As reported by Android Central, Google assistant might soon be responding without the “Hey Google” wake-up call before giving out commands to the smart displays of Nest Hub. Codenamed feature, “Blue Steel” can allow the device to sense the user’s presence, without the activating wake word. Basically, with this, there will not be any need to repeat the wake words for each and every command to the Google voice assistant. Directly placing the order will serve the purpose.
Google Smart Display Functionality
Jan Boromeusz posted a video explaining the functionality and posted it on Youtube recently. He is the same person who had previously leaked the dark mode features by Nest Hub ahead of the official announcement. So, it’s not clear yet if the company is going to make a public launch of the functionalities, but Boromeusz is found asking different kinds of information on the voice app of Google without once uttering the wake word. This feature is going to enhance the use of the voice assistant and is also going to make the searches much faster than before.
Internal testing of Blue Steel
Currently, smart display is using Nest Hub Max’s ultrasound features to sense the presence of a person to adjust the shown facts and figures. This feature is going to use ultrasound waves to determine the location of the user. In the coming days, this feature could be used to take commands from the user by perceiving his presence around. This technology is still undergoing a lot of research. Ars Technica claims there is a probability of using camera features to detect faces and understand commands better. Using the camera will make the app recognize the face of the user, therefore, when the order is given out, its comprehension will be easier. Smart display’s setting menu has the provision of switching Blue Steel on and off.
Right now as one of the prominent features, smart displays and speakers, only take up commands when they detect the wake word. Blue Steel could claim a breach of privacy in case this got released to the public now, so this feature could be optional to some users. Using the Google assistant would become a lot easier and faster if the wake words like “Hey Google” and “ok Google” are not required before placing each and every command.
