Hi – YES.  I should have reported that the video I sent with the control of Lights with the Hue lighting system was done with the Dot!   The music you heard playing was through the Dot and – in reality was fine but not as rich a sound as the Echo.

From: <xxxxxx@alsa.simplelists.com> on behalf of Amy Roman <xxxxxx@sbcglobal.net>
Reply-To: "xxxxxx@alsa.simplelists.com" <xxxxxx@alsa.simplelists.com>
Date: Tuesday, November 15, 2016 at 2:22 PM
To: "xxxxxx@alsa.simplelists.com" <xxxxxx@alsa.simplelists.com>
Subject: Re: Use of sgd and amazon Echo. What about the Dot?

Hi John and List,
Has anyone tried the less expensive Echo Dot, second generation? They sell them in packs at a discount.  I think Amazon is thinking with the lower price of $49, a person can put a dot in every room.  My impression is the sound quality of the dot as a speaker is less full and rich but it should work just as well at taking commands.  
 
Sincerely,

Amy Roman, MS, CCC-SLP
Augmentative Communication Specialist



Forbes Norris ALS Research and Treatment Center
2324 Sacramento Street
San Francisco, CA 94115
Cell (415)518-0592
Fax (415)600-3778



From: Amy Lustig <xxxxxx@gmail.com>
To: xxxxxx@alsa.simplelists.com
Sent: Saturday, November 12, 2016 7:09 PM
Subject: Re: Use of sgd and amazon Echo

This is so cool -- thanks for sharing!

On Sat, Nov 12, 2016 at 1:47 PM, Costello, John (Otolaryngology) <xxxxxx@childrens.harvard.edu> wrote:
Hi all, for the past few months I’ve had so many people with ALS get over the moon excited over this simple use of an SGD and Amazon Echo.   A woman with ALS (who loves this) asked me yesterday if I had posted on any professional lists   which made me think to post here.    This is a video I made for our clinic page and our clinic facebook page (www.facebook.com/ACPCHBoston) but thought I’d share the link in case anyone had not had a chance to try this out.     I have a list of synthetic voices it does not respond to, under development and will share. 

"Do you know that by creating your language page sets properly, one can control Amazon Alexa - including music, news, environmental controls (lighting control not demonstrated in this video). Alexa does NOT recognize ALL synthetic voices (we are working on a list) AND for novel commands, it is imperative that the word 'Alexa' is stored with a comma afterward because the Echo requires a slight pause between the awake word (Alexa) and the command. Here you see both full pre-stored phrases as well as a novel command created after selecting 'Alexa," (note the comma).”

Video link:


John M. Costello
Director, Augmentative Communication Program and 
ALS Augmentative Communication Program
Boston Children's Hospital



--
Amy Lustig, PhD, MPH, CCC-SLP
Restorative Speech & Swallow
419 Johnson Street, Suite 102
Jenkintown, PA  19046
215-460-1150
xxxxxx@gmail.com