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Amazon Fire TV Cube can be used in the same room as Echo devices thanks to improved ESP

The Amazon Fire TV Cube has been announced and is available for pre-order. While we’ve learned a lot about Amazon’s new flagship Fire TV model, there are still plenty of unanswered questions and I’ll do my best to get answers to the most common ones. One question that has already come up several times in the comment discussion of the announcement post is whether the Fire TV Cube can be used in the same room as another Echo device. The short answer is yes it can, but there are some things to consider.

Amazon has told me that the Fire TV Cube uses an improved form of Echo Spatial Perception (ESP) made specifically for the Fire TV Cube that helps it function better in the same room as another Alexa device, such as an Amazon Echo or Echo Dot. ESP is what allows multiple Alexa devices to determine which one is closest to the speaker so that only one device responds and executes the request. The Fire TV Cube’s improved ESP is able to determine not only which device is closest to the user, but also which device the user is facing.

If you’re facing the Fire TV Cube when issuing a voice command, the Fire TV Cube is designed to respond even if it is not the closest device to you. Likewise, if you’re in a room with a Fire TV Cube and an Echo device, if you turn and face the Echo and issue a command, the Echo is supposed to respond to you, even if you’re physically closer to the Fire TV Cube.

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