Olly: Smart personal assistant with personality

PanARMENIAN.Net - Everyone's making a smart personal assistant these days -- thanks, Alexa -- but not all of them are as adorable as the Olly. It's basically a donut-shaped speaker that lies flat when dormant, but stands and spins around with lights flashing when active. But what sets the Olly apart from the Echo clone pack is by incorporating a bit of personality into the mix. What kind of personality? Well, yours. The unique bit with the Olly is that its personality adapts to yours over time, Engadget reports. According to London-based Emotech, its parent company, Olly's behavior will evolve depending on how you interact with it.

At CES, Engadget saw two different models of the Olly. One spun around energetically and chattered with a fast cadence, while another was a lot more deliberate and only spoke when talked to. This, Olly's creators say, is based on the personalities of its owners, which it can judge based on how they speak.

It's all based on AI and machine learning smarts, which helps Olly figure out your interests and your daily routine. It's also able to recognize different household members by their voice, and will adjust its personality to suit each person.

Functionally, Olly is pretty similar to that of Amazon Echo or Google Home. You can use it control your other smart devices, ask for the weather, schedule appointments and search for information on the internet. The unique characteristic of Olly lies in its personality and what it learns about you over time. So, if you find out it's raining tomorrow, for example, it might suggest you read a book, and it could even recommend what that book could be. Or if it might know what music to play when you make breakfast in the morning before you even have to request it.

The Olly devices displayed at the show were just prototypes, but Engadget hears that they should be out later this year, for a yet to be disclosed price.