Amazon Alexa

Amazon Alexa

             Amazon Alexa, known simply as Alexa, is a virtual assistant developed by Amazon, first used in the Amazon Echo and the Amazon Echo Dot smart speakers developed by Amazon Lab126. It is capable of voice interaction, music playback, making to-do lists, setting alarms, streaming podcasts, playing audiobooks, and providing weather, traffic, sports, and other real-time information, such as news. Alexa can also control several smart devices using itself as a home automation system. Users are able to extend the Alexa capabilities by installing "skills" (additional functionality developed by third-party vendors, in other settings more commonly called apps such as weather programs and audio features). 

            Most devices with Alexa allow users to activate the device using a wake-word (such as Alexa); other devices (such as the Amazon mobile app on iOS or Android) require the user to push a button to activate Alexa's listening mode. Currently, interaction and communication with Alexa are only available in English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, and Japanese. In November 2017, Alexa became available in the Canadian market in English only. 

             As of September 2017, Amazon had more than 5,000 employees working on Alexa and related products.

History

       In November 2014, Amazon announced Alexa alongside the Echo. Alexa was inspired by the computer voice and conversational system on board the Starship Enterprise in science fiction TV series and movies, beginning with Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: The Next Generation.

      The name Alexa was chosen due to the fact that it has a hard consonant with the X and therefore could be recognized with higher precision. The name is also claimed to be reminiscent of the Library of Alexandria, which is also used by Amazon Alexa Internet for the same reason.In June 2015, Amazon announced Alexa Fund, a program that would invest in companies making voice control skills and technologies. The US$100 million in funds has invested in companies including Ecobee, Orange Chef, Scout Alarm, Garageio, Toymail, MARA, and Mojio. In 2016, the Alexa Prize was announced to advance the technology.

     In January 2017, the first Alexa Conference took place in Nashville, Tennessee, an independent gathering of the worldwide community of Alexa developers and enthusiasts. The follow-up has been announced, to be keynoted by original Amazon Alexa / Connected Home product head Ahmed Bouzid.

     At the Amazon Web Services Re:Invent conference in Las Vegas, Amazon announced Alexa for Business and the ability for app developers to have paid add-ons to their skills.
In May 2018, Amazon announced that Alexa will be included into all of the 35,000 new Lennar Corporation homes built this year.

App

A companion app is available from the Apple App Store, Google Play, and Amazon Appstore. The app can be used by owners of Alexa-enabled devices to install skills, control music, manage alarms, and view shopping lists. It also allows users to review the recognized text on the app screen and to send feedback to Amazon concerning whether the recognition was good or bad. A web interface is also available to set up compatible devices (e.g., Amazon Echo, Amazon Dot, Amazon Echo Show)

Functions

            Alexa offers weather reports provided by AccuWeather and news provided by TuneIn from a variety of sources including local radio stations, NPR, and ESPN. Additionally, Alexa-supported devices stream music from the owner's Amazon Music accounts and have built-in support for Pandora and Spotify accounts. Alexa can play music from streaming services such as Apple Music and Google Play Music from a phone or tablet. Alexa can manage voice-controlled alarms, timers, and shopping and to-do lists, and can access Wikipedia articles. Alexa devices will respond to questions about items in the user's Google Calendar. Alexa's question answering ability is partly powered by the Wolfram Language. When questions are asked, Alexa converts sound waves into text which allows it to gather information from various sources. Behind the scenes, the data gathered is then parsed by Wolfram's technology to generate suitable and accurate answers. As of November 2016, the Alexa Appstore had over 5,000 functions ("skills") available for users to download, up from 1,000 functions in June 2016. As of a partnership with fellow technology company, Microsoft's AI Cortana became available to use on Alexa enabled devices as of August 2018, Amazon rolled out a new "Brief Mode," wherein Alexa would begin responding with a beep sound rather than saying, "Okay," to confirm receipt of a command.

Home automation

In the home automation space, Alexa can interact with devices from several manufacturers including Belkin, ecobee, Geeni, IFTTT, Insteon, LIFX, LightwaveRF, Nest , Philips Hue, SmartThings, Wink, and Yonomi. The Home Automation feature was launched on April 8, 2015. Developers are able to create their own smart home skills using the Alexa Skills Kit.

In September 2018, Amazon announces a microwave oven that can be paired and controlled Echo device. It is sold under the AmazonBasics branding.