ARC: an Alexa based suite of skills for residential care services

Abstract

For decades, science fiction movies and novels have showed us what the future smart home could be like and, particularly, artificial intelligence (AI) home assistants. In 2017 different companies have attempted to create their own take on these assistants and the result is a reduced, though varied, spectrum of solutions. Google makes the Google Home, a “smartspeaker” that stands out for its Google Assistant implementation and search algorithms. Microsoft has Cortana, a virtual AI assistant included in every copy of Windows 10. Even Apple has Siri and plans on producing a device of their own. In 2015 Amazon introduced its own take on the matter, the Amazon Echo (shown in figure 1). It’s a Bluetooth speaker that has a built-in microphone and connects to the Amazon Web Services (AWS) through Wi-Fi.