BeProud

No filters. No lighting. Probably no steroids. Just progress and support.

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Inspiration

Within the fitness space, there is a term adequately named "body dysmorphia". Essentially, it causes one to feel negatively towards their own body and physique and can cause both mental health issues like depression and physical health issues like a eating disorder. TLDR; going to the gym can actually make your mental and physical health worse if not properly done and this is only made worse by physique inflation on social media due to lighting, filters and editing.

What it does

BeProud is based on the viral app 'BeReal'. It allows for people to post unfiltered photos with 2 purposes: tracking their own progress over the long term and supporting others on their fitness journey's by showing them your own physique as a means of standing in solidarity. Additionally, photos are checked with AI to make sure that no inappropriate photos are shared and faces are blurred for anonymity.

How we built it

Next.js and TailwindCSS frontend. Serverless API routes for Gemini API integration to check the validity of images. Direct integration of Firebase Firestore, Cloud Storage, and Auth for user interaction. Face-api to detect where faces are to blur them with 5 sequential blur passes. React-activity-calendar to show which days the user posted and encourage more posts.

Challenges we ran into

  • Initially, we wanted to build a mobile app. However, because open source libraries and packages for services like face detection were less abundant for React Native compared to React, we decided to make the MVP as a web app for quick development.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

  • First time working solo
  • Deployed the web app for others to try (see links!!)

What we learned

  • How blurring images works (i.e. gaussian blurring)
  • I can survive running around Toronto after staying up for 30 hours straight

What's next for BeProud

Convert from web app to mobile app. Add integrations with Apple HealthKit SDK to provide notifications to encourage photo taking.

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