This app was developed in 32 hours at the Hex 2018 hackathon in Eindhoven.

Authors:

• Pavol Drotár (padr31)
• Perttu Lähteenlahti (plahteenlahti)
• Juraj Mičko (jjurm)
• Akira Nagao (akiranagao)
• Rick Wouters (raketwissenschaftler)

People are social and people have daily patterns, but sometimes we are not aware of people having the same routine as us. What there was a platform that could help you get value out of these missed connections?

Hexplore helps you discover the opportunities around you by matching you with the people you run into frequently. It helps you meet up with people you encounter frequently, while also indicating what value these people could have for you.

To build Hexplore, we used a simple and reliable software stack, consisting of a native Android front-end developed in Kotlin, powered by a Flask + PostgreSQL backend hosted on Heroku. Users first log in to the Android app with their Facebook account. The app uses the Bluetooth Low Energy technology (BLE) to broadcast simple signals containing device IDs. Those IDs captured by nearby devices are then matched with IDs stored at the backend associated with Facebook profiles of owners of the devices.

One of the biggest challenges was coming up with an idea. We have gone through quite some different ideas before settling on this one. Also, our team was mostly unknown to each other before the event, so next to building a product, we were building friendships as well, which succeeded!

We are proud of how we managed to develop an amazing product, incorporating new technologies with a totally new team in 36 hours!

We are also proud of how much fun we had during the building of this product.

We learned how to use technology to bring people together and create a better world in this way. We also learned how to use conventional technologies such as bluetooth in an unconventional way.

We hope that Hexplore will become a product used by many people around the world to connect people who can benefit from eachother.