This elegant, understated, pastel-colored, vase-like object on the right side of the photograph belongs to the category of things that will soon become commonplace. Not around here, at first—but what does it matter? We’ve got sun and sea—so we’re slow to catch on…
This is the cyber “household assistant” that Google presented on May 19, in order to grab a share of the ever-expanding market already created by Amazon with its similarly functioning Echo.
Google Home (as it is called) will hit the market towards the end of the year. It will communicate with all household appliances (provided, of course, that they too have the means and the willingness to communicate with each other – i.e., the Internet of Things) and with the “master” or “mistress” of the house, orally, so that it becomes the “control center” of the home and of daily life (as far as the devices are concerned, for the time being). Needless to say, Google Home will book tables at restaurants and cinema tickets, give traffic and weather reports, find the music or film “the master” (or mistress) “would like”… And, in the future, it will do other great things as well.
Looking at the smart vase, one would say it is simply an intermediate step toward domestic robots. Google has branched out into many fields, not always successfully. The Google Glasses, despite having many advantages, did not catch on. With the robotic car, it has paved the way.
However, the “fate” of Google’s proposals is a secondary issue. What is more important is the establishment of the cyber home assistant: (it) will be the best “partner and collaborator” of the smartphone. Which, as we know, is (almost) never missing from anyone’s hand…