AWS IoT and Alexa in the connected home

© 2019, Amazon Web Services, Inc. or its affiliates. All rights reserved.S U M M I T
IoT and Alexa in the connected home
ANDREW HOOD – Prototyping Engagement Manager, AWS
BRIAN GREEN – Innovation and Mobile Development Team Leader at Lancaster University
… and on the connected campus

Connected Home Market
433 million
smart home devices were
shipped worldwide in 2017
from the previous year
27.6%
18.5%
IDC estimates a CAGR of
devices shipped in 2022
940 million
as the market grows to

Connected Home Market—Challenges & Opportunities
Hard to differentiate in a
crowded market
Hard to improve customer experiences
while keeping costs low
Hard to maintain interoperability
between multi-vendor devices
Lack of a reliable & scalable cloud
infrastructure platform
Edge-based computing can help
build innovative products
Need to ensure secure connections

Connected Home Market—Use Cases
Home automation Home security & monitoring
Door locks
Smart meters
Security cameras
Water leak detectors
Thermostat
Wi-Fi routers & modems Cable set-top boxes
Home networking
Lighting systems
Media & entertainment
White goods & appliances
Small appliances
Home assistants
Soundbars
TVs
Vacuum robots

Home Automation
Key Trends & Opportunities
Integration with
voice control
Interoperability
between devices via hubs
Exciting & new
customer experience
Customer
ease of use

Sense & Act
Things
Secure device
connectivity
and messaging
AWS IoT Core
Fleet onboarding,
management and
SW updates
Fleet
audit and
protection
IoT data analytics
and intelligence
AWS IoT Device
Management
AWS IoT Device
Defender
GatewayEndpoints
AWS Greengrass AWS IoT
Analytics
Amazon
FreeRTOS
Storage & Compute &
Learn
Cloud
Secure local
triggers, actions,
and data sync
Intelligence
Insights & Logic → Action
AWS IoT Services Suite

AWS IoT Core supports MQTT, a lightweight
communication protocol designed to tolerate
intermittent connections, minimize the code
footprint on devices, and reduce network
bandwidth requirements.
With AWS IoT Device Management, you can
onboard, organize, and monitor all of your devices,
creating a real-time fleet index, and remotely
manage devices with over-the-air updates.
AWS IoT Core provides scalable, low latent
bi-directional communication from device to cloud
with availability in 11 regions worldwide.
Why Use AWS IoT For Home Automation?
Built-in connectivity
Device security
Offline communication
Over-the-air updates Devices running AWS Greengrass and Amazon
FreeRTOS can be updated over-the-air, for security
updates, bug fixes, and new feature updates.
AWS Greengrass enables connected devices
to operate with intermittent connectivity to
the cloud—synchronizing the data whenever
connection is re-established.
AWS IoT provides end-to-end authentication and
encryption of device data, key management, and
code signing for OTA updates.
Reliable & persistent communication
Responsiveness
Device management
Device insights
Low total cost of ownership
With AWS IoT Analytics, you can keep track of error
logs, troubleshoot remotely, perform predictive
maintenance, and gain valuable customer insights.
The AWS IoT service suite enables a faster
time-to-market and eliminates the need to
build expensive, custom in-house infrastructure.
Amazon FreeRTOS, an IoT operating system for
microcontrollers, provides libraries for security &
connectivity in a tiny memory footprint.

Home Automation
Example
AWS Greengrass can run
on a home gateway such
as a router so that the
lighting system, TV, and
Echo continue to operate
even if connection to the
cloud is lost.
Smart TVs can connect to AWS
IoT Core to take advantage of a
fully scalable cloud backend that
provides easy integration with
Alexa.
Amazon FreeRTOS provides
security, connectivity, and
updateability for devices
running on microcontrollers,
like a light bulb so it can
respond to voice commands.
AWS IoT Device Management,
AWS IoT Device Defender,
and AWS IoT Analytics
provide added benefits such as
remote device management,
monitoring, security, and
insights into device usage.

Problem
With the release of Roomba vacuums, iRobot,
which had so far operated primarily as a
hardware vendor, was about to bet its central
line of business on its ability to run a high-
availability, customer-facing cloud application
and an Internet of Things (IoT) backend
platform. Due to the popularity of Roomba,
iRobot saw a big surge in web traffic on its
mobile app as well as on its infrastructure.
Solution
By using a serverless architecture based on
AWS IoT core and AWS Lambda, iRobot was
able to keep the cost of its IoT and mobile
cloud platform low, avoid the need for
subscription services, and manage the solution
with fewer than 10 people.
iRobot

Home Security & Monitoring
Audio and
image recognition
Machine
learning
Home
surveillance
Quick
response time
Energy
management

Why use AWS IoT for Home
Security & Monitoring?
Machine learning inference at the Edge
Offline communication
Quick response time
Intelligent insights
With IoT Analytics you can easily gain
predictive insights on usage patterns
for smart home devices.
AWS Greengrass devices can process and act on data
locally to respond quickly to local events, without the
roundtrip to the cloud. Amazon FreeRTOS devices
easily connect to Greengrass core devices.
AWS Greengrass enables connected devices
to operate with intermittent connectivity to
the cloud— synchronizing the data whenever
connection is reestablished.
a
AWS Greengrass gives you the ability to train ML
models in the cloud and deploy them on the
device for inference—so the model can run
without a direct cloud connection.

Home Security & Monitoring
Example
AWS Greengrass ML Inference
brings machine learning
capabilities to a camera,
like being able to detect an
intruder as it’s happening.
AWS Greengrass allows the
security camera, door lock, and
even outdoor lighting to
continue operating even when
cloud connection is lost. It can
also take actions locally,
avoiding a costly and timely
round trip to the cloud.
Amazon FreeRTOS provides security,
connectivity, and updateability for
devices running on microcontrollers,
like a connected door lock or video
door bell.
AWS IoT Device Management,
AWS IoT Device Defender,
and AWS IoT Analytics
provide added benefits such as
remote device management,
monitoring, security, and
insights into device usage.

IntegrationsConsumer Home Cloud AWS
IoT
lightbulb
IoT
doorlock
Security
System
IoT
thermostat
Mobile user
AWS IoT
Lambda
function
Internal
Applications
Amazon
S3
Amazon
DynamoDB
Amazon
Athena
Amazon
Rekognition
Amazon API
Gateway
Amazon ES
MQTT
IoT thing
camera
Amazon
Kinesis
Amazon
Kinesis Video
Amazon
Pinpoint
Amazon
Redshift
Amazon Kinesis Video and ML/AI
Analytics, ML
Databases
Compute
Consumers
AWS Console
Administrator
3rd
party API
Rest API
AWS
Greengrass
Amazon
SageMaker
temporary
security
credential
AWS IoT, Kinesis,
AWS Lambda
IoT Shadow
SMS | APNS | GCM
Amazon
Cognito
IAM
Lambda
function
Alerting
Storage
Architecture Sample Slide
Home Security & Monitoring End to End Solution

Problem
Allegion (Schlage) is looking to reduce
product development time while still ensuring
reliable and secure connectivity for their smart
security solutions.
Solution
“Amazon FreeRTOS makes it easier for
Allegion to rapidly innovate new features
for our connected products, such as our
Schlage electronics locks, and more easily
between hardware platforms. We can focus
on our core strengths, developing innovative
safety and security products, knowing that
Amazon FreeRTOS will make integration
reliable and predictable.”
—Todd Graves
Allegion Senior Vice President
of Engineering and Technology
Schlage

Home Networking
Improve customer
experience
Optimize the network
performance
Reduce customer
support cost

Home Networking
Example
AWS IoT Device Management
provides device certificates for
routers and set-top boxes will
never expire. You can perform
OTA updates to keep devices
running the latest versions of
the software.
AWS IoT Analytics can help the
operations team identify issues
based on historical data, and
provide proactive solutions to
customers.
AWS Greengrass can help
customers diagnosing
network issues on the device
itself, even without internet
connectivity. Then it can rely
data back to AWS IoT Core
for preventative action when
cloud connection
is re-established.
Customers can diagnose
network issues and apply
fixes themselves.

Voice is a powerful user
interface to control devices
Alexa Skills allow you to do
much more with your devices
Embedded voice
experiences within devices
Voice Assistant Enabled Workloads

Why Use AWS IoT with Voice Assistants?
Ease of implementation
Cloud enabled bi-directional communication
Seamless Interoperability between
Alexa skills and AWS IoT
Insights into users
AWS IoT acts as a liaison between
Alexa Cloud and your devices.
AWS IoT allows you to easily analyze
and gain insights for device actions
within the home.
AWS IoT acts as a liaison between Alexa
Cloud and your devices.
With AWS IoT you can have a
voice enabled backend solution
running within a matter of
minutes.

Problem
Rachio wanted to get their Smart Sprinkler
Controller out there quickly without investing a
lot in their own hardware resources. They
didn’t want to spend all their time maintaining
the underlying technology, whether that be
device connectivity or servers. They also
needed to find a way to easily build security
into the product, while ensuring scalability for
the product once it was launched.
Solution
Rachio uses the AWS IoT managed cloud
platform to enable the secure interaction of its
connected devices with cloud applications and
other devices. AWS IoT also gave Rachio a
seamless onramp to additional AWS services.
For example, the company uses AWS Elastic
Beanstalk to deploy and manage its website,
web apps, and API infrastructure. Most
recently, Rachio began using the Amazon
Alexa Skills Kit (ASK), a collection of APIs and
tools, to give voice commands to the second-
generation version of the Rachio Smart
Sprinkler Controller.
Rachio

Problem
Technicolor is a leader in digital innovation for the
media and entertainment industry that works with
cable, telco, and satellite operators to bring
bandwidth-intensive experiences into the home.
The company sees opportunities for network service
providers to build a bridge between cloud and edge
technology to introduce new revenue-generating
services while making home networks easier to
access, manage, and configure through voice
activated commands.
Solution
Technicolor will use AWS for home gateway
applications, leverage AWS IoT and AWS Greengrass,
integrate Alexa into its new gateway products to allow
users to configure network setting and more just by
asking, into its new family of gateway products. The
collaboration will allow network service providers to
gain access to broad developer community through
AWS, improving overall quality of service, customer
experience, cost control, while addressing privacy
issues by empowering consumers to have greater
control over their own information.
Technicolor

Alexa Skills Kit
The Alexa Skills Kit (ASK) lets you teach Alexa new skills.
It contains the documentation, tools, and sample code needed to build
Alexa skills.
https://developer.amazon.com/ask

Types of Alexa Skills
Custom Skills
Smart Home Skills
Flash Briefing Skills
Video Skills
List Skills
For crafting unique game or app experiences
For providing flash briefing content
For providing video playback of content
For using and maintaining lists
For controlling a smart home and devices

Alexa Skills Kit
Directive
Audio
Cards
Speech Recognition
Machine Learning
Natural Language Understanding
Text to speech
Event
Skill
Service
Alexa Skills Kit

Smart Home Capability Interface Examples
Interface Capability
Alexa.Discovery Discover and describe endpoints
Alexa.PowerController Turning on or off
Alexa.PercentageController Sets a percentage
(Percentage, Intensity, Speed, etc.)
Alexa.ColorController Change and report the color
(Hue, Saturation, Brightness)
Alexa.PlaybackController Control playback
(Play, Pause, Rewind, etc.)
Alexa.ThermostatController Set a temperature or point or range

Lancaster University

© 2019, Amazon Web Services, Inc. or its affiliates. All rights reserved.S U M M I TS U M M I T © 2019, Amazon Web Services, Inc. or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
“Humans can talk at 150 words per
minute, but can only type at 40”

Compelling reasons
• Compelling examples
• Students comfortable with
voice
• Build a foundation for other
cloud service benefits

Zero to L.U.
⭐420
March18
Nov18Day0
Day40
Day80
Mar19Day120
Day20
Day60
Day100
Survey to
students “What
would you like to
ask a chatbot?”
Early Prototypes
Generate
Excitement
Write Press Release
Get money
Infrastructure
Security
APIs
Voice Design
QnA
University Events
Disability
Campus Life
PC Availability
Laundry
Library
App Integration
Societies
”Cards”
Magic Sauce
Deployment
Test
Exams
Research
Staff Data
Academic Events
Deadlines
Greetings
Dev Team
• 3 x Full Time Dev
• 1 x Conversation
Specialist
• 20 x Part time
Students
• Lots of Coffee….

How busy are
the computers
in the library?
What’s my
average
grade?
Research…
What’s my next deadline?
Can you book a
group pod for
me?
Who is my next
session with?
How can I
contact …

Ask L.U.
https://portal.lancaster.ac.uk/student/news/11078532/
alexa-ask-lu-what-can-you-help-me-with

How we built it
AWS Lambda
iLancaster
App
Alexa enabled
device
Amazon Lex Alexa
Skills Kit
Amazon API Gateway
Amazon Elasticsearch
Service
Local
APIs/Lambda’s
• Societies
• Student Info
• ……
Intents / Slots Intents / Slots
AWS Lambda

How we built it
AWS Lambda
Amazon API Gateway
Local
APIs
• Societies
• ……
AWS Lambda
Amazon Simple Storage
Service (S3)
Amazon CloudWatch
AWS X-Ray
Other Tools
• Serverless
• Terraform
• .NET Core
Amazon DynamoDB
Amazon DynamoDB
AWS Lambda
Local
APIs
• Student Info
• ……
Amazon Simple Queue
Service
Amazon Simple
Notification Service

How we authenticated it
iLancaster
App
Alexa enabled
device
User Info
AWS Lambda
Alexa
Skills Kit
Amazon Cognito
SAML
token
SAML
Provider

Future
• Use of machine learning
• Socratic questioning
• Recorded lecturer feedback

Why AWS IoT for Connected Home—Summary
AWS IoT’s easy to use tech, Machine learning
driven insights, integration with Alexa, allow
you to differentiate in a crowded market
AWS IoT has a pay as you go model, allowing
you to innovate with new experiences while
keeping costs low
AWS platform supports various messaging protocols and
has a vast partner network allowing you the flexibility to
build interoperability between multi-vendor devices
AWS IoT provides a reliable
& scalable cloud infrastructure platform
AWS IoT provides Built-in security
Edge-based computing can help
build innovative products

How It Works Diagram

Thank you
Please rate this session in the app!

Home Automation—Device State from Alexa to Device
custom

Home Automation—Overall Conceptual Model

© 2019, Amazon Web Services, Inc. or its aﬃliates. All rights reserved.S U M M I T
IntegrationsConsumer Home Cloud AWS
IoT
lightbulb
IoT
doorlock
Security
System
IoT
thermostat
Mobile user
AWS IoT
Lambda
function
Internal
Applications
Amazon
S3
Amazon
DynamoDB
Amazon
Athena
Amazon
Rekognition
Amazon API
Gateway
Amazon ES
MQTT
IoT thing
camera
Amazon
Kinesis
Amazon
Kinesis Video
Amazon
Pinpoint
Amazon
Redshift
Amazon Kinesis Video and ML/AI
Analytics, ML
Databases
Compute
Comcast
Consumers
Comcast AWS
Console
Comcast
Administrator
3rd
party API
Rest API
AWS
Greengrass
Amazon
SageMaker
temporary
security
credential
AWS IoT, Kinesis,
AWS Lambda
IoT Shadow
SMS | APNS | GCM
Amazon
Cognito
IAM
Lambda
function
Alerting
Storage
Home Security & Monitoring End to End Solution

Smart Home Device Unboxing
Certificate
Application
Certificate
Registration
Identity verification
Device without Certificate
Pre-installed
Device with CA-signed
Certificate
AWS IoT Core
DynamoDB Table for
Device Identity
DynamoDB Table for
User-Device Mapping
ProfileUpdate
Mobile
Device
User profile update
CloudWatch
Cognito
IAM
Step
Functions
CloudTrail
Config
LocalWi-FiPairingLocalWi-FiPairing
SMS
EmailPinpoint
S3 Device
File Bucket
CloudFormation
Mobile
Push
Thing Registration

On-boarding
1a
User On-boarding
1b
Device On-boarding
SetupDeviceWi-FiCredentialover
BLEorDeviceAP
Connect to Internet
DynamoDB Table for
User Profile
CRM for
User Profile
RDS Database
for User Profile
API Gateway
STS
Cognito
User Pool
Create User Profile
Retrieve Temporary Token
Register User and Authenticate
Or Or
Mobile App
Or Other ID Providers:
Open ID, SAML, etc
Mobile App
The picture
can't be
displayed.
The picture
can't be
displayed.
The picture can't be
displayed.

Generate Certificate
Device Registration
Mobile App
Mobile App
ScanQRCodeOne-
timeCode
ScanQRCodeOne-
timeCode
Register Device to End User
Register Device to End User
Add device to user profile
JITR
MQTT Connect
Download Configuration
Request Certificates
Create
Certificate API
Add device to user profile
Return Certificate
Validate Device Ownership
Validate Device Ownership
Download Configuration
Create Thing/Policy
and Attach Certificate
Update Certificate ID
Device with pre-installed
CA-signed certificate
Device without pre-installed CA-
signed certificate
Create Thing/Policy/Certificate
API
Gateway
API
Gateway
API Gateway
IoT Core
IoT Core
S3
S3
DynamoDB Table for
User Profile
CRM
for User Profile
RDS Database
for User Profile
Or Or
2a
Device registration
with JITR
2b
Device Registration
without AWS Certificates
The
picture
can't
be
displa
yed.
The
picture
can't
be
displa
yed.
DynamoDB Table for
User Profile
CRM
for User Profile
RDS Database
for User Profile
Or Or
IoT
Policy
IoT
Certificate
IoT
Thing
Or Or
IoT
Policy
IoT
Certificate
IoT
Thing
Or Or

Alexa Service Infrastructure
Alexa
Enabled
Device
Alexa Smart
Home Skill
AWS
Lambda
Amazon
S3
Amazon
DynamoDB
AWS
CloudFormation
IAM
Amazon API
Gateway
AWS IoT
Sample-Smart-Home-Backend

Alexa Service Infrastructure Instances
Alexa
Enabled
Device
Alexa Smart
Home Skill
AWS
CloudFormation
Sample-Smart-Home-Backend
SampleEndpointAdapter
SampleSkillAdapter
SampleEndpointDetails
SampleUsers
endpoint-code-us
EndpointLambdaExecutionRole
Python (boto)
/directives
/endpoints
/events

Alexa Skills Kit
The Alexa Skills Kit (ASK) lets you teach Alexa new skills.
It contains the documentation, tools, and sample code needed to build Alexa sk
https://developer.amazon.com/ask

Types of Alexa Skills
Custom Skills
Smart Home Skills
Flash Brieﬁng Skills
Video Skills
List Skills
For crafting unique game or app experiences
For providing flash briefing content
For providing video playback of content
For using and maintaining lists
For controlling a smart home and devices

Alexa Skills Kit
Directive
Audio
Cards
Speech Recognition
Machine Learning
Natural Language Understanding
Text to speech
Event
Skill
Service
Alexa Skills Kit

Alexa Cloud
Endpoint Cloud
Smart Home
Skill Service
Directives
Events
Alexa Event Gateway
Login with Amazon
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Lambda
Home Network
Internet
Account Linking / OAuth
Proactive State Updates
Asynchronous Responses
Smart Home Skill API
Alexa Application & DevicesEndpoints

Alexa Cloud
API Gateway
Smart Home
Skill Service
Directives
Events
Alexa Event Gateway
Login
with
Amazon
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Lambda
Home Network
Internet
Account Linking / OAuth
Proactive State Updates
Asynchronous Responses
Smart Home Skill API
Alexa Application & DevicesEndpoints
AWS IoTDynamoDB
API Service
Lambda

Problem
Allegion (Schlage) is looking to reduce
product development time while still ensuring
reliable and secure connectivity for their smart
security solutions.
Solution
“Amazon FreeRTOS makes it easier for
Allegion to rapidly innovate new features
for our connected products, such as our
Schlage electronics locks, and more easily
between hardware platforms. We can focus
on our core strengths, developing innovative
safety and security products, knowing that
Amazon FreeRTOS will make integration
reliable and predictable.”
—Todd Graves
Allegion Senior Vice President
of Engineering and Technology
Schlage

Problem
Amway is one of the world’s largest direct selling
businesses, selling nutrition, beauty, bath, body, and
home products through a network of Amway
independent business owners across the world. Until the
launch of the Atmosphere Sky Air Treatment system, all
of their products were unconnected. In the early stages
of R&D for the product, they began asking how they
could elevate the business and improve lives using data.
The development group knew that creating a connected
product would be outside of the comfort zone of most
within the organization. Development tested the
processes that have been in place for decades and forced
groups to work across silos in ways that were never
required before. The biggest challenge was bringing this
new strategy into a very established organization.
Solution
Early on, OST worked with Amway to validate the project,
provide credibility and reassurance to the leadership
teams, and set the project on an agile development path.
Once OST was brought into the project in a formal
capacity as part of an ecosystem of partners, we started
with a discovery phase, focusing on strategy and UI/UX
development and continued through development.
Created on the AWS platform, the development teams
worked seamlessly to create a product that delivers
increased value, reliability, and personalization through
data utilization. The cross functional teams of design and
development meant solutions were vetted early on,
increasing the speed to a solution.
Amway

Problem
Aricent wanted to transform home lighting
into a personalized Smart Home lighting
experience to provide a simple way to make
lights reflect a person’s activities and moods.
Solution
Aricent used AWS IoT services and Cloud
services that includes AWS IoT core, EC2, EC3,
EBS, ELB, Autoscale, SQS, Amazon RDS, VPC,
S3, CloudWatch, CloudFront, SNS, Lambda and
Route53. Its flagship solution also includes
Alexa integration for voice assisted Smart
Living which helps define a human-centered
experience strategy, UX/UI design, Mobile App,
and Cloud Solution.
Impact
With AWS, Aricent was able to define a digital
strategy with immense potential. It built a
new, highly scalable, user experience which it
deployed across multiple countries. This has
resulted in not only entering a new market but
also achieving greater customer satisfaction.
Aricent Smart Lighting

Problem
Xenon was looking to build a home automation
system for large Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT).
The problem was how to manage the 10–15
connected devices and sensors being deployed per
home, scaled across the 17,000 rental property
homes managed by the REIT.
Solution
After working on an in-house solution,
Xenon connected with ThingLogix. ThingLogix
deployed Foundry into Xenon’s AWS account and
developed the features required to centrally manage
all the devices across the 17,000 homes. The total
implementation time was four weeks. This allowed
the property management system to be delivered
ahead of schedule and far under budget.
Solution
Xenon is currently rolling out their connected
home solution for their REIT customer.
The solution provides:
• Auto-provisioning of newly installed home gateways
and devices
• Full integration with the property management systems
and API for further customizations
• User and account management
• Alarm logic and alerting
• 2-way communication with installed device
Xenon

Yonomi
Thincloud
(Sylvania) Smart+ Lights Pet Monitoring StartupResidential Smart Locks
(case study)
Backend as a service for
consumer IoT
• Turnkey—focus on your product and UX, not
the cloud
• Fast to production with easily consumable
APIs and SDKs
• Standardized data models
(OCF, dotdot, Alexa)
• Ready for third-party integrations (OAuth)
• Included voice assistant integrations
• Low and predictable device operating costs
• Built using an AWS ‘serverless’ stack

AWS IoT and Alexa in the connected home

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