PCWorld - Tuesday, September 24, 2019 at 3:45 PM
Your smart device could have Alexa and Cortana and Spotify—and a whole lot more
A cluster of digital assistants you’ve probably never heard of—plus Spotify,
Amazon’s Alexa, and Microsoft’s Cortana—are part of a new initiative enabling
multiple wake words on a single device, including those running Windows 10.
Essentially, you’ll be able to ask a generic device for a particular service
directly, such as telling Spotify to play a particular song. Today, assistants
like Alexa serve as a concierge of sorts, requiring you to tell them to play a
particular song using Spotify, as opposed to YouTube or some other service.
In fact, the new Voice Interoperability Initiative (VII) seems tailor-made for
Windows 10
19H2<https://www.pcworld.com/article/3411556/windows-10-what-to-expect-in-19h2-and-20h1-releases.html>,
which includes the capability for multiple digital assistants to live on the
lock screen. Originally, the target candidates were Microsoft’s own Cortana, of
course, and Amazon Alexa, which went through a prolonged courtship before Alexa
became integrated inside Windows
10<https://www.pcworld.com/article/3297961/alexa-cortana-officially-become-bffs-as-microsoft-and-amazon-integrate-the-two-assistants.html>.
(You should be able to type or tell Cortana to launch Alexa inside the search
bar right now. In 19H2, you should just be able to say “Hey Alexa” to trigger
Amazon’s assistant.)
[ Further reading: The best high-res digital audio players
]<https://www.techhive.com/article/3050398/home-audio/best-high-resolution-digital-audio-player-which-dap-reigns-supreme.html>
The Voice Interoperability Initiative has similar goals. There’s a whole
laundry list of providers and other technology companies involved: Amazon,
Baidu, BMW, Bose, Cerence, ecobee, Harman, Logitech, Microsoft, Salesforce,
Sonos, Sound United, Sony Audio, Spotify, and Tencent; telecommunications
operators like Free, Orange, SFR, and Verizon; hardware solutions providers
like Amlogic, InnoMedia, Intel, MediaTek, NXP Semiconductors, Qualcomm, SGW
Global and Tonly; and systems integrators like CommScope, DiscVision, Libre,
Linkplay, MyBox, Sagemcom, StreamUnlimited and Sugr.
Of those, Alexa, Cortana, plus smaller assistants like Orange’s Djingo,
Salesforce’s Einstein, and Spotify’s own voice-guided navigation are all part
of the VII, according to the member companies. Google and Apple are decidedly
not part of the initiative, however—at least not yet.
The Voice Interoperability Initative sounds like a lot of effort on the back
end, all for a deceptively simple goal on the front end: simplifying the way
you interact with digital assistants and services. But will it be ubiquitous,
with Apple and Google on board? Time will tell.
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https://www.pcworld.com/article/3440742/your-smart-device-could-have-alexa-and-cortana-and-spotify-and-a-whole-lot-more.html#tk.rss_all
David Goldfield
Assistive Technology Specialist
Feel free to visit my Web site
WWW.DavidGoldfield.info<http://WWW.DavidGoldfield.info>
