Inspiration
I awoke (very) early on a Sunday morning to the sound of my youngest son calling out to me, "daddy...daddy...is it time to wake up yet?" This was, roughly, the 328th such incident in my four-year-old's short life, but the first that left me searching for a solution aside from the obvious reaction of shouting back "no, go back to sleep!" This time, before my eyes could completely open, I thought, "I wonder if Alexa could just tell him when it's time to wake up." At 4:30 on a Sunday morning, the idea for the Wake Up Clock Alexa skill was born...and I was wide awake to start working on it.
What it does
When asked, Alexa can let your child know when it's time to wake up and get out of bed. This skill teaches your child to stay in bed longer by giving them information about when it's OK to wake up. Alexa also teaches your child about time by giving them the current time and explaining how much longer they have before they can get up.
How I built it
I built the skill using C#, .NET Core, and AWS Lambdas. The code is stored in a Git repository hosted on Visual Studio Team Services.
Challenges I ran into
The most significant challenge I encountered was handling local time. In order to do so, I request the user's zip code and use Google's Geocoding and TimeZone APIs to get the user's local time.
Accomplishments that I'm proud of
Hopefully, I've provided parents with a tool that gives them a few more minutes of much-needed rest.
What I learned
Building AWS Lambdas with C# is surprisingly straightforward.
Also, the first iteration of the the skill used Alexa's whisper effect, which users found to be "creepy" and "like a demon." See reviews here: https://www.amazon.com/Jonathan-Brown-Wake-Up-Clock/product-reviews/B07713MR1W. I've since removed the whisper effect, so I guess I learned to adapt to feedback.
What's next for Wake Up Clock
I hope to add visuals to the Wake Up Clock skill for use on the Amazon Show and Amazon Spot.
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