By ANDREW MOORE
Reporter with Silicon Hills News
Peptalk is a proof of concept project created by developers Richard Ortega, Michael Girdley, and Ryan Taner at AngelHack Austin last weekend.
“Peptalk is essentially a personalized data alarm call,” said Ortega.
After logging into your Google Account, the app pulls your information — particularly from the Google calendar — to create a personalized wake-up call which summarizes your schedule for that day. In concept, the information would then be sent to a voice actor who records a motivating wake-up call which you will hear the next morning.
In the concept demo, the user simply selected a time, a specific day, and the personality they wanted to call them.
The Peptalk team is still working on recruiting the talent or personalities to make the motivational calls. Ortega is looking forward to the different options he can create to motivate people to get up, go to the gym, etc.
InnerAlly
Another app created at AngelHack Austin, InnerAlly is the brainchild of HEALTH eDesigns CEO Cynthia Phelps and among the first of the company’s mobile apps designed to improve mental health and wellness. Currently for Android, the app is being produced with the help of Geekdom developer Tex Morgan.
“You can’t really buy happiness or sobriety, but with InnerAlly we can help you build it,” said Morgan.
InterAlly provides a virtual mental health check-in for recovering addicts to help them overcome the daily bouts of depression and self loathing caused by their condition. Once a day the app will buzz, and then prompt its users to input how happy or sad they feel and how positive or negative their day has been. The user can then select how they are doing overall from four prompts that range from “Sober and doing awesome” to “Off track”. Each option will provide a solution to help with their current situation. Selecting “Off track”, for example, will prompt then to call a sponsor or mentor for help.
To help prevent addiction relapses, the app will have a function where users can record any triggers or situations that contributed to a past relapse so the person can avoid those triggers in the future.
Additionally, InnerAlly will keep track of all user input in a database for several possible future uses. Phelps plans to create a system where users can allow third parties to access the database in order to connect them with a support network. This function could be used by psychiatrists, therapists, or AA sponsors to monitor a users mental health every day without being physically present. It could also act as a reference for health professionals to track progress over time.
Tex Morgan sees several other applications for the product as well, such as monitoring people on probation or monitoring employees that are on a mandatory sobriety plan. While the app still has a long way to go to before it’s completed, the core concepts and database backend are already in place.
HEALTH eDesigns is currently looking for an iOS programmer as well as design help.
The Akimbo Card is a Visa debit card system that allows primary account holders to easily and quickly transfer funds to other Akimbo users. CEO Houston Frost created the card so that family, friends, or frequent business associates could exchange funds in the quickest way possible.
“The question is: How could you get money to that son, that daughter, that good friend, or whoever it may be who needs the money right then and right away,” said Frost.
After transferring funds to an Akimbo account, primary card holders can then quickly transfer funds between different cards on the account from an iPhone app or online. Transfers have several different options that allow for both one-time payments and monthly allowances. Cardholders can also transfer funds to other Akimbo primary accounts, and the mobile app incorporates social networks to make the process easy between Facebook friends. The actual Akimbo accounts are held by Bancorp Bank, which Akimbo partners with.
The Akimbo business model mainly relies on interchange revenue – the small fees paid by banks for card transaction. It will also get money from ATM fees that apply when using the card. The card currently has no monthly or startup fee, but Akimbo may charge users for additional cards on an account.
Akimbo is currently looking for someone with design experience.
Leave a Reply