Amazon is Reportedly Working On Voice-activated Wearable Device That Can Read Emotions

Amazon.com Inc. is said to be developing a voice-activated wearable device that can recognize human emotions and advise its users on how to interact more effectively.

Amazon is reportedly developing technology capable of detecting people's emotions by their voices  Credit:  AP via telegraph.co.uk/

 According to a report by BloomBerg, the wrist-worn gadget code-named Dylan which is described as an health and wellness product is a collaboration between Lab126, the hardware development group behind Amazon’s Fire phone and Echo smart speaker, and the Alexa voice software team.

The notion of building machines that can understand human emotions has long been a staple of science fiction, from stories by Isaac Asimov to Star Trek’s android Data. Amid advances in machine learning and voice and image recognition, the concept has recently marched toward reality.

Companies including Microsoft Corp., Alphabet Inc.’s Google and IBM Corp., among a host of other firms, are developing technologies designed to derive emotional states from images, audio data and other inputs.

Amazon has discussed publicly its desire to build a more lifelike voice assistant.

How Amazon's Wearable Device Works

The wearable device is designed to work with a smartphone app. The device has microphones paired with software that can discern and decode its users emotional state from the sound of his or her voice, according to the documents sighted by BloomBerg and an Insider. The technology also could be able to advise the wearer how to interact more effectively with others.

How Soon Will Amazon's Wearable Device 'Dylan' Be Commercial?

Insiders are not clear how far along the project is or if it would ever become a commercial product even though a beta testing program is underway.

While we await Amazon's response, lets give kudos to the tech company as this is another effort in venturing into health. CNBC earlier reported that Amazon has previously indicated its interest in the sector with its $753 million deal to buy the online pharmacy PillPack.