US Patent 10284695 Voice-enabled modular devices

This disclosure describes voice-enabled modular devices that act as functional, voice-controlled endpoints at which users may provide voice commands. The voice-enabled modular devices may include a power unit which may be installed into a wall permanently to serve as a power source, and a front-panel module which detachably couples to the power unit via a hardware interface. The hardware interface may allow the front-panel module and power unit to communicate with each other, and may further allow the power unit to provide power to the front-panel module. The power unit of the voice-enabled modular device described herein may be configured to provide power to multiple front-panel modules having different capabilities, and potentially different power requirements, thereby supporting multiple front-panel modules to increase the functionality of the voice-enabled modular devices.