WasteFree | Devpost

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Inspiration

Food waste is an unfortunate and prevalent issue in society. According to the UN Environment Programme’s Food Waste Index Report, over 1 billion tons of food went to waste globally in the most recent year. In particular, households often forget about or leave food long past its shelf life, contributing significantly to this problem. We wanted to tackle this issue by helping people keep track of the food they have at home and make better use of their purchases, benefiting both their wallets and the environment.

What it does

Wastefree is an app that helps users manage their pantry and fridge by scanning receipts, tracking items, and providing notifications when food is nearing expiration. The app offers recipe suggestions based on what’s available and highlights how much food and money has been wasted, giving users insights to make more informed decisions about their consumption habits.

How we built it

We built the app using the Python programming language and the Kivy framework for the front-end interface. Receipt scanning and data extraction are powered by Mindee's Optical Character Recognition (OCR) API. For data management, we used SQLite as the database to store pantry items and user information. Passwords are securely hashed using bcrypt to ensure user safety.

Challenges we ran into

We faced challenges when integrating the OCR functionality with the app, particularly in parsing and processing various receipt formats. Additionally, designing an intuitive and user-friendly UI for managing pantry items while also allowing for receipt data edits was a key challenge we worked through.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We’re proud of the app’s ability to accurately extract and manage receipt data and translate it into actionable insights for users. Successfully integrating multiple technologies like Kivy, SQLite, and Mindee into one cohesive solution was a big win for us.

What we learned

Through this project, we learned a lot about app development, particularly in balancing functionality with usability. We also gained deeper insights into working with OCR APIs, managing databases, and securing user information through password hashing.

What's next for WasteFree

Moving forward, we want to refine our receipt scanning capabilities to handle a wider variety of receipts and packaging formats. Additionally, we plan to integrate more advanced data analytics and provide users with personalized sustainability tips based on their waste habits. Expanding the app to support multiple users and collaborative features like shared pantry management is also in our future plans.