Indian homes are going to get much smarter. Do you know why? E-commerce giant Amazon India has partnered with a Bengaluru-based real-estate developer to introduce smart homes in the country. This new project called Embassy Edge will be a part of Embassy Group’s residential project in Bengaluru. These smart homes will come with Amazon Echo pre-installed and Amazon Alexa pre-enabled.
Smart Homes with Amazon Alexa
With pre-installed Amazon devices, users will be able to play music, make or receive calls, control smart home appliances, order products online and much more. These homes are specifically designed to attract millennials. Amazon Echo devices with pre-enable Amazon Alexa have been available in India for quite some time now. It is the integration of these devices to develop smart homes that make this project different.
According to a post on Business Today, Puneesh Kumar, Country Manager for Alexa Experience and Devices, Amazon India has confirmed this project. He said that Amazon along with Embassy Group is working on the technology to build smartphones with Amazon Echo devices which will be powered by Alexa voice service.
Additionally, he also said that switches in these smart homes will be internet-enabled. This means that users will be able to control and operate home appliances even when they are not connected to the internet.
Furthermore, every house in this project will be equipped with several Echo devices with Amazon Alexa integration. However, how many devices each house will be equipped with, is still a mystery. Nevertheless, there is confirmation that every resident will be given a device with Zigbee.
Zigbee is a wireless technology which allows machines and IoT devices to interact with each other. Interestingly, Zigbee is also used by Philips as a smart home protocol for many of its smart home products.
Recently, Amazon also launched its Echo Spot speaker with Amazon Alexa integration. The smart speaker looks like an alarm clock because of its clock-like round form factor. The device comes with a 2.5-inch screen and a front-facing camera. On the other hand, there are also reports stating that Amazon is working on India-first software experience for its Echo smart speakers.
