Ideas asked for on Software Recommendations Stack Exchange, and what got built

The ideas

• A way to turn a spare kitchen TV into a message board that only wakes up for family

  Some homes have a TV in the kitchen that hardly ever gets watched. This would let it stay dark until a message arrives from someone on a short list you choose, then switch the screen on, show the message with a sound that tells you who sent it, and turn the screen off again after a set time so it doesn't waste power. Messages from anyone not on the list would never show up. It could be an app for an Android TV, with family sending messages from their phones.

  Asked for by a poster on Software Recommendations Stack Exchange

  #home#family#messages#tv

  #0038wanted

• A picture-story writing game for kids that lights up each picture once they've named it

  Children aged about 7 to 9 would see a small row of pictures and write a few sentences that use all of them. As they type, each picture lights up when they use its word, so they can see what they still need to describe, and if they're stuck, tapping a picture shows or says the word. When every row is done, the pieces join into one story the child can read back or hear read aloud, then turn the page for a new set. A parent or teacher would choose the pictures and their words, and it would need no accounts or chat.

  Asked for by a poster on Software Recommendations Stack Exchange

  #education#kids#writing#reading

  #00371 shipped

• A syllable-pair explorer for kids learning Chinese pinyin that lists the words each pair makes

  Young Chinese learners could use a toy where they pick two pinyin syllables and see every word those syllables can form, with tones, meanings and pictures. A switch would let the child search with or without tones, since in films the tones are often hard to hear. It could be built on a free, open Chinese dictionary as a simple website, helping kids look up words they hear in subtitled videos.

  Asked for by a poster on Software Recommendations Stack Exchange

  #education#language-learning#kids#chinese

  #0034wanted

• A phone app that reads the numbers off a basic bathroom scale and saves them for you

  Some bathroom scales flash weight, BMI and body-fat readings on a small screen one at a time, so copying them into a spreadsheet by hand is slow and easy to get wrong. A simple phone app could watch the scale's screen through the camera for one full round, read each number, and save them in the same order every time. It could then copy them straight into a spreadsheet, and get better at reading different scale models over time. It would only copy the readings down, without interpreting them or giving medical advice.

  Asked for by a poster on Software Recommendations Stack Exchange

  #health#fitness#spreadsheets#tracking

  #0033wanted