Back in February, Samsung Mobile CEO, DJ Koh, had revealed the company’s plan to release its Bixby-powered smart speaker in the second half of this year. However, apart from confirming its existence, he didn’t disclose any further details about its design or features. Last month, a patent granted to Samsung hinted that the Bixby speaker could be able to detect if a human being is in the room. Now another patent by the company reveals even more interesting details about it.
LetsGoDigital have discovered a new patent from Samsung, which the company had filed at WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organisation) and USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office), in November last year. The patent document hints at Samsung taking a slightly different approach to its upcoming smart offering.
Robotic design with a rotating head
If the diagrams in the patent document are anything to go by, the upcoming Bixby-powered Samsung smart speaker design is seemingly inspired by the company’s Otto robot that debuted back in 2016. The head or the upper portion of the device can rotate and tilt in the direction it hears sound coming from. The speaker will be equipped with at least seven microphones for accurate speech recognition. It also features a camera for facial recognition, and again helping to pinpoint a voice. The camera could also make it easier for the speaker to identify individual family members and tailor requests appropriately. The speaker would also feature either an LED, LCD or OLED touchscreen display for showing content.
The Bixby speaker reportedly supports LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC and GPS. In addition, the patent document also describes of possible integration of a USB and HDMI port and flash memory support. The patent also talks about an unclear stylus-based hover input similar to the Galaxy Note series.
As is the case with every patent, this is also not a concrete evidence that the upcoming Samsung smart speaker would boast these all features. But if it does, it’s pretty much clear that Samsung is looking at a much richer proposition than its competition.
