Samsung wants Bixby to power your smart home, and it has a Chromecast-style dongle to make it happen.
The company unveiled an experimental dongle prototype called the Ambience Project that turns devices and gadgets into smart home accessories.
During a demonstration at Samsung's developer conference in San Francisco, Samsung executive Injon Rhee demonstrated how the Project Ambience dongle could be connected to TVs and speakers to turn them into Bixby-enabled smart devices.
The news follows an earlier announcement that Samsung would be integrating Bixby into its Family Hub smart TV and refrigerator. But the Ambient Project promises to make the process of integrating Bixby into the home much easier, according to Samsung, since it can also connect to older devices.
The dongle has a built-in Wi-Fi receiver and built-in microphones, so the devices it connects to don't need to already have those capabilities. The Ambience project's technology could also be embedded in a chip, Samsung says. Rhee said the dongle could do much more than just connect a TV or speaker to your home.
During the demo, he showed how a room full of Ambience-connected objects, including a stuffed animal, could essentially turn entire rooms into a connected smart home. When he gave the command “Bixby,” whichever device was closest recognized his voice and responded.
Ambience is just a prototype for now, so it's unclear when it could launch, but Rhee said the technology was inexpensive compared to most smart home technology.
Although, when it launches, it could go a long way toward improving the accessibility of smart home technology.
