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Amazon Echo

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Re: Amazon Echo

#261

Post by justcommenting »

tjbiddle wrote: post #254
r0h1n wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you have to say the word "Alexa" for it to start listening Incorrect. The device is always listening, waiting for you to say "Alexa" so that it can start acting upon your commands. I'd take Amazon's claim that no data is transmitted or stored without the wake word "Alexa" purely at face value. There have been enough examples of devices and corporations collecting/sending data they weren't meant to in the past few y…

Wouldn't it be fairly simple to just monitor network connections to see how often it's sending data to Amazon's servers? Granted - then of course you can have the argument that it's always recording, and then only sending data at the opportune time so that it's a little bit more hidden. And to that - I'd just say you can keep track of how much data should be being sent for the average command.

i would much rather have a device that i can actually control and trust instead of having to spy on a device that's most likely spying on me in ways i might not like.

Re: Amazon Echo

#262

Post by gruturo »

jasode wrote: post #232
r0h1n wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you are saying is technologically correct, possible and prevalent but I couldn't find Amazon saying it anywhere on their page. Can you point me to the part where Amazon says nothing is ever stored/transmitted unless "Alexa" is spoken?

I noticed that your profile mentioned "recording engineer" so maybe some concrete numbers related to digital audio technology will put boundaries on plausible scenarios. We assume either of 2 engineering designs: (#1) the trigger word "Alexa" is detected within an embedded chip . The DSP (digital signal processing) intelligence for analyzing sound waveforms is inside the device. Therefore, the words spoken after "Ale…

Any decent voice-optimized codec (CELP, CELT, Speex, hell even old GSM)can squeeze that in 1Kbyte/sec - actually even half of that but let's retain some quality. Include silence detection and you probably have less than 60 minutes/day from the average household. And storage is cheap. Oh, and Amazon has lots. S3?

Re: Amazon Echo

#263

Post by hackuser »

tindrlabs wrote: post #3

I'm a little frustrated at the moment -- The future is arriving with voice controlled devices, yet I don't trust any of these companies with my words.

> I'm a little frustrated at the moment -- The future is arriving with voice controlled devices, yet I don't trust any of these companies with my words.

The public doesn't understand the technology or its implications well enough for consumer demand to have an effect.

I think regulation likely is needed. In terms of confidentiality these are dangerous products. For example, the confidentiality of health and financial information is regulated, I assume because consumers cannot evaluate and design security systems and therefore cannot demand them from vendors. The same should apply to these products (which will capture health, financial, and much other private data).

Re: Amazon Echo

#265

Post by Nexxxeh »

gnufied wrote: post #106

I am an Indian who speaks with slight accent(not real thick, but admittedly there is some) and I am yet to use a voice recognition service that works for me. Frankly I despair at future of Voice recognition based services which target a very narrow demography. You would hope things would improve with time, but nope. Does anyone else who isn't a native English speaker has seen this problem?

I'm a native English speaker. I'm British. I have minimal regional accent (to the point where people find it difficult to pinpoint where in the UK I'm from.) I'm not far off RP and I'm still yet to find a service that gives me high accuracy.

Re: Amazon Echo

#268

Post by jedmeyers »

13 wrote: post #164
irishcoffee wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have a smartphone with Siri or the equiv app on it (Android, Windows) your device is already 'always listening.' I fail to see the difference. People carry around a GPS tracking device with a mic and camera built-in. They use it to post their entire lives on social networks. And they're worried about privacy. Hilarious.

No, Siri only takes commands when you activate it. There's an "always listening" feature, but this is off by default and only works when you are plugged into external power.

How do you know that it's actually off?

Re: Amazon Echo

#269

Post by filereaper »

'Alexa' as a trigger word...

I'd be curious how it responds if 'Alexa' is contained in the actual music its playing, this immedieatly came to mind: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Downeaster_Alexa

I'm not an expert in voice recognition, this might just be a silly thing that has been long addressed...

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