INTRODUCTION
Are You Psychic?
Studio Carlton Creates Alexa Experience That Goes Beyond Voice to Compete in Amazon Alexa Challenge
“The Alexa Skills Beyond Voice Challenge was an opportunity for us to create a modern version of the Zener Cards psychic test combining rich sound, animation and beautiful visuals exclusively for Amazon Alexa,” says Victoria lynn Weston, President of Studio Carlton. “We mixed audio tracks with APL for Audio and feature beautiful visuals using Alexa Presentation Language.”
Zener Cards were originally designed in the 1930s by perceptual psychologist Karl Zener to conduct experiments for extrasensory perception (ESP) or clairvoyance with his colleague, parapsychologist J. B. Rhine. J.B. Rhine founded the Rhine Institute for academic research into the field of parapsychology at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina at Duke University, North Carolina.
Today, there are users of millions Alexa-enabled devices with LCD screens. The “Zener Card Psychic Test” gives users more than voice, it’s a multimedia experience that is immersive, entertaining, and engaging.
Click to launch the quick link and test your ESP! Share your score with us on our Twitter account! @StudioCarlton
Studio Carlton Team
“I’ve been immersed in the psychic arts since childhood and I wanted to transform the traditional Zener Cards into an engaging, magical voice skill for participants to test or develop their ESP.”
– Victoria lynn Weston, Founder of Studio Carlton
INSPIRATION
Bringing the Zener Card Psychic Test to Voice and Beyond!
We crafted our own one-of-a-kind Zener Card design, giving the original 1930s style a magical, mystical glam look featuring the delightful British parapsychologist, Dr. Clair Voyant to engage players with every interaction, and all within architecture that leverages APLA and Alexa Presentation Language.
APL for audio allowed us to mix audio with Alexa speech and mix sound effects. This saved us time in syncing our visuals with layered sound effects that are programmatically generated in response to customer inputs. We also used filters to adjust fading in and out to create a more natural sounding experience.
We implemented Alexa Presentation Language to create immersive and delightful visual experiences of the iconic, newly designed Zener Card and a custom graphic of Dr. Clair Voyant.
A Player Review
“This is magical. Using this Zener Alexa Skill is a great way to practice and you have a good chance of increasing your ESP. Besides that, it’s relaxing. What a fun way to destress and give your intuition a chance to exercise. I highly recommend.”
– Margaret A. Harrell, author of “Keep This Quiet Series”, graduate of C. G. Jung Institute Zurich
KEY FEATURES
How It Works
Players launch our skill by using the Amazon Alexa Quick Link or on the Amazon Alexa Skill Store. Once participants enable the skill, they are immediately greeted by parapsychologist Dr. Clair Voyant, who has a British accent. The skill starts with a 2-card spread. The object is for the player to use their ESP, intuition or clairvoyance to predict what the hidden card is.
We include APL along with various sound effects for correct and incorrect answers. Dr. Clair Voyant also provides practical tips along the way to keep players engaged. Once a participant completes the first series of 5 varied Zener card spreads – all randomly generated – Dr. Clair presents the players with their score as well as keeping track of their “high scores” as well as offering an evaluation of their ESP. Players are then invited to play frequently!
What’s next? We are plan to feature a second phase of Zener Card spreads to further challenge players. In addition, players will have the option to set up reminders as well as the option to subscribe (ISP) to an “ESP evaluation” which will be based on their unique score; a summary of ESP abilities.
KEY FEATURES
Bilingual
The Studio Carlton team was passionate about expanding beyond the USA audience and created one of the first bilingual Alexa Skills.
We worked with professional Spanish translators and created Spanish (US) and Spanish (MX). In the first two months, dozens of Spanish participants were interacting with our Zener Card Psychic Test Alexa Skill!
With plans to further expand to other locales and countries, Studio Carlton has Spain and Brazil as their priority!
THE VOICE EXPERIENCE
We always follow Amazon’s best practices for designing engaging, interactive & intuitive voice experiences.
ZCT & Dr. Clair Meets Social Media
Once our Zener Card Psychic Test Alexa Skill was certified and LIVE in the Amazon Alexa Skills store, we distributed a press release online and social media announcing the launch “Are You Psychic – Zener Card Psychic Test. Our graphics team created social graphics that were published and shared on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.
The future of VOICE is here! Are you ready to learn how an Alexa Skill can expand your brand and engage your audience to build long lasting customer relationships? Contact us today!