Amazon Echo Club

[ApK]

Originally Posted by jswinden

Propagation on the HF bands is pretty bad right now, almost non-existent.

Solarmax?

I wouldn't compare our brain trying to interpret sounds to the way Alexa does. Our brains are a quantum leap to the google power ahead of Alexa's technology. She is likely unsure of what was muttered, if anything, so lights up and starts trying to hear.

But the important thing I'm noticing about Alexa and her hearing is that loud noises tend to awaken her. Noises that are not even close to sounding like words, syllables, phonetics, etc. If static awakens her, then something is definitely flawed within her FW or perhaps even HW sensors.

It doesn't need to be the same mechanism to be analogous.
If her light turned on, she thought she heard her name.
Even that little bit of speech recognition is non-trivial. If we expect her to operate without us always needing to over-enunciate and yell in a perfectly quiet room for her to understand, I think we're going to have to live with the occasional noise being interpreted as signal. IOW, not so much a flaw as a necessary compromise.

Originally Posted by ApK

Solarmax?

The peak in the solar cycle already came and went. This solar cycle has pretty much been a washout. Rather lackluster, to say the least. We had a burst of activity about 4 or 5 years ago that lasted 6 weeks or so, but not much since then. I made contacts all over the world on several bands, but then the good propagation went away again.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by ApK

And moody.

We may need to invent AI shrinks and therapists to avoid the robot apocalypse.

She once thought hubby said he hates her. Hubby was telling me something and she responded with "good to know" I picked up the app to see what she thought he said. The card said. "I hate you."

Sent from my XT1528

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by Blossom

She once thought hubby said he hates her. Hubby was telling me something and she responded with "good to know" I picked up the app to see what she thought he said. The card said. "I hate you."

Sent from my XT1528

I see who will be first against the wall when the singularity comes!

Just for grins, here are four recordings made by my Dot in the living room over the past few days wherein Alexa suddenly awakened to words or noise, but could not determine what was being said. If you open your Alexa app and go to Settings-->History View Requests to Alexa you will see a list of requests that were made. Pick the ones that state, "Text not available. Click to play recording." These are the requests that confused her. I randomly picked four of these and recorded them onto a digital recorder to show you the kind of things that awaken Alexa, but totally confuse her. Not sure if the link below will function, but it is to the MP3 audio file I created.

Audio of Alexa Awakenings

• 1st Request: An EMS paramedic talking on police scanner
• 2nd Request: Unknown noise
• 3rd Request: Police scanner talk, I think
• 4th Request: Family Guy episode that was playing on my TV

Requests 1 through 3 were obviously difficult to understand, yet none sounds like "Echo". The 4th was easily heard and should have been easily understood, but apparently an Italian voice saying "Hey you!" on a cartoon wakes her up even though "Echo" is never spoken.

[ApK]

Funny. "Hat boy...."

I will change my wake word to Echo and play that recording for her tonight.

I distinctly heard utterances ending in a "Oh" sound in at least two of those recordings, which I can sort of see might have been reasonable to detect as "Echo."

For the burst of noise, no idea, except maybe that's the A.I.'s native language, and the one they use when they don't want humans overhearing their plans.

[tubemonkey]

Nature Sounds Skills

• Box of Birds
  
• Ocean Sounds
  
• Rain Sounds
  
• Thunderstorm Sounds
  
• White Noise

[Catlady]

I've noticed my Dot glowing blue when Amazon Echo commercials have come on the TV and say Alexa, but she hasn't responded to them, just quietly goes back to sleep.

But she does announce her puzzlement when hearing the name Alexis--a character on a soap I watch. Since Alexis currently has a prominent storyline, it's becoming annoying.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Catlady

I've noticed my Dot glowing blue when Amazon Echo commercials have come on the TV and say Alexa, but she hasn't responded to them, just quietly goes back to sleep.

But she does announce her puzzlement when hearing the name Alexis--a character on a soap I watch. Since Alexis currently has a prominent storyline, it's becoming annoying.

Change the wake word to "echo". That's what I did. My Dot no longer responds to the TV.

i changed the wake up word on my living room Dot to "Echo", but that only helped a little bit. There are a lot of words that have a well pronounced long O sound, and they all seem to get her attention. Try watching the show "Homicide Hunter: Lt. Joe Kenda" on the Investigative Discovery channel where Kenda's favorite catch phrase is, "Oh my"! She goes nuts during that program. A lot of blue rings and confusion. So now I switched to the wake up word "Amazon". She seems less distracted by it, but Amazon TV commercials will still get her attention. They really need to add a few more wake up words, or better yet, allow us to record one and program it into her.

An Amazon holiday TV commercial featured someone setting an alarm. The Echo in my study heard it and actually did set the alarm. Someone said earlier in this thread that another TV commercial caused their Echo or Dot to attempt to place an order.

[KimberlyFDR]

Originally Posted by jswinden

They really need to add a few more wake up words, or better yet, allow us to record one and program it into her.

Have you tried the "Computer" wake word yet? I did it for 5 minutes yesterday when I found out it had been added for the Echo (still hasn't shown up for my Dot yet), but it felt too impersonal, so she's back to being Alexa. It helps me cut down on confusion when both my Echo (downstairs) and Dot (upstairs) have the same wake word, too.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by KimberlyFDR

Have you tried the "Computer" wake word yet?

Ha. If I chose that, I'd be compelled to imitate Captain Picard whenever I spoke to her.

Now I want tea.

Earl Grey.

Hot.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by KimberlyFDR

Have you tried the "Computer" wake word yet? I did it for 5 minutes yesterday when I found out it had been added for the Echo (still hasn't shown up for my Dot yet), but it felt too impersonal, so she's back to being Alexa. It helps me cut down on confusion when both my Echo (downstairs) and Dot (upstairs) have the same wake word, too.

I'll be danged. I didn't know they added a fourth wake word.

BTW, my Dot shows it.

"Computer" shows on my Echo now, but it hasn't made it to my Dot yet. Not a great word, but perhaps it will work better than the others. Unfortunately it is another word that will be spoken on TV a lot.

[booklover6]

Now, if you could use "computer" and she would reply "acknowledged" I would be delighted.