"Alexa, tell myMax
to check in James."

myMax is an app specifically designed for family day care providers that allows them to tell Amazon's Echo or Dot to record a check in for a child, diaper change, or a meal serving with just her voice -- without having to take her focus off the children.

How it works

Amazon (that fairly large company you've probably heard about) has invested millions of dollars on the hardware and software to allow developers around the world to create new applications (called skills). Some examples:

  • AllReceipes.com
  • Expedia
  • Capital One
  • Pandora
  • Spotify
  • and the list goes on!

Amazon handles the voice recognition part that responds to "utterances". Developers apply that technology to their particular application and create scripts that base certain actions on specific utterances.

For example, when the provider says "check in James", myMax hears "check in" and looks for "James" in the database. Then it stores a check in for James at the exact time the command was given. myMax recognizes a number of commands:

  • Check in (CI)
  • Health check (HR)
  • Diaper change (DC)
  • Bathroom visit (BV)
  • Bottle feed (BF)
  • Snacks (SN)
  • Meals (ME)
  • Sleep time (ST)
  • Learned today (LT)
  • Items needed (IN)
  • Teacher comments (TC)
  • Check out (CO)

The provider's dashboard looks like this:

myMax


When the provider says "record a group Breakfast", that information is also recorded in the CACFP.Net database, so the sponsor can process the claim and issue reimbursement. The CACFP.Net screen looks like this:

myMax