
Ask HN: Can a Voice Chatbot help my adult autistic brother with everyday tasks? - davidcoronado
Hi Everyone,<p>I&#x27;m thinking of building a Voice-Chatbot to help my autistic brother be more productive. He is in his 20&#x27;s now and works at a grocery store as a bagger. I&#x27;ve noticed for years now that my mother is constantly asking him the same questions, &quot;Wake up&quot;, &quot;take a shower&quot;, &quot;get ready for work&quot;, &quot;have you eaten today&quot;, &quot;it&#x27;s time to leave the house for work&quot;, etc. He would be consider to have mild autism on the autism spectrum since he can do well in school but has a hard time connecting with people socially which has lead to a life of isolation. I&#x27;m wondering if building a Voice Chatbot via Alexa would help lessen the load for my mother and help my brother with everyday tasks.<p>These are the task&#x2F;commands I&#x27;m hoping to help him with.<p>1. Wake up (notify if work day or not)
-Calendar API
-bedroom light switch API<p>2. Get ready for work
-Weight sensor API (for bed)
-Shower sensor API
-Mirror sensor (recognizes work outfit) API
-Phone location sensor API<p>3. Ask what he has eaten today.
-Record response
-Send Daily Email&#x2F;Text Summary to my mother<p>4. Ask if he would like to (random activity)
-activity suggestions (go on a walk, go to the game store, go watch a movie, etc)<p>5. It&#x27;s time to go to bed now
-turns TV power switch off API
-turns bedroom light switch API
-lock computer API<p>Do you think this would be helpful with his everyday tasks and do have any suggestions?
======
cbhl
What causes your brother to be able to do these tasks? Is it that the
instructions are presented step-by-step? Is it because his mother cares about
him getting it done?

Have you tried using lower-tech devices to help remind him? A paper agenda,
Google Calendar, and alarm clocks/wristwatches are all techniques that other
autistic people have used with varying levels of success.

If you want to test whether the Echo reminder would help, you should try a
lower-fidelity prototype -- record your mother saying the reminder with a tape
recorder or a Sound Recorder app on a computer, and then play it back at the
appropriate time and see how he responds. (If it was me, I'd find it rather
insulting and might respond angrily, but I wouldn't assume your brother acts
the same way.)

Does your brother want to live independently of your mother? If your mother is
the only social contact that your brother has during the whole day, then
replacing her with an Echo might make him even more isolated, right?

~~~
davidcoronado
Those are some great points. He needs a constant reminder to do things. We've
tried alarms before but it's only when we talk to him that he responds. I
think the Amazon Echo could be a good first start with testing. I was thinking
of manually dictating Alexa to see how effective it is and how he reacts.

He has social interaction at work but my mother travels often which makes it
difficult for her because she has to constantly be calling him to make sure he
is up and ready to get out the door. I'm just looking for a solution to help
him be more independent and make it easier for her when she travels.

~~~
cbhl
It's important that your brother wants to become independent by himself, and
understands why they stand to benefit from it. (For me, living independently
means I can go to sleep early if I want, or go to sleep late if I want, or
sleep in an extra hour, so long as I'm not late for work the next day.) You
don't want to try to force the Echo onto your brother to make him independent
if he's not willing -- it will just end with him ignoring the Echo, or worse,
trying to break the thing. (I realize that it may be hard to have this
conversation with him. It's not totally clear how "high-functioning" your
brother is from your post.)

I agree that alarms are a mixed bag. They can cause sensory overload for some;
for others they're easily missed/ignored (especially if they go off too
often).

An aside: it sounds like you're trying to justify the purchase of an Echo by
using your brother as an excuse. Don't do that. If you just want an Echo, you
should own up to it and buy it because you want it. But if you already have
one, it's fine to experiment with it.

A voice recording alarm clock is a lot cheaper than an Echo; have you tried
that? There are also vibrating alarms (the Pebble had a great one, but they
went out of business -- the Fitbit "Silent Alarms" are too weak in
comparison).

~~~
davidcoronado
That's a great point about if he wants to be independent himself. He is pretty
high functional. He has a hard time picking up social cues and tends to take a
bit longer to process things. We've had so many conversation about him one day
being in a relationship and living on his own.

As for this idea, I haven't run it by him yet. That why I was curious to see
what others thought. I already have an Alexa and this is more of an
experiment. I do like the voice recording alarm clock. I think I'm going to
start there. Thanks for the suggestion.

------
auganov
Does he respond to text? If so you could make a bot that masquerades as mum.
Or perhaps you can just settle for a half-solution that would make it much
easier for mum to be issuing these commands? Like having Alexa function as an
always-on intercom rather than having to call him.

I'd think mum being the person telling him to do stuff, is what's working.
Rather than just the fact that it's a voiced command? Does he listen to you
too?

~~~
davidcoronado
He does respond to text and Facebook Messenger but only hours later. He
listens to anyone who encourages him to do things. He's a great kid and has a
sense of humor. I've just noticed that it takes having a conversation with him
to help to get things started. He can take care of himself but just needs a
little push to do things or else he'll just lay in bed and watch YouTube
videos all day.

------
ParameterOne
I think that is a great idea! I'm wondering if it would have any effect if he
heard his own voice too? Like the voice in our heads.

~~~
davidcoronado
That's a really good idea! I love the concept of "the voice in our heads".
Thanks for the idea!

------
zer00eyz
I spent part of my youth working with special needs kids.

Everyone is different, and you never know what is going to work.

First lets talk about what is truly positive in what your doing, you have a
goal: "lessen the load for my mother".

The reality is that your mom isn't going to be there forever, and giving your
brother a life that is his own matters.

That opens up my next questions:

Do the things your proposing solve the underlying issues or do they simply
shift the burden? Do you want to have to maintain these API's forever? What
happens if amazon stops offering alexa? What happens if your brother
transitions into an environment where he can not take advantage of the
technologies your building? What happens if the power goes out for a few days
(it can happen)?

I would suggest that you spend your efforts finding a good occupational
therapist first. I suspect that this is going to be like looking for a needle
in a haystack and in the short term would make a lot of other solutions seem
more practical. Your looking for a person who is good at what they do and gets
along with your brother, depending on where you live this could be HARD.

It might take a long time to get your brother to the next level when it comes
to his functioning. It might cost you quite a bit out of pocket in the
(relative) near term. However if your brother lives to be 50 or older these
costs will turn out to be rather small in the long run. Your freeing your
mother, and eventually yourself, from burdens (I don't mean that in a callous
way but a loving one) and giving your brother more independence and
flexibility.

\---------------------------------------------

With all of that out there, I don't want to dissuade you from building any of
the things you suggest. People with special needs need every advantage they
can get, hell some of the things your suggesting would be of benefit to
regular folks as well. A "Weight sensor API for bed" not only helps your
brother but every parent with a lazy teenager!

Realize that there are probably others who want, need or are willing to
support you in building these these tools for people with special needs and/or
disabilities. If your going to be open (source not minded) then you might be
surprised at how much support you get. Prosthetics 3d printing is probably the
most prominent and impactful example I can think of that uses this model, and
there is plenty of room and support for others.

As a final bit of encouragement, you need to go dig in at hackaday.com one of
their 2017 prizes is for assistive technology!

[https://hackaday.io/prize/details](https://hackaday.io/prize/details)

~~~
davidcoronado
He currently lives with my mother and that has been the biggest hurdle with
having him move out. Finding someone who can check up on him like a care
giver.

He is high functional and can take of himself. He just has a hard time picking
up social cues and takes a little longer to process things. He just needs a
little help when it comes to motivation. It's interesting because he doesn't
see himself as disabled or being autistic. He does love scifi movies which is
why I think this chatbot could be like his personal Jarvis.

I'll have to check out the Hackaday, this voice chatbot is more of solving a
personal problem than a startup idea but open sourcing this could be really
great. Thanks for the suggestion.

~~~
zer00eyz
I wish you luck in this endeavor! I'll keep an eye out for your project on
hack a day!

