Fascinated by Alexa, and want to build your own device with Alexa built in? This workshop will walk you through to how to build your first Alexa-powered device step by step, using a Raspberry Pi. No experience with Raspberry Pi or Alexa Voice Service is required. We will provide you with the hardware and the software required to build this project, and at the end of the workshop, you will be able to walk out with a working prototype of Alexa on a Pi. Please bring a WiFi capable laptop.

1. © 2016, Amazon Web Services, Inc. or its Affiliates. All rights reserved.
Amit Jotwani
November 29, 2016
AVS Workshop
Build an Alexa-Enabled Product with
Raspberry Pi
ALX204

2. Welcome Alexa Developers!
1. Raspberry Pi 3 Board
2. Micro SD Card
3. USB Microphone
4. Earphones
5. Power Supply
6. Case for the Pi
Please find a seat and unpack your kits. Every kit should include:

3. Hello, My Name Is…
Amit Jotwani
Sr. Evangelist, Alexa Voice Service
@amit ajotwani

4. Need help? Ask
Matt Tavis
Principal Solutions
Architect
Erik Hopf
Technical
Editor
Gagan Luthra
Sr. Product Marketing
Manager

5. Need help? Ask
Todd Emerson
Solutions Architect
Jeff Blankenburg
Alexa Evangelist

6. What to Expect from the Session
1. Introduction: Voice as an interface & Amazon Alexa
2. Hands-on: How to build an Amazon Alexa prototype
3. Under the hood: How Alexa works
4. What’s next: Ideas, tools, and resources

7. Voice Is the Future

8. Source: Design News
“The age of touch could soon come to an end.
From smartphones and smartwatches, to
home devices, to in-car infotainment systems,
touch is no longer the primary user interface.”

9. Voice is the Future
“Advanced voice technology will soon be ubiquitous, as natural and intelligent
user interface technology integrates seamlessly into daily life.” – Recode

10. Amazon Echo: The 1st Alexa-enabled Device
43,000 customer reviews, 4.4 star rating
“The real genius of the Amazon
Echo isn't simply what it can do
now, but what it might lead to…”
“Amazon’s Echo might be
the most important product
in years”
“The New Echo Dot Gives
Amazon the Top Spot in the
Smart Home Market.”
“Amazon Echo proves the
viability of voice-based
home computing.”
“A perfect 10.”

11. Introducing Alexa

13. Alexa
Voice
Service (AVS)
Alexa
Skills
Kit (ASK)
The Alexa Service
Supported by two powerful frameworks that leverage open APIs

14. ASK is a collection of self-service APIs, tools, documentation, and code samples that make it fast
and easy for you to add skills to Alexa, including custom skills for your device.
You Pass Back a Textual
or Audio Response
You Pass Back a
Graphical Response
Alexa Converts Text-
to-Speech (TTS) &
Renders Graphical
Component
Respond to Intent
through Text &
Visual
User Makes
a Request
Alexa sends
Customer Intent to
Your Service
AWS Lambda
Amazon API
Gateway
Alexa Skills Kit (ASK)
Audio Stream is
sent to Alexa
Your service
processes
request

15. Alexa Voice Service (AVS)
Natural voice control
Always getting smarter
Easy to integrate, free to use
AVS is Amazon’s cloud-based voice service that allows you as a developer to voice-enable
any connected product that has a microphone and speaker.

16. Amazon Confidential – 3/10/2016
Vision: Alexa Everywhere

17. Cloud-Based Voice Service
Music Services Cloud-Based Intelligence
Smart Home Services
News and Information
Amazon Alexa App
Custom Skills
AVS is always getting smarter with an ever-expanding list of supported
features, services, and third-party skills.

18. “Alexa/Echo is the first product to really showcase the power of voice control in the
home…..Here again, Sonos is taking the long view in how best to bring voice-enabled
music experiences into the home. Voice is a big change for us, so we’ll invest what’s
required to bring it to market in a wonderful way.” – John MacFarlane, CEO at
Sonos
“We are excited to be at the forefront of many third party devices to integrate
the Alexa Voice Service with Triby. It has great communication features, the
ability to hear you from across the room while being portable and an always-on
display. We can't wait to equip millions of kitchens with it!“ – Sebastien de le
Bastie, Invoxia’s Managing Director
“We use Alexa on our CoWatch every day to order supplies from Amazon, check
calendars, quickly get information like weather/traffic, and more. The Alexa Voice
Services (AVS) team at Amazon has been a very enthusiastic and supportive partner
in helping Cronologics and CoWatch launch the 1st Alexa-enabled smartwatch” – Leor
Stern, Co-founder & CEO at Cronologics.
Strong Customer Commitment

19. Now Let’s Play

20. Raspberry Pi + Alexa
1. Raspberry Pi 3 Board
2. Micro SD Card
3. USB Microphone
4. Earphones
5. Power Supply
6. Case for the Pi
Build an Echo-like device using a Raspberry Pi
bit.ly/avs-workshop

21. We Made It!

22. Let’s Review What We Did
• First we launched the companion service
• Next we launched the client
• Finally, we launched the wake word engine

23. How It Works

24. Skills
ASR NLU TTS
Learning
Alexa Voice Service – How it Works
Your Product

25. Understanding the AVS API Interfaces
Interface Description
SpeechRecognizer The core interface for the Alexa Voice Service. Each user
utterance leverages the Recognize event.
SpeechSynthesizer The interface for Alexa speech.
Alerts The interface for setting, stopping, and deleting timers and
alarms.
AudioPlayer The interface for managing and controlling audio playback.
PlaybackController The interface for navigating a playback queue via button
affordances.
Speaker The interface for volume control of a device or application,
including mute and unmute.
System The interface for providing client information to Alexa.

26. “Speak” Directive
Intent
Recognition Result
Recognition Result
Text/SSML
Speech
Platform
Skills
Weather
ASR
NLU
TTS
“Recognize” Event
Alexa Voice
User’s Utterance
“Alexa, What’s the Weather?”
Alexa Voice
Intent
Wake Word
Engine
Speech
Capture via
Microphone
Play back
through
Speaker
Alexa Voice Service

27. “Play” Directive
Intent
Recognition Result
Recognition Result
Text/SSML
Speech
Platform
Skills
Music
Service
ASR
NLU
TTS
“Recognize” Event
Streaming URL
User’s Utterance
“Alexa, Play Music”
Alexa Voice
Intent
Wake Word
Engine
Speech
Capture via
Microphone
Play back
through
Speaker
Alexa Voice Service

28. Building a Product with AVS
Two aspects to building a voice-enabled product
Handled by Alexa Voice Service
• Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR)
• Natural Language Understanding (NLU)
• Text to Speech (TTS)
Handled by You
• Wake Word Engine
• Noise Reduction Algorithms
• Acoustic Echo Cancellation (AEC)
• Beam Forming (Multi-Mic Arrays)

29. Types of interactions
AVS supports both touch-activated and voice-activated products.
Touch-activated Voice-activated
Optimized for products that are
handheld or within arms reach.
Optimized for speech requests
made up to 5 ft. from a product.
Optimized for speech requests
made up to 20 ft. from a product
Client Cloud

30. Thank you!

31. Remember to complete
your evaluations!

32. Related Sessions
Booth #806