LONDON – Facebook on Monday launched a range of AI-powered video-callingdevices, a strategic revolution for the social network giant in its bid fora slice of a market currently dominated by Amazon and Google.
“It’s been a big shift for the company,” Facebook’s vice president ofconsumer hardware Andrew Bosworth told AFP before the launch of “Portal”.
“We’ve seen a rise of video calling, on both Messenger and WhatsApp — ithas been a tremendous trend,” he said.
The device, which will be available for pre-order in the United States fromMonday, is designed to allow users to make video calls at home withouthaving to stand immediately in front of the screen or hold a phone at arm’slength.
But the launch of a product putting a camera into homes is likely to raiseprivacy issues for the social media giant, which has suffered several databreaches this year involving tens of millions of user accounts.
Although Facebook acquired virtual reality headset manufacturer Oculus in2014, this is the first time it has developed a consumer hardware productin-house.——————————
*‘Hey Portal’*——————————
Offering hands-free voice control, Portal comes in two sizes, a 10-inchscreen which retails at $199 (173 euros) and a 15-inch version will go for$349. And to start the call, all it takes is: “Hey Portal.”
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During calls, it can also play music on Spotify as well as tell childrenstories via augmented effects app Story Time.
And it also comes bundled with Amazon’s voice interface “Alexa”, enablingusers to shop or control household appliances.
During a conversation, the integrated camera can automatically zoom out toinclude a second person, or be instructed to follow a certain individual asthey walk around.
Facebook has moved to quickly allay security fears, saying that by keepingthe processes on the actual device rather than in the cloud, the risk ofhacking is lower than with a smartphone or computer.
Calls will be encrypted, and the AI technology runs locally on Portal, noton Facebook servers. It only sends voice commands to the servers afterhearing, “Hey Portal”.
The camera can be blocked by a cover and the device has a button fordisabling both the lens and the microphone. – APP/AFP
