Amazon Echo

Amazon Echo

Amazon Echo
Manufacturer	Amazon.com
Type	Voice command device
Release date	November 6, 2014 (2014-11-06)
Input	Voice command
Connectivity	Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
Website	Amazon Echo

Amazon Echo is a voice command device from Amazon.com with functions including question answering and playing music. The device consists of a 9-inch (23 cm) tall cylinder speaker with a seven microphone sensor array, speakers that include a woofer/tweeter and a remote control. The device responds to the name "Alexa", however this "wake word" can be changed by the user (to one other choice at present: "Amazon").

Amazon had been developing Echo inside its Lab126 offices in Silicon Valley and Cambridge, Mass., for at least four years. The device, codenamed 'Doppler' or 'Project D', was part of Amazon’s first attempt to expand its device portfolio beyond the original Kindle Ereader.

Cloud-based processing

Amazon Echo runs on Amazon Web Services. In the default mode the device continuously listens to all conversations, monitoring for the wake word to be spoken. The device also comes with a manually and voice-activated remote control which can be used in lieu of the 'wake word'. Echo's microphones can be manually disabled by pressing a mute button to turn off the audio processing circuit. Echo requires an internet connection in order to work. Echo's voice recognition capability is based on Amazon Web Services and the Amazon common voice platform it acquired from Ivona, a Polish-based specialist in voice technologies used in the Kindle Fire. Echo performs well with a 'good' Internet connection (i.e., a connection with low latency) which minimizes processing time due to minimal communication round trips, streamable responses and geo-distributed service endpoints.

Hardware

The Echo hardware complement includes a Texas Instruments DM3725 ARM Cortex-A8 processor, 256MB of LPDDR1 RAM and 4GB of storage space. Connectivity is provided by dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.

The Echo is intended to be voice controlled at the unit, however it comes with a mic-enabled remote control similar to the one bundled with the Fire TV. An action button on top of the unit is provided for user setup in a new location, and the mute button allows the microphones to be turned off. The top half-inch of the unit rotates to increase or decrease the speaker volume. The Echo must be plugged in to operate since it has no battery.

Natural voices

Echo's natural lifelike voices result from speech-unit selection technology. High speech accuracy is achieved through sophisticated natural language processing (NLP) algorithms built into the Echo's text-to-speech (TTS) engine.

Services provided

Echo offers weather and news from a variety of sources, including local radio stations, NPR, and ESPN from TuneIn. Echo can also play music from streaming services such as Spotify, iTunes, and Pandora Radio from a phone or tablet. Echo maintains voice-controlled alarms, timers, shopping and to-do lists and can access Wikipedia articles.

Privacy concerns

Some individuals have expressed concerns about the access Echo has to 'private' conversations in the home, or other non-verbal indications that can identify who is present in the home and who is not—based on audible cues such as footstep-cadence or radio/television programming. Amazon responds to these concerns by stating that Echo only streams recordings from the user's home when the 'wake word' activates the device. However, Echo would always be listening to detect that a user has uttered the word.

Echo uses past voice recordings the user has sent to the cloud service to improve response to future questions the user may pose. To address privacy concerns, the user can delete voice recordings that are currently associated with the user's account, but doing so may degrade the user's experience using voice search. To delete these recordings, the user can visit the Manage My Device page on Amazon.com or contact Amazon customer service.

Echo determines its location in the user's home by the collection of networks detected including Wi-Fi routers, the signal strengths of these routers, the type of security the routers use, and the registration information provided by the broadband carrier of these devices. Amazon and third-party apps and websites use location information to provide location-based services and store this information to provide voice services, the Maps app, Find Your Device, and to monitor the performance and accuracy of location services. For example, Echo voice services use the user's location to respond to the user's requests for nearby restaurants or stores. Similarly, Echo uses the user's location to process the user's mapping-related requests and improve the Maps experience. All information collected is subject to the Amazon.com Privacy Notice.

Initial user reception

Purchasing merchandise or digital media such as songs, by commanding Echo to buy the song, results in manual intervention being required—through an alternate user interface—to complete the purchase. Echo has demonstrated hit-or-miss results when asked common questions that users would expect better answers to. Echo sometimes confuses certain homophones.

Software Versions

The Echo functionality periodically evolves as Amazon releases new software for it. Most new releases will fix bugs in addition to including enhanced functionality. New releases are pushed to the devices on a gradual basis so it may take several days to a week or more for a particular device to be updated.

Version	Date	Description
2332	02/26/15	Bug fixes and performance improvements.
2249	01/28/15	Additional voice commands for Shopping and To-do Lists--can now review shopping-list and to-do list items.
2221	01/12/15
2171	01/07/15
2100

Play with Echo

This is an enumerated list of things you can ask Alexa. Some inquiries have practical applications while others are less stoic.

• "Alexa, how is traffic?" (requires settings configuration of your start/end points).
• "Alexa, Simon Says the sky is blue."
• "Alexa, live long and prosper."
• "Alexa, count by ten."
• "Alexa, what is the weather today?"
• "Alexa, who won the Denver Broncos game?"
• "Alexa, when do the Kansas City chiefs play next?"
• "Alexa, flip a coin."
• "Alexa, rock, paper, scissors."
• "Alexa, roll the dice."
• "Alexa, do you like green eggs and ham?"
• "Alexa, one fish, two fish."
• "Alexa, why do you sit there like that?"
• "Alexa, what was the Lorax?"
• "Alexa, show me the money!"
• "Alexa, I want the truth!"
• "Alexa, set the alarm for ten forty two pm."
• "Alexa, what is the alarm set for?"
• "Alexa, set a timer for 10 minutes."
• "Alexa, how much time is left on the timer?"
• "Alexa, play iheartradio K C R W."
• "Alexa, play Thievery Corporation."
• "Alexa, play The Hop by Radio Citizen."
• "Alexa, whats in the news today?"
• "Alexa, why do birds suddenly appear?"
• "Alexa, why did the chicken cross the road?"
• "Alexa, which came first, the chicken or the egg?"
• "Alexa, tell me a joke." (Do you know why the broom was late? He over-sWept !)

See also

• Google Now
• Microsoft Cortana
• S Voice
• Siri

External links

• Official website
• Amazon Echo Video Presentation