton-Smith, the code features references to ‘face detection’ and ‘infrared capture’ with respect to a…
Nest Labs has announced a new smart home security camera that can recognize faces and deliver specific alerts to a user’s phone. It’s called Nest Cam IQ, and it comes with some pretty advanced functionality right out of the box. If it detects a person in a user’s home, it can send an alert to…
Google is enabling voice recognition for its smart home AI assistant. It isn’t being used for authentication purposes, but rather to allow users to set up multiple accounts for voice interaction with the same device. In other words, once configured, Google Home can tell who’s talking, and will tailor its responses to that person’s preferences.…
“In the meantime, Amazon is reportedly working to enable voice recognition for Alexa…” Amazon’s Alexa AI assistant has extended its reach in the smart home with a new capability of managing smart locks from Kwikset. The latter’s SmartCode 910, 912, 914, and 916 devices can now be locked with a simple voice command from the user.…