Post by ke9zm on Dec 27, 2017 21:50:00 GMT
Having fun with Alexa (Amazon Echo Dot) – Part 1
For those of you who want to relive the discomfort of $30 burning a hole in your pocket, you might want to consider investing in an Amazon Echo Dot (hereafter referred to as “Alexa” or the anthropomorphic “She”). Yes Virginia, there is a Christmas and the Amazon dot in on sale for $29. Add another $4 and you can enter the world of home automation. The extra $4 will get you an Alexa-controlled smart wall plug.
After having an Alexa for several months, and buying two more in the interim, I can report on the following.
Alexa is a Platform
The most interesting thing about Alexa is that She is a Platform. A Platform, meaning that Alexa's capability and knowledge is extensible via a well-documented open API (Application Programming Interface) to Alexa’s voice recognition and text to speech capability. Using this, Developers can interface/integrate Alexa with a knowledge base and give her a perceived intelligence. This integration with external knowledge-bases and other sources are referred to as “Skills”.
For example, if you have a database of wine pairings, you can use the Developer API to integrate Alexa’s voice recognition and response system to your database and make it available to anyone over the internet.
It works like this. “Alexa, ask Wine Pairing what goes with Lamb”. This “ask” routes the question to the predefined service (Skill) which is registered with Amazon (“Wine Pairing”) with the speech to text translated “what goes with Lamb”. That sentence (as text) is parsed at the receiving end and translated to a database query. The response from the database query is then sent to Alexa’s text to speech engine and you have your answer. Try "Alexa, ask Wine Pairing what goes with Hot Dogs".
Anybody can write an Alexa Skill and register it with Amazon. That’s the fantastic thing about it. Alexa’s “knowledge” is sort of “crowd sourced” and limited only by the desire and ability of folks to integrate their databases, knowledge systems, or other sources with the Alexa/Amazon Platform.
For Ham Radio people there are already about a dozen Amateur Radio skills including Exam Practice, Propagation forecasts, integration with database call sign lookup,
and others.
At the time of this writing, there are about 20,000 Alexa Skills available.
Home Automation
For an extra $4 when you buy the Alexa Home Automation bundle you get a $30 TP-LINK Smart Plug. This 3-prong plug outlet can be managed from your smart phone or from Alexa. The smart plug can also execute a schedule to turn devices on or off on a predetermined schedule. Bottom line, with voice commands to Alexa, you can ask her to turn on or off various devices connected to Alexa-enabled Smart Wall Plugs.
Next time (Part II) – Using multiple Alexi for communication in your home or across the Internet.
For those of you who want to relive the discomfort of $30 burning a hole in your pocket, you might want to consider investing in an Amazon Echo Dot (hereafter referred to as “Alexa” or the anthropomorphic “She”). Yes Virginia, there is a Christmas and the Amazon dot in on sale for $29. Add another $4 and you can enter the world of home automation. The extra $4 will get you an Alexa-controlled smart wall plug.
After having an Alexa for several months, and buying two more in the interim, I can report on the following.
- It has replaced my broadcast radio. Alexa can play just about any streaming radio station – domestic and/or international. Alex gets these stations from iHeartRadio and TuneIn. Just say, “Alexa, play wls am” or “ Alexa, Play BBC World Service”. You can link Alexa to an existing Spotify, Pandora, and other streaming music services and play individual songs or playlists.
- Alexa can play podcasts. Again, from iHeart, TuneIn, and possibly other sources in the future. “Alexa, play podcast This American Life”
- Alexa can read books to you. If you have kindle books that you purchased on Amazon or uploaded documents of your own to your Amazon Kindle account, she can read them to you. Alexa’s text to speech is excellent.
- She can keep a calendar or reminders for your. Add or query entries by voice. Integrates with Google Calendar and others. "Alexa, what's on my calendar?"
- She can manage lists for you. Same as above. Integrates with list managers.
- She can manage all sorts of timers and alarms. "Alexa, wake me up at 7am". "Alexa, set a timer for 30 minutes".
- She knows all about the weather.
- She can answer almost any question equivalent to searching the internet for an answer.
- Alexa can perform routines. This is a set of actions. "Alexa, start my day". This could be the series: Weather report, traffic report, latest news, and actions on a home automation device (turn on the coffee maker; turn off outside lights)
- Alexa has Bluetooth and an external speaker jack. That is, integration with a home audio system (for music) is easy.
Alexa is a Platform
The most interesting thing about Alexa is that She is a Platform. A Platform, meaning that Alexa's capability and knowledge is extensible via a well-documented open API (Application Programming Interface) to Alexa’s voice recognition and text to speech capability. Using this, Developers can interface/integrate Alexa with a knowledge base and give her a perceived intelligence. This integration with external knowledge-bases and other sources are referred to as “Skills”.
For example, if you have a database of wine pairings, you can use the Developer API to integrate Alexa’s voice recognition and response system to your database and make it available to anyone over the internet.
It works like this. “Alexa, ask Wine Pairing what goes with Lamb”. This “ask” routes the question to the predefined service (Skill) which is registered with Amazon (“Wine Pairing”) with the speech to text translated “what goes with Lamb”. That sentence (as text) is parsed at the receiving end and translated to a database query. The response from the database query is then sent to Alexa’s text to speech engine and you have your answer. Try "Alexa, ask Wine Pairing what goes with Hot Dogs".
Anybody can write an Alexa Skill and register it with Amazon. That’s the fantastic thing about it. Alexa’s “knowledge” is sort of “crowd sourced” and limited only by the desire and ability of folks to integrate their databases, knowledge systems, or other sources with the Alexa/Amazon Platform.
For Ham Radio people there are already about a dozen Amateur Radio skills including Exam Practice, Propagation forecasts, integration with database call sign lookup,
and others.
At the time of this writing, there are about 20,000 Alexa Skills available.
Home Automation
For an extra $4 when you buy the Alexa Home Automation bundle you get a $30 TP-LINK Smart Plug. This 3-prong plug outlet can be managed from your smart phone or from Alexa. The smart plug can also execute a schedule to turn devices on or off on a predetermined schedule. Bottom line, with voice commands to Alexa, you can ask her to turn on or off various devices connected to Alexa-enabled Smart Wall Plugs.
Next time (Part II) – Using multiple Alexi for communication in your home or across the Internet.