Roku, a company that offers a wide variety of streaming devices has just announced that they are going to be offering their own AI based voice assistant. The assistant will be called Roku Entertainment Assistant which is designed to go against the likes of Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. They also plan to release their own smart speakers and soundbars which will be able to communicate with existing Roku products.
They are calling this ecosystem Roku Connect and it will be able to connect to Roku devices wirelessly to form a completely wireless home entertainment system. An example that was stated is that the Roku TV can connect to a Roku Connect enabled speakers or soundbar and you will be able to control these connected devices with just your voice. Their AI assistant might not be as good as the current voice assistants out there, it will have a bigger focus on home entertainment systems.
Roku will be pushing a software update for existing Roku devices to enable both Roku Entertainment Assistant and Roku Connect which is expected to come somewhere in the second half of 2018.
