ALEXA SMART HOME STORE
Nearly everything in your home — including air-conditioners,
thermostats, lights and garage doors — can be connected to the internet and be
remotely controlled with a mobile device or smart speaker. But setting up a
so-called smart home can be mind-boggling: There is a plethora of different
accessories that work only with certain products, and some work better than
others. Here's a guide to help you sort through the jumble and become acclimated
to your first voice-controlled smart home.
Virtual voice-controlled
assistants like Apple’s Siri, Google’s Assistant and Amazon’s Alexa make it
easy to control smart home products by speaking simple commands like “Alexa,
turn on the lights.” Each of these tools has its strengths and weaknesses, so
choose the one that will be more likely to work for your needs
INTRODUCTION TO ALEXA
Alexa is a virtual personal assistant designed to compete with the Apple's Siri, Google Now, and others. Alexa, which was designed by Amazon's secretive Lab126, It can listen your voice commands and rejoin with environmental responses, which helps you to get the job done. Alexa can help you to listen tracks on Spotify, create to-do lists, shop, and even control your smart home products, like Google's Nest thermostat or Philips Hue.
Alexa was very crowd-pleasing by the Amazon Echo, a device that acts both as a speaker and a smart-home hub, but Alexa also works on many other devices.
Like other virtual assistants, Alexa has its glitches of trouble understanding user commands and communicating accurately. However, because it's a cloud-based service, Amazon is continually updating Alexa's intelligence to overcome some difficulty. As machine learning becomes more smarter, look for Alexa to become more intelligent.
Putting Your Assistant to Work: Alexa
Alexa is a virtual personal assistant designed to compete with the Apple's Siri, Google Now, and others. Alexa, which was designed by Amazon's secretive Lab126, It can listen your voice commands and rejoin with environmental responses, which helps you to get the job done. Alexa can help you to listen tracks on Spotify, create to-do lists, shop, and even control your smart home products, like Google's Nest thermostat or Philips Hue.
Alexa was very crowd-pleasing by the Amazon Echo, a device that acts both as a speaker and a smart-home hub, but Alexa also works on many other devices.
Like other virtual assistants, Alexa has its glitches of trouble understanding user commands and communicating accurately. However, because it's a cloud-based service, Amazon is continually updating Alexa's intelligence to overcome some difficulty. As machine learning becomes more smarter, look for Alexa to become more intelligent.
Alexa was very crowd-pleasing by the Amazon Echo, a device that acts both as a speaker and a smart-home hub, but Alexa also works on many other devices.
Like other virtual assistants, Alexa has its glitches of trouble understanding user commands and communicating accurately. However, because it's a cloud-based service, Amazon is continually updating Alexa's intelligence to overcome some difficulty. As machine learning becomes more smarter, look for Alexa to become more intelligent.
Putting Your Assistant to Work: Alexa
Alexa is the virtual assistant powering Amazon’s Echo products, including the Echo speaker, the miniature Echo Dot speaker and the Echo Show, a smart speaker having a touch screen on it. You activate it by saying “Alexa.”
If you want to quickly get started with a smart home, buying an Echo product is your best bet, because Alexa works with a broader set of smart home accessories than its rivals.
SETUP
To set up your Alexa product
you’ll first need to download the Alexa app onto your phone. This app allows
your to add “skills” to work accessories or increase your assistant’s set of
capabilities.
CONTROLLING YOUR LIGHTS
Alexa is the virtual assistant powering Amazon’s Echo products, including the Echo speaker, the miniature Echo Dot speaker and the Echo Show, a smart speaker having a touch screen on it. You activate it by saying “Alexa.”
If you want to quickly get started with a smart home, buying an Echo product is your best bet, because Alexa works with a broader set of smart home accessories than its rivals.
SETUP
To set up your Alexa product
you’ll first need to download the Alexa app onto your phone. This app allows
your to add “skills” to work accessories or increase your assistant’s set of
capabilities.
To find home accessories that are
compatible with Alexa, look for a “Works With Alexa” logo on the packaging or
in the product description.
CONTROLLING YOUR LIGHTS
A
wide variety of smart lighting is on the market. While some systems require a
so-called bridge, a device that connects with a Wi-Fi router and talks to the
smart light, there are also smart light bulbs with a built-in Wi-Fi connection.
Lifx is one of these that don’t require a bridge — so its setup is relatively
simple. The bulbs are multi-colored and dimmable, but because they rely on
Wi-Fi, their reliability will depend on your Wi-Fi router.
To
use your Alexa to control a Lifx bulb
An
Amazon Echo product
A
Lifx bulb like the A19
An
Apple or Android smartphone for setting up Alexa to talk to the bulb
How
to control the lights with Alexa using a Lifx smart bulb:
Screw
the Lifx bulb into the socket and flip on the light switch.
On
your smartphone, download the Lifx app from the Apple or Android app store.
Open the Lifx app. On the screen, tap the + or Add Bulbs button and follow the
setup instructions to connect the bulb to your Wi-Fi network. Give the bulb a
friendly name like “Lamp.”
Open
the Amazon Alexa app. Tap the menu icon and select Skills. Search for the Lifx
skill and enable it.
Tap
the menu icon and select Smart Home.
Tap
Devices, then tap Discover. The app will scan for devices and discover the
smart bulb named Lamp.
Test
the light. Make sure the light switch is on. With your Echo nearby, say “Alexa,
turn off the lamp.” Then say, “Alexa, turn on the lamp.” Then try things like
“Alexa, dim the lamp” and “Alexa, brighten the lamp.”
CONTROLLING A FAN
You will need:
An
Amazon Echo product
A
TP-Link smart plug
A
plug-in fan with a physical power switch that can stay in the “on” position
An
Apple or Android smartphone for setting up Alexa to talk to the smart plug
How to control an electric fan with Alexa using a TP-Link smart plug
On
your smartphone, download the Kasa app from the Apple or Android app store.
Open
the Kasa app and register for an account. Once logged in, tap the Smart Plug
icon.
Plug
the Smart Plug into a power outlet. Plug your electric fan into the Smart Plug.
The light on the plug will turn amber. In the Kasa app, follow the instructions
to connect your smartphone to the plug.
In
the Kasa app, give the Smart Plug a friendly name like “Fan.” Turn on the
Remote Control option and follow the instructions to connect the plug to your
Wi-Fi network.
Open
the Amazon Alexa app. Tap the menu icon and select Skills. Search for the
TP-Link Kasa skill and enable it.
In
the Amazon Alexa app, tap the menu icon and select Smart Home.
Tap
Devices, then tap Discover. The Alexa app will scan for devices and discover
the smart plug labeled Fan.
Now
test the fan. Make sure the fan’s power switch is in the “on” position. With
your Echo nearby, say “Alexa, turn on the fan.” Then say, “Alexa, turn off the
fan.”
CONTROLLING THE HEAT
Smart
thermostats, like Nest, connect to the internet via Wi-Fi so they can be
controlled with a smartphone or virtual assistant. The main benefit of a smart
thermostat is that it can detect when you aren’t home and determine when to
shut off the heat or air-conditioning to preserve energy.
Setting
up a smart thermostat with a virtual assistant gives you the extra perk of
being able to set the temperature just by speaking a voice command.
we will set up a Nest thermostat to work with Alexa.
You will need:
An
Amazon Echo product,
A
Nest thermostat,
An
Apple or Android smartphone for setting up Alexa to talk to the thermostat.
How to control a Nest Smart Thermostat with Alexa
After installing your Nest Thermostat, open the Amazon Alexa app on your smartphone.
Tap the menu icon and select Skills. Search for the Nest Thermostat
skill and enable it.
In
the Amazon Alexa app, tap the menu icon and tap Smart Home. Tap Devices, then
tap Discover. The app will scan for devices and discover the thermostat.
Now
test the thermostat. If you gave it a friendly name like Nest, try saying
“Alexa, change the Nest to 70 degrees.” Or say “Alexa, what temperature is my
Nest set to?”
Amazon Alexa is slowly becoming self-aware.
Well, not really. Amazon has added some new features, including the ability to read an entire book, start your Ford Fusion (still in beta), and unlock the doors of your house with a simple command. You can engage in a conversation, or even play a role-playing game. A soothing voice and lame jokes make Alexa highly accessible, like a robot friend who can handle some routine chores. I’ve ordered pizza by voice, and I love asking about the weather forecast right before heading out on business trips.
Yet, Alexa is far from perfect. And Alexa is not a sentient being. For now, there are enough faults that this intelligent voice agent is not an ideal example of how chatbots — which use text in messaging apps like Facebook Messenger should work. Of course, Alexa has some good aspects and some serious issues, as with anything truly innovative in tech. Here are a few of both to keep in mind.
Alexa has many positive features. I have used the voice assistant on my phone, with the Amazon Echo speaker, and even with a radio, called the Triby, in my kitchen. One of the main benefits of Alexa is that the assistant understands almost everything I say. For chatbots, that’s critical. Any bot worth using should understand natural language processing. If it doesn’t, it will suffer a quick death on the market.
Alexa is also highly extensible. I use the assistant with a Vivint home security systemand have a feature that lets me control the locks in my home. (As a security precaution, the feature only lets you lock, not unlock your home.) That’s a great integration, and chatbots need to follow this example. If a chatbot only works with a few basic services, like your calendar, it won’t survive for long.
More than anything, Alexa actually saves time and improves your day. I use the Domino’s feature at least once per month, as I can order a pizza by voice much faster than using any app. Everything on Alexa seems to work smoothly, from getting the weather to getting a quick lowdown on the news. Chatbots need to follow suit.
Alexa has a ways to go, however. One of the issues I’ve noticed lately is that the bot works with quite a few services but is far from even making a dent in the connected home market. I can raise and lower the temperature in my home by voice, but not with the Honeywell smart thermostats. (Update: Amazon recently added this feature as a skill in the Alexa app.)
Alexa works with the Sensi brand — but only after some configuration of both the hardware and the software. Chatbots that are truly useful will need to extend themselves far beyond a simple set of connections.
Another big gripe I have with Alexa is that it only works when I’m in my office. I have an Echo speaker there, and my phone with the Alexa app is usually tucked away somewhere (I use Skype at my desk with a headset). I should be able to talk to Alexa in any room, but it doesn’t quite work that way yet. Compatibility is a big issue for any bot. Maybe they need to work on iOS and Android but also on BlackBerry devices and on Windows phones. Bonus if a chatbot works on phones that are not even available anymore.
And, last but not least, Alexa can be temperamental. As we reported recently, the service was down for a while. I’ve personally experienced outages at times. When reading a book, I’ve had the speaker fail a few times, which ruins the experience. A chatbot that crashes is a useless chatbot, especially as we’re trying to adjust to the idea of using them. To make a good first impression, chatbots better work almost perfectly.
CONCLUSION
Amazon Alexa is slowly becoming self-aware.
Well, not really. Amazon has added some new features, including the ability to read an entire book, start your Ford Fusion (still in beta), and unlock the doors of your house with a simple command. You can engage in a conversation, or even play a role-playing game. A soothing voice and lame jokes make Alexa highly accessible, like a robot friend who can handle some routine chores. I’ve ordered pizza by voice, and I love asking about the weather forecast right before heading out on business trips.
Yet, Alexa is far from perfect. And Alexa is not a sentient being. For now, there are enough faults that this intelligent voice agent is not an ideal example of how chatbots — which use text in messaging apps like Facebook Messenger should work. Of course, Alexa has some good aspects and some serious issues, as with anything truly innovative in tech. Here are a few of both to keep in mind.
PROS
Alexa has many positive features. I have used the voice assistant on my phone, with the Amazon Echo speaker, and even with a radio, called the Triby, in my kitchen. One of the main benefits of Alexa is that the assistant understands almost everything I say. For chatbots, that’s critical. Any bot worth using should understand natural language processing. If it doesn’t, it will suffer a quick death on the market.
Alexa is also highly extensible. I use the assistant with a Vivint home security systemand have a feature that lets me control the locks in my home. (As a security precaution, the feature only lets you lock, not unlock your home.) That’s a great integration, and chatbots need to follow this example. If a chatbot only works with a few basic services, like your calendar, it won’t survive for long.
More than anything, Alexa actually saves time and improves your day. I use the Domino’s feature at least once per month, as I can order a pizza by voice much faster than using any app. Everything on Alexa seems to work smoothly, from getting the weather to getting a quick lowdown on the news. Chatbots need to follow suit.
CONS
Alexa has a ways to go, however. One of the issues I’ve noticed lately is that the bot works with quite a few services but is far from even making a dent in the connected home market. I can raise and lower the temperature in my home by voice, but not with the Honeywell smart thermostats. (Update: Amazon recently added this feature as a skill in the Alexa app.)
Alexa works with the Sensi brand — but only after some configuration of both the hardware and the software. Chatbots that are truly useful will need to extend themselves far beyond a simple set of connections.
Another big gripe I have with Alexa is that it only works when I’m in my office. I have an Echo speaker there, and my phone with the Alexa app is usually tucked away somewhere (I use Skype at my desk with a headset). I should be able to talk to Alexa in any room, but it doesn’t quite work that way yet. Compatibility is a big issue for any bot. Maybe they need to work on iOS and Android but also on BlackBerry devices and on Windows phones. Bonus if a chatbot works on phones that are not even available anymore.
And, last but not least, Alexa can be temperamental. As we reported recently, the service was down for a while. I’ve personally experienced outages at times. When reading a book, I’ve had the speaker fail a few times, which ruins the experience. A chatbot that crashes is a useless chatbot, especially as we’re trying to adjust to the idea of using them. To make a good first impression, chatbots better work almost perfectly.
Hello, My name is Arjun Kashyap. I'm a 20 year old self-employed from Gurugram(122001),Haryana|INDIA.
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