EldersTree

Connect, help and learn from elders

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Inspiration

They are our or like our parents, grandparents, and family members, they are our elders, during their long lives and careers they had so many experiences that we can learn from and also most of them have some health ailments that come with age, we can also do our part in helping them become productive, making them feel less isolated and more connected.

What it does

This project connects users to elders who sign up. They can interact with the elders in the following ways:

1). Ask an Elder: Have a question about life, career, love, or relationships, ask an elder by saying “Alexa, ask EldersTree a question” followed by the question you have. If the question is too long, you can also type it in by using the Alexa text interaction in the Alexa app. This question will be shared with our elders. They can listen to questions by saying, “Alexa, open EldersTree and get a question” this will select any unanswered question and assign it to them. They can skip the question by saying “Alexa, open EldersTree and get a question” again; this will assign a new question to them; they can answer a question by saying “Alexa, open EldersTree and answer question”. Once a question has been answered, the person who asked the question will get notified via email and text message. There will be a unique link for them to view the question and its answers.

2). Virtual Lunch/Dinner with Elder: We can learn so much from our elders, you can sign up for a virtual lunch with an elder and learn more about them, making them feel less isolated and get life advice. An elder can host a virtual event by saying, “Alexa, open EldersTree and host event”. People interested can sign up by saying, “Alexa, open EldersTree and join an event” this will ask you a few questions and add you as an attendee to an available event based on your provided timings. you can add this ElderTree elder's contact to your Alexa app as a contact and say “Alexa, call [name]@EldersTree” or “Alexa, video call [name]@EldersTree” when the event starts. The elder will also get notified when you sign up as an attendee. Virtual number providers like Google Voice and associated with a separate Alexa profile can be used to add more privacy.

How we built it

Developed using Amazon Alexa Skill Kit, AWS technologies like AWS lambda for the skill handler, notifier, and custom Q&A page generator, and DynamoDB as the main database for saving and retrieving the data, AWS SNS for event-driven actions and AWS SES for sending email notifications, and Twilio for sending text messages.

Challenges we ran into

Identifying what data to save and determining the access patterns and indexes for retrieval of the data

Accomplishments that we're proud of

The possibility of making someone feel less isolated and more interactive

What we learned

How to build useful Alexa skills and integrations with AWS services

What's next for EldersTree

Bed Time Stories: Bedtime stories by our elders remind us of our parents and grandparents. Any elder who wants to share a story can use the EldersTree app to record stories, and they will be supported through in-app subscriptions.

Help an Elder: Help an elder with their daily chores and get some good karma points. An elder can request help in the following areas: Festive decorations like Halloween, Christmas, New Year, and Thanksgiving; Basic needs like Grocery Shopping, Water Refills, Carpet/ AC Cleaning to improve air quality, Gardening or Lawn care, Pressure Washing their house, etc.

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