Amazon's speech recognition assistant "Alexa" to teach a child a polite wording

Smart speaker sold by Amazon "Amazon Echo"Speech recognition assistant installed in"Alexa"is. Alexa is "Play music"Or"Sing a song"Although it is a speech recognition assistant to use in a form to talk to as if asked by humans, so that children's users can grow up politely, from words Alexa when they can say" please "or" thank you " A new word will be added.

Amazon Alexa to reward kids who say: 'Please' - BBC News
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-43897516


According to survey results released by survey company ChildWise in January 2018, young people accustomed to exchange via digital virtual personality such as Alexa and Google Assistant are aggressive when interacting with actual human beings I understand that there is a tendency to respond to it. "This survey is a positive progress, and among the children who talk to devices equipped with Alexa etc," polite "that" please do "or" Thank you " We were able to discover that there are few things that use words, young children enjoy interacting with interactive voice recognition assistants, but as they grew larger they became aware of being robots The frequency of use declines, "suggesting the possibility that politeness and courtesy will be lost from the spoken language of children by familiarizing themselves with speech recognition assistants etc. in early childhood.

In the meantime, it is clear that Amazon has a function that praises polite wording and appreciation words such as "please ~ ~ please" or "Thank you" as a new function of Alexa.


This new function is named "Magic word". For example, when children talk to Alexa with a polite word like "Please tell us the weather of tomorrow?", The Alexa side answers the child's wording like a lot of things, such as "Thank you very much" to hold. Furthermore, when a child says "Thank you" for Alexa in response to a voice command from the user, Alexa returns words such as "Do not worry" or "You are welcome", so a more realistic communication practice place .

In 2017, toy maker Mattel is a smart speaker for children "Mattel's nabi"Has been released. This smart speaker was a strange thing to not do the task unless you put the word "please" at the end, but Amazon seems to have adopted this approach more flexibly into Alexa .

Amazon spokesperson told the BBC, "We talked with third-party child related experts in the development of magic word.The experts are not punitive for teaching children, I told that positive enhancement is the best way.The experts understood that it is not useful and as good for children as saying "I can not do it unless I say a request" "I say. Amazon spokesperson also said that if the magic word is welcomed by parents with children there is the possibility of extending the function further.


In addition, there are functions that Amazon can use free of charge for home with children and what can be used with a monthly charge of $ 2.99 (about 330 yen). Functions that can be used for free are "a function to set not to accept commands at bedtime", "a function to turn off some services such as speech purchase or speech read aloud," "block singing of specific lyrics Function "three. Functions that can be used for a fee are "Alarm clock function by well-known manga character", "Audio book for hundreds of children for children" "Disney, National Geographic,Alexa skillsExclusive use of "is three.

In addition, Alexa says that detailed adjustments have been made so that children can understand that they produce a higher voice than adults, or even "Awexa" can respond to children who can not pronounce "L" well It is.

As for the new function that praises polite wording, only in the United States at the article creation next point, it becomes available after the software update of May 9, 2018plansis.