By will-buy
Josh.ai introduced new inclusions in its smart home voice automation ecosystem during its virtual keynote presentation on Tuesday. The Josh Nano microphone and Josh Core server open new possibilities for that company's platform, so it bills like a more privacy-focused option when compared to major tech companies.
Invisible Intelligence
To show off the new devices, Josh.ai hosted a virtual keynote event at an $80 million house in Los Angeles filled with devices from Sonos, Lutron, and other Josh.ai partners that can take advantage of everything the smart home system can do by voice and with the Josh.ai iOS app. The app can even support the control over multiple properties setup with Josh devices. Simultaneously, the demonstration showed how discreetly Josh.ai can operate.
“You know within the last 5 years approximately voice control technology has come so far,” Josh.ai CEO Alex Capecelatro said during the presentation. “We’re seeing the biggest tech companies in the world launching great voice products, but you know they’re actually getting bigger, not smaller. They’re including speakers and screens and all sorts of things and that we really think the holy grail for that smart home is to make things invisible.”
Homeowners with Josh.ai have interacted using the Josh voice assistant using the Josh Micro smart speakers since 2023 when the company transitioned from just focusing on software to developing hardware. The Josh Nano extends the minimalist look of Josh's devices even further, packing four microphones, a privacy switch, a touch sensor, a temperature sensor, and an LED light ring into something only 0.1 inches thick and 1.6 inches across. The Nano includes a paintable cover that makes the product almost invisible if you don't know where you can look. The result makes it seem like the user is talking to the house itself, as opposed to a smart speaker. Operating lights along with other smart home devices is definitely an entirely silent process unless the voice assistant must respond to the consumer.
Josh Core Central
Centralizing the smart home's operation may be the new Josh Core, a central server that runs the house while not having to send data towards the cloud. The concept is to maintain the user's privacy as much as possible by connecting the Core to the home's audio system and then any related devices. The Core can connect with and support a lot more than 100 microphones and uses its very own natural language understanding engine to parse context, enabling it to operate multiple commands from a single request.
“So, having one of these kind of power the centralized processor in your home brings lots of benefits, such as speed,” Josh.ai head of business development Nader Dajani said throughout the keynote. “Josh Core can actually process countless voice commands also it can control your devices on-demand and it can execute everything within a second. One of the really great things about Josh Core is that it has the power to process multiple commands from multiple places all simultaneously.”
The Josh ecosystem is to establish to bring the devices made by its partners underneath the umbrella of their VoiceCast protocol, but a user may own smart devices from a different brand. To compensate, Josh also announced a new VoiceLink feature included in JoshCore. The server includes two audio line outlets that can be connected by wires to the device. When hooked up correctly, Josh can accept voice commands to operate those devices, while still maintaining the cloud-free privacy of the system as a whole. Because the type of homes with Josh.ai tend to be large enough for lots of guests, Josh also provides a method to let visitors use the voice assistant without compromising that privacy. The dog owner may use the app to invite and manage visitor access. They are able to choose specific rooms or areas that every guest is allowed to control from the app on their own phone, downloaded by invite from the homeowner. That’s not really a common option with smart home devices. Google Assistant only recently added a guest mode that lets users operate the voice assistant incognito, which doesn’t include personalized smart home controls.
“Between Josh Nano and Josh Core I believe we’re not only going to change the industry i think we’re likely to alter the entire smart home,” Capecelatro said. “I’m really excited about this.”
