Amazon is working on developing a pair of smart glasses that will come with its virtual assistant Alexa built in, a new report claims.
It’s not clear the exact functionality that the smart glasses will offer, but among them will be to the ability to let users converse with Alexa at any time. This will work via a bone-conduction audio system so that the user does not have to wear headphones to hear Alexa’s responses.
Amazon launched the standalone smart speaker category when it created the Amazon Echo. Since then, Google followed suit with the Google Home, while Apple is set to debut its own HomePod speaker later this year.
Amazon, for its part, has tried to stay ahead of the curve by introducing new Alexa-powered devices in different form factors, such as the smaller Echo Dot and the Amazon Echo Show, which comes with a built-in display.
Expanding to wearable devices is the next iteration of that strategy. The person responsible for the project is Babak Parviz, previously the brains behind Google Glass. Unlike the Google Glass, however, Amazon will reportedly not include a camera with its headset, which will save on both battery life and privacy concerns.
For its part, Apple is also reportedly working on a standalone headset project, only built around the company’s focus on ARKit and augmented reality instead of Siri. No shipping date for this product has yet been announced.
Today’s Financial Times report suggests that Amazon is also developing a home security camera. Both this and the Alexa glasses could be available as soon as the end of this year.
