Maybe you like the idea of controlling your home appliances with your voice, but don’t really like having a data center process your recordings. Fair enough. The trade-off for most smart home conveniences is giving up at least some of your privacy. Today at CES I saw a line of voice-activated home appliances from Smart Emerson which adjust power and settings via voice commands. But the commands are recognized on the devices themselves, not transmitted over Wi-Fi and processed elsewhere.
The vast array of smart plugs, fans, heaters, and even air fryers require no apps for setup and don’t need access to Wi-Fi. Instead, I said “hey Emerson, lights are on” or “hey fan, turn on low” and the devices in the demo space acted accordingly. Some devices combine the microphone with a speaker and can respond when a command is received.
A bit of built-in programming on air fryers allows them to understand commands for 100 cooking presets, so saying things like “reheat this pizza” or “cook these frozen fries” will set the correct mode, time and temperature. Of course, you can also just say “bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes” and everything will be fine. Most of the controls for the other elements are pretty simple but allow you to do things like set a timer, enable oscillation, and set intensity speeds.
Selection of commands available for Emerson Smart devices. (Amy Skorheim for Engadget)
Some devices allow a small amount of programmability. Pressing and holding the smart plug button, for example, changes the wake word to “plug in two,” doing it again changes it to “plug in three,” and so on. This way, if you have multiple outlets in a room, you can operate them individually.
The small demo space where I spoke to the devices (which did their best to silence the roaring noise of the CES show floor) had at least six models active and listening to my words. When I said, “Hey Emerson,” an air fryer and one of the heaters responded. This was one of the limitations I saw with the devices: if you equip your entire house with Emerson Smart equipment, it can take some time to name and position everything so that everything works consistently. The lack of an app means that programmability is also limited. This is the compromise that the user concerned about his privacy or resistant to applications will have to make if he wants to turn on his lamp and turn up the fan when he enters a room simply by speaking.
As the only offline, DIY-free line of voice-activated devices, you’re stuck with whatever design Emerson Smart thinks looks good. Fortunately, the overall design is clean and modern, if a bit basic. The next models of air purifiers and fans were decidedly more attractive.
A new Emerson Smart air purifier and fan combo. (Amy Skorheim for Engadget)
A handful of devices are now available for sale, but new Emerson Smart products will go into production later this year.
