
Ask HN: Why is Amazon Echo cylindrical in shape? - nocoder
I am wondering is there a specific reason for echo being a cylinder? Does it give cost advantage? or  any advantage in terms of placement of microphones that pick up voice? Really curious
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LinuxBender
It could likely be carry-over from WWII. Many of the U.S. and German spy
devices were engineered in small cylinders and then tucked away in corners of
rooms. IIRC it had to do with improving the ability to pick up certain audio
frequency ranges and naturally cancel out unwanted noise whilst remaining
small in size.

j/k probably aesthetics.

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twobyfour
It does allow for microphone pickup to be omnidirectional without having to
account for the effect of corners, which can block/reflect/distort sound
waves.

