Thursday 10/12/2023
Tidied the apartment, then drove to the Shustek center in Milpitas. I and Steve spent most of the day cataloging the many parts of a development prototype of the Amazon Echo. One of the engineers who developed the Echo donated two prototypes, one complete and the other torn down into its various parts, and we had recorded an interview in which he explained each of the parts and how they fit together. So we were able to do a thorough job of cataloging all the bits.
I was impressed with the quality of the parts in the Echo, and the depth of the engineering in it. I’ve never owned one, never said “Hey, Alexa”. But the machine is built very well, especially the audio parts. They put a lot of thought into getting decent sound out of a 3-inch-wide, 8-inch tall cylinder. There is a woofer, only 3 inches across but with a magnet that weighs over a pound in a tuned acoustic resonance tube; plus a midrange speaker also with a chunky little magnet. There are seven tiny little microphones, little gold cubes no more than a 16th of an inch on a side. And other nice details.
Codgerville 