Inspiration
Data plans in Canada are the most expensive in the world source and some people may not be able to afford them.
Our focus is to help people with limited access to data to find their way back home, or anywhere they want to go.
What it does
DM our phone number and we will give back information on how to get to where you want to go without the use of data!
How we built it
Our backend is a flask app hosted on Azure. We used the Twilio API to receive texts, which is forwarded to our backend. The backend calls the necessary Google Maps API and will return the useful information in a text message. It will also send back a low-cost picture of the route if data is enabled.
Challenges we ran into
Eric
- Learning the Twilio API
Vandy
- Building and deploying a web app was kind of tricky
Liang
- Learning Python and Flask
Accomplishments that we're proud of
- we coded something useful and practical in a short amount of time
- we all learned a lot about Python, Flask, Azure
What we learned
- we learned how to use new APIs, especially Azure, the Twilio API and the Google Maps API
- we learned how to code in a team-based environment
- we learned to view from different perspectives to build features for
What's next for Direction Message (DM) Us
- add natural processing language to make it easier for people texting us and reply back with more humanistic responses
- add translation features so people can use it in their preferred languages
- save previous locations
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