This repository showcase how to integrate Video Doorbells with Alexa using WebRTC. The underlying objective is to exhibit how to achieve a 2-way full duplex communication. This integration will be based on two building blocks:

• an Alexa SmartHome Skill declaring a video doorbell appliance using two Interfaces : Alexa.RTCSessionController (for the Camera) and Alexa.DoorbellEventSource (for the Doorbell)

• a managed Signaling Channel from AWS Kinesis Video Stream WebRTC

• Amazon Developer Account
• AWS Account
• AWS IAM Profile/User
• Node.js / NPM
• a computer with webcam
• an Amazon Echo device (a multimodal device is preferred)

Your first step is to create a Signaling Channel on your AWS Account through the Kineses Video Stream service. You can use the Kinesis Video Streams console, the AWS APIs, or the AWS CLI to create your signaling channels.

All necessary steps to build a Smart Home Skill are explained in details in the Documentation. You just need to follow them.

However, here are a few points of attention:

• Account Linking:

  • We are using Login with Amazon (LWA) in this sample for demo purposes. You need to create a security profile from the LWA Section of Developer Portal.

  • Account Linking Information for LWA:

    • For Authorization URI field use https://www.amazon.com/ap/oa
    • For Access Token URI field use https://api.amazon.com/auth/o2/token
    • For Client ID field use value for LWA Security Profile
    • For Your Secret field use value from LWA Security Profile

  • You shall whitelist the Alexa Redirect URLs listed on the Account Linking page in your OAUTH service. Typically, for LWA, it means going back in the LWA Section of the Developer Portal, select your Security Profile, go to the Web Settings and update the Allowed Return URLs by clicking the Edit button. You should have 3 URLs to add and they shall look like the following ones:

https://pitangui.amazon.com/api/skill/link/<_YOUR_VENDOR_ID_>
https://layla.amazon.com/api/skill/link/<_YOUR_VENDOR_ID_>
https://alexa.amazon.co.jp/api/skill/link/<_YOUR_VENDOR_ID_>

(Path: Developer Portal > Settings > Security Profiles > Select Profile > Web Settings > Edit > Allowed Return URLs)

• AWS Lambda

  • Make sure you use the same AWS Account for both the KVS Signaling Channel and Lambda function

  • Alexa requires developers to create AWS Lambda functions in specific regions for supporting specific locales (more info here).

  • To use the codebase available in this repository create a Lambda function with Runtime ===Node.js 10.x. Before uploading the code into the lambda function, the following operations shall be performed:

    • Update ./lambda/smarthome/credentials.js with your own Login With Amazon Security Profile keys and AWS KVS Signaling Channel name & arn

    • In directory ./lambda/smarthome and from the command-line, run the following command to install the dependencies: npm install

    • Zip the contents of the ./lambda/smarthome directory into a file named package.zip

    • Upload package.zip into your Lambda function from the AWS Console

    • Note: On the Lambda Configuration Page, be sure to set the function timeout to 6 seconds to avoid any potential timeout while generating the SDP answer (Path: Lambda > Function > My_Function > Configuration > Basic Settings > Timeout).

  • Add below inline policy in your Lambda IAM Execution Role to get access to your AWS KVS Signaling Channel from your code:

  {
      "Version": "2012-10-17",
      "Statement": [
          {
              "Sid": "VisualEditor0",
              "Effect": "Allow",
              "Action": [
                  "kinesisvideo:DescribeSignalingChannel",
                  "kinesisvideo:GetSignalingChannelEndpoint",
                  "kinesisvideo:SendAlexaOfferToMaster"
              ],
              "Resource": "*"
          }
      ]
  }

• Skill Activation:

  • To ease testing, I recommend you using the same Amazon account for both your Developer account and your Alexa account. Reason: a development skill appears automatically on your Alexa account (same Amazon account) and can be easily activated.

  • Once the appliance is discovered, on the Alexa App, go to the appliance details page and activate "doorbell announcement". Note: to avoid sending the announcement to all your devices, make sure you select only one device for announcement trigger (a multimodal device is preferred, e.g Echo Show).

To connect your computer's camera to your newly created Signaling Channel on AWS, you need to update the following credentials in file ./camera/kvs_webrtc.js:

// AWS Credentials
const AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID = '_TODO_ADD_YOUR_OWN_';
const AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY = '_TODO_ADD_YOUR_OWN_';
// AWS region
const AWS_REGION = '_TODO_ADD_YOUR_OWN_';
// AWS KVS Signaling Service (Channel)
const AWS_CHANNEL_ARN = '_TODO_ADD_YOUR_OWN_';

If you are at this step, it means you have already:

• Created an AWS KVS Signaling Channel
• Deployed an Alexa SmartHome Skill
• Enabled the skill on your Alexa account

1. Open file ./camera/camera_demo.html

   • Click on "Start Camera" button
   • Accept to share your camera & microphone

2. Try the following utterances on your Echo Show device and observe the behavior:

Note The property isFullDuplexAudioSupported on Alexa.RTCSessionController determines whether a camera is full duplex or half duplex. In this sample, the camera is full duplex by default. Have a look at the documentation to have more details about the Discovery response for a WebRTC Camera.

1. Open file ./camera/camera_demo.html

   • Click on "Start Camera" button
   • Accept to share your camera & microphone

2. Open file ./camera/doorbell_announcement.html

   • Select the region corresponding to the end-user (an US Alexa user would use North America endpoint, a French Alexa User would use Europe endpoint)
   • Enter the endpointId use at discovery time
   • Enter the access token retrieved from LWA following an Alexa.Authorization.AcceptGrant directive
   • Click Press Doorbell

Note: If the acces token is expired (a LWA token is typically valid for one hour), you can use the second form available to renew the access token. Be sure to store the refresh token as it will not be available afterwards. In a test environnement, if you loose the refresh token, you shall re-perform Account Linking (unlink/link skill) and rediscover devices.

3. You should observe the Camera Live Streaming on your Echo Show device. The microphone is disabled.

Note: Following a doorbell pressed event, the automatic live streaming visible on selected Echo Show devices will last 15 seconds max. If you do touch the screen or enable microphone, the streaming session timeout on Alexa side will be 10 minutes.

Kinesis Video Stream WebRTC

• Documentation

• FAQ

• Official Github : JS | C | Android | iOS

Alexa Smart Home Skills

• Intro
• Steps to Build a Smart Home Skill
• Alexa Account Linking
• Login with Amazon
• Alexa WebRTC Controller
• Alexa Doorbell Controller
• Send Events to Alexa Gateway
• Alexa SmartHome Developers Forums
• Alexa Github
• Alexa Blogs: SmartHome | Alexa Skill Kit | Device Makers

This library is licensed under the Amazon Software License