Brain Gym

Inspiration

By itself this hackathon inspires, the idea of being able to create a bridge that brings technology closer to our adults age 55 and older, is very motivating.

Brain gymnastics, also known as neurobics, is a set of exercises, problems and mental puzzles that improve the performance of the brain. Sensory stimulation and activities such as unusual actions and thoughts are hypothesized to produce more of the body's neurobiological system chemicals that stimulate the growth of new dendrites and neurons in the brain. Routine actions are so automatic in a person that most actions are performed largely unconsciously. Such automated or unconscious actions require less activity in the brain, and less exercise. With the help of neurobic exercises, it is claimed that the brain can be stimulated.

My Skill “Brain Gym" seeks to bring brain gymnastics to adults aged 55 and over in an agile, friendly and fun way.

What it does

Brain Gym is a skill that seeks to innovate, fully exploiting the APL capabilities of a multimodal skill. Additionally and in an innovative way, it uses other AWS services: such as Amazon Sumerian (The amazon sumerian host library and assets are licensed under the MIT-0 and CC-BY-4.0 License.) improving the user experience through an Avatar, who serves as a guide and personal trainer within the skill.

The skill allows two game modes:

1. Memorama, the traditional memorama game, controlled by voice commands and touch events.

2. Mental Dexterity, a basic mental calculation game, but one that requires concentration and dexterity.

How we built it

Using Amazon Sumerian, Amazon Polly and Amazon S3 technology, an avatar is personalized, in order to provide the user with a friendlier gaming experience. The avatar is the guide and personal trainer within the gaming experience.

Implementing the Alexa Web API for Games, a communication bridge is achieved between the Alexa Skill and the Web game developed with HTML5 and Javascript, Amazon S3 is also used for the resources.

The technologies used are:

Amazon Sumerian
Alexa Web API for Games
Amazon S3
Alexa Presentation Language (APL)
- Multimodal Responses
- SendEvent
Amazon Polly
- Joana
Alexa Skills Kit Sound Library.
Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML)
HTML5
Javascript
Flow design: MindManager
- StoryBoard
Images Design:
- Corel Draw
- Photoshop
Video creation and editing:
- Camtasia 9

Challenges we ran into

The idea of being able to help create a bridge between technology and our adults is very motivating, but at the same time it is a great challenge. This is why I took on the task of building a skill that would provide a completely new experience, and be very friendly. Combining various AWS technologies with the Alexa Skill was a great technical challenge: I think something like this has never been done before, and for the same reason it is also very gratifying to see the final result. I believe that this type of implementation opens the horizon towards very innovative options.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

As I mentioned before, I believe that until now a skill of this type had not been made, or at least I am not aware of it, for that reason "Brain Gym" represents my greatest achievement, as far as skills are concerned (since 2018 I'm a skill developer). And above all I feel proud and happy, because I am sure it will be of great support to the community of adults aged 55 and over.

What we learned

I knew a little about some AWS services, but with the development of Brain Gym I learned much more, including about animation, design, and teaching. I was captivated by the Amazon Sumerian service, I have also learned how to implement it through Babylon.js. I have also been surprised by the versatility that Alexa Web API for Games provides, I have enjoyed learning it.

What's next for Brain Gym

Next up for Brain Gym is to add a few more mental math games, as well as difficulty levels. But my main objective is to implement some additional AWS services, such as: Cloud Front or Amplify and Babylon.js, that allow me to take the Amazon Sumerian avatar to interact through Amazon Lex, in real time with the user, I think this would greatly raise the limit of this skill.