Google is making a big push for its Google Assistant at CES, not only expanding it to more software, it’s also expanding to more hardware. Now, it’s finding its way onto E Ink displays that will deliver helpful Google Assistant information.
With the introduction of Google Assistant Connect, Google hopes that more manufacturing partners will make devices to better deliver Assistant’s information. It’ll be an interconnected ecosystem. We already have smart displays, but Google envisions E Ink screens as a new alternative that could prove to be quite useful.
Google released one image of what this could look like along with making two rough prototypes of what it has in mind. Some of the information delivered through the E Ink displays could include traffic information and weather reports. It’s a simplified method of information distribution and it has a lot of potential.
These new E Ink screens won’t offer the same functionality as a Google Home Hub, but it’s not meant to. Its speaker system won’t be nearly as developed given the envisioned slim profile. It will mostly focus on showing the user information in compact and cheap hardware.
E Ink screens don’t cost nearly as much as the LCD panels used for smart displays, these new devices are an inexpensive way to develop more Google Assistant hardware without the high price. They also won’t be standalone devices. Google says you’ll need another Google Assistant device somewhere in your home, be it a smart display or a Google Home that “handles the higher-order computing.”
These product will exist to give you the most prevalent information and then blend into the background. Later this year, expect to see many devices like the one in the render above as Assistant makes further inroads into your home.
