DiscovAR

We want to make it simple for people to learn about the landmarks around them. DiscovAR makes it easy to learn something new about an area, whether it be your first time visiting or your hundredth.

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Inspiration

We wanted to make a place where anyone can share their special spots with anyone, whether they lived next door or the next country over. Our goal for DiscovAR is to help people to get more in touch with the local community, and experience local spots as well as the normal touristy ones.

What it does

DiscovAR allows you to follow a tour of local landmarks created by your fellow users. Once you select a tour, you're taken to a map with several destinations. Once you get close to one in the real world, open the camera page and point it at the landmark you've arrived at. The app will recognize the landmark, and pull up an audio clip of the tour creator with a transcript. Once you've explored all the landmarks in the tour, rate the tour and say what you think!

How we built it

We used Flutter as our main framework. For the map feature, we used Mapbox to paint the map onto the screen, and FlutterMap to power it. We used Google Cloud Vertex AI to create and train a machine learning algorithm to recognize the landmarks on the camera (using our photos as training data), and the Audioplayers Flutter package to play the audio clips.

Challenges we ran into

Most of us didn't know flutter initially, so we had to learn it on the fly. Several of the ML algorithms we used were too intensive to run in a mobile setting, and caused crashes when the camera was opened, so we were forced to use our more primitive version. We also spent a lot of time trying to troubleshoot the app's camera access on our phones, but we eventually overcame that obstacle.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We created a mobile app that works within 36 hours! We also learned how to use several new tools for developing cool applications. Last but not least, we figured out how to drink just the right amount of Yerba Mate to stay awake, but still be able to focus on the project.

What we learned

We learned to use Google AutoML and Flutter. We also learned critical time management skills, and how to use each team member's individual strengths to maximize our efficiency.

What's next for DiscovAR

Our project will be able to see your location and show you tours in your area (if you allow it, of course). Users will also be able to create their own tours, complete with locations, audio, and landmark AI models! We're also planning on adding a Scavenger Hunt feature, called ScavengAR, where the GameMaster takes a picture, and the "scavengers" try to recreate it!

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