*Here are two intriguing articles that will be of special interest to you
who find Alexa a useful part of your lives. I own one Echo Dot (the $49.00
version of Alexa that looks like a hockey puck); my wife, Stephanie, owns 2
Echo Dots. Thanks to Terry S. for passing this good read along. Sorry the
formatting of the two articles below is probably screwed up because I
couldn't copy and paste them unless I converted them from Word 2016 to
Notepad.*
-----Original Message-----
From: Pam Berman [mailto:pamelacberman@xxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Monday, January 08, 2018 10:04 PM
To: Pam Berman <pamelacberman@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: FW: [techexchange] Alexa ... microwaves are about to get a whole
lot smarter
How exciting!!
-----Original Message-----
From "PC Magazine"
Microwaves are about to get a whole lot smarter, and even more convenient,
thanks to Amazon Alexa.
In a Thursday
post
on the Alexa Blog, Amazon's Mike Mass introduced new tools that will let
manufacturers add Alexa support to their cloud-connected microwaves.
Whirlpool has already created an Alexa skill that will let customers easily
configure, start, and operate their connected microwaves with just their
voice.
"Customers can ask Alexa to set microwave cook times, modes, power levels,
and more instead of using the traditional and often confusing microwave
experience,"
Mass wrote. That skill is expected to launch soon.
On top of that, support for other cooking devices, such as conventional
ovens, should arrive in the near future as well, Mass said. A number of
other big-name manufactures, including GE Appliances, Kenmore, LG, and
Samsung are also planning to add Alexa to their ovens and other appliances.
"Customers are increasingly using voice user interfaces as a hands-free way
to manage their lives, and hands-free control is especially valuable when
cooking,"
Mass wrote to developers. "Instead of pressing multiple buttons to enable
advanced microwave features, your customers can now use their voices. For
example, a customer can say 'Alexa, defrost three pounds of chicken' or
'Alexa, microwave for 50 seconds on high.'"
Meanwhile, Amazon also announced that its venture capital arm, Alexa Fund,
has invested in June Life, makers of the June Intelligent Oven Best Price at
Amazon.
Customers can already use Alexa to control the June Oven with their voice.
Going forward, those customers will be able to use shorter, simpler voice
commands when using Alexa to control their oven, and receive updates on
their food as it's cooking.
This New LG Fridge Features a Touch Screen and Alexa Support
<https://www.pcmag.com/news/358297/alexa-will-soon-control-connected-microwa
ves?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=dailynews&utm_medium=titl>https://www.pcma
g.com/news/358297/alexa-will-soon-control-connected-microwaves?utm_source=em
ail&utm_campaign=dailynews&utm_medium=titl
-----Original Message-----
From: Pamela Berman [mailto:pberman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Monday, January 08, 2018 10:03 PM
To: Pamela Berman <pberman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: FW: [techexchange] Alexa, game changer for the blind
FYI:
-----Original Message-----
from "PC Magazine"
For the blind, Amazon's Echo and Alexa is more than just neat technology;
it's a lifeline.
By
Jon Kalish
January 8, 2018 8:00AM EST
How to voice train your Echo device
Bill Boules, blind since birth, has three Amazon Echos at his home in the
suburbs of Washington, D.C. and says they've been "life changing."
Boules, 42, bought the
smart speaker
as soon as it came out and found that right away it helped him more easily
access audio content on the web. Previously, he had to use a screen reader,
which is software that orally announces the contents of a web page.
"The Echo is definitely a game changer," Boules tells PCMag. "You can get
the information much faster, at least 10 times faster."
Now, Boules begins his day by asking his Echo Dot
$49.99 at Amazon
to play the news from NPR and sports highlights from ESPN before heading
to work as associate director of rehabilitation and re-integration at the
Vision Center of Excellence, an office within the US Navy that assists
members of the military and their families who have lost their eyesight. As
part of his job, Boules helps clients install and use the Echo. His audio
podcast on assistive technology, The AT Junkie, devoted three episodes to
reviewing different models of the Echo.
Amazon Echo Dot
Like other blind people, Boules says he "watches TV" even though he's only
listening to it. Before he got an Echo, Boules depended on sighted family
members to help him find something to watch on his cable TV's on-screen
guide.
"I'm blind, I can't see the on-screen guide,"
says Boules. "But I can [access it] independently now. I no longer have to
depend on someone else to help me find something to watch."
One thing that Boules says blind people in the workforce grapple with is
wardrobe selection before going to work. Nobody wants to show up at the
office and be told they're wearing a striped tie with a checkered shirt.
"Trying to figure out what goes with what, sometimes, if you're by yourself
and you don't have anyone to say, 'Hey, don't wear that,' it can be a
problem,"
Boules says.
A blind librarian Boules follows on Twitter says that among the ways blind
people can make sure they're dressed properly is labelling their garments
with tags or QR code labels, using apps that describe clothes and connecting
to sighted volunteers. But Boules thinks the Echo Look, which includes a
video camera and LED lighting, may be hold promise for blind people dressing
for work. The device uses machine-learning algorithms and advice from
fashion specialists to offer feedback on wardrobe combinations. Amazon's
motivation here is clearly to sell you clothes, but the unintended outcome
may be a boon for blind workers.
Amazon Echo Look
"We want to look as presentable as anyone else,"
says Boules, "and technology like this has some potential to help with
that."
Christina Brino has four Alexa devices at her home in Pompton Plains, NJ,
including the battery-powered Amazon Tap
$129.99 at Amazon,
which she uses outside during the summer. Now retired, Brino once served as
the coordinator of the Morris County Office for the Disabled. These days she
volunteers at The Seeing Eye
in Morristown, NJ, an institution that dates back to 1929 and was the
first place in America that trained guide dogs for the blind.
images/568644-amazon-tap
Brino uses the calendar skill of her Echo to keep tabs of her schedule. She
uses Echo to set timers when she cooks. There's a GrubHub skill
for ordering meals delivered to her home and a PeaPod skill
to get grocery deliveries from a local Stop 'N Shop store.
"You can realize you need something and say, 'Alexa, ask PeaPod.' And then I
ask her for what I want and she just adds it to my cart," says Brino. "It'll
tell you your delivery time if you schedule it."
Alexa makes phone calls for Brino, reads ebooks to her, plays Teen Jeopardy,
and wakes her each morning with an alarm that uses the voice of Alec
Baldwin.
If you think four Echos is a lot for one home, consider the case of Michael
May and his wife.
They have 10 Echos in the Seattle and Davis, California, homes they share.
Both use them to add to their grocery list by talking to their Echos. May
also uses it to summon Uber rides for himself and his guide dog Johnny; Echo
is "huge in providing part of the equation that I need for independence," he
says.
images/568795-virtual-assistants-voice-recognition
And independence has allowed him to flourish. May is the founder and owner
of the Sendero Group, a company that makes accessibility products, like a
talking barcode reader and GPS software for blind people. His career has
included stints working for the CIA as a political risk analyst and
automating cash machines for the Bank of California. Of the smart speaker's
virtual assistant Alexa, he says, "She's so much a part of my life. I feel
like I know her."
But Alexa, it turns out, wasn't always Alexa.
"The name we had for her was Amy," says Steven Tyler, a Brit who readily
admits he has no connection whatsoever to the band Aerosmith. This Steven
Tyler serves as director of assistive technology at Leonard Cheshire
Disability, a group that supports disabled people around the world.
Tyler previously worked at the
Royal National Institute of Blind People
(RNIB). While he was there, the organization commissioned a Polish
company, Ivona Software, to use its speech-to-text technology to "build
voices" for use in providing access to newspapers and magazines for blind
listeners. In addition to creating a voice with a Welsh English accent,
Ivona developed a female voice named Amy, who became Alexa when Amazon
acquired
the company in 2013.
Tyler says the fact the Echo has proved to be a godsend for blind people is
something the disability community should trumpet.
"Five years ago, Alexa would have definitely been an accessibility product.
Today it's a mainstream product," says Tyler. "It just so happens the Echo
ticks all the boxes around accessibility. And it's accessibility in spades!"
He notes that while some Echo skills, such as the one for TuneIn Radio
and
The Guardian newspaper,
are well written, some skills expect you to know the magic words to trigger
the skill.
"In a way, this is the dawning of a new interface where there is no recourse
to a screen," says Tyler.
Related
. Amazon's Echo Lineup: What's the Difference?
Amazon's Echo Lineup: What's the Difference?
"But the flip side of that is that touch screens now are the enemy [of blind
people]," says Jim Kutsch, president and CEO of The Seeing Eye. Kutsch and
his wife Ginger, who are both visually impaired, have four Echos in their
home; Kutsch has another one at the office.
Amazon donated 32 Echo Dots to The Seeing Eye, so when blind people come for
three plus weeks to work with their new dogs, they have the chance to use
the smart speaker in their dorm room. Between 250 and 275 blind people from
all over the US and Canada come to The Seeing Eye each year, and in addition
to their dog, they return home with a heightened sense of what computer
technology can do for them. It's hard not to believe that, as Paul Simon
sings in "The Boy in the Bubble," that "These are the days of miracle and
wonder."
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