Halloween Skills with Einat Laudon from Chatty Creations

In this episode, Teri welcomes Einat Laudon, a biochemist turned Alexa skills creator. Einat went from having no computer programming skills to creating three fantastic skills, one of which is related to education and teaching evolution concepts out of a school curriculum. She has also created two skills specifically geared towards the Halloween holiday. She has a Masters in Biochemistry and worked a few years in a scientific technology company designing lesson plans. She developed an interest in creating apps and later discovered voice technology which led her to start creating her own Alexa skills.Both of her Halloween skills are available in Canada but the evolution education one is only available in the United States because of the way Amazon classifies their skills in Canada and getting approval in Canada for that.Kiwi MonstersHer first skill is called Kiwi Monsters.Learned how to design skills on storyline. The flow charts in storyline reminded her of an evolution tree which gave her the idea to develop a decision tree where users could decide what would happen to the monsters. Essentially, users can explore the evolutionary tree of the monsters.Kiwi Monsters is a choose your own adventure type of story with kids making choices as they go along, while also learning scientific principles based on evolution.First Halloween skillShe first thought of scary Halloween sounds and made a skill based on that. She combined different sounds to create nice music with all kinds of scary sounds in the background.Second Halloween skillThought about an interactive Halloween skill where Alexa would greet and entertain trick-or-treaters when they go to people’s houses. She likes using human voices and used her 86 year old neighbor’s voice to create the witch’s voice.The story: When a trick-or-treater arrives to a house they open the skill and they talk to a witch. They get to choose which kind of scary noises they want to make with Alexa to scare and trick the witch.The sound effectsShe applied her creativity in combining different sound effects that she got online to create the story in a way that would give users an immersive experience.Future skillsShe plans to create more skills based on science, education and games.She’s working with other designers to create sound effects for their skills to create more immersive experiences for users. She enjoys it.List of resources mentioned in this episode:Kiwi MonstersTrick the WitchScary Halloween SoundsChatty CreationsChatty Creations on FacebookVoice in Canada: The Flash BriefingComplete List of Alexa CommandsReviews of top Alexa Skills in CanadaAlexa-Enabled and Controlled Devices in CanadaTeri Fisher on TwitterAlexa in Canada on TwitterAlexa in Canada Facebook PageAlexa in Canada Community Group on FacebookAlexa in Canada on InstagramPlease leave a review on iTunesShopping on Amazon.caThe Alexa Conference, presented by VoiceFirst.FMuse promo code ALEXAINCANADA for 20% off Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.