pdm solutions develops two of the first German-based VUI Amazon Alexa skills

Based on Amazon’s Alexa skills kit (ASK), pdm solutions developed two Amazon Echo skills for the client DeTeMedien (German Telekom Media), who is the co-publisher of the directory services “Das Telefonbuch”, “Gelbe Seiten” and “Das Örtliche”. In cooperation with Amazon, pdm solutions created the Gelbe Seiten Kinosuche (cinema finder) and the local search of Das Örtliche.

Next to the numerous already existing features of Amazon Echo like playing music, reading audio books, switching on and off lights and giving updates about the current traffic and weather forecast, pdm solutions as digital specialist was commissioned by DeTeMedien to design the German voice user interface (VUI) and the technical transformation of the Gelbe Seiten and Das Örtliche skills. Amazon Echo is now able to give information about the current cinema film guide and show times with the help of the Gelbe Seiten skill. By means of the Das Örtliche database, Amazon Echo users are now able to receive information about addresses and telephone numbers of restaurants, doctors or baker shops.

“Voice commands have been an interesting topic for a while now. So far this field was dominated by Google and Siri and I am glad to see that Amazon puts voice commands on a new level thanks to its general openness to developers. With the help of the new custom skills, everyone can access his own ideas and services for voice commands. We are proud to say that we contributed to one of the first German-speaking skills and user experiences for Alexa customers”, Marc Göbel, Chief Technical Officer, ProDigitalis Medien GmbH.

To make the service more user-friendly at the German market, the Berlin digital specialists developed a complex German voice command system applicable to the skills. The VUI of Amazon Alexa recognizes with its installed software the activation word “Alexa”. By that, Echo is activated, a blue light ring evokes and Echo imparts the inquiry to the cloud. Alexa then processes the inquiry to data bases and gives search results accordingly. This is also possible with the local search of Das Örtliche and the Gelbe Seiten cinema finder now, which can be activated for Alexa devices in the Alexa skill store.