Everyday Hero | Devpost

Inspiration

We heard that the rate of people gone missing have risen lately and we wanted to do something about it. Thinking about what we could do to help, we also remembered about the multiple occasions when, going back home at night or walking around certain neighborhoods we would have appreciated someone to make us feel safe. That's when the idea came to us. Why can't we have an app that provides us that kind of safety? Why can't people around us know that we are in a struggle and help? And why can't we do the same to make other people's lives a little better? Why can't we all be heroes for each other in small ways?

What it should do

Everyday Hero is an Android app with an intuitive interface that protects you in several levels.

The first situation would be when you are in a situation in which you would need someone to walk by your side and make you feel safer. With this app, you can achieve that in just one click.

By using the "I'm scared!" button, a message is immediately sent to all the users around your perimetre within your location and the option of chatting with them is also available.

Secondly, if you are in a real danger situation, there's a second button that gives you the option to ask for help to the authorities. People around you are also alerted about your situation through a notification and, in order to draw everyone's attention, an alarm will start to ring from the victim's phone.

Finally, the application gives the user the chance to make a difference by finding people in danger around them and dedicating some time to improve their day.

How we built it

The UI is developed in Android Studio and all the part involving maps use Geofence, which makes use of several Google Services. We also configurated an electronic server from Amazon Web Service.

Challenges we ran into

First of all, programming in Android was way harder than what we could have ever imagined, so we couldn't achieve everything we expected on time. Working with Google Play Services was a little complicated, but the real challenge came with Geofences. The intention was to use them to detect whenever some user would come closer to a potential victim. However, the mere understanding of Android, its permissions and its language in general took us a lot of time and effort, leaving very little time to deal with the integration of the server with the geofences aplication. In the end, we were able to send the help cry to the server, but not to spread it among the other users.

The server, however, was not any easier, and that's why we could not achieve to communicate with other devices in order to ask for help or chat with them.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Developing our FIRST Android app! =DD

Also, surviving 36 hours with barely any hour of sleep and managing to still be alive and keep dealing with Android.

What we learned

ANDROID STUDIO. A LOT. FROM THE BEGINNING, starting with a review of classes and objects with Java.

Also, we created our first brand new API.

What's next for Everyday Hero

Taking the ideas that we could not finally integrate into reality.

Additionally, we would like to extend the application to people who, even though are not in an immediate danger, are having a rough day and could use someone's advice.

If we could put more work into this project, we would also like to include the option of managing making statements from site - by signing a formal declaration - in the unfortunate case the hero witnesses a felony, among many other possible extensions.