Sneeze Forecast

Provides pollen forecast for hay fever sufferers

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Inspiration

I am a severe hay fever sufferer, and often I leave the house forgetting to pack my hay fever tablets, only to then be sneezing the whole day! I wanted Alexa to help by letting me and fellow hay fever sufferers know when we would need to take/pack hay fever medicine, with a quick and simple voice request.

What it does

Obtains the current pollen count for a requested city, and lets the user know the level in an intuitive and fun way. If the Alexa user has shared their device location, on opening the skill the pollen count at the device (city) location will automatically be provided.

How I built it

Hosting the skill in AWS Lambda, written in Javascript. Using the Google Maps geocoding utility to derive longitude/latitude, and then using a pollen count service to obtain the pollen count level. Finally this level is translated into an appropriate phrase for Alexa to speak.

Challenges I ran into

Translating the user's requested city into a longitude/latitude format as required by the pollen count service (tried a few different relatively heavyweight options requiring local DB storage which were not viable in the Lambda environment, before finally settling on Google's geocoding service).

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

Providing a simple, intuitive interface to provide help for the millions of hay fever suffers. Feeding back pollen count levels in a fun way by use of multiple Alexa phrases.

What I learned

  • how to prompt Alexa to request device location (and how to obtain use this location)
  • how to obtain longitude/latitude coordinates for a city name

What's next for Sneeze Forecast

  • Ability to request pollen count forecast for future dates (e.g. 'for tomorrow', 'for Tuesday').
  • More variations on phrases to be spoken by Alexa.
  • Support for providing pollen forecast as a flash briefing (assuming device location has been permitted by user).
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