Octua

Turn your old device into your own home security system

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Inspiration

The release of the iPhone 12 got me wondering what if you could turn your old device into something useful? A house a few blocks away from me had a break-in 2 weeks ago and as a result, my parents were considering getting a security camera. This got me thinking would a camera really help during the event of a break-in? I decided that I should create one that does!

What it does

The app can be used to turn an older device into your very own security camera/motion detector. Using ML-Kit I was able to make the camera scan for faces and alert the user when a face is found. The motion detector, using the phones Accelerometer and Gyroscope, log potential break-ins. The cameras can be remotely controlled using the apps with a Home account.

How I built it

Using google UI toolkit (flutter) and the dart programming language I was able to construct the base of the app. For the more secure functions like logging an event, I used google cloud functions. A big fear I had was some could reverse engineer the app and delete logged data. Using cloud functions and AES encryption I was able to overcome that issue. I used a wide set of packages to access the phone's camera and sensors.

Challenges I ran into

This was a very difficult project for me and I ran into many issues during the development process. On the camera end, I had trouble disabling MLKIT when the user disabled the camera. To overcome this issue I had to redo the entire backend of the app and rebuild it.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

I have done a handful of hackathons in the past but never have I done one alone. This was my first time creating a project on my own and It was definitely a fun experience. I also learned many new skills such which I can apply in my future ventures.

What's next for Octua

Octuas core features are complete but I still feel like they can be improved. I tried added notifications to inform all users in an account but was unsuccessful due to the lack of time. I also feel like a few more things could be optimized to improve the app's accuracy.

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