Voice Activated Intelligent Personal Assistants
On 28th September 2016 the Amazon Echo voice-activated cloud-based intelligent personal assistant device named “Alexa” was introduced in the UK, having been available in the US since 6th November 2014 (see Wikipedia article). This blog post collects resources and links related to voice-activated computer assistants such as Amazon Echo, Apple Siri, Google Home and Microsoft Cortana.
- Amazon Alexa Web Interface
- New Device Setup
- Amazon Echo Documentation
- Amazon Alexa FAQs
- Multiple Amazon User Profiles
- Alexa integration with Google Calendar
- Alexa Skills:
- Radio: Tunein (built-in), RadioPlayer UK (add-on)
- Connect a Smart Home Device to Alexa [e.g. Belkin WeMo (built-in)]
- Twitter Reader (US only)
- Fix to Connect to UK BT Home Hub [Extra Blog Post] [Separate 2.4GHz and 5GHz Fix]
- Pair a Bluetooth mobile device to Echo [Then use Voice Control]
The Amazon Echo incorporates a wifi linked control unit along with a tubular speaker. The control unit on its own is available as the “Amazon Echo Dot” which can be connected to external speakers, though it also has a simple speaker incorporated for voice feedback.
Amazon Echo Dot First Time Setup
For some reason on a University network that should present several WiFi access point options (eduroam and central) only central showed. But except for that, connection to a Wifi network which requires a user name/password and conditions acceptance prompt was straightforward.
The Alexa Home Application on a web browser or mobile device shows the latest interactions, news, music player (with active controls), etc that are relayed via the device.
It appears that the ability to read out Kindle books is not present in UK devices yet.
The Echo and Echo Dot update themselves when idle for a period. See this page for the Amazon Echo and Echo Dot Current Software Version. Although my experience is that the version listed on web page may not be fully up-to-date and your Echo or Echo Dot may actually have a new version after an update.
Switching between WiFi Networks
If you move your Echo or Echo Dot to a location with a different WiFi access point, you will need to change the WiFi setup. The device will indicate it cannot make a WiFi connection. If you then hold the “Action” button for 5 seconds or so, it will show an orange ring and enter setup mode. This will create an “Amazon-XXX” named local WiFi setup to which you should connect your Alexa app device (such as an Apple iPhone/iPad). Then run the Alexa App, select “Settings”, select your device and enter “Update WiFi”.
Connecting a Wemo Smart Home Device
I tried to connect a Belkin Wemo smart home plug. An immediate issue was that I could not connect to a Wifi network that requires a login username and password, normally presented through a web page or pop-up dialogue. It appears that WEMO only supports WPA, WPA2, and WEP security types.
A “Restore” button on top of the device allows for the initial built in direct access Wifi settings to be restored to allow a new Wifi connection to be set up. Instructions for the procedure are here.
AudioBooks
The Amazon Echo and Dot can relay audio books from Audible (an Amazon company) and (in the US only at present) can do text-to-speech output for compatible Kindle books. If “WhisperSync” is enabled across your Amazon devices then the last page read is saved whichever modality you use.
- Alexa Audiobook Commands. E.g.
- Alexa, play book <title>
- Alexa, resume my book (on subsequent instructions to go back to last page being read)
- Alexa, restart (to go back to the beginning of the book)
- Alexa, go to chapter <number>
Alexa Future Developments and Alexa Prize
Developers and students can access an “Alexa Skills Kit” to add “Alexa Skills” and join in a competition to develop conversational AI extensions suitable for Alexa.
- The Alexa Prize – The Alexa Prize – $2.5 Million to Advance Conversational Artificial Intelligence – September 2016 – November 2017.
- University of Edinburgh Team Edina Entry (Federico Fancellu -Team Lead, Ben Krause, Emmanuel Kahembwe @MannyKayy, Daniel Duma @mstdan, Marco Damonte, Jianpeng Cheng, Mihai Dobre and Joachim Fainberg).
- New Alexa Skills Kit Template: Step-by-Step Guide to Build a Flash Cards Skill
- Echo Simulator – Alexa in a Browser
[Manage Login with Amazon – Revoke Permission]
Unity to Support New Nintendo 3DS and New Nintendo 3DS XL
Unity Technologies announced plans for Unity to support the New Nintendo 3DS and New Nintendo 3DS XL, new portable game systems from Nintendo, during the keynote speech at Unite 2015 Tokyo. The new Unity platform support will be available to Nintendo, Nintendo’s 3rd party developers and over 4 million registered Unity developers.
UNITY 5 IS HERE
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - March 3, 2015 - Unity Technologies today announced the immediate availability of Unity 5, the next generation of the award-winning Unity multiplatform engine and development tools. The most powerful version of Unity to date includes massive graphics improvements and an expanded editor feature set that gives developers everywhere the potential to create incredibly beautiful and innovative gaming experiences across 21 platforms.
Unity Asset Store to Reach More Than One Million Users This Year, Celebrates Its Fourth Birthday, and Launches Birthday Bonanza Madness Sale
San Francisco, CA – November 4, 2014 – Unity Technologies is proud to announce that the company’s Asset Store is expected to exceed one million users by the end of the year and celebrates its fourth birthday with the Birthday Bonanza Madness Sale. Today, it offers more than 15,000 content packages and apps – available from nearly 3,800 creators – to developers, delivering exciting content packages for 2D and 3D models, plus other tools and services such as animation, audio, editor extensions, shaders, scripting, textures, and materials.
Unity Technologies Appoints John Riccitiello as CEO
Unity Technologies announced today that Co-founder David Helgason has stepped back from his role as CEO and welcomed John Riccitiello, former CEO of Electronic Arts, into the position. Helgason will continue at Unity as Executive Vice President in charge of strategy and communications.
Introduction to X3D Graphics
This course provides an introduction to the principles and practice of building Web-based visualization models using the Extensible 3D (X3D) Graphics Standard.
Focus of the course is design projects.
This course has no programming or course prerequisites.
Students from many departments across NPS have successfully learned 3D graphics using X3D.
Each week you will review and prepare models illustrating some new graphics techniques.
At the end of the course you will create a modeling project that can be published on the Web. If you continue with the follow-on course MV4205 Advanced X3D, you can…
New Release of Instant Reality
After a long beta version Instant Reality has an official version 2.0 release. Besides several bugfixes this release includes many new features.
New Base Features
New and much easier license installation process with xxx.irlicense mime-types
Realtime texture-compression to improve cluster-rendering (e.g. for movies)
SAI plugins now support DOM access for X3DOM (www.x3dom.org)
New download/ creation manager which creates a context in parallel – used in Inline and GeoLOD nodes
New W3C XMLHttpRequest object in JavaScript
New Nodes
Geospatial: GeoPositionInterpolator, GeoProximitySensor, GeoElevationGrid, GeoLOD, GeoOrigin, GeoTouchSensor, GeoMetadata, GeoViewpoint, GeoLocation, GeoCoordinate
TreeSensor: BboxSensor2D
Geometry3D:…
Web3D Korea Chapter Workshop, 14-15 December 2010 in Seoul, Korea
The Web3D Korea Chapter will be presenting a workshop on Web3D based 3D Environments at the COEX Convention Center on 14 and 15 December 2010 in Seoul, Korea. This workshop is open to all.
Some of the topic to be discussed include:
* SEDRIS & X3D
* Mixed and Augmented Reality
* Visualization of military modeling and simulation
* GPS interface for virtual environment systems
* Security services in 3D virtual space
* Geometric medical data
Details and Agenda for the Workshop are available at: Web3D Korea…
Web3D Consortium to present X3DOM at W3C TPAC 2010
Web3D Consortium’s HTML5/X3D Working Group will present Fraunhofer’s X3DOM a JavaScript-based layer for X3D that runs in any browser that supports HTML V5.
at the W3C TPAC 2010 in Lyon, France.
Dr. Johannes Behr from Fraunhofer will present updates and progress of X3DOM. This includes HTML-integration aspects like encoding, CSS and HTML-Events.
See us on Monday, November 1 in the “3D on the Web” AC-sessions meetings block from 10:00 to 11:00.
Wednesday, November 3 in the “Bringing new work”-session (part II) at…
X3DOM Release V1.1
Fraunhofer’s X3DOM, a JavaScript-based layer for X3D. It runs in any browser that supports HTML V5 and JavaScript-based WebGL rendering layer, which include beta releases for Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari and Google Chrome web browsers. It supports native X3D within an HTML page.
New features in this release include - CSS 3D Tranformation, multiple lights, large meshes and more.
Check out X3DOM’s Tutotrials, Blogs and Examples.
Some examples of use of X3DOM are CAE Prototypes for Volkswagen, Flicker Data and
X3D/VRML for 3D Simulation
Proprietary 3D authoring tools present a challenge to simulation engineers who want to import the tools into a simulation environment. Open standards for 3D scene authoring enable engineers to build, share, and connect to the tools across simulation environments. X3D an ISO XML-based standard and a predecessor of VRML contains sufficient intuitive 3D constructs that can be used to author 3D scenes. As an example, Simulink 3D Animation provides connectivity to drive 3D worlds authored in VRML from Simulink, thus enabling easy collaboration across different computing platforms. Choosing an open 3D standard also encourages vendors of proprietary tools to support…
OXALYA Group joins Web3D Consortium
Oxalya Group, a key member of the Collaviz project has joined the Web3D Consortium as a Directing Member to assist in developing and extending the X3D specification for scientific 3D visualization. The Collaviz project funded by the French government brings technology leaders together to find solutions for remote analysis and collaboration to the scientific and industrial community. These Web-based technologies with shared high-performance computing and visualization centers will allow researchers and engineers handling very large data sets, including 3D data models to collaborate in real-time.
The COLLAVIZ project integrates applications, allowing the exploration of…
Oil and Gas Industry using Octaga’s X3D solutions for 3D visualization
Experience how the oil and gas industry is using Web3D Consortium member Octaga‘s X3D/VRML technology at ONS 2010 from August 24-27, 2010.
Visit Octaga in booth #1216. Octaga Enterprise provides world class 3D visualization software and services for the Oil & Gas and the AEC markets. Their mission is to create value from your enterprise data through the application of interactive X3D/VRML technology and animation.
Don’t miss the interactive performance of Mike Robinson and Bruce Stewart from Subsea Systems of FMC Technologies (booth #601). This interactive subsea presentation made using Octaga’s Visual Solutions…