SketchTales

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  SketchTales app and uploading of drawing

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  Story generation

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  Character rendering

Inspiration

Children create imaginative characters through drawings, but those creations rarely become part of an interactive digital experience. We wanted to bridge that gap by turning a child's own artwork into a personalized adventure on TV.

What it does

SketchTales TV transforms children's drawings into narrated stories on the big screen. A phone companion connects to the TV, allowing parents to upload a drawing. The character becomes the hero of a story, with AI-generated narration and interactive hand gestures.

How we built it

We built a TV experience with React Native and a Node.js backend hosted on Render. Python and OpenCV process uploaded drawings, while Amazon Bedrock supports story generation and Amazon Polly provides narration. DynamoDB supports session storage, and a phone companion enables pairing, drawing uploads, and gesture interaction.

Challenges we ran into

Integrating the TV experience, phone companion, image processing, AI storytelling, and audio into one connected workflow required careful coordination. We also worked through deployment and cloud-credential configuration to make the backend services work together.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We brought the core experience together: a child's drawing becomes the starting point for a narrated adventure on TV. We're proud of combining creative play, AI, and phone-based interaction in one prototype.

What we learned

We learned how to connect cloud AI services with a multi-device application, handle image-processing workflows, and integrate generated narration into a storytelling experience.

What's next for SketchTales

We want to improve character extraction, expand story worlds, refine gesture controls, and make the experience more reliable and accessible for families.

Built With

• amazon-bedrock
• amazon-dynamodb
• amazon-polly
• amazon-web-services
• node.js
• opencv
• python
• react-native