octavia

The inspiration for Alexa was for the well being and self-care of students here at Stanford University, as many carry deep stress and pressure in their day to day lives. In the night before, Octavia asks users to describe their day or their feeling on the day in 1-3. Also, Octavia asks if the objective of the day was completed, and wishes you goodnight. Later, after wishing you good morning, Octavia asks for your objective of the day, or emotional goal of the day. Also, once a week, Octavia will recap your feelings and objectives accomplished and not accomplished, allowing user to reflect on themselves, their experiences, and sentiments. Then, Octavia wishes the user a great day.

We decided to implement two Alexa skills, one for the night reflection routine for our user and one for the morning reflection routine. Using Amazon’s developer console, we build two integration models and configured an integration with an independent AWS Java Script lambda function to enable the conversation with Alexa. In backend, we focus on database storage in MySQL and created an API using Node.js.

There were large challenges in the ability of the Amazon product itself, and policy/ability to activate at certain times, as the initial goal was to activate as the alarm rang, but the product does not have that feature for privacy safety reasons. Also, we launched our own server into the cloud, and learned how to interact with the complexities of voice interaction to build the best experience.

We are proud to build such a product that can positively impact students to an extreme magnitude, and create a better sense of routine and identity for all users, including adults, elderly, and kids.

In the future, Octavia will analyze inputted information with objectives and feelings to mold specific daily advice and inspirational quotes for the user to start their day on. Also, Octavia will give some “food for though” before bed time to help guide your thoughts towards self reflection as you’re in bed and have not fallen asleep. In the future, Octavia will have alarm integration alongside with its current features, and once the new feature of notifications are released, we will implement notifications to remind users to interact with Octavia. Also, reminders through the phone about the daily goal and advice/inspiration will guide the person mentally and emotionally daily.