Should we be afraid of Amazon’s smart speaker tracking camera?

Another speaker with an Amazon Echo Show screen? Yes, but with Echo Show 10, the web merchant is opening a new door in the world of connected speakers: thanks to its rotating screen, Echo Show 10 follows its user wherever he is. 20 minutes spent several days with this funny device that will not let go of you. A priori creepy with his side big brother, Does Echo Show 10 have unsuspected virtues?

A speaker, a screen and a camera

Pretty pretty out of the box, the device looks like a big speaker on which a digital tablet would have been hung. Massive, but ultimately discreet in the kitchen where we installed it, Echo Show 10 (25.1 x 23 x 17.2 cm for 2.6 kg) first of all perfectly fulfills its vocation as a smart speaker. Implemented with the Amazon Alexa app, the device is up and running in minutes. Incorporating two tweeters and one woofer, the speaker offers a serious and even quite bassy sound. Thanks to a “Skill” (a dedicated application), we linked Alexa to our Deezer account from our smartphone. From then on, all you have to do is ask “Alexa, play…”, so that the speaker diffuses the requested sounds.

But Echo Show 10 also has everything from the small extra TV. You can obviously use it to watch television thanks to Molotov. TV, but also videos with Amazon Prime or Netflix. The offer remains limited, but sufficient as it is.

13 megapixels and a lynx’s eye

Echo Show 10’s 10 ” / 25.4cm touchscreen is just HD but also suitable for most purposes. Its responsiveness is emphasized when, used in a tactile manner (in particular to access the settings), no latency disturbs navigation. Nevertheless, it has large black borders. Measuring 2.2 cm, the upper border is moreover more visible than the others (1.4 cm). It is there, at the top, on the right, that the 13 megapixel camera of Echo Show 10 is planted.

With its 13 megapixels, “the eye” opens as soon as the classic wake-up call is pronounced: “Alexa…”. The camera locates the user, associates the sound of his voice and his image and triggers the motion tracking. On its motorized base, Echo Show 10 performs rotations and can cover a practically complete field of 360 °. Enabled by default, this tracking is at first disconcerting. Because it doesn’t take more than a second for Echo Show 10 to react and instantly set in motion as soon as you move.

Thus, we came and went in our kitchen, all busy with our meals and were able to “take advantage” of the process so as not to lose a crumb of one of the episodes of the series. Me, Christiane F which has just been uploaded to Amazon Prime Video, but also to stay in touch during video calls (with other people who have an Echo Show), and to watch our meeting info from mid -day. Whether you are in the kitchen, facing the refrigerator, in front of the dresser … all you have to do is turn your head towards Echo Show 10 to find yourself face to face with your screen which, like the lynx’s eye. ‘a feline ready to pounce on its prey, does not let go of a sole. Disturbing.

All the more disturbing as Echo Show 10 moves forward discreetly: located in the base of the speaker, its engine brushless (brushless) makes absolutely no noise… With its concept, Amazon therefore defends the idea that the user can keep their hands free. Setting up Echo Show 10 in a kitchen makes sense: you can prepare food, with flour on your fingers, by associating an activity on the speaker screen without having to touch it.

The camera does not see anyone

We have obviously expressed to the folks at Amazon our concerns about the risk of spyware that their device could potentially allow. Our interlocutors replied that the camera sees the image of a person well, “but translates it in the form of an abstraction, with shapes, borders and colors”. In short, what the Echo Show 10’s camera sees is not someone, but some sort of big bunch of blinking pixels.

In addition, Amazon reassures: “nothing passes through the cloud and there is no internal storage”. The online sales giant’s servers therefore do not access any video data. And then, it is possible at any time to deactivate the tracking of the camera. Either by purely and simply obscuring the objective with a small physical shutter, or by asking Alexa kindly to stop the follow-up: “Alexa, deactivate the movement”.

Monitor remotely

But at the same time, the camera can also be activated remotely, from the Amazon Alexa application connected to the account with which Echo Show 10 is associated. By sliding your finger across the surface of the screen, it is possible to rotate the camera from left to right and thus have a close eye on what is happening in a room. When you launch this viewing, a brief message “A household member is viewing the feed from your camera” appears on the screen of the Echo Show 10. Better to prevent …

The principle is reassuring to say hello to a child left alone or to see if Etna, the little dog, does not take advantage of our absence to devastate the sofa … As with classic surveillance cameras, it is also possible to interact with voice from his smartphone. Do not miss any more that this smartphone also receives alerts in the event of suspicious movement or noise and that the base of the speaker integrates a siren so that Echo Show 10 turns into a real surveillance system!

Amazon could well consider it: after having bought Blink, a start-up specializing in home automation alarms in 2017, then Ring, a start-up specializing in connected doorphones in 2018, it is hard to imagine Jeff Bezos’ firm stopping there. and not capitalize on the know-how of these companies to optimize the possible interactions with its connected speakers. The Echo Show 10 could well be the first stone of a new building combining artificial intelligence, entertainment and security …