In this chapter, we covered the evolution of interactive voice-based personal assistants and the various factors involved in their move from a user's smartphone to their smart home. We also saw the various interactive voice-based personal assistants in the smartphone, desktop, and smart home markets, and the capabilities of each.
Our goal was to get the reader familiar with the history of interactive voice-based personal assistants so that over the course of the book, we can direct our focus onto Alexa, the interactive personal assistant bundled with Amazon Echo. The next chapter will enable the reader to understand the anatomy of an Alexa Skill and to hands-on program an Amazon Echo so that Alexa can learn to say one of the oldest phrases in computer programming, "Hello, World."
