Sounds like a great way to train children to interact with and trust corporate mass surveillance because it's "cute" and "fun".
Turning a Furby into an Amazon Echo
21–30 of 31 posts
Re: Turning a Furby into an Amazon Echo
#22During the video he says, "Furlexa, tell me about furbies". My echo dot heard this and proceeded to tell me about Herpes .
That's because the results are personalized.. ;p
Re: Turning a Furby into an Amazon Echo
#23"Furby is comprised of a few primary components -- a microprocessor covered in black resin (to protect Tiger Electronics' intellectual property)"
Wishful thinking. It's chip-on-board technology, which lowers the cost of the final product. In the toy business, every penny counts.
Anyone can decap a chip package these days, the COB resin is not any more secure.
https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/how-chip-on-boards-are-...
http://www.ue.com.hk/index.php/Saving_Cost_-_Bare_Die_Assemb...
Re: Turning a Furby into an Amazon Echo
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
The device SDK appears to be Apache2-licensed: https://github.com/alexa/avs-device-sdk/blob/master/LICENSE.... ... so I guess at no cost?
I can understand the SDK being free, it would seem strange to me that a commercial product could actually plug in to the service for free, and without limits.
Amazon want to have their voice-recording and person tracking capabilities in as many places as possible, tracking as many people as possible.
If you want to build hardware for them, convince users to install it, and send all the juicy data back to Amazon, why would they try to stop you?
Re: Turning a Furby into an Amazon Echo
#25It's crazy to me that these things have only one motor that controls their eyelids, ears, mouth and their base.
Re: Turning a Furby into an Amazon Echo
#26I wonder if the finished product is smart enough to distinguish between Alexa "speaking" and playing audio. It would be really annoying to constantly hear those gears moving while listening to music.
On the other hand, I'd love to code the pi to randomly make the eyes blink and move on occasion.
Re: Turning a Furby into an Amazon Echo
#27Is there a product like this just for kids: a furry, friendly, interactive, mobile, voice-based connection to the internet? It could be an early learning tool (and source of great annoyance and surprise hilarity). Kids could learn to make apps for their wrapped Alexa, apps that help them help themselves and their friends, parents, etc...
[I am now imagining the Star Trek episode "The Trouble with Tribbles" where all tribbles are Alexa wrappers... X_x save me!]
Re: Turning a Furby into an Amazon Echo
#28Is there a product like this just for kids: a furry, friendly, interactive, mobile, voice-based connection to the internet? It could be an early learning tool (and source of great annoyance and surprise hilarity). Kids could learn to make apps for their wrapped Alexa, apps that help them help themselves and their friends, parents, etc... [I am now imagining the Star Trek episode "The Trouble with Tribbles" where all…
It would be a security nightmare and you’d be targeting kids.
Re: Turning a Furby into an Amazon Echo
#29Is there a product like this just for kids: a furry, friendly, interactive, mobile, voice-based connection to the internet? It could be an early learning tool (and source of great annoyance and surprise hilarity). Kids could learn to make apps for their wrapped Alexa, apps that help them help themselves and their friends, parents, etc... [I am now imagining the Star Trek episode "The Trouble with Tribbles" where all…
It would be a security nightmare and you’d be targeting kids.
Hm, yeah, maybe a DIY or Kit is better than full-fledged product. But is it just as bad as giving your child an iPad with Siri?
Re: Turning a Furby into an Amazon Echo
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
It would be a security nightmare and you’d be targeting kids.
Hm, yeah, maybe a DIY or Kit is better than full-fledged product. But is it just as bad as giving your child an iPad with Siri?
In the case of the iPad they get to say they’re not targeting kids specifically and the rest is on the parent, but oh god yes I agree with the point you’re making.