HARMAN International, subsidiary of Samsung unveiled Invoke voice-activated speaker powered by Microsoft’s Cortana back in May. It detailed the features of the speaker earlier this month. Now both Harman and Microsoft have announced the pricing and availability of the smart speaker with 360-degree sound.
Built-in Cortana assistant let you play your favorite music, manage calendars and activities, set reminders, check traffic, deliver the latest news and much more. It also has Skype integration so you can make calls to cellphones, landlines and other Skype-enabled devices. You can also control your smart home devices such as SmartThings, Nest, Philips Hue, Wink, and Insteon.
It has HARMAN’s SONIQUE far-field voice recognition, 360-degree adaptive technology that uses its 7 microphones to recognize all details of voice commands even in environments with high ambient noise. It uses HARMAN’s beam forming, echo cancellation, and noise reduction algorithms so that Cortana can hear you, even in challenging environments.
The Harman Kardon Invoke comes in Graphite and Pearl Silver colors, is priced at $199.95 (Rs. 13,000 approx.) and will be available in the U.S. at Best Buy, Microsoft stores and other retail locations, as well as online at HarmanKardon.com and Microsoft.com from October 22nd.