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✨ The Alexa Fund Shines At CES

✨ The Alexa Fund Shines At CES

A shower system for astronauts?

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The Alexa Fund Shines At CES

What is the Alexa Fund?

The Consumer Electronics Show lasts from Jan. 5 to Jan. 8 and is a convention where tech companies can flex their muscles and show off their latest and greatest gadgets. At this year’s show, there were three Amazon-backed startups that stood out.

Amazon invests in startups through its Alexa Fund and usually looks for companies that are working on breakthroughs in voice, smart devices, or ambient computing. “Ambient computing” is Amazon’s word for any type of computing that goes on in the background to improve your life.

CES Standouts

The first Alexa Fund CES standout was started by an entrepreneur who was originally trying to design a shower system for astronauts that used minimal water. He realized that the system he created could easily be used on Earth to help preserve water, and launched Orbital Systems. Orbital System’s shower experience purifies, filters, and recirculates used water to improve the shower experience.

The next standout, Cognixion, uses AI to help people with speech or cognitive disabilities communicate more easily. The tech works by tracking eye movements to spell out letters on an augmented-reality keyboard. Once Alexa knows what word the user wants to use, it can even speak out the word for them.

The final standout, Labrador Systems, sells a product that’s like Roomba’s older sibling. While Roomba can roam around your house and clean, Labrador’s robots go one step further by helping you fetch and carry things around the home such as laundry, drinks, or boxes. The robot is designed to give a helping hand to elderly people living on their own.

Implementing Alexa

The main goal of the Alexa Fund, outside of taking stakes in potentially profitable companies, is to finance technology that could potentially integrate with Alexa.

With the three companies above, it’s easy to see how Alexa’s tech could easily provide a value-add to the existing service. For example, you implement Orbital System’s shower as just another part of your Alexa-powered smart home.

Cognixion, the augmented reality communication startup, already integrates closely with Alexa.

Finally, Labrador System’s robots could use Alexa to be voice-controlled, instead of iPad-controlled. Or, they could even integrate with the Amazon-owned Roomba to also offer cleaning services.

Only time will tell if any of these CES standouts end up gaining mainstream momentum, but the future is certainly looking bright.