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How Voice Assistant Works

October 15, 2018October 17, 2018 hakamiablog

This diagram illustrates how the voice service works with Alexa devices to control smart home devices (e.g., smart bulb, thermostat, etc.). To control a smart device, a user can speak a voice command to an Alexa device after waking it up with voice “Alexa”. The Alexa then sends the sounds of that voice command to a remote voice processing cloud via its connected WiFi network. Once the cloud recognizes the sounds as a valid command, it is forwarded to a server, called smart home skill adapter, which is maintained by Amazon to enable the cooperation with thirdparty service providers. Afterwards, that command is sent to another cloud which can control the corresponding smart device remotely. Note that in addition to the control of smart devices, some functions (e.g., checking the weather, placing orders on Amazon.com, etc.) provided by Alexa devices can also be accessed by voice commands.

The Insecurity of Home Digital Voice Assistants

LUIS (Language Understanding Intelligence service)

LUIS is used to create natural language into apps and IoT devices, which is related to voice assistants as a third party. Alexa devices does not use this LUIS, but they have their own service Alexa Voice Service (AVS).

Making Amazon Alexa smarter with Microsoft Cognitive Services

Voice Assistant

October 8, 2018October 10, 2018 hakamiablog

Image result for voice assistant technology

I think the project idea #1 is the best for me. I searched about some information about my topic to answer some questions basically :

What is voice assistant?

It is a digital assistant that is able to recognize the voice and process natural language to help users through voice recognition applications and smartphones.

What is the history of Voice Assistant ?

The first introduce of voice assistant was in the early 1960s. IBM first introduced a voice assistant with its Shoebox device. It recognized 16 words and digits.

Image result for ibm shoebox

https://mediacenter.ibm.com/media/(1961)+Shoebox+-+IBM+Archives+(78-013)/0_4m2ynnkk

The next development came in 1970s at carnegie mellon university in Pennsylvania. The tool name was Harpy, and it recognized 1000 words.

And here we can see the timeline of voice assistant:

What are the 3 Best Voice Assistants?

Amazon Echo Plus – Amazon Alexa

Amazon Echo Plus

Pros:
Intelligence (highly capable at answering general questions and performing tasks )
Wide range of skills (with some 30,000 skills available for Alexa in the US)
Strong smart-home device support(compatibility with other smart-home devices).
Easy shopping( ask Alexa if Amazon is offering any exclusive deals )

Cons:
Less seamless mobile experience (Unlike its leading competitors Google Assistant and Siri, Alexa is not pre-installed into mobile phones. )
Answers aren’t always accurate

Google Home Max – Google Assistant

Google Home Max

Pros:
Intelligence and accuracy
Advancing quickly ( rapidly catching up)
Great for entertainment (control any Chromecast device )

Cons:
Less flexibility with home-automation(Alexa is still the better option.)
Not as many voice applications(Google’s library of applications will grow, but as of now, Alexa’s capabilities are tough to beat)

Apple Home Pod – Apple Siri

Pros:
Great for HomeKit owners

https://www.apple.com/ios/home/accessories/

Great for Apple users
Extensive language support(over 20 languages)

Cons:
Limited voice applications (The biggest drawback of Siri)
Siri devices aren’t as versatile (For example, the HomePod smart speaker won’t allow you to add events to your calendar through Siri and cannot recognize different voices. )

Source:

https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/voice-assistant

https://voicebot.ai/2017/07/14/timeline-voice-assistants-short-history-voice-revolution/

https://www.reviews.com/voice-assistant/