Voice-activated technology is nothing new. It’s been around for a number of years, made mainstream with the arrival of Apple's Siri assistant for iOS gadgets in 2011, followed by Google Now on Android devices the following year.
Although it what was perceived as a gimmick at first – largely because the novelty of using services such as Siri soon wore off after launch – voice technology has been gaining some momentum in recent years.
As the technology has advanced, it has become more clever, and is now much better at understanding different voices and accents thrown at it.
However, it has only been within the last year that it has truly taken off with the success of Amazon's Echo speaker, which features the ingenious Alexa smart assistant.
Alexa has taken the world by storm due to the technology's ability to accurately comprehend human voices and thus translate the needs of the user without needing physical activation.
This has spurred a new range of voice-activated devices at the world's biggest tech show, CES 2017, taking place in Las Vegas this week.
On Tuesday at CES, Korean electronics company LG announced a new fridge that's powered by Amazon Alexa, as well as a robot butler that uses Alexa's voice recognition technology to complete household tasks such as turning on the air conditioner or changing a dryer cycle.
On the same day, Chinese tech firm Lenovo unveiled Smart Assistant, a speaker that houses Amazon’s Alexa brains in audio-expert Harman Kardon’s hardware.
Ford has also teamed up with Amazon to enable drivers to listen to audiobooks inside the vehicle, search and transfer local destinations to navigation, request news, play music and add items to their shopping list using vocal commands.
And the voice-activated virtual assistant CES announcements didn't end there. Google's Alexa rival, Assistant, will be making its way onto a slew of Android TVs from the likes of Sharp and Sony later this year.
However, in order for Spot to work, you will need to have Nvidia's latest SHIELD gizmo. SHIELD is a console and TV entertainment streaming device, and acts as a central hub for all your Spots.
When it hits the market later this year, the Shield will be the first Android TV product to come with Google Assistant support. Priced at $199.99 (£160), the Shield is now available for pre-order, shipping later this month.
Each Spot will set you back another $49.99 (£40), so the more rooms you need to cover, the more you'll need to shell out to cover your entire home. Spit has no release date yet, but Nvidia said it will arrive later this year.
Google claims that, over time, Assistant will be integrated into other smart devices, such as smartwatches and Android-powered in-car infotainment systems. And of course, many are hoping that Google's own smart speaker, Google Home, will launch in the UK in 2017.
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