Sony is working on a lifelog camera and Amazon Echo rival
The company showed off some concept products including a wearable camera and a personalized assistant.
Sony's in Spain to announce its new range of Xperia X phones, but that's not the only gear it's showing off this week. The firm is revealing three "product concepts" for gets that it could release in the future, depending on how we all react. The only issue that we can see is that at least two of the three products are vaguely reminiscent of stuff that's already out on the market. Take the Xperia Eye, a wide-angle lens camera that you can hang from your neck and looks pretty much like Autographer's life-logging camera. Unlike its rivals, however, the Eye is packing Sony's fancy image sensors and a 360-degree spherical lens. Sony is promising that it'll be smart enough to know when to take a shot (from your voice and other people's facial expressions) so you don't have to think about using it.Wait... didn't we already see this thing two years ago?
Next on the block is the Xperia Projector, which the company very quickly glossed over, a short-throw projector that will allow interactions. At first blush, it looks like your usual interactive projector, albeit shrunk down to the size of a water bottle. Sony is pledging that it'll "stimulate creative family communication" although we'd prefer it if we could just use it to watch movies.
Finally, Sony is trotting out the Xperia Agent, which is its vision for a "personalized assistant." According to the blurb, it'll respond to voice and gestures, offering useful information and control of your smart home. Yes, this is all very reminiscent of Amazon's Echo, which responds to your voice, offers useful information and controls your smart home. Unlike the Echo, however, Agent has a built-in camera and projector that'll push information onto the nearest wall.
Photography by Aaron Souppouris and Nick Summers
