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Use Synonyms in Voice Interaction
Lesson 1 of 2
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  1. 1
    Why Use Synonyms
    Imagine you are creating a skill where a user can ask Alexa for a recommendation for a pet based on a size preference. The dialog may look something like: _USER: ask pet match to find me a big dog…
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  2. 2
    Using Synonyms
    To resolve the issue of mapping large to big, we can use synonyms in the Alexa Skills Kit to create a sort of custom thesaurus for our skill. For example, we could map small, medium, and big to the…
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  3. 3
    Movie Preference Skill
    In this exercise, we will walk you through the steps to create a new skill and add synonyms to the values for a MOVIE_GENRE custom slot type. If you need a refresher on how to create a skill, you s…
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  4. 4
    Testing: Synonyms
    In this exercise, you will learn how to test synonyms in your Alexa skill. #### Make a dummy endpoint 1. In the Amazon Developer Console , click on the Build tab, then select the Endpoint secti…
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  5. 5
    Entity Resolution Explained
    In the Alexa Test Simulator , take some time to try a few more synonyms and the slot value itself (action). Did your JSON responses look similar to the image on the right? Notice, the JSON inpu…
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  6. 6
    Entity Resolution No Match
    Let’s see what happens when the user says a word that is not included in our slot synonyms list. Try typing something like: - “ask movie match to find me pizza movie” - “ask movie match to find me…
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  7. 7
    Review
    Nice work! You just learned how you can use synonyms to allow a user to speak in a natural way. Let’s review what we learned: - Using synonyms is a great way to improve the voice design of your …
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  1. 1
    Intro
    As you know now, your skill needs to handle synonyms to mimic realistic conversations. To handle synonyms you have two options: with or without Entity Resolution (ER). Option 1: Do it all by y…
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  2. 2
    Parse JSON
    In the previous exercise you saw that Option 2 (using Entity Resolution) is faster and easier to maintain. Where can you access these synonyms? In the JSON request. #### About JSON Request When us…
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  3. 3
    Check Resolution Status in AWS Lambda
    Now that you can access the status code in the JSON request, what do you do with it? Using conditional statements, you can tailor your skill’s response based on this status code.
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  4. 4
    Access the synonym (slot value) in Lambda
    Part of good conversational design is responding to users in their own language, i.e. respond with the user’s synonym. Imagine that a user asks for a “scary” movie, but Alexa responds with a “horr…
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  5. 5
    Access the Resolved Value in Lambda
    Entity resolution allows us to create synonyms for our slot values, so that we can receive consistent data in our code, but still allow a user to speak in the way that makes sense for them. Why d…
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  6. 6
    Review
    Nice work, you just learned how you can use synonyms to allow a user to speak in a way that makes sense for them, while providing a means for your skill to still correctly interpret the user’s inpu…
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