Amazon Alexa

Purpose: Amazon Alexa is a voice-controlled virtual assistant. She has many functions on board, these functions include playing audio from songs, or audio books, answering questions e.g., asking the weather tomorrow or how many ounces are in a gram, she can also function as a personal shopper and be used to remember certain things like dates, or time. The main purpose of the device is productivity as it enables the user to use the voice sensor to their advantage and control certain parts of the home or find out information. Amazon Alexa can also be used for safety and security. Amazon Alexa can link up with various different applications that control different parts of the home, as an example Amazon Alexa can be used to control lighting, parried up with motion sensors the lights would turn on if someone entered the room meaning that a notification could be sent to your phone once lights get turned on at home which could identify an intruder entering your home. Amazon Alexa can also be used to solve existing problems, as an example, a lot of people face the issue of not having enough time to go out of their day to buy gifts or essential household items, with the usage of Amazon Alexa, the user can add items to their wish list and using voice commands Amazon Alexa can recognize it and buy anything on the wish list and have it delivered straight to your door avoiding any kind time needing to be put aside to buy needed items.

Applications: Amazon Alexa would usually be situated at home to do home routine stuff and be a general helper around the house such as playing music or audio books or even be in control of certain home functions such as lights, heating, doors and devices if connected together. Amazon Alexa can be used in various environments and use its functions and features to the advantage of the user. Amazon Alexa can use its application at home in order to connect with other applications and control certain aspects of the home, as an example Amazon Alexa can co-join with Philips Hue in order to control lightning around the house, this can also be adjusted to have different lightning effects and different intensity in different rooms based on the natural light level, time of day etc. This technology can also be used in retail and commerce for the same purpose which is to control lightning in different parts of the store based on various aspects of the environment, in addition it can also be used to control heating in different areas of the store. Lastly, this technology can also be used in industry, however this would apply to the office side of industry where lighting and heating may need to be controlled.

Principles: A voice recognition sensor is present inside the device, the sensor will detect the voice of the user when saying a specific word, in this case the trigger word is “Alexa”. At this moment the device will listen to the user and trigger a required action e.g., the user tells the device to play a song, the device will recognize the request and respond with the request as well as a voice line from the archive using speakers. Alexa relies on the internet in order to find the correct information, this means that Alexa must be connected to the internet to collect information and respond correctly when a question or a music request is given. Amazon Alexa includes an always-on connection meaning that it allows continuous monitoring of data from the physical world to react correctly and be able to react and respond instantly if the voice has been recognized within the detection range of the sensor.

Characteristics: Amazon Alexa contains various different characteristics, certain positive certain negative as an example a general characteristic like a risk would be the likelihood of hacking the Alexa and allowing the intruder to operate certain functions that are connected to the Alexa such as door locks, lights, speakers etc. Amazon Alexa also offers multiple benefits to the user in the household. As an example, it could be argued that productivity can be increased due to less time being spent researching as you can ask Alexa to search for something for you, another benefit of using Amazon Alexa is the possibility of receiving any information hands free meaning that there is no need to pick up a phone and google and answer, it can be found out hands free increasing the production and efficiency of human life. Amazon Alexa may also require to focus on the legal considerations due to its voice detection technology, due to Amazon Alexa needing to always listen it is important that none of the background noise or requests are recorded as they may pick up sensitive information causing the General Data Protection Act to be breached and a risk of a lawsuit to be present.

There are also multiple technical characteristics such as Alexa being time controlled as it allows the user to set up an alarm and Alexa will make sure to trigger that alarm when appropriate. Alexa also offers a low power consumption mode as when not used it’s in idle state, meaning that it draws little to 0 power, it only uses more power when used e.g., playing music or committing actions to any commands that have been requested. Another technical characteristic of Amazon Alexa would be its low mobility as it requires constant connection to power in order to function, this means that it limits its movement as it needs to be placed based on where a power outlet is located at home. Lastly, Amazon Alexa would monitor the environment in order to detect any event or action, in this case it would be detecting for any voice commands that have been directed, this allows for constant awareness and instant replay if an action is required from the device.