Amazon Alexa: our successes and fails

AMAZON ALEXAour successes and fails

15 Sep 2017

DevBDay

Viachaslau Lialkin

EPAM Systems

vlialkin

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Introduction toAmazon Alexa

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Amazon Alexa is the cloud-based "brain" behind

Amazon voice assistant devices.

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Music & Entertainment

News & Information

Calling & Messaging

Help Around the House

Shopping experience

Custom Skills

Assists with

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// Information & Help

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// Music

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// Smart home

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There is also store for Alexa Skills …

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Echo Dot$49.99

Amazon Echo$179.99

Echo Show$229.99

// Devices

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Amazon Alexa engine

Amazon Echo Amazon Echo Dot devicesAmazon Echo Show

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How phrasesare built?

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Alexa, ask Uber to request a ride

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KeywordFirst word in every requestRequired to wake up the device

Alexa, ask Uber to request a ride

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Skill invocation nameDefined by Skill developerPhrase is sent to the concrete Skill

Alexa, ask Uber to request a ride

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Intent from the Uber SkillShould be defined by Skill developer

Multiple utterances of single action are possible

Alexa, ask Uber to request a ride

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Alexa, set timer for 20 minutes

No skill invocation name, becauseit is built-it Alexa functionality

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// How to create Skill

- Set Invocation Name (string)

- Build Interaction Model (json)

- Implement Speechlet interfacevoid onSessionStarted(SessionStartedRequest, Session)void onSessionEnded(SessionEndedRequest, Session)SpeechletResponse onLaunch(LaunchRequest, Session)SpeechletResponse onIntent(IntentRequest, Session)

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// How to test

- Use devices (thanks, Captain!)

- Use text emulator

- Use voice emulator

Story #1: Alexa Office

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Alexa, ask Office where is Viachaslau Lialkin

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Alexa, ask Office where is Viachaslau Lialkin

Viachaslau Lialkin is on the meeting till 17:00

Viachaslau Lialkin is on vacation till September 22

Unfortunately Viachaslau Lialkin is on sick leave today

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// How does it work

HTTPSWeb-app

(Java)Telescope API

MS Exchange API

Amazon Developer web-interface

"office" EmployeeAvailabilityIntent- "where is {EmployeeName} now",- "is {EmployeeName} free now",- "is {EmployeeName} available now",- "is {EmployeeName} busy now",- "to find {EmployeeName}"

Heroku

EndpointType

(our URL)

SkillName

External APIs

InvocationName

("office")

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// What did we do well

- Integration w/ external systems

- Synonyms in Interaction Model (voice-to-text)

- Synonyms in web-app (text-to-identifier)

- Transcription of names in web-app (text-to-voice)

OK

OK

OK

OK

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- Bad recognition and pronunciation of names (voice-to-text and text-to-voice)

- Not convenient to ask Alexa and better to check manually

ERR

ERR

// Known problems

Story #2: Alexa Question

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Alexa, ask Question

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Java Core - Could you please describe, what is happening during adding element into LinkedList?

Spring - What is DispatcherServlet?

Alexa, ask Question

Design Patterns - Could you please compare patterns Facade and Adapter?

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// How does it work

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Amazon Developer web-interface

"question" QuestionIntent- "question",- "please",- "next",- "repeat",- "from {tag}",- "about {tag}"

TXT-filewith 60+questions

SkillName

InvocationName

("question")

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