Articles tagged with "voice-control"
Art on command: This smart e-ink canvas turns voice prompts into wall displays
At CES 2026, Fraimic unveiled the Smart Canvas, a novel digital art display that combines gallery-quality presentation with AI-driven image generation. Unlike typical digital frames, the Smart Canvas uses a full-color Spectra 6 e-ink display with a matte, paper-like finish designed to mimic traditional printed artwork and minimize glare. Housed in a minimalist black wood frame, the device is intended to blend seamlessly into home decor, functioning more like framed art than a conventional electronic screen. The canvas supports standard frame sizes, interchangeable framing, and runs cordlessly with multi-year battery life, consuming power only when images change. An internal accelerometer automatically adjusts image orientation between portrait and landscape modes. The Smart Canvas’s standout feature is its voice-activated image creation, allowing users to generate artwork by speaking prompts directly to the frame without needing a phone or app. Fraimic leverages OpenAI’s image-generation models combined with curated style presets to maintain refined and consistent visuals, avoiding exaggerated AI aesthetics.
IoTsmart-devicese-ink-displayvoice-controlAI-generated-artbattery-efficiencysmart-home-technologyAmazon’s AI assistant comes to the web with Alexa.com
Amazon has launched Alexa.com, a new website that brings its AI-powered digital assistant, Alexa+, to the web, allowing users to interact with Alexa much like other AI chatbots such as ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini. This move aims to expand Alexa’s presence beyond its established footprint in smart home devices—over 600 million Echo devices sold worldwide—by making the assistant accessible on phones and the web. Alongside this, Amazon is updating the Alexa mobile app to feature a more chatbot-centric interface, prioritizing conversational interactions over other functionalities. Alexa.com enables users to perform common tasks such as exploring complex topics, creating content, and planning trips, but Amazon is emphasizing Alexa’s unique focus on family-oriented needs. These include managing smart home devices, updating family calendars and to-do lists, making dinner reservations, adding groceries to Amazon Fresh or Whole Foods carts, finding and saving recipes, and planning family activities with personalized recommendations. Amazon is also integrating third-party apps like Angi, Expedia, Square, and
IoTsmart-homeAlexaAI-assistantsmart-devicesvoice-controlAmazon-EchoGoogle previews new Gemini features for TV at CES 2026
At CES 2026, Google unveiled new Gemini AI features designed to enhance the TV-watching experience on Google TV devices, initially rolling out on select TCL televisions before broader availability. These features enable users to interact with their TV using natural language to search for content, get personalized recommendations, and receive plot recaps. Gemini can understand complex queries such as blending two viewers’ tastes or identifying shows based on partial descriptions. The AI also supports a visually rich response format that integrates text, images, videos, and real-time updates, expanding the TV’s role beyond entertainment to education through interactive, narrated deep dives into topics. Additionally, Gemini allows users to interact with their Google Photos library by searching for specific people or moments and applying artistic effects to photos and videos, creating cinematic slideshows. A standout feature lets users optimize TV settings via voice commands—such as adjusting brightness or audio levels—without interrupting their viewing experience. These capabilities require Google TV devices running Android TV OS 14 or higher, an
IoTsmart-TVartificial-intelligencevoice-controlGoogle-GeminiAndroid-TVCES-2026Amazon’s AI assistant Alexa+ now works with Angi, Expedia, Square, and Yelp
Amazon is enhancing its AI assistant, Alexa+, by integrating four new services—Angi, Expedia, Square, and Yelp—starting in 2026. These additions will enable users to perform tasks such as booking hotels, obtaining home service quotes, and scheduling salon appointments through natural language interactions. For example, with Expedia integration, customers can ask Alexa to find personalized hotel options, like pet-friendly stays, and manage reservations. These new partnerships expand Alexa+’s existing ecosystem, which already includes services like Fodor, OpenTable, Ticketmaster, Thumbtack, and Uber. Amazon aims to simplify consumer access to various online services by allowing conversational, back-and-forth interactions with Alexa+, similar to how ChatGPT operates. Early data suggests strong engagement with home and personal service providers like Thumbtack and Vagaro. However, widespread adoption depends on users being willing to shift from traditional web or app-based interactions to AI-driven platforms. For this transition to succeed, AI assistants must offer a user experience
IoTAI-assistantAlexasmart-homedigital-assistantvoice-controlAmazon-AlexaHands on with Stickerbox, the AI-powered sticker maker for kids
Stickerbox is an AI-powered sticker maker designed for children, developed by the Brooklyn-based startup Hapiko. The $99.99 device resembles a modern Etch A Sketch, featuring a bright red box with a black-and-white screen and a push-to-talk button. Kids use voice commands to describe images, which the AI then generates and prints as stickers using a thermal printer that requires no ink. The package includes three rolls of sticker paper (180 stickers) and colored pencils, allowing children to color their printed stickers, blending digital creativity with hands-on activity. This combination offers a balanced experience that encourages imagination while providing a calming, real-world engagement through coloring. Setup requires parental assistance to connect the device to home Wi-Fi, but the process is straightforward and quick. The AI can interpret complex, conversational prompts, accommodating the natural, often non-linear way children express ideas. Hapiko was founded in 2023 by Arun Gupta (CEO) and Bob Whitney (CTO), who previously worked together at Gra
IoTAIsmart-deviceskids-technologyvoice-controlthermal-printingconnected-toysFormer Meta employees launch Sandbar, a smart ring that takes voice notes and controls music
Former Meta employees Mina Fahmi and Kirak Hong have launched Sandbar, a smart ring called Stream designed to capture voice notes and control music through a discreet, wearable interface. Both founders have extensive backgrounds in human-computer interaction and neural interfaces, having worked at companies like Kernel, Magic Leap, Google, and CTRL-Labs before their time at Meta. Motivated by the challenge of capturing fleeting thoughts without interrupting daily activities or drawing attention, they developed Stream to enable users to record whispered voice notes via a touch-activated microphone embedded in a ring worn on the dominant hand’s index finger. The ring’s companion iOS app transcribes these notes and includes an AI chatbot that helps organize and edit the content, offering personalized voice feedback and haptic confirmation for silent use in public. Beyond voice capture, the Stream ring functions as a media controller, allowing users to play, pause, skip tracks, and adjust volume without needing to access their phone or headphones. Sandbar is opening pre-orders for the
IoTwearable-technologysmart-ringvoice-controlAI-assistanthuman-computer-interactionpersonal-productivity-devicesAlexa+ comes to new Fire TV devices with AI-powered conversations
At Amazon’s fall hardware event, the company unveiled the integration of its upgraded AI assistant, Alexa+, into new Fire TV devices. Alexa+ enhances user interaction by enabling more complex and natural language queries, such as personalized movie or show recommendations based on previous viewing habits or favorite actors. It also provides real-time information during live sports events, including scores, player stats, and highlights, and allows users to find specific scenes in movies or shows through voice commands. Initially, this scene-finding feature supports thousands of Prime Video titles, with plans to expand to other platforms. Alongside the Alexa+ upgrade, Amazon introduced a new lineup of Fire TV hardware, including the Fire TV 2-Series, 4-Series, Omni QLED TVs, and the Fire TV Stick 4K Select. These devices feature improvements such as the Omnisense auto-adjusting brightness technology, Dialogue Boost for clearer audio, and faster performance with new quad-core processors. The flagship Fire TV Omni QLED Series boasts 60%
IoTsmart-homeAlexaAI-assistantFire-TVvoice-controlsmart-devicesFirst impressions of Alexa+, Amazon’s upgraded, AI-powered digital assistant
The article provides a first-person account of testing Amazon’s upgraded digital assistant, Alexa+, which integrates generative AI to enhance its capabilities beyond traditional smart home controls. The author, a former heavy user of Alexa devices, explores whether Alexa+ can maintain its relevance in an era dominated by advanced AI chatbots like ChatGPT. Alexa+ launched in early 2025 and uses multiple AI models, including those from Anthropic, to deliver more intelligent, context-aware responses. It can access and process personal information such as schedules, preferences, and files, and even summarize video footage from Ring cameras. Amazon aims for Alexa+ to perform agentic tasks like booking reservations, ordering rides, and managing shopping lists with delivery, moving toward a more autonomous AI assistant in the home. In the initial phase of testing, the author set up Alexa+ on a new Echo Spot device, noting improvements in the setup process, such as QR code scanning and automatic Wi-Fi connection. The upgrade to Alexa+ was free and reversible
IoTsmart-homeAlexaAI-assistantAmazon-Echogenerative-AIvoice-controlTRON1 robot extends its reach with a new optional arm - The Robot Report
robotmobile-manipulationhumanoid-AIrobotics-innovationresearch-applicationsmodular-featuresvoice-controlAqua lần đầu ra mắt điều hòa điều khiển bằng giọng nói
IoTsmart-homevoice-controlenergy-efficiencyair-conditioningAI-technologyuser-experience