Sony just invented a personal assistant that fits in your ear

Xperia Ear is Sony’s new intelligent personal assistant. The Sony Mobile smart product is an in-ear personal assistant that can help you communicate and be productive by using conversational voice interaction or simple head gestures. The design strives to provide a new way of communicating, without compromising your attention to the world around you.

The assistant provides you with an earful of useful information like your schedule, weather, or breaking news to keep you updated on the go. Xperia Ear is powered by Sony Agent Technology which is an adaptive platform that can respond to verbal commands, make calls, search the web, dictate a message or perform navigation functions.

The smart product can read incoming messages from text, WhatsApp, or Facebook. It allows the user to initiate a response by nodding, then reply instantly by voice. With help from creative personalities with backgrounds in photography and blogging, Sony Mobile has launched a mini-documentary series to illustrate the benefits of smart and personal technology.

This type of product has existed for some time now, but the strange small wearable device was little more than a concept up until this year’s IFA exhibition. Sony will release the device via Amazon on December 13^th. Could this be the holiday craze item of the year? Priced at $200 Xperia comes complete with Amazon’s Echo and Google Home. Personal Assistant functionality now resembles a Bluetooth earpiece.

The ear promises a full day of battery life per Sony’s specifications, although they do wish for it to be paired with an Xperia handset for best performance. The variety of sensors built into the ear piece allow you to communicate without looking like a crazy person engaged in a full-on conversation with themselves.

After integrating Xperia into his daily life, creative team member and London based portrait ,Tom Oxley, describes his experience. “As a photographer, I like to be aware of the world around me and I found it a liberating feeling not being tied to a smartphone. I was able to travel and work around the city, knowing Xperia Ear would remind me of my schedule and messages.”

The mini documentary series features each creative contributor as they travel their city and invite the viewer along. It showcases Xperia’s ability to manage and schedule appointments, provide navigation to meetings, and search for information. Users can enable various functions to be fully immersed in the world around them, rather than having their hands and eyes tied up by their smartphone.

Sources:

Blogs.SonyMobile.com

TechCrunch.com