Building systems that actually work for real families

Commercial voice assistants are generic and disconnected from family context. They can't remember that Riley has a math test tomorrow or that Alex prefers Boston sports updates.

Built a local-first voice assistant that runs on distributed hardware (N100 mini PC → Raspberry Pi nodes), with per-family-member profiles and context awareness.

• Local-first architecture for privacy and speed
• Wake word detection via Picovoice
• ElevenLabs for natural-sounding TTS with voice cloning
• Deepgram for fast, accurate STT
• Family profiles stored locally, context injected per-request

Working prototype with touchscreen UI, multiple room support planned, and integration points for calendar, weather, and school schedules. Daily use for morning briefings.

Great gift ideas come at random moments—overhearing a comment, a text from someone. By the time you need them, they're forgotten. Apps require too much friction.

SMS-first design: text a gift idea to a number and it's automatically parsed, categorized by recipient, and stored. No app to open, no login required in the moment.

• A2P 10DLC compliance for reliable SMS delivery
• Claude for natural language parsing (handles "mom would love those blue earrings from Nordstrom")
• PWA for web access when browsing gift lists
• Chrome extension for one-click capture while browsing

Family actively using for birthday and holiday planning. Captured 50+ gift ideas that would have been lost. Zero-friction input has transformed how we track gift inspiration.

With three kids across multiple schools, information comes from dozens of sources: emails, apps, websites, paper handouts. Critical dates get missed.

Aggregate and normalize data from multiple school sources into a single dashboard with smart filtering by child, event type, and urgency.

• Email parsing for school newsletter extraction
• Calendar aggregation across school platforms
• Child-specific views for quick daily reference
• Integration with family DAKboard display

Single source of truth for school logistics. Reduced "I didn't know about that" moments. Morning briefings now include personalized school updates.

Email volume makes it impossible to distinguish urgent items from noise. Important messages from schools, family, or time-sensitive requests get buried.

AI-powered classification that understands personal context: who matters, what topics are urgent, and what can wait or be automated away entirely.

• Context-aware priority scoring (not just sender rules)
• Integration with family calendar for deadline awareness
• Digest generation for low-priority batches
• Learning from manual overrides

Reduced email processing time significantly. Critical school communications now surfaced immediately. Marketing and low-priority items auto-sorted.

Traditional flashcard apps are boring and don't adapt to individual learning patterns. Kids lose interest quickly, and parents can't easily create good study materials.

AI generates age-appropriate flashcards from any topic, adapts difficulty based on performance, and keeps engagement high with encouraging feedback.

• Prompt engineering for kid-friendly explanations
• Spaced repetition algorithm for retention
• Parent dashboard for progress tracking
• Voice input option for younger kids

Used weekly for spelling, math facts, and science vocabulary. Kids actually ask to use it—the AI encouragement and adaptive difficulty keep them engaged.

Running a household with three kids involves hundreds of recurring tasks, decisions, and information that lives in different people's heads or scattered systems.

Centralized Notion workspace that serves as the single source of truth for schedules, contacts, recurring tasks, kid info, vendor details, and household SOPs.

• Relational databases linking kids → activities → schedules → contacts
• Template system for recurring events (birthday party planning, etc.)
• Mobile-friendly views for quick access
• Integration points for automation systems

Eliminated "where's that info?" moments. New babysitters can find emergency contacts in seconds. Household runs more smoothly with less mental overhead.