Earth Matters

Inspiration

When I first Googled “What happens if the Earth’s temperature rises by 2°C?”, the answers were alarming. It made me realize that our planet’s future is at serious risk. I then checked “What’s the current global temperature?” and saw it was already around 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. This motivated me to create a solution that could educate and empower people, especially the younger generation, about climate change and sustainability.

What it does

Earth Matters is a Voice AI assistant that:

• Tracks the current global warming temperature using the Global Warming API.
  
• Sparks curiosity by providing interactive insights into global warming and its impacts.
  
• Build an understanding by answers questions about climate change and environmental science by searching the web for reputable sources.
  
• Engages users to take action, turning awareness into meaningful steps for a sustainable future.

How we built it

• LLM: Google Gemini for natural language understanding.
  
• Web search: Tavily to give the AI internet search capabilities.
  
• Voice interface: LiveKit for building the voice assistant.
  
• Speech processing: Cetersia for text-to-speech (TTS) and DeepGram for speech-to-text (STT).
  
• Frontend: Next.js, TypeScript, and Tailwind CSS.
  
• Backend: Python.

Challenges we ran into

• Integrating real-time temperature data into a conversational AI workflow.
  
• Ensuring accurate answers while retrieving information from multiple web sources.
  
• Balancing natural conversation flow with technical data.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

• Successfully built a voice-enabled AI assistant that makes climate data accessible and engaging.
  
• Created a system that sparks curiosity and encourages users to learn more about sustainability.
  
• Integrated multiple cutting-edge tools (LLM, TTS, STT, API data) into a single interactive platform.

What we learned

• How to combine AI, voice technology, and live data to create a meaningful educational tool.
  
• The importance of curiosity-driven design to engage users in serious topics like climate change.
  
• How technical integration across frontend, backend, and AI services can drive real-world impact.

What's next for Earth Matters

• Implement AI avatars to make interactions more engaging and personal.
  
• Expand capabilities to provide personalized action plans for users based on their location and habits.
  
• Enhance AI’s ability to explain complex climate science in a simple, relatable way.

Built With

• catersia
• deepgram
• gemini-api-key
• livekit
• nextjs
• tailwind-css
• typescript