Summary:
My Life Story is dedicated to those we love who are suffering from Alzheimer's. We hope to help you by providing a way to remind them of how amazing their life is by providing Reminiscence Therapy through Alexa.
What is Reminiscence Therapy?
Fancy Answer: Reminiscence therapy is defined by the American Psychological Association as "the use of life histories – written, oral, or both – to improve psychological well-being. The therapy is often used with older people.
Simple Anwser: (My Opinion) Exposing people with memory loss to stories about their history, or with a car from their childhood for example, can help stimulate happiness.
Inspiration:
My loving grandmother was afflicted with Alzheimers. My sweet parents took care of her in their home until that was no longer possible due to the progression of the disease. I witnessed first hand the immense effect this had on my grandmother and parents alike. "My Life Story" was created to help both caregivers and their loved ones alike. Both deserve all the support and assistance they can receive.
How it works:
The Alexa skill begins with a caregiver, or family member setting things up by answering questions about their loved ones life. These answers are arranged into "memories" that will be read back to our user when the skill is launched after they are greeted by name.
Some memory examples are:
- "Picture it! The year is 1942. I can just see you and Rosalie exchanging your vows. I can only imagine how excited you both were to start a new life, full of joy, full of possibilities. What a wonderful day that was."
- "Having friends when your a kid makes things much more interesting! But having brothers and sisters makes it even better. You are so lucky to have grown up with Stephen and Rosemary. There is nothing like family."
Along with these "memories", additional "memories" can be added via our website. Instructions for this are emailed after the setup is complete. Adding additional memories are encouraged to keep the skill interesting and to give the most content to our user.
After configuration is complete, the skill can be launched the same way by saying "Alexa, open my life story". This can be done by a caregiver, family member, or the user themselves. We suggest posting a fun sign that says something along the lines of "Tell Alexa to open my life story", or however it works best for your situation.
How I built it:
"My Life Story" is a two part application from a macro perspective. There is the Alexa skill portion, and the web application portion. The Alexa skill portion uses node,js along with a DynamoDB back end on AWS. All data and memories are stored in individual records per Alexa ask account. Login with Amazon is used on both the website and Alexa skill to unite the two mediums.
The web application is run on AWS Elastic Beanstalk utilizing node.js & Login with Amazon. Once users have set up the skill via Alexa they can add custom memories via the website located at the Z55-Studios website..
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