Inspiration
Imagine you and your friends, going off for a night on the town. After several hours of family friendly fun, you find that one of your party is missing, separated from the flock, so to speak. You being to worry, as he doesn't respond to your calls or texts. Is his phone on silent? Or has his goose been cooked? This situation was the inspiration for Bird's eye. Not only will it tell you where your friend is, but it might prevent him from getting lost in the first place.
What it does
Bird's Eye gives the user an overhead view of where all their friends are. The app allows everyone in a group to see each individual's location. Individuals can also chat in a group chat, chat with individual people in the group, and see the others battery life and cell reception. If someone in the group is running low on battery, the rest of the group will be notified.
How I built it
I built the app in android studio. I used the google maps API to place markers on the screen, and allow users to seamlessly transition into using directions. I also added some back-end framework using firebase, however that portion is not fully functional.
Challenges I ran into
Creating the UI was more difficult than i expected. Also, undertaking such a large project over such a small time, with little planning was difficult. Many times I realized that I had only made my job more difficult, or that a different implementation earlier, would have saved me time later on. Lastly, I had absolutely no experience with back end, so creating even simple interactions with the cloud was difficult.
Accomplishments that I'm proud of
I'm proud that I managed to make an app that feels reasonably good. I also think that it turned out fairly well for not planning ahead of time.
What I learned
I learned a lot about android development, and interacting with the cloud.
What's next for Bird's Eye
Making the functionality smoother and ironing out some of the rough edges. Definitely migrating towards full cloud support so that all the sharing functions work securely and consistently.
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