Amazon Alexa Technology

Amazons Alexa Digital Technology

Device Name: Alexa

Owner: Amazon

Developed by: Amazon Lab 126

Named after the ancient library of Alexandria, Alexa is Amazons voice control system. Alexa lets the user speak their wishes to a hardware speaker which is called Echo smart speaker and let the user fulfilled their wishes such as dimming your lights of room or playing music tracks, changing music tracks.

What makes this difference apart from first generation voice assistant.

The main thing Alexa unique and user friendly than other is its responsiveness. There is no activation button or press in the system itself. Saying the word simply trigger followed by what you want to happen and it usually be done. Although all these things are done only before properly setting up and using the correct command. As a user myself I find Alexa more natural and responsive than speaking to a phone based voice system such as Siri from apple or Cortana from Android.

How technology works

Amazon manufactured a natural-language treating system that is one of the relaxed to intermingle with we’ve seen. If you ask an inquiry or deliver a command, you usually don’t have to ask twice. Part of Alexa’s success is reliant on the several very sensitive microphones built into all Echo devices. Alexa is always listening and is quick to respond.

Alexa is predominantly useful for smart home users as it lets users control its compatible devices without using the phone or launch an app. Although Alexa does have its own app, but that’s mostly for setup and configuration or add new abilities. Amazons other devices such as Echo and Dot let users access Alexa useful features without user-interface interaction with a screen at all. Automation action with routines is an Alexa main motto and its deliver at its best. Alexa now can imitate the behavior of its users which is because of routine feature. For example, you can say “Alexa I am home!” and it can greet you and turn on the lights of living room. Another important feature this technology provides is that users can set up as multi-room intercoms. With this feature user can use their smart speakers to broadcast an announcement to the whole house or in a school, airport or cruise ship.

Amazon Alexa let user help in translating in different languages. In this global world people are now multicultural and often visit another country for fun or for business. Alexa help user translate in more than 89 language and Amazon is working on adding more in coming years.

Key Problems in Technology and Solution to the Problems

It can do a lot of things but sometimes in practice things does not work exactly how we expect them to. Adding a long list using Alexa sometimes get annoying, for example I have to add shopping list by telling Alexa to add beer and chips but I have to add these list separately. Things get annoying if you have large list, since you have to add them separately.

Alexa is limited in answering the question of users, since it’s not google you cannot always find what are you looking. It is limited to its extent of information depth and what is stored in main system. As an owner of Alexa I myself have run into problems as a result of the limited number of wake words. Again, if I can change the Echo’s wake word, but I can use only “Alexa,” “Amazon,” “Echo,” or “Computer.” The far-field microphones on the original Echo and Dot are so sensitive that if I were to address the Dot in my basement theater, and have the basement door open, the Echo in the kitchen would likely respond as well. Owners can change the wake word for each Alexa device, but it gets confusing to remember which one responds to “Alexa” and which one responds to “Echo.”

Identical with other website, Alexa accumulates information about how users interrelate with it.  After storing information, Amazon relates that to how websites use cookies to assemble info on your browsing. It basically knows what music you listen to, what you put on your shopping list, and what smart-home products you have connected to your system, all based on what you told it to do. Apparently, that information is used to marketplace more products and services to you, yet in my experience, using Alexa on a daily basis hasn’t resulted in more direct marketing from Amazon. Sometimes it feels like the whole thing is spying you and your daily activity and you are just following the routine.

How to Obtain

You can buy Alexa Echo Dot 3^rd generation at $39.99 if you are Amazon prime member otherwise you have to pay little bit more, probably 12 to 20 dollars more.

Reference

Dale Higgs, A complete list of all available Alexa Skills, GitHub

Rory Carroll, Goodbye privacy, hello ‘Alexa’: Amazon Echo, the home robot who hearsit all, The Guardian, November 21, 2015

Brian Heater, Amazon Echo VP Mike George talks Alexa security and simplifying search, TechCrunch, May 10, 2016

Hayley Tsukayama, How closely is Amazon’s Echo listening?, The Washington Post, November 11, 2014