It is a weeknight, and you are cooking dinner for your family. You click a button on the speaker and it starts playing old classic songs. You did not choose the genre, and the music is not emanating from your phone or computer. In fact, your speaker is streaming live from some music service over Wifi. It is playing the old classics because it not only knows that you like them, but has learnt that you listen to them on weeknights when you are working in the kitchen This experience is what a company called Aether is striving to make a part of every household.
The company was formed by former employees of Google, Apple and Nokia. They have come up with $399 speakers to stream live music. It connects itself to your home Wifi and a music service you prefer without the need of any other device and does not have the usual controls. It is a good example of artificial intelligence where computers figure out what they think you mean. The cone’s interface consists of a speaker grill that you can twist and control what is playing. It will play another track when you turn it slightly to the right, and will replay the same track when you twist it to the left. A computer or a mobile phone will be required to set it up when you get it out of the box, but it is pretty much on its own after that. It develops its knowledge of your tastes by machine learning, the listening history and ratings it gets from music service providers. The cone speaker’s main goal is to enable the user to hit a button and hear something good.
The people at Aether visited a dozen different homes to see how people used their music systems. They saw that most of the people were using little hacks like connecting really good Bluetooth speakers with their old laptops with a 3.5mm cable because they did not know how to pair them up
Unlike Google’s Chromecast, the Cone speakers are not meant to breathe new life into old systems, and they are certainly costlier than many Bluetooth speakers. Aether and Nuance partnered to add voice controls by way of a centre control button that also acts as the pause button. You just have to hold your finger there for a couple of seconds and tell the name of the song or the artist you want to hear.
The company has not specified a list about the music services that will be compatible with the speakers when they go on sale. But, the company says it is working on deals. As of now, you can push things to it from Apple’s AirPlay, just like with any other speaker.
The speaker’s first batch will be black in colour with a copper covering in the back. After that, they will produce white speakers with silver coverings. The in-built battery lasts for 8 hours. You can also plug it in an outlet. The company expects people to move it around. The future plans include the speaker being able to tell which part of the house it is in by the strength of the Wifi signal.
If you dig this, then you can buy yours on their website >https://www.aether.com
Ayyappa Nagubandi Is an entrepreneur, inventor and co-founder of Possibillion Technologies.
