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Why Alexa won't wake up when hearing "Alexa" in Amazon's Super Bowl ad (2019)

amazon.science

21–30 of 128 posts

Re: Why Alexa won't wake up when hearing "Alexa" in Amazon's Super Bowl ad (2019)

#21

This makes me wonder, has anyone found a buffer overflow in the Alexa cue? Meaning that by activating Alexa with the right audio you make the audio processor crash?

Wow. That's a thought. And if you can make it crash, then you can maybe make it run shellcode instead...

do you then have to tell it elle ess space slash var slash log?

Re: Why Alexa won't wake up when hearing "Alexa" in Amazon's Super Bowl ad (2019)

#22

I wonder if there's a way to identify audio from speakers. IT might not work for higher end speakers or lower end microphones, but I'm sure the limited frequency range from speakers, and perhaps artifacts of audio compression that might not be noticeable to humans, would identify non-human audio. I've seen a similar approach used for visuals, separating an image at the point of recording based on the type of light so…

It always seems like my cat can tell what's from a speaker and what's real. My wife calling to the cat over the phone never triggers any reaction, and the cat will often jump out because of a little noise in the kitchen or outside even though a movie is playing.

I don't know how much of that is directionality and how much is the sound itself. Cats probably hear different frequencies than humans, but as you point out it wouldn't be too hard to make smart devices' microphones sensitive to those frequencies that our devices' speakers don't emit correctly (because humans don't hear them).

Re: Why Alexa won't wake up when hearing "Alexa" in Amazon's Super Bowl ad (2019)

#23
post #18

I thought that these voice assistants were keyed to people’s individual voices, and their characteristics. Like what VALL-E clones

Alexa/Echo devices at least can recognise voice. If you ask "Alexa, who am I?" it will try to tell you who it heard. To learn a new person you can go "Alexa, learn my voice" (I have no idea to what extent it uses this - e.g. I'd love for it to know that when it recognises my girlfriend, it should apply her music preferences from her profile on my account, but if it does it's by no means obvious).

It specifically seems to recognise the voice based on the wake word - my son an I tested this by having one of us say "Alexa" and then the other saying "who am I?", and it'd consistently give the name of the person who said "Alexa".

Re: Why Alexa won't wake up when hearing "Alexa" in Amazon's Super Bowl ad (2019)

#24
Meanwhile, I’ve had to disable ‘Hey, Siri’ on my iPhone because it’ll trigger at least 4-5 times a day during normal conversations.

No my name is not anything close to Siri. No, I didn’t train ‘Hey, Siri’ in a noisy environment. All I could possibly give for a reason is that I have a deep sonorous voice.

Re: Why Alexa won't wake up when hearing "Alexa" in Amazon's Super Bowl ad (2019)

#25
Following the article, it would still work to send malicious media to targets to be played in the presence of their Echo devices. Presuming the media was played one at a time, it would not trigger as a " mass media" event would still work despite being pre-recorded and a "mass" distribution.

Re: Why Alexa won't wake up when hearing "Alexa" in Amazon's Super Bowl ad (2019)

#26

Ok but why she respond still responds to Michael from the TV but not echo when I’m yelling at it the third time trying to set a timer. There’s a reason I’ve switched almost exclusively to Siri.

Today I asked Siri what the temperature was this morning. It told me it doesn’t have access to past weather information. Siri has been available for 12 years… I cannot understand why it hasn’t leaped forward more than it has. Embarrassingly low level of progress IMO, though for some things it still remains best in class.

Has anyone seen a change log for Siri or a roadmap for future features? I feel as if the functionality is almost the same as it was on release with a nicer sounding voice today.

Re: Why Alexa won't wake up when hearing "Alexa" in Amazon's Super Bowl ad (2019)

#27
Trick question; she never sleeps.

Amazon Echo Recorded And Sent Couple's Conversation — All Without Their Knowledge https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/05/25/614470096...

Cary man says 'Alexa' disclosed private conversation https://www.wral.com/cary-man-says-alexa-disclosed-private-c...

Re: Why Alexa won't wake up when hearing "Alexa" in Amazon's Super Bowl ad (2019)

#28
post #22

I wonder if there's a way to identify audio from speakers. IT might not work for higher end speakers or lower end microphones, but I'm sure the limited frequency range from speakers, and perhaps artifacts of audio compression that might not be noticeable to humans, would identify non-human audio. I've seen a similar approach used for visuals, separating an image at the point of recording based on the type of light so…

It always seems like my cat can tell what's from a speaker and what's real. My wife calling to the cat over the phone never triggers any reaction, and the cat will often jump out because of a little noise in the kitchen or outside even though a movie is playing. I don't know how much of that is directionality and how much is the sound itself. Cats probably hear different frequencies than humans, but as you point out…

Interestingly, this was true for my cat until we tried with a device with beamforming - a homepod. It will convince her there is a bird/cat/thing in the room.

Re: Why Alexa won't wake up when hearing "Alexa" in Amazon's Super Bowl ad (2019)

#29
post #24

Meanwhile, I’ve had to disable ‘Hey, Siri’ on my iPhone because it’ll trigger at least 4-5 times a day during normal conversations. No my name is not anything close to Siri. No, I didn’t train ‘Hey, Siri’ in a noisy environment. All I could possibly give for a reason is that I have a deep sonorous voice.

Well my dog is called Lizzy. That’s apparently close enough. The first times I freaked out a bit when a voice answered to something I said to my dog when I was alone at home

Re: Why Alexa won't wake up when hearing "Alexa" in Amazon's Super Bowl ad (2019)

#30
post #24

Meanwhile, I’ve had to disable ‘Hey, Siri’ on my iPhone because it’ll trigger at least 4-5 times a day during normal conversations. No my name is not anything close to Siri. No, I didn’t train ‘Hey, Siri’ in a noisy environment. All I could possibly give for a reason is that I have a deep sonorous voice.

Siri is triggered by so many words and phrases. Serious. Basically. Make sure it. Series.

The worst part is that when it’s triggered, it refuses to shut up and be canceled.

Siri is the laughing stock of the “AI assistants” space.

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