Research Development: Amazon Echo in Information Technology

This report provides an overview of the research and development of Amazon Echo, a home-based audio speaker with voice assistance (Alexa). It explores the device's concept, functionalities, advantages, and disadvantages. Amazon Echo, similar to Siri and Google Now, connects via Wi-Fi to cloud services, offering features like music streaming, alarm management, Google Calendar integration, and video capabilities. The report highlights the enhanced Echo Plus version with improved speakers and Dolby sound processing. While advantageous for its intelligent Bluetooth speaker capabilities and hands-free voice control, Amazon Echo has limitations such as the absence of a display, single language support (English), and difficulty with complex commands. The accompanying demonstrator provides a compelling overview of the idea.

Running head: RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
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1RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Table of Contents
Introduction..........................................................................................................................2
Discussion............................................................................................................................2
Idea and concept..............................................................................................................2
Advantages......................................................................................................................3
Disadvantages..................................................................................................................3
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................3
References............................................................................................................................4

2RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Introduction
Amazon Echo is a cylinder in shape device that is home based audio speaker which
comes up with personal voice assistance that is Alexa (Apthorpe, Reisman and Feamster, 2017).
Alexa is much similar to Siri and Google Now which is generally used in various kinds of
phones and tablets. It is generally connected with Wi-Fi which allows to users to easily accesses
cloud services right from their home.
In the coming pages of the report the idea and concept of Amazon Echo has been
discussed. After that pros and cons has been stated in details as per the needs of the user.
Discussion
Idea and concept
Amazon Echo comes up with Bluetooth which allow people to easily stream music right
from their mobiles devices. It is built with Alexa which can easily handle multiple users and
alarms at the same interval of time (Li et al. 2016). It comes up with the integration of Google
calendar and its re-order items which are eligible for prime services at Amazon. This device
allows us to perform a range of functions like
 Watching of videos from new broadcast
 Watching of videos from YouTube.
 Forecasting of weather
 It provides a platform where a video chat can be easily done if they have amazon
echo and Alexa app.
To overcome some of the drawbacks amazon has launched Echo plus which is considered to be
bigger and better of previous version (Ebling, 2016). It comes up with enhanced speaker which

3RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
comes up with 360-degree sound. It has also 2.5-inch woofer can 0.8-inch tweeter. It has Dolby
processing of sound which provides quality of sound to the user.
Advantages
 This device is considered to be an intelligent Bluetooth speaker which comes up
with Dolby digital for listening quality of music (Tucker et al..2016).
 It allows hands-free mode which convenient for voice control.
 The connection of Bluetooth is considered to be flawless as device can be
connected within 30 seconds.
Disadvantages
 In comparison to Siri and iPhone, amazon echo does not have any thing display.
 Echo speaks only one kinds of language that is English.
 Amazon Echo is unable to report to provide response to complicate type of
commands.
Conclusion
From the above discussion it can be easily stated that this report is all about Amazon
Echo which is latest technology in field of speaker. In the discussion portion of the report an idea
and concept behind the working of Amazon echo has been provided. After that advantages and
disadvantages of Amazon Echo has been provided.

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References
Apthorpe, N., Reisman, D. and Feamster, N., 2017. A smart home is no castle: Privacy
vulnerabilities of encrypted IoT traffic. arXiv preprint arXiv:1705.06805.
Li, R.Y.M., Li, H.C.Y., Mak, C.K. and Tang, T.B., 2016. Sustainable smart home and home
automation: Big data analytics approach.
Ebling, M.R., 2016. Can cognitive assistants disappear?. IEEE Pervasive Computing, 15(3),
pp.4-6.
Tucker, G., Wu, M., Sun, M., Panchapagesan, S., Fu, G. and Vitaladevuni, S., 2016. Model
Compression Applied to Small-Footprint Keyword Spotting. In INTERSPEECH (pp. 1878-
1882).