Speak Out Loud

Presentation on Alexa - to the DC Emerging Technologies Meetup. 12/13/2016. (https://developer.amazon.com/alexa)

Transcript

1. Speak Out Loud DC Emerging Technologies Meetup - 12-13-2016 Amar Zumkhawala Alexa Hacker amar@spicykey.com SpicyKey LLC
2. Amar Zumkhawala, MBA Amazon Web Services Solutions Architect Alexa Hacker Serverless Apps Lover Member, ACM Alexa Projects: • Smart Home Powered By Amazon Alexa • Arlington Voter Guide Contact Me: amar@spicykey.com SpicyKey LLC LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/amarzumkhawala
3. What is Alexa? Alexa is a software service - accessible through hardware - that operates in the cloud.
4. Voice as an Interface User centered experiences, where the user and the interface converse. Outcomes, in the physical or virtual.
5. Demo • Alexa, what day is it? • Alexa, tell me a random fact • Alexa, do you have any new features?
6. Philosophy What can be done better, hands free? What is natural? Each individual is different: age, personal preferences, roles, social customs, physical disabilities, mental disabilities.
7. With Alexa, a user can... Play Music Search The Web Add New Skills To Do Lists Flash Briefings Home Automation Ask about the weather Search for Products Connect to IFTTT Control a Conference Room Control a NASA JPL Robot Park the car (TBD)
8. Hardware with Alexa Amazon Echo Amazon Dot Amazon Fire Tablet Amazon Tap
9. Hardware with Alexa Nucleus Life CoWatch Sonos (TBD) Ford Fusion (TBD)
10. Amazon Echo Hardware Specification Light Ring Far Field Voice Recognition 9.3" x 3.3" x 3.3" 37.5 oz. 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi Bluetooth Two Speakers: 2.5 inch woofer and 2.0 inch tweeter Volume Ring Reflex Port 7 microphones Microphone Off Button Power Cord Sealed Container Additional Hardware Board For Sound Main Motherboard
11. Alexa for Developers What’s available to customize Alexa for a location or an individual?
12. Alexa and Voice Interfaces Developers build voice experiences for users with Amazon Alexa. Amazon offers hardware providing access to Alexa. Developers can build alexa driven experiences on their own hardware, a user’s hardware, or a third party hardware.
13. Alexa Skills An Alexa skill - a concept - a software program that spans the network and hardware systems. Operates using alexa APIs and software libraries. Keeping the user in control - a user adds or removes a skill from Alexa.
14. User talks to your custom skill User Microphone Local Hardware Network Alexa Natural Language Processing Alexa Decides which Skill’s Intent Custom Skill
15. Your skill creates outcomes... Custom Skill MicroService API Invocation SSML Response Message a device Alter a virtual world Alter your mixed reality Audio Response Alter your physical environment Visual Response
16. Customer Skill Invocation Style • OneShot ◦ “Alexa, ask August lock to check on my front door lock” • Conversational: ◦ [User] Alexa, open travel calendar ◦ [Alexa] Hi, How can I help? ◦ [User] Alexa, tell me my travel schedule ◦ [Alexa] Sure, you have three appointments today.
17. Amazon Skill Store Certified Custom Skills are published to the store. Documentation on how to use a custom skill. User reviews. Each version must be certified. Developers must submit an skill for certification and wait 2-7 days before available in the store. Users enable or disable skills available.
18. Types of Skills • Custom Skill ◦ Certified ◦ Private • Smart Home Skill
19. Demo - Arlington Voter Guide • Alexa, ask Arlington Voter Guide where I vote in Ballston? ◦ Google Civic API ◦ Federal Election Commission API ◦ Huffington Post API ◦ Hand coded Information
20. Alexa Custom Skill - Defining an Interface Intents - Alexa, ask [Arlington Voter Guide] to tell me where I can vote in Ballston PollStationIntent
21. Intent Model Built In Intents Custom Intents
22. Utterances Utterances and slots
23. Code for a custom Skill Example - Lambda in JavaScript EC6 Expected JSON Input Expected JSON Output
24. Skill JSON Request • Intent • Slot Values • User Id • Session Id • Session Attributes • TimeStamp • Language
25. Skill JSON Response • ResponseType (speech, visual card) • Text or SSML • Session Attributes • Whether to end the session • Reprompt Speech
26. Skill Sessions • A Custom Skill may create a session, manage it • Session can last minutes • Sessions may have skill defined attributes • Users do not see session attributes • Sessions automatically expire by Alexa’s Cloud Services
27. AWS Lambda or your own service • Host your custom skill on AWS Lambda • Host your custom skill on your own microservice
28. Demo Skills with Outcomes - generating a notification for a user IFTTT - Do it yourself users Connecting Alexa to the Internet of Things
29. Demo Alexa from a Mac Laptop
30. Account Linking Improve the custom skill experience by linking to an account. A user links her account with the Alexa mobile app or within the online skill store.
31. Security Who is the user? Passwords? PINS?
32. Alexa Software & Services from Amazon Alexa Skills Kit - APIs and components for software developers for custom software developer.amazon.com/alexa - Configuration dashboard for skills Alexa Voice Services - for custom hardware Alexa Software Developer Kit - java and javascript
33. For More Information • Alexa Meetup Groups • Alexa Hackathons • Money from Alexa Fund • Innovation labs at large companies, hospitals, non-profits • Online Forums • Conferences (re:Invent) • YouTube videos • Books
34. Documentation How to Build A Custom Skill - https://developer.amazon.com/public/solutions/alexa/alexa-skills-kit/overviews/steps-to-build-a-custom-skill Voice Design Best Practices - https://developer.amazon.com/public/solutions/alexa/alexa-skills-kit/docs/alexa-skills-kit-voice-design-best-practices Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) - https://www.w3.org/TR/speech-synthesis/ Alexa Blog - https://developer.amazon.com/blogs/tag/Alexa re:Invent Videos on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=re%3Ainvent+alexa+2016
35. Amar Zumkhawala, MBA SpicyKey LLC Contact Me: amar@spicykey.com SpicyKey LLC LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/amarzumkhawala Thank You!