It looks like Amazon is work on a raw Alexa - powered gadget that can mind to you and decide how you feel , and make recommendations based on your human emotions . Citing internal document and an unnamed source , Bloombergreportsthat the company has project a machine that you wear like a wristwatch and beta testing is evidently afoot . “ finally the engineering science could be able to advise the wearer how to interact more effectively with others , ” reads the account .
It ’s unclear how far along Amazon is in educate this new frontier of Alexa - powered surveillance . Bloomberg could not say whether the examination in question “ includes epitome computer hardware , the emotion - detect software or both . ” The report does say that the equipment is a “ wrist joint - worn gadget ” being developed in collaboration with Lab126 , the same fellowship that helped develop the Echo and the Fire phone ( LOL ) . And that ’s about all the info we ’ve got on the actual hardware . However , Amazon does hold a number of patents that shed some light on how engineering science like this might work .
One such patent let in the image above . ( We ’ve tot some color to the original draftsmanship to make it more play and realistic . ) This letters patent , titled “ Voice - base finding of strong-arm and excited characteristics of drug user , ” account how an Alexa gimmick could receive remark from a user through microphones and tag it consequently . As the lifelike draw above illustrates , a sick woman could arrive home , cough , and say she ’s hungry . Alexa would label her as “ sick ” and then advocate poulet soup . Alexa could even propose to order cough drop from Amazon in an effort to ease the human ’s malaise . The Alexa work flow , according to the same drafting , might take care a petty bit like this :
Image: (USPTO / Gizmodo)
This example seems innocent enough , but Amazon seems to have braggart plans than cough drops for this emotion - interpret technology . Another patentawarded on April 30 of this yeardescribes more sophisticated system for psychoanalyze not only the emotions of a user but also their mental health state . This patent describes “ a method acting for identifying human mental health states using mobile gimmick data ” that would come from “ a fluid gimmick ( e.g. smartphone , wearable gimmick ) . ” The patent go on to excuse how mensuration that are call for from the machine — everything from accelerometer and GPS data to text subject matter logs and voice data — could be used to determine “ the likelihood of the one or more symptoms being present in the user . ” Symptoms , in this instance , include those outlined in the DSM - V , such as those associated with low or PTSD . Here ’s part of a chart from that letters patent program :
This most late patent go on to trace how audio could also be used to determine the genial wellness res publica and emotions of a exploiter . Here , the technology analyze characteristics like joint , delivery variation , and vocal effort ( “ a standard of a feature film designed to discriminate soft , breathy voices from loud , tense one ” ) in ordination to supply more data . The program terminate inadequate of including drawings of homo feeling depressed or suffering from PTSD symptoms .
The voice - based look of this technology appear to be based , in part , onanother Amazon patentthat was made public last October . This one describes the operation of using voice remark to determine “ happiness , joyfulness , ira , regret , lugubriousness , awe , disgust , tedium , stress , and other emotional states ” in the exploiter . This patent also mentions how detecting “ a certain voice feature article , such as a cough or snuffle ” could facilitate the software tag the user as having “ a specific physical or emotional abnormalcy . ” All of these terms sound a bit dusty and clinical , though if you ’ve ever study a patent filing , you know that this is the vernacular of such document .
Image: (UPTO / Gizmodo)
It ’s hard to know what Amazon really plans on doing with all of this technology , as supposititious as some of it seems . However , it does front like Amazon might ultimately putting this patented technology to practice in the development of some novel hardware . We also know that Amazon is ramp up its pursuit in health - have-to doe with businesses . Last June , AmazonacquiredPillPack , an on-line prescription drug vendor , andput Nader Kabbani , a veteran of the Kindle squad , in chargeof the company ’s burgeon pharmaceutic business earlier this year . One can only opine how utilitarian detailed information about the symptoms of gazillion upon millions of Alexa users would be for this new byplay .
Sounds creepy , though , does n’t it ? Imagine if you plugged in a brand novel Echo , sniffle , and then Alexa urge you buy some Kleenex . That ’s actually a reasonably quaint app for the emotion - notice technology that Amazon is working on . One could easily ideate a future in which Alexa gimmick could be used to monitor multitude ’s genial health state and , potentially , make errors . We recognise from numberless report of Echo errors that Amazon ’s artificially intelligent assistantisn’t always as smart as it ’s supposed to be . And we sure enough know that Amazonisn’t as in force at pay attention to user seclusion as it should be . Maybe more than anything , it ’s just profoundly unsettling to suppose that technology could presently be surveilling our forcible existence while also monitoring our emotions and genial wellness .
There ’s no indigence for alarm at this point in time , however . engineering that better helps us understand ourselves , our emotions , and our genial health is an undoubtedly hopeful idea . It just sort of sucks that Amazon might be the first to food market with a gadget and with software system that very well might do this poorly for collect more data and trade more coughing drops .
Image: (USPTO / Gizmodo)
We ’ve reached out to Amazon for more information on reports of its emotion - detecting wearable machine and the package behind it . We ’ll update this post if we find out back .
Update 1 pm : An Amazon spokesperson respond and sound out , “ We do n’t remark on rumors or speculation . ”
AlexaAmazonAmazon EchoHealthPrivacywearables
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