MONO gusa life! (1) Why I live with 12 smart speakers | My Navi News My Navi News My Navi

What is the reason why Yuriko Ota, who calls herself a “monogusa writer”, lives with 12 smart speakers? (Illustration by Sakiko Inoue)

Since I was a child, I've always hated mornings. When the time comes, the bed gets up and the toothpaste is fully automatic. While I'm half asleep, I change clothes and eat, and send them off... At the time, everything seemed like a dream machine to me, as I was always thinking about how to make it easy every day.

It's been a long time since then, but unfortunately, a fully automatic wake-up machine has not been commercialized, but thanks to IoT, we can now do something quite similar.

A bed that automatically reclines according to your sleep, and an electric toothbrush like a mouthpiece that can brush all your teeth at once. Just say "good morning" and the curtains will open, the air conditioner and lights will turn on, music will play, and the smell of coffee will waft from the kitchen. At the center of such connected home appliances is the “smart speaker”.

The smart speaker makes home appliances work just by talking!

A "smart speaker" is a simple device that is equipped with a microphone and speaker, and is only connected to Wi-Fi. It is also a dream machine. It's perfect for a super lazy person like me who doesn't need a keyboard, mouse, or even touch controls like a smartphone.

When I first encountered Amazon's smart speaker "Echo" and AI assistant "Alexa" at CES, the world's largest digital trade fair, I was deeply moved by how my home appliances seemed to work like magic just by talking to them. By the way, in the United States, a fully automatic toilet compatible with Alexa has already been commercialized. It's not surprising that a fully automatic wake-up machine will be released at any time.

A few years after our shocking encounter at CES, we now have 12 smart speakers placed all over the house.

The number of AI assistants has increased to four (!?), not only Alexa, but also Google's "Google Assistant", LINE's "Clova", and Apple's "Siri". Although it is not fully automatic yet, some home appliances can already be controlled by voice. Thanks to you, I was able to appear on a TV program as a strange woman who uses many smart speakers (* "Matsuko's Unknown World" aired on April 21, 2020 The world of smart speakers).

Why the number of smart speakers at home has increased to 12

I am often asked, "How do you use a dozen smart speakers? I wanted to be able to use my smart speaker anywhere in the world without raising my voice.

As a result of gradually increasing the number of places where it can be used, such as the office, living room, bedroom, kitchen, and washroom, one of the smart speakers now responds to calls from anywhere in the house.

Each personality that smart speakers attract

This is just my image, but for example, Alexa is an honor student type. I will try to respond to any unreasonable way. She (because her voice is feminine) has a lot of friends = skills (smartphone app extensions), she can enjoy karaoke and quizzes through her friends, and she is good at operating home appliances. Also, I can do shopping like Amazon's AI assistant, but sometimes I make a mistake and make me nervous (mostly because of my articulation ...).

Google Assistant is a secretary type. He (you can choose a male or female voice, but I chose a good-looking one) is good at searching, and when I was watching TV, he answered questions like, "Is (celebrity name) single?" I will give it to you. He is also good at languages ​​and can interpret in any language. She has a perfect grasp of my schedule as I use Google Calendar, and she quickly answers things like how long it will take me to travel.

Clova has excellent communication skills, such as being able to send and receive LINE by voice operation. Sometimes she starts talking unexpectedly or plays different music than requested, which makes my heart skip a beat, but I can't hate her.

Siri is good at music, partly because I like listening to Apple Music. The "HomePod mini" I use is compact, but it sounds pretty good. Linking with the "iPhone" is a perfect fit, and together with the recently introduced "AirTag", it can also find lost items in the house.

Evolution of AI assistants will eventually lead to a dream machine?

They are all evolving day by day, and little by little they can do more. Conventional electronic products tend to become obsolete over time, but AI assistants in the cloud will continue to evolve, so smart speakers can be said to be cost-effective devices that can be used for a long time.

In fact, the number of home appliances that can be operated through them is increasing. ... you can do it.

Even in my home, when I say "good night", the lights and TV turn off, and the bed light turns on instead. Once I lay down, no matter what happens, I don't want to move from my bed.

That said, sometimes things go wrong. In fact, I seem to have put Alexa in a bad mood last night, and while I was chanting "Good night!"

Even if they try to make it easy like this, they don't make it easy. I would like to pursue only that one point. Please keep in touch with us.

Author: Yuriko Ota

Tech writer and editor. Since the dawn of the Internet, she has been involved in web direction, Internet-related free papers, and launching information magazines. Since then, he has been covering and writing about familiar digital gadgets such as personal computers, mobile phones, smartphones, wearable devices, and IoT devices, as well as various services, applications, and related businesses that can be used through them.