Amazon is building a wearable with voice activation at the heart that's capable of recognising human emotions.
That’s according to Bloomberg who have come across internal documents that detail the company’s plans to get into the wearable space. The hardware is being developed by the same team responsible for its Echo smart speaker and the Fire phone (remember that?) alongside the team that works on its Alexa smart assistant.
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The project, which is codenamed Dylan, features a wrist-worn device that has been described as a health and wellness product. It's packed with microphones that work in tandem with a smartphone app and is able to determine the wearer’s emotional state from the sound of their voice. It’s believed the technology could help advise the wearer how to interact more effectively with others according to the documents.
The unnamed source who is familiar with the project, claims beta testing is already underway, though it’s not clear whether the hardware or software or both are part of this testing process.
This isn't the first time we've heard Amazon has been eyeing up making its very own wearables. There were reports earlier this year that Amazon was working on an Alexa-enabled hearable to take on Apple's AirPods. It's no stranger to this space either with its Alexa voice assistant already appearing on a host of smartwatches and hearables including the Amazfit Verge smartwatch and Bose's QuietComfort 35 headphones.
Amazon unsurprisingly declined to comment on the information Bloomberg has managed to get hold of. Like a lot of big companies, there's a lot of projects that get worked on that never see the light of day or may not be designed with consumers in mind.
What is clear is that Amazon's Alexa voice assistant has been a key driver in the smart home and with that same smart assistance yet to really take off on the wrist, there's clearly an opportunity for someone to do a much better job of it. Maybe Amazon will be the ones to do it.
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By Michael Sawh
Michael Sawh has been covering the wearable tech industry since the very first Fitbit landed back in 2011. Previously the resident wearable tech expert at Trusted Reviews, he also marshaled the features section of T3.com.
He also regularly contributed to T3 magazine when they needed someone to talk about fitness trackers, running watches, headphones, tablets, and phones.
Michael writes for GQ, Wired, Coach Mag, Metro, MSN, BBC Focus, Stuff, TechRadar and has made several appearances on the BBC Travel Show to talk all things tech.
Michael is a lover of all things sports and fitness-tech related, clocking up over 15 marathons and has put in serious hours in the pool all in the name of testing every fitness wearable going. Expect to see him with a minimum of two wearables at any given time.