Alexa’s so smart, she learns more every day. (That’s what Amazon tells me, anyway.) So I’m going to pick her brain a little, and see if she can tell me anything about AWS. Maybe she knows how to write Alexa apps, or even regular REST & JavaScript apps — apps that run entirely in AWS. … Read More
The Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) is investigating voice interfaces via Amazon Alexa. While any number of uses are under consideration, one early proof of concept focused on the Special Delivery Unit, for mothers carrying babies with known birth defects. While some conditions are common and well-known, others … Read More
Alexa’s so smart, she learns more every day. (That’s what Amazon tells me, anyway.) So I’m going to pick her brain a little, and see if she can tell me anything about AWS. Maybe she knows how to write Alexa apps, or even regular REST & JavaScript apps — apps that run entirely in AWS. … Read More
We have an Alexa project where we’re using Alexa to control physical devices in the room. In a deployment, there are multiple devices in multiple rooms. But these devices aren’t lights or thermostats, so they aren’t yet candidates for the Alexa Smart Home API. A few months ago, it looked like we would have to … Read More
It’s a known limitation that a custom Alexa skill cannot perform notifications. That is, Alexa can only speak when first spoken to, and cannot spontaneously alert you that you have an appointment coming up or whatever. There’s a simple way to fake it, though, if you’re using an Echo device and you have a spare … Read More
When I first looked at Firebase, I thought it was garbage. (Sorry, I ran out of sugarcoating this morning.) But things changed when we came across an app that was a much better fit for it. That app was an Amazon Alexa skill, which needed to control content in a browser showing full-screen on a … Read More
