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Amazon Updates Echo, Echo Dot To Let You Address It As 'Computer' (theverge.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the beam-me-up-Scotty dept.

ewhac writes: "Computer, what is the time, please?" is now a spoken command that will actually work with Amazon's updated Alexa/Echo smart speaker. Previously, your options were "Alexa," "Echo," and "Amazon." Now you can also choose, "Computer." In practice, it's a bit clunkier than you might hope, depending on how often you speak the word "computer" on a day-to-day basis; and "computer" is harder for machine speech recognition to pick out than "Alexa," so it may not hear you as reliably. But for those who've been yearning for a Star Trek-like future, this small bit of silliness gets you one step closer.

24 of 134 comments (clear)

  1. Amazon spam by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    One thing I have noticed is all the Amazon spam stories on here that mention "Alexa" and "Echo" and obliquely refer to how "successful" they are in terms of sales. The fact is that the Echo and Alexa are a market failure. All the stories they submit won't get around that fact.

    1. Re:Amazon spam by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The fact is that the Echo and Alexa are a market failure.

      Their cumulative sales passed 5 million in November, and it is estimated that they sold another million during the holidays. That is pretty good for a product in a category that didn't even exist a few years ago. I have an Echo, and I am mostly pretty happy with it, although there is still plenty of room for improvement.

      Free advice: Do NOT switch to calling it "Computer". The name "Alexa" was specifically chosen as a trigger word because it is a sequence of phonemes that is unlikely to occur in a normal conversation, and even so, we have had an occasional false trigger. In a nerd household, "computer" will come up way, way more often.

    2. Re:Amazon spam by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Except when you have friends with similar names (Alexa, Alexia, Alexis/Elexis, Alex), etc.

      I just tried all of those. My Echo is not triggered by "Alexia", "Alexis", or "Alex". Only "Alexa".

    3. Re:Amazon spam by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      And have your Echo fire a million Amazon workers every time you rewatch The Fifth Element? You're a monster.

    4. Re:Amazon spam by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Do NOT switch to calling it "Computer". The name "Alexa" was specifically chosen as a trigger word because it is a sequence of phonemes that is unlikely to occur in a normal conversation, and even so, we have had an occasional false trigger. In a nerd household, "computer" will come up way, way more often.

      I still don't understand why they can't just keep a rolling file of the last 10-15 seconds of conversation to determine whether I'm addressing the thing or referring to the thing. I mean, if it hears stuff like:

      "what you do is say 'computer' and then..."
      "...it should be on my computer's desktop, let me..."
      "Hey where have you put my computer?"
      "Hang on... Computer, make me a sandwich"

      It should only react to the last one. I would expect that if we can recognise words, we can start to recognise rudimentary sentence structure to denote some sort of context: 'the computer', 'my computer' 'your computer' 'our computer' etc shouldn't trigger a response. A 'Computer' without context followed by an action/command? Well, that's a command, Do Stuff!

    5. Re:Amazon spam by cusco · · Score: 2

      My wife has a strong (and quite lovely) Peruvian accent, for some reason the Dot seems to have trouble with it. (She won't take the time to do the voice training for it.) She just wants to refer to it as "Hey, Bitch!"

      I think she's a little jealous of the Dot and how much I talk to it. Of course since Alexa is the only one in the house that actually does what I tell it to I think that's understandable.

      --
      "Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
    6. Re:Amazon spam by Tran · · Score: 2

      My daughter plays music loud enough on Alexa that Alexa can't hear us to respond.
      I either go over to reduce volume manually or via the app.

      Just another possible layer of obfuscation to keep in mind.

  2. Fine by PPH · · Score: 4, Funny

    Just as long as it doesn't get fresh with me.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  3. Why stop there? by Tehrasha · · Score: 3, Informative

    Let the user pick a personalized name like they would for any child or pet.

    1. Re:Why stop there? by R.Mo_Robert · · Score: 2

      Let the user pick a personalized name like they would for any child or pet.

      Since it's only listening for specific "wake words" and this processing must be done on the device itself, I imagine it's easier for them to code a few specific wake words into the firmware (and perhaps not even possible to do much more; I'm not sure we know much about its hardware)--everything else you speak afterwards (and, so they say, only this speech) is sent to AWS or whatnot where there's a lot more processing power, which I imagine that allowing the user to configure an arbitrary word would also take.

      --
      R.Mo
    2. Re:Why stop there? by Wycliffe · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Let the user pick a personalized name like they would for any child or pet.

      Since it's only listening for specific "wake words" and this processing must be done on the device itself, I imagine it's easier for them to code a few specific wake words into the firmware (and perhaps not even possible to do much more; I'm not sure we know much about its hardware)--everything else you speak afterwards (and, so they say, only this speech) is sent to AWS or whatnot where there's a lot more processing power, which I imagine that allowing the user to configure an arbitrary word would also take.

      I believe the way it works is that it looks for a couple phonemes and if those phonemes match it wakes up, makes sure it is a match and starts processing. If they can change it between 3 or 4 phoneme groups, it would seem like they could fairly easily allow you to choose which phonemes you want it to match. My guess is they don't do this for 2 reasons. The first is that people would be stupid and try to pick something like 'bob' or 'anne' without realizing that it is not complex enough for safe triggers. The second which relates to the first as well is marketing. It is good marketing to have someone constantly saying 'amazon' or 'alexa' over and over. 'Computer' is cute but it's also likely an attempt to corral that keyword the same way microsoft took the word windows.

  4. Hey Kid, I'm a Computer! by dohzer · · Score: 2

    Help Computer.
    Stop all the downloading.

  5. Does "Hello Stasi" work? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    When I was a kid, friends of my family who travelled to the Soviet Union during the cold war told me stories of visiting "refuseniks" (ie, Jewish families who were not permitted to get out of the country). I remember distinctly the story of how they used to write on those kids toys-- a writing pad with some kind of black wax on it and an opaque plastic sheet that would flip over the wax. You'd write a message on the plastic and it would stick to the plastic so you could read it, then you'd lift the plastic, the writing would "go away"...

    This I was told was how families would talk in the 1970s because of microphones planted in their apartment, invading their privacy, etc. (Never mind the opsec of a wax impression of everything you wrote isn't that great...)

    The point is, I'm blown away by the willingness to plop an omnidirectional microphone in the middle of your house. Even if you think you have "nothing to hide"-- maybe your guests do? Maybe you'll say something incredibly embarrassing or revealing or compromising your financial status... never reveal your passwords over the phone? Safe words? Sexual practices? Fetishes? Non-traditional relationships? Gossip? Family secrets? Controversial political views? Drug habits? Health issues? No secrets? Really?

    I dunno-- every technology has its pluses and minuses which you gotta balance... yeah cell phones and your laptop have mics and cameras too... But given the fact that fucking Facebook quizzes are being used against you, is it really such a good idea to have an always-on pair of ears specifically designed to be listening?

    (Also, don't leave your windows open, your computer speaker on, or your radios on, because I've got a software defined radio. And if you happen to have a text-to-voice browser going, "HELLO COMPUTER PLAY CLASSICAL MUSIC."

    1. Re:Does "Hello Stasi" work? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Get a clue Your computer and your phone also have microphones, and transmit WAY more traffic that could hide spying.

      Damn. I'm such an idiot. I wish I had said something like: "yeah cell phones and your laptop have mics and cameras too.." Thanks for making that really insightful observation that I never would have considered. Though when I last checked, my laptop doesn't have a 7-microphone omnidirectional array either and isn't designed and positioned for maximum surveillance of my residence.... And yeah... that bit you said about "transmitting WAY more traffic that could hide spying" is completely logical and makes total sense. The echo, which streams music, podcasts, and basically everything else a computer does... it's totally different and you could never "hide spying" in there.

      As for your *extremely* sophisticated technical analysis, let's begin with...

      Amazon Echo does not have enough on board computing to do voice recognition of anything except the trigger word,

      Right-- understanding the trigger word uses way fewer resources than all the other words.. that are processed.... by the hardware. That makes sense. But no matter-- the DM3725 features an ARM A8 core... definitely too shitty to do anything.... aside from power OMAP3 devices.. and no one could ever use those to record audio. Oh wait, damn. Of course, if I were actually concerned about the technical limitations of a specific Echo model... well, you still don't have a point. But I was speaking more to concerns about the general idea of putting an always-on microphone in your house. Not that you seem capable of understanding the difference.

      I really want to address the rest of what you said, but when re-reading it, it's just so dumb I can't. As your argument essentially boils down to "Echos are for inarticulate, naive idiots" well, I guess that's as close as you'll get to a point. But, getting back to my original concerns, I'm not sure we're in disagreement then.

    2. Re:Does "Hello Stasi" work? by WaffleMonster · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The point is, I'm blown away by the willingness to plop an omnidirectional microphone in the middle of your house.

      Get a clue. Your computer and your phone also have microphones, and transmit WAY more traffic that could hide spying.

      I'm blown away by the dismissive response and display of technical ignorance.

      Amazon Echo does not have enough on board computing to do voice recognition

      It has 250MB of RAM, 4GB of flash and DM3725 arm processor. My blackberry 9000 did local voice recognition with half the RAM a quarter of the onboard flash and slower less capable processor. The original version of dragon recognized 25k words in less than 30MB of ram.

      4GB of flash is enough to store a bit less than two months of continuous non-silence detected cell phone quality audio. With silence detection in most settings and a more complex/aggressive codec you could easily push a year.

      it has minimal memory for buffering, and it transmits a very small amount of data when, and only when, the trigger word is used.

      If you worry about the Echo, and you don't worry about your cellphone or laptop, then you're an idiot.

      Every time someone raises a concern about x you will always find someone jumping on the...but what about y and z bandwagon. WTF do cellphones and laptops have to do with the topic at hand? Is it really necessary for someone raising a concern about x have to enumerate a list of everything else that can possibly raise similar concerns without being called an idiot?

  6. Re:Kirk by freeze128 · · Score: 2

    I told my friend's Google Home device to "activate self destruct", and it said "no, I think I'll stick around for a while". Damn insubordinate computers!

  7. But will it answer in the Voice of Mrs. Rodenberry by Proudrooster · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How you hack Alex to have the voice of Majel Barrett-Roddenberry?

    Computer, set self-destruct, authorization code Picard alpha 0-0-0-1-0.

    Boom!

  8. HAL by thesupraman · · Score: 2

    There is only one name I would want for it...

    And then, of course, to get those pod bay doors fitted...
    Worth it? Perhaps not.. It wont live, but then again, who does.
    Thankfully all these moments will be lost in time.

    Oops, crossing the mems again.

  9. But does it... by Ambient+Sheep · · Score: 2

    But does it reply "Wor-king" in a strange metallic voice, and then make teletype noises?

  10. Two forms for names to avoid confusion by transami · · Score: 2

    I had an interesting conversation about this the other day. It occurred to us that it would be helpful if we had a new bit of grammar in our language such that names have two forms, one for talking to someone and one for talking about them.

    We did not come up with a specific solution, but one simple way might be just to leave off the last sound. So, for example, say "Alex" instead of "Alexa". Another possibility might be a variation on Asimov naming, i.e. "R. Alexia" -- if Amazon would program in that distinction.

    --
    :T:R:A:N:S:
  11. Re:But will it answer in the Voice of Mrs. Rodenbe by Gojira+Shipi-Taro · · Score: 3, Funny

    Echo/Alexa already responds to "Initiate Self destruct" with "Enter voice authorization" and then responds to any answer with "voice authorization not recognized. Self destruct aborted"

    --
    "Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I'm fucked."; ~ Donald J. Trump
  12. Re:Kirk by severn2j · · Score: 2

    heh, I just tried this with Alexa and seems they thought of that too...

    "Auto destruct in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Boom! Hmm, that did not go as planned..."

  13. Re:First RETARDED POST! by Big+Hairy+Ian · · Score: 4, Funny

    Actually I'm interested in what the feedback will be like when watching Star Trek :D

    --

    Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.

  14. More than a year by phorm · · Score: 2

    4GB of flash is enough to store a bit less than two months of continuous non-silence detected cell phone quality audio. With silence detection in most settings and a more complex/aggressive codec you could easily push a year.

    Well, if you used this newer codec for audio storage, you would use a bit under 700MB for a full year's worth of audio (no silence detection). Theoretically that would net you between 5-6 years, and if you had silence detection it might be more like a decade or more...