Is It Corn?

Inspiration

The year is 2017. My family is driving cross-country, returning home after visiting Grandma. We've been on the road for 14 hours when we finally pull up to the hotel. In front of the hotel is a flower bed, and in that flower bed is...a plant. Is it bamboo? Is it a lily? Is it corn?

Mom and I stare at this plant for a solid 20 minutes, unsure of its identity, until she says, "I bet there's an app for that."

Big surprise, there isn't. But in our roadtrip-induced state, we think the concept is the funniest thing ever and proceed to laugh stupidly at the unknown plant for another 20 minutes.

December rolls around, and I decide to surprise Mom with a real-life "Is It Corn?" app, and with the help of a good search engine, my non-developer self manages to figure out enough Java to piece together an Android app consisting of a button and a handful of inside-joke answers. Mom loves it.

Fast forward a year-ish. Mom buys an Echo Dot. As she's playing around with it, seeing what Alexa is capable of, she asks, "Alexa, is it corn?" Alexa, who is not in on the joke, spits out a bland definition of the word "corn." Mom decides this is not an acceptable answer, turns to me, makes meaningful eye contact...

What it does

You ask, "Is it Corn?" Alexa answers.

How I built it

I adapted the pre-built trivia skill template in Lambda. I really didn't do a whole lot myself...like I said, not really a developer.

Challenges I ran into

I really had no clue what I was doing. Thank goodness for search engines.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

It works.

What I learned

Coding isn't nearly as scary/overwhelming as people tend to think. I may not have understood everything I saw, but I was able to figure out enough on my own to make it do what I wanted it to do.

What's next for Is It Corn?

Probably nothing, tbh...

Built With

• amazon-web-services