Voice In Canada Flash Briefing #355

Alright, it’s Teri here and today I’ve got a flash briefing that’s really fascinating, I think, and it gets into a little bit of the Computer Science behind Alexa. With the Super Bowl ad, did you ever stop to think why all of our Alexa and Echo devices did not get activated when the commercial kept saying the word, Alexa? but you know, the real word “Alexa”

Well, it turns out that Amazon has put a lot of thought into this, and they use a technology called Acoustic Fingerprinting. And, without getting too technical on you, I just think this is really, really cool what they’ve done.

They’ve basically taken the sample, the audio sample, the wave form of the way that the people in the commercial are saying the wake word, Alexa, and they have programmed Alexa to look for that particular sample, that particular audio signal of the commercial saying it, and when the commercial says it, it has been programmed to ignore it.

And what’s interesting, is that Alexa, and the computer science behind this, is actually learning this on the fly, and that is what is preventing other instances of the word Alexa, for example, in a commercial, or a movie, or a TV show, or even some pranks, from actually triggering your devices.

So this is actually pretty cool. They actually have some of the technology built in on the device. So this isn’t even in the cloud. It’s on the device, it gets downloaded to the device, but due to the limits of the device computing power, this is generally restricted to the commercials that are airing at that time.

And then there’s much more data and much more robust filtering that happens in the cloud for the different ways that Alexa is hearing the name Alexa, based on what is going on.

So, it’s pretty cool, you know, it’s something that I didn’t even really consider, but when you think about all the different ways that we, or commercials, or movies could be triggering Alexa, it’s actually quite remarkable. And this is a pretty neat thing, because otherwise, who knows what could be happening, right?

When you think about all the different ways that we, or commercials, or movies could be triggering Alexa, it’s actually quite remarkable.

Alexa Acoustic Fingerprinting

People could be giving Alexa different commands to buy things from your TV, and well, that wouldn’t be great. Anyway, so there’s a little bit of computer science. Hopefully, that wasn’t too technical for you. Now before I sign off, I also want to give a shout out to the latest person that left a review for me.

Thank you so much. The reviews continue to come in. It’s just amazing. I don’t know how else to express it. I feel like I’m a broken record, but truly, every time I get one of these, I’m so appreciative. So, the latest review is from Pamela H.

And, she gives it five stars and she writes, “Excellent. If you live in Canada and have an Alexa product. This is an excellent resource. Not only do you learn about the latest Alexa products available, but the flash briefing also provides tips and instructions on how to use your Alexa products to the max. Very professionally done. I’ve learned a lot”

Well, I said it before. I’ll say it again. Pamela, thank you, thank you, thank you so much for leaving that review. It is fantastic. It really means a lot to me, and of course, it actually helps the flash briefing to maintain its ranking, and be discovered by other people, and in turn, by leaving the review, you actually help other people find the flash briefing and learn from it as well.

So, thank you very much, Pamela. There are a ton more reviews, and I’ll get to all of these in the near future. If you want to leave a review, you just have to go to VoiceinCanada.ca and click on the button in the middle of the page. Alright, I’ll talk to you again tomorrow.

Useful Resources

Listen on your Echo Device! Easy as 1-2-3!

Voice in Canada Skill Logo1. Open your Alexa app and click on the Menu button > Settings > Flash Briefing.
2. Click on “Add Content” and search for “Voice in Canada”.
3. Click on “Voice in Canada” and the Enable button.

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