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TMB for Amazon Alexa
The new Amazon feature that allows you to find out the service status of the metro and the arrival time of the next bus.
What is Alexa?
TMB joins the testing of new artificial intelligence and voice command channels.
Alexa is Amazon's voice-control system that acts as the brains of Echo and other Amazon voice-controlled devices designed completely around the voice.
Alexa is easy to use and functions similarly to mobile apps except that it is controlled by voice. Alexa responds instantaneously to user questions and the more it is used, the more it adapts to speech patterns, vocabulary and preferences.
Alexa's responses to users' questions include playing music, providing news, setting timers and alarms, verifying sports scores, controlling house lights and much more. It also has features that Amazon calls skills that allow the consumer to create a more personalised experience, like receiving brief information, ordering food and making a doctor's appointment.
Alexa reports on the metro
Alexa's "flash briefings" skill also provides reports (in Spanish) on the status of the Barcelona metro. Users simply have to ask Alexa for news and the device will include information about the metro service within the daily summary of information.
Alexa provides information about the different statuses of the metro lines:
- When all lines are operating correctly.
- When a line is closed.
- When a line is operating partially.
- When for some reason there is no information about the service.
Depending on the way TMB users receive this new development, TMB plans to introduce new skills to continue improving your travel experience.
Alexa gives bus information using iBus Next bus
Alexa now incorporates the skill of the iBus Next bus information system, the app that calculates in real time how long it will take the bus you are waiting for to get to your stop.
If users are waiting for a bus on a specific route, all they have to do is tell Alexa (in Spanish) that they want to open iBus Barcelona and for it to calculate the arrival time, stating the reference number of the route and the bus stop code.
If users just wish to know when the next bus will arrive at a given stop, regardless of the route, they only have to ask Alexa to open iBus Barcelona and, by stating the bus stop code, it will tell you the arrival time of the next bus.
More information about Alexa
Download the skill at Amazon's website (ES)
As a developer, find out more about Alexa at Amazon's website (ES)
Discover all the skills at the Alexa Skills Store