Presentation educating individuals with degenerative sight loss on how home automation and voice-enabled smart speakers can assist in their day to day living.

1. Voice Assistants –
How can they help your
day to day life?
@RichMerrett815
@VeniLoqui

2. Who are we?
A company formed to deliver bespoke Voice
Experiences for Amazon Alexa and Google
Home devices.
Our brand under which Community and
Commercial products are published.
Our brand under which products for the
Health, Social Care, Charity, and Not-for-
Profit sectors are published.

3. Voice Assistants
● Voice Assistants, around since 2011, but originally tied to our
phones and laptops, began migrating to standalone devices in
2015.
● Viewed initially as “novelties” for playing music, plus a limited
set of built-in “request/response” functions. Eg. “Alexa, what’s
the weather in London today?” - this view is rapidly changing

4. Voice Assistants
● Now emerging as platforms capable of supporting
sophisticated and bespoke conversations.
○ Amazon = Alexa
○ Google = Google Assistant
○ Apple = Siri
○ Cortana = Microsoft
○ Others = Jibo, Olley, Mycroft
● Chatbots are also capable of this but using a written interface

5. How this tech works...
1. Speech input
2. Speech to text
3. Natural language processing - works out what you have said
4. Compute - works out what to reply/action to take
5. Text to speech
6. Speech output

6. How it can assist with sight loss?
● Home Automation
● Voice Applications
● V-Commerce

7. Home automation - the basics
● How it works
○ Started with control through your phone & has
migrated into commands via voice.
○ You give a command -> Action happens
○ Within the ecosystem of the voice assistant
○ Using a third party
■ If This Then That (IFTTT)
● Devices connect over your local wifi network

8. Home automation - the devices
● Light bulbs
● Thermostats
● Door Bells
● Smart Locks
● Smart Plugs
● Smart Devices
● Smart Home Ecosystems

9. Home automation - the devices
● Light bulbs
● Thermostats
● Door Bells
● Smart Locks
● Smart Plugs
● Smart Devices
● Smart Home Ecosystems

10. Home automation - the devices
● Light bulbs
● Thermostats
● Door Bells
● Smart Locks
● Smart Plugs
● Smart Devices
● Smart Home Ecosystems

11. Home automation - the devices
● Light bulbs
● Thermostats
● Door Bells
● Smart Locks
● Smart Plugs
● Smart Devices
● Smart Home Ecosystems

12. Home automation - the devices
● Light bulbs
● Thermostats
● Door Bells
● Smart Locks
● Smart Plugs
● Smart Devices
● Smart Home Ecosystems

13. Home automation - the devices
● Smart Devices
○ Blinds
○ Fridges
○ Lawnmowers
○ Kettles
○ Microwave

14. Home automation - the devices
● Smart Home Ecosystems
○ Harmony Hub
○ Samsung SmartThings
○ IFTTT

15. Voice Applications - the basics
● Several types
○ One Shots
○ Long running conversations
○ Services
● Alexa - Lots of apps (called skills)
● Google - Library of apps growing (called actions)
● Cortana - Integrated with Microsoft Environment - task
management - can open limited applications (voice search)
● Siri - Up until now, no external developers - one shot actions -
not classed as Voice Applications

16. ● Lists
● Timers
● Reminders
● Weather Fact Finding
● What’s the time
Voice Applications - One Shots

17. Voice Applications - long running
conversation
● Games
○ Lots by indie developers
■ Quizzes
■ Mazes
■ Daily Plays
○ Big developers getting on board
■ Trivial Pursuit
■ Jeopardy
■ BBC

18. Voice Applications - long running
conversation
● Mindfulness
○ Over 450 skills in the Amazon Alexa library
● Companion Applications
● Personal Assistant
○ Google Duplex
● Information discovery
○ Audio Websites

19. Voice Applications - services
● Talking Newspapers
● Local Councils
○ Bin collection etc.
● Uber
● Food Ordering
○ Dominos

20. V-Commerce
● Buying things via voice
● Easier on Amazon than Google
● Amazon have always allowed buying things from
Amazon.co.uk
● Amazon recently introduced in app purchases for voice
applications
● V-Commerce set to become one of the biggest selling points of
voice assistants for those resistant to the idea.
● Wall street have used an Voice Assistants to transfer billions of
dollars this year.

21. Voice Applications - other points
to consider
● Retaining conversational knowledge
○ If you asked a questions about Barack Obama, then
asked how old he is it would remember you were
talking about the former president
● Multimodal
○ Echo Look
○ Devices with screens

22. Communication
● Calling
○ Mobiles
○ Landlines
○ Other devices
● Drop ins
○ Alexa only

23. There are some drawbacks
● It's not Jarvis, Hal or the Star Trek Computer
● Everything is WiFi dependant
● Developers are not linguists
○ Not all have understood the nuances of the english
language
● Notifications are not here yet
○ User must offer up an input for anything to happen

24. There are some drawbacks
● You need to remember the name of all the applications
● They are not a replacement for screen readers
○ Design process is very different to that of a website
● Cost
○ Initial voice assistants are not expensive - but some of
the peripherals are.
● Complex to configure
○ End up with lots of wires (for something that is wireless)

25. In the news - let's clear some
things up...
● They are not always listening!
○ Listening for a wake word (Alexa, Hey Google, Hey Siri,
Cortana, etc.)
○ You can delete your recordings
● Alexa - Pocket Dial
○ Alexa recorded a conversation and sent it to someone in
their phonebook.

26. What does the future hold?
● More are coming
○ Facebook
○ Spotify
● No technology has been adopted
this quickly since the SmartPhone

27. Any Questions?

28. Thank you!
If you have any further questions come
and speak to us...
Twitter
@RichMerrett815
@VeniLoqui
Medium
@rmerrett