美国智能音响生态系统对比分析

美国智能音响生态系统对比分析

The article is released under license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

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Background

In the U.S. market, many types of smart speakers are on selling, and the development tendency of using voice to control smart home devices is soaring. To explore the possibility of incorporating Silicon Labs products with smart speakers on the U.S. market, the investigation of smart speaker ecosystems is a must. This article investigates the mainstream products of smart speakers in U.S. market in details, including the technologies used, the characteristics of the ecosystems, and the popularity of different products in the U.S. market.

1. Amazon Alexa ecosystem

1.1. Alexa Connected Devices

Alexa is a voice assistant, unlike Siri presented by Apple Inc., it can be incorporated into many products. To some extent, it is pretty much similar to Tmall Genie, an open-loop ecosystem. However, one big difference is that Alexa could be an independent hardware module to be integrated into an endpoint device while Tmall Genie cannot. There are two options to develop an Amazon Alexa supported device—connecting a third-party device to Alexa or directly building an Alexa integreted device.

For connected devices, there are four ways to connect the device to Alexa.

Figure 1.0 Options connecting to Alexa

1.1.1. In the Cloud

This way is pretty much a traditional way of controlling a smart device. It’s through Cloud to Cloud to transmit user’s directives. The smart speakers or Alexa is only responsible for interpreting voice messages to code directives, and through Amazon cloud, sending the code directives to the AWS Lambda, where the custom skills are held. Then, the AWS Lambda communicates with the developer’s cloud to assign the specific commands, and finally, the end devices will receive the commands through the internet using Wi-Fi or cable connection. For every directive, the developer can choose an either synchronous or asynchronous way to respond to Alexa whether the directives were received or not, and Alexa gives feedback to the user accordingly. This mode is implemented through Amazon Smart Home Skill API, which provides the interfaces for describing the device attributes and their supported directives. Customer can also through Alexa phone application to check the status of their devices and give directives.

Figure 1.1: The Directives Flow Between Clouds

The very detailed process about how the directives are transmitted can be found here.

1.1.2. Locally

Two ways to connect Zigbee-based device to Alexa.

1. Connecting the Zigbee-based smart devices to Alexa using the Zigbee hub built-in to the new Echo Show and Echo Plus
2. Through other Zigbee Certified hubs such as those from SmartThings and Wink

Amazon also provides a badge called** Works with Alexa** to certify the products that will be selling in the market. To obtain the badge, the developer must follow all program guidelines.

1.1.3. On Your Device

Amazon provides a hardware module that can be integrated into the device. This module may have multiple functions, such as communicating with Amazon Cloud. It plays a role as a middle man, communicating with the device through serial communication and communicating with Alexa Cloud over the internet. Under this way, the product is joined the Alexa ecosystem. This way needs company level cooperations.

1.1.4. Echo-paired(Bluetooth)

Developers can make their own smart devices using bluetooth connections to connect with Amazon Echo, and Amazon Echo could communicates with Alexa Cloud. This process is implemented through Alexa Godget Toolkit.

Figure 1.2 Directives Flow between Gadgets and Alexa server

Except for these four ways connecting devices to Amazon Alexa, Amazon also provides Alexa Voice Service (AVS) which allows developing product with built-in Alexa. Customers can talk to these products directly with the wake word “Alexa,” and receive voice responses and content instantly. Alexa built-in products work with Alexa skills and Alexa-compatible smart home devices, bringing familiar capabilities from the Amazon Echo family of devices to a range of new form factors and use cases developed by leading brands.

More details here.

1.2. Alexa Voice Service (AVS) and Alexa Built-in Devices

Alexa Voice Service (AVS) is Amazon’s suite of services built around its voice-controlled AI assistant for the home and other environments, and Alexa built-in is a category of devices created with the Alexa Voice Service (AVS) that have a microphone and speaker. The Alexa Voice Service enables user to access cloud-based Alexa capabilities with the support of AVS APIs, hardware kits, software tools, and doc