As reported by The Next Web, a new patent from Amazon will give Alexa the capability to act as your nurse, as well as your personal shopper and assistant. The new patent will use technology to indicate whether or not a user has a cough or a cold by detecting changes in their voice. But that's not all! Apparently the ultimate goal is for Alexa to be able to detect several new things.
The list is as follows:
- Emotional states, so spotting things like happiness, joy, sadness, anger, boredom, and fear
- The sound of the user’s voice or breath, to see if they’re sleepy or crying, for example
- Where the user is, something it’ll do by analyzing the background noise
- The user’s accent like Chinese, Indian, British, American, Latin, and Australian
- The age and gender of the user
One aspect of this new venture that might prove to be controversial is the advertising aspect. Apparently Amazon plans to use the date it gathers from these new detections to send ads. So if you're sick, maybe you'll hear a chicken soup ad.
We're truly living in the future, for better or worse. Let us know what you think!