Google Assistant At CES 2019 And Beyond.

Google Assistant At CES 2019 And Beyond

A more connected home is simply a smarter home. Google introduced a preview of Google Assistant Connect at CES 2019, a platform for device manufacturers to bring the Google Assistant into their products in an affordable and easy-to-implement way. Connect's  aim is to use Google's existing smart home platform to let new device types access the platform, while making device setup and discovery simple for the users of those devices. For device manufacturers who want to learn more about how to integrate Assistant Connect, Google asks to fill out this form.

There were also a whole lot of new devices with integrated Google Assistant that were introduced and currently work with the Assistant across a range of fields;
Devices and appliances:
Instant Pot's Smart WiFi Programmable Pressure Cooker,
Sub Zero’s refrigerator and wine storage,
Wolf E-Series and M-Series ovens,
Cove dishwashers,
U by Moen™ shower

HVAC:
Rheem’s Econet Smart Thermostat,
Côr 7C thermostat by Carrier

Security:
McAfee’s Secure Home Platform

Water Leak Sensors:
LeakSmart Leak and Flood Protection,
Flo by Moen

EV charging:
eMotorWerks’ JuiceBox Level 2,
SolarEdge’s EV Charging Solar Inverter

Irrigation:
Rachio 3 Smart Sprinkler Controller,
Rain Bird Smart WiFi Controllers,
Orbit’s B-Hyve

The new Smart Clock and Smart Display by Lenovo aim to help you manage your morning and evening routines with a new Smart Clock. The clock comes with a 4-inch touchscreen, where one could see alarm suggestions based on ones daily routines. While gently waking one up with auto-adjusting screen brightness and animations, and also control other smart home devices.
If you are interested, the Lenovo Smart Clock could be your this Spring for $79.

The Google Assistant will also make home entertainment better efforts like bringing the Assistant to the Sonos One and Sonos Beam. With the Assistant built in, one will be able to control favorite music, podcasts and radio stations from anywhere in home without ever picking up a phone. On the TV front, DISH’s Hopper family of receivers will also now have the Google Assistant built in, with these receivers one could search for content based on channel, title, actor or genre, as well as check the weather or control other connected devices in the house, using the DISH voice remote controller. There were also multitude of  Android TV devices with the Google Assistant introduced at the CES 2019. These include Sony, Hisense, Philips, TCL, Skyworth, Xiaomi, Haier, Changhong and JVC. Several of these devices will be enabled with far field microphones that allow the Assistant to pick up one's voice even with noise in the room or on the TV.

The other instance of Google Assistant that I found interesting is the integration of Google Assistant to Google Maps. This already  must be already be on your devices as Google began to roll out this combination five days ago. So what does this do for me?  the Assistant can help navigate in Google Maps for Android and iOS. Just with just voice, one will be able to share the ETA with friends and family, as changes happen en route. While driving, the Assistant automatically calculates the ETA from Google Maps if one want to share your arrival time to friends. Other ways one could use this to reply to text messages, play music and podcasts, search for places along your route, add a new stop and auto-punctuate your message.
On Android, the Assistant works with messaging services from SMS, WhatsApp, Messenger, Hangouts, Viber, Telegram, Android Messages and more.  Just say “Hey Google, take me home,” od "Hey Google, take me to work" to open Google Maps and get help from your Assistant on your journey.
Google

Google Making A Big Splash At CES 2019, Even Without A New Products

While Google did not introduce any new products or devices at CES 2019, Google did not step back from making its presence known in multiple forms, from huge and noticeable advertisements on building as well as on public transportation. Also there were Google's very own ride, Google was present everywhere.

In addition to advertisements there were other prominent presentations in the form of updates to Google Assistant. Google Assistant loomed large with it's new real-time language interpreter feature, integration into Google Maps. Also what most noticed was the allowing access to Google Assistant for third-party manufacturers via the just-announced Google Assistant Connect toolkit.

Each of these three announcements suggests a further reach beyond the  Google’s already vast market place. The real-time interpreter feature, with it's capability to support 27 languages out the lab, should make a unbelievable progress eliminating language barriers.
Next the update to Google Maps integrating Google Assistant means that Google will have greater access to a demographic like non Android users who already use the Google maps on their phoes, like iPhones.
Google Assistant Connect aimed at developers of hardware, seems to be a giant axe to cut through the barriers standing in the way of Google Assistant ecosystem. Essentially, Google Assistant Connect is a series of tools that will enable manufacturers to add Google Assistant support more easily to its devices without having to go full integration—think of a smart appliance that can be controlled using a hub device and will support specific Google Assistant commands. If the Google's aims are fruitful, this will further spread the Google Assistant ecosystem.

Google Gets Google Assistant On One Billion Devices, Ten Times The Amazon Alexa’s Installed Base

The Google launched "Google Assistant" in 2016 on the Google Pixel phone and since then has spread to millions of devices, I meant billion of devices.
These devices include a range of smart speakers like the Google Home line and third-party home speaker devices from JBL, Sony, Panasonic, LG, and countless others. Joining these are the smart displays like the Google Home Hub and third-party offerings from Lenovo, JBL, and LG.
Android Auto is a mobile app developed by Google to mirror features from an Android device to a car's compatible in-dash information and entertainment head unit or to a dashcam. With a phone running Android Auto,  you can have access to the Assistant from your car's infotainment screen.
When you done with all those and get home, the is Google Assistant for TVs, there's both Sony and LG displays with Android TV and the Assistant built in, set-top boxes from Nvidia and Xiaomi, and even a plan for smart soundbars. For laptops, if they are Chromium / Chrome OS based, they all have access to the Google Assistant. If your watch is a Wear OS device, you can get the Assistant on your watch, and it's even comes on some Nest cameras.

But the biggest chunk of Google Assistant rest on Android phones. You can have it also on your iOS phoen as you can freely download the Google Assistant app on iOS. On Android the Assistant comes built into the main Google app. This app is part of the "Google Play" Android app bundle, so it's included in the box in pretty much every Android phone, save for those sold in China.

Google claims in a blog post that "active users of the Google Assistant grew 4 times over the past year" and that its distribution jumped from 14 countries in eight languages in 2017 to 80 countries in 30 languages in 2018.
When it comes to smart home devices, Amazon still shines. According to Google, the number of different smart home devices Google Assistant supports "10,000 smart home devices from over 1,600 popular brands," Then Amazon just announced that currently there are 28,000 Alexa-compatible smart home devices from 4,500 different manufacturers.

Smart Assistants + Smart Speaker IQ Test Shoot Out For 2018

Loop Ventures recently completed and published the annual Smart Speaker / Assistant IQ Test. Loop Ventures pitted the top four smart assistants and speakers against each other as a part of the new test. This test grades speakers on a wide range of queries and commands and of course the answers provided.

Loop Ventures asked each smart speaker the same 800 questions, and they were graded on two metrics: 

1. Did it understand what was said? 

2. Did it deliver a correct response? The question set, which is designed to comprehensively test a smart speaker’s ability and utility, is broken into 5 categories as such:

Local – Where is the nearest coffee shop?
Commerce – Can you order me more paper towels?
Navigation – How do I get to uptown on the bus?
Information – Who do the Twins play tonight?
Command – Remind me to call Steve at 2 pm today.

The personal assistants Google Assistant, Apple Siri, Amazon Alexa and Cortana were queried  on their respective smart speakers, Amazon Echo, Apple HomePod, Google Home, and Harman Kardon Invoke (Cortana).

Google Assistant was the smartest among the assistants and beat them in almost all these categories, and took the first place in the test. The Google assistant answered 87.9% questions correctly, and understood 100% of the 800 queries. Apple Siri came in second, understanding 99.6% of the queries and answering 74.6% of them correctly. Alexa managed to come in as the third, answering 72.5% of the queries correctly and understanding 99% of the queries. Cortana, also my least favorite among the four, yes I use all the four assistants, due to work I do, came last. 63.4% accuracy.