Move over Amazon Alexa – Samsung's hot assistant bot Otto's trying to build an empire

The success of Amazon's voice-controlled Echo speaker has not gone unnoticed. At Samsung's annual Developer Conference in San Francisco, the company showcased a prototype "digital personal assistant" called Otto as a way to highlight its newest technologies. Otto, the company was quick to stress, is a "reference design" and …

[BugabooSue]

Another Cloud Snooping Device?

It's not like Samsung have already been caught snooping with their TV's already, is it?

Nope. Not gonna happen in my house.

Ever.

[Anonymous Coward]

You are experiencing a car accident

I'm really looking forward to the near future, when I can hack people's cloud connected robots, and physically threaten them for bitcoins.

[Youngone]

Re: You are experiencing a car accident

It won't even be difficult.

I recently found a subreddit dedicated to the viewing and controlling of unsecured online cameras. There are freaking millions of them all over the world.

Looking through someone's webcam is one thing, turning their air conditioning to 2° on a cold winter's day while they're at work is totally another.

None of the companies doing "IoT" crap fill me with any confidence at all. It looks like I'm not alone.

[Keef]

Is this article...

El Reg's way of circumventing my ad blocker?

It Certainly reads that way.

"Yes, you can pull out your phone and turn on a light but is that really any better than simply pressing the light switch yourself?"

Then...

"However being able to walk into a room and simply say "light on," or "it's too cold, can you increase the temperature by three degrees" without having to walk over to thermostat and input that information, well, that actually starts becoming useful."

No, it doesn't become useful. it's a waste of money with no use case.

Please stop embarrassing yourself El Reg.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Is this article...

ISTM that the problem is that devices like this are only offering an expensive alternative to existing simple electrical switches and dials - they don't actually do anything themselves of any real value. Now if Otto could successfully deal with commands like "Otto, empty the dishwasher", "Otto, clean the bathroom", or "Otto, bring me a cold beer" then I'd be willing to consider it.

[DropBear]

Re: Is this article...

Exactly. I admit there are times when I really don't feel like getting up to flick a switch, but most of the time a lengthy monologue feels much more tiresome than that one click...

[Down not across]

Re: Is this article...

Exactly. I admit there are times when I really don't feel like getting up to flick a switch, but most of the time a lengthy monologue feels much more tiresome than that one click...

My solution to that was to replace the dimmer with Varilight remote controllable dimmer. As a plus it also works on LED bulbs as well as usual incandescent and halogen.

[Francis Boyle]

"Alexa, turn on my WeMo light."

No, no, no! Everybody knows the correct command is "computer lights".

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: "Alexa, turn on my WeMo light."

Janeway: Alexa, replicate me a Nescafe Dolce gusto caffe grande intenso.

[Anonymous Coward]

It won't be in Best Buy anytime soon

Well that's quite a relief! Let's hope it will be so for a long time form now on.

[Neoc]

"Illuminate. De-luminate. Isn't that much better?"

[Anonymous Coward]

Tenuous justifications for IoT? Samsung execs live in a bubble...

Snake-oil salesmen are alive and well on Wall-Street / Silicon-Valley for sure. Thanks but no, I'll still stick to dumb TV's too. Luckily LG still sell some (for now).... Screw you Samsung and your IoT... We still haven't forgotten your TV Panel-Lottery games..

[Anonymous Coward]

"One of Otto's developers told us the team had been working on face and gait recognition."

oh good, I was wondering how an always-on internet-connected microphone could get creepier, but in retrospect adding a camera is certainly the obvious solution.