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

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

#121

Post by minutillo »

CharlesW wrote: post #115
scubbo wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I heartily recommend you to explore other options, there's a solution to that infuriating behaviour: https://fosstodon.org/@scubbo/109412458604860895

Thanks! I found it a few messages down: "Alexa, stop 'By The Way'" Alexa will then reply, "I will snooze my suggestions… for now ." (The foreboding pause was implied.)

And the suggestions will restart in a few days. What we did is add "stop by the way" as a custom command to our "goodnight" routine, so the thing is reminded every single night that these suggestions are unwelcome. The annoyance maximization team at amazon hasn't deployed countermeasures to this yet.

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

#122

Post by dang »

31337Logic wrote: post #67
paxys wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This keeps getting repeated all over the internet but is simply not true. There may be a day when Amazon turns Alexa into advertising spyware, but that definitely wasn't its original intention and nothing of the sort is happening today.

Found the Amazon shill.

Could you please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the site rules when posting here? You've unfortunately been breaking them repeatedly.

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

#123

Post by muted_sorts »

jmole wrote: post #14
danpalmer wrote: post #4

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…

Not for consumer level devices. There’s an inherent tradeoff between false positives and true recognition rate. If you make the wrong choice, it means the device doesn’t respond when you say the wake word. There’s nothing that infuriates users more than having to say it again and again to get a response: “Alexa. Alexa! ALEXA!!”

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

#124

Post by hn92726819 »

> the audio is checked against a fraction of other Alexa requests arriving at around the same time. If the audio of a request matches that of requests from at least two other customers, we identify it as a media event

I wonder what that fraction is. If you put 10 Alexas in a room I wonder if it's possible that none of them wake up.

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

#125

Post by atkailash »

_ea1k wrote: post #13
atkailash wrote: post #9

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.

I've been amazed at how rough the flows are around timers. Its a pretty basic piece of functionality, but even something as simple as cancelling them does not work reliably.

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

#126

Post by atkailash »

jcutrell wrote: post #17
atkailash wrote: post #9

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.

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

#127

Post by scubbo »

CharlesW wrote: post #115
scubbo wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I heartily recommend you to explore other options, there's a solution to that infuriating behaviour: https://fosstodon.org/@scubbo/109412458604860895

Thanks! I found it a few messages down: "Alexa, stop 'By The Way'" Alexa will then reply, "I will snooze my suggestions… for now ." (The foreboding pause was implied.)

Haha, yeah, not a fan of that :( anecdotally, they haven't restarted for me yet (activated it ~6 months ago), but I really wish there was a permanent option.

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

#128

Post by kulahan »

ghaff wrote: post #62
Rychard wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When doing the initial activation of the Dash button, you had to choose the item that it would purchase from a list of items belonging to the corresponding brand on the button itself. The available choices were fairly diverse, differing in style/quantity/price/etc. When you pressed the button, you know what you were buying and how much it cost, because you're the one who set it up. As for how to determine whether the…

I wouldn't count on prices not changing relative to other retailers on this sort of thing--or a particular SKU remaining the best deal.

I think this is what sets you apart from the customer Amazon was trying to target
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