Collaborate Disseminate
Your daily round-up of some of the other stories in the news Continue reading News in brief: AI writes new GoT book; Google breaks out of the speaker; Cortana and Alexa hook up
Do you own an Amazon Echo?
So are you also worried about hackers turning out your device into a covert listening device?
Just relax, if there’s no NSA, no CIA or none of your above-skilled friends after you.
Since yesterday there have been several reports on Amazon Echo hack that could allow a hacker to turn your smart speaker into a covert listening device, but users don’t need to worry
Continue reading Alexa, Are You Spying On Me? Not Really, Maybe, It’s Complex!
How do you feel about the possibility of your recorded requests to Alexa being shared with third-party developers? Here’s what we know about that – and some tips to manage your data Continue reading Alexa is listening to what you say – and might share that with developers
Your daily round-up of some of the other stories in the news Continue reading News in brief: Hong Kong voters’ data lost; Rudd faces pushback; Google Home lands in Britain
Drowning in hot tub was followed by 140-gallon hose-down recorded by utility. Continue reading Police ask: “Alexa, did you witness a murder?”
The Amazon Echo and its diminutive Dot cousin have the handy feature of being able to control some home automation devices. If you own the right manufacturer’s hardware you can bend your home to your will using the power of your voice alone.
The trouble is, if your hardware isn’t on the list of supported devices or if you make your own, you’re out of luck.
[Xose Pérez] had been sidestepping this problem by using a server running a set of scripts emulating a Belkin WeMo device, which Echo supports. The server could issue commands to his microcontrollers, but he …read more
The Amazon Echo and its diminutive Dot cousin have the handy feature of being able to control some home automation devices. If you own the right manufacturer’s hardware you can bend your home to your will using the power of your voice alone.
The trouble is, if your hardware isn’t on the list of supported devices or if you make your own, you’re out of luck.
[Xose Pérez] had been sidestepping this problem by using a server running a set of scripts emulating a Belkin WeMo device, which Echo supports. The server could issue commands to his microcontrollers, but he …read more
Remember Big Mouth Billy Bass? That’s the singing fish with which you could torture family members by having it endlessly perform a rendition of either “Take Me to the River” or “Don’t Worry Be Happy”.
Now [Brian Kane], a teacher at the Rhode Island School of Design, has connected Amazon’s Alexa to the fish. Speak the “wake word”, “Alexa”, and the fish’s head turns to face you. Then ask it any question you’d normally ask Alexa and Alexa’s voice answers while the fish opens and closes its mouth in time to the words. Want to know the weather? Ask the …read more
Continue reading Alexa Brings Back Singing Fish, This Time It’s A Good Thing
Talking to computers is all the rage right now. We are accustomed to using voice to communicate with each other, so that makes sense. However, there’s a distinct difference between talking to a human over a phone line and conversing face-to-face. You get a lot of visual cues in person compared to talking over a phone or radio.
Today, most voice-enabled systems are like taking to a computer over the phone. It gets the job done, but you don’t always get the most benefit. To that end, [Youness] decided to marry an OLED display to his Alexa to give visual …read more
Amazon has unveiled the Alexa Prize, a $2.5 Million purse for the first team to turn Alexa, the voice service that powers the Amazon Echo, into a ‘socialbot’ capable of, “conversing coherently and engagingly with humans on popular topics for 20 minutes”.
The Alexa Prize is only open to teams from colleges or universities, with the winning team taking home $500,000 USD, with $1M awarded to the team’s college or university in the form of a research grant. Of course, the Alexa Prize grants Amazon a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free license to make use of the winning socialbot.
It may …read more
Continue reading Amazon Offers $2.5M To Make Alexa Your Friend
