"Echo" with a new ball design: Amazon makes Alexa more human

The US group Amazon makes its presence felt in the private lives of its customers. While the voice assistant Alexa is even more involved in the household, the display of the "Echo Show" loudspeaker follows the users wherever they go. And a drone can also become a constant companion in the future.

Amazon wants to enable more natural conversations with its voice assistant Alexa. On the one hand, the software should sound more like a human, said Amazon manager Rohit Prasad. In addition, Alexa should be able to be involved in simple discussions in the household. As an example, Amazon demonstrated the situation in which a pizza is selected and ordered – Alexa listed the options and responded to users' decisions.

Amazon also presented new models of its networked "Echo" speakers in an online presentation. The entire range is now round. So far, most "Echo" models since the first generation have been in the shape of a cylinder. The "Echo Show" model now has a display that can rotate so that the user can keep an eye on it, even when moving around the room. Instead, the camera recognizes the shape of a person, but there is no face recognition, emphasized Amazon's equipment boss Dave Limp. The "Echo" devices now run with a processor developed by Amazon that is tailored, among other things, to machine learning for better speech recognition.

The most unusual new device presented is a security camera from the subsidiary Ring, which can fly through the household as a mini drone to cover different rooms. With Ring, Amazon also wants to get more into the car. A ring car alarm system with sensors and siren is available as a retrofit device. In addition, Amazon also offers an interface for car manufacturers so that they can directly integrate ring security functions.

After Google and Microsoft, Amazon is also launching an online offering of video games. The games run on the Group's servers and not on the user's devices and are streamed to their screen via a fast Internet connection.