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

Post by ilyt » Mon, Jan 16, 2023, 8:54 PM UTC

remram wrote: post #22

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…

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…

Post by paxys » Mon, Jan 16, 2023, 9:01 PM UTC

Kwpolska wrote: post #47

So they’re training Alexa not to recognize the specific recording. I’m wondering if this has any side effects for the actors from those ads: if they have an Alexa at home, does it (sometimes) fail to recognize them? (And wouldn’t it be cool, if somewhat dystopian, if Alexas all over the US quipped “hey, that’s my big sister on the TV!”?)

Post by paxys » Mon, Jan 16, 2023, 9:05 PM UTC

candiddevmike wrote: post #60

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.

How would you know when they do this? Buried inside a "We've made some updates to our Terms of Service" email?

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Jan 16, 2023, 9:15 PM UTC

brian_cloutier wrote: post #77

candiddevmike wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would you know when they do this? Buried inside a "We've made some updates to our Terms of Service" email?

There are a lot of people who run proxies like pi-hole while using these devices. It only takes one of those people to notice a sudden increase in traffic and post that finding somewhere. If you discover that Alexa is uploading information that it shouldn't be and blog about it you can be almost guaranteed to hit the front page of HN, these kinds of posts appear from time to time: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id…

Post by ars » Mon, Jan 16, 2023, 9:36 PM UTC

incanus77 wrote: post #92

incanus77 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's different in a major way. Apple: - Only ever uploads anything to the cloud after a *successful* wake word is detected on-device (and, critically, lets you know with a voice confirmation). Amazon: - "On most Echo devices" checks on-device against known commercials (the point of this article). Then: - "In the cloud: Every audio request to Alexa that starts with a wake word is checked..." — successful or not. M…

Per the Apple article, the detection is customized to the user who setup the device and went through an (on-device) enrollment training. > We compare the distances to the reference patterns created during enrollment with another threshold to decide whether the sound that triggered the detector is likely to be "Hey Siri" spoken by the enrolled user. > This process not only reduces the probability that "Hey Siri" spoke…