You can now Look and Talk to Google Assistant on your Nest Hub Max
Google has made significant strides over the years in making interactions with Assistant as natural as possible. However, saying “Hey Google” every time you want to talk to it can still feel awkward. AtGoogle I/O 2022, the company is announcing Look and Talk, its next big step in resolving this barrier by completely eliminating the need to use the wakeword.
The feature will allow you to simply look at your smart display and summon the voice assistant — there’s no need to say “Hey Google” first. The Assistant logo will show up in the top left corner to let you know that it is listening to you. It will initially be available on theNest Hub Maxin the US.
Look and Talk will only work when you opt-in to use it and have both Face Match and Voice Match enabled. All video interactions are processed locally and not shared with Google’s services. It will also work across a range of skin tones since it uses the same processing principles behindReal Toneon Pixel phone cameras.
While Look and Talk might seem like a simple feature, Google says there’s a lot that goes on in the background, with six machine learning models processing over 100 signals from the camera and microphone.
Additionally,Quick Phrases supportis coming to the Nest Hub Max, so you won’t have to say “Hey Google” before some common everyday interactions. For example, you can say “Set a timer for 10 minutes” to your smart display without saying the hotword first. The feature first debuted on thePixel 6series last year and wasexpanded to work with French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Japanese languages in April.
Going forward, Google is working on more powerful speech and language models that can better understand human speech nuances like filler words (ums and ahs) and pauses when someone is struggling to find the right word. By using the power of its Tensor chip, the new models aim to helpGoogle Assistantenhance conversation fluidity in real-time.
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This article is sponsored by Total Wireless.
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