Problem:
- Location sharing apps are great, but may compromise on privacy.
- Is there a way to check on your friends and family – in a noninvasive, convenient, and accessible way?
Solution:
- Burrowed Time lets you share your location status (e.g. home) from pre-selected regions with friends and family.
- Example user cases:
First-year student with overprotective parents
The Weasley’s
- Example user cases:
Technical Overview
- Front end
-App: Swift, Xcode
-Data updated via user input (manual) and CoreLocation (automatic, entry/exit monitoring, notifies database) - Back end
-Built on AWS with Python
-SQL database
-Data updated through API calls - Hardware
-Raspberry Pi controller running Python
-HDMI output to display
-Stepper motor turns clock hand
-Push button dial cycles through people
Accomplishments
- Invitation system to add a friend to a group
- App display to fit on multiple screen sizes
- Stylistic changes for cleaner, intuitive UI
- Testing on phones for feedback on the app
- But not for interaction between users yet
- Hardware (ahead of schedule!)
- Raspberry Pi controls clock
- Rotary encoder to control cycling through people or locking on a single person
- Stepper motor to point clock hand
Unexpected Challenges
- Apple certifications to test app on phone
- Underestimated time required to style the app on the UI side and make it more accessible
- Front-end, back-end integration
- Setting up Python virtual environment
- Finding reliable rotary encoder drivers
Next Steps
- Live testing using multiple phones
- Fixing unintuitive sections of UI
- Making database calls asynchronous
- Debugging code
- Deleting/changing location names
- Integrating invitation system with app
- Building wooden casing for clock
- Resolving potential motor overheating
Clock Demo:
Watch as we manually cycle through the members of our group, and the clock will adjust it’s the information displayed.