Inspiration
Clarifai looked like they have some really cool technology so we started off by taking a look at their website to see exactly what they do. After spending some time just browsing around, we found the "Clarifai Bounties" section. One of the bounties was a Lord of the Rings hack and since we are both big fans of the series, we decided to pursue an idea related to it.
What it does
Our app takes in any image you give it and tells you which Lord of the Rings race you are: Hobbit, Elf, Dwarf, or Human. There are also a few Easter eggs and try inputting a completely BS image to see what it says! ;)
How we built it
We used Clarifai's fantastic image recognition API to note subtle differences between images that could help us distinguish between the races. We used Objective-C to program the iOS application and HTML and CSS to create the accompanying webpage.
Challenges we ran into
One of the challenges we ran into was using XCode since it was difficult to programmatically build the interface. Also neither of us had used Objective-C for years so we had to freshen up before we could actually begin programming again. With HTML and CSS, we spent many hours trying to get a cool parallax effect to work but in the end, succumbed to a lesser but still cool parallax.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Even though we were not able to get everything we wanted done, our project still looks pretty nice. We believe the webpage looks great and can be used as an effective marketing tool. The app on the other hand is functional but definitely needs more work before it can be put into production.
What we learned
We learned to always overestimate the amount of time it will take to complete a project. Things that you think will be easy turn out to be the hardest part sometimes. We also learned that submitting to Devpost takes longer than previously anticipated.
What's next for Clarifai Your Fantasy Race
We plan on continuing to build this product since both of us really like this idea. It even has the potential of extending to other movies / books / media, such as Star Wars, Game of Thrones, DC / Marvel superheros, Harry Potter, etc.
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