Eye Breaks

Settings screen
Reminder screen

Inspiration

One of my siblings had worsening eyesight, caused by her constant usage of her phone. I use an eye break application on my laptop, but I just can't find any such app on the Play Store. Hence, my team and I went to build an eye break app for Android, to improve users' eye health.

What it does

It schedules eye breaks after periodic intervals that can be set in the app user interface(e.g. use for 20 min), blocking the screen with a full screen dialog for a set amount of time. During the duration of the eye break, the user is not allowed to interact with other apps, unless he/she skips the break.

How we built it

We used Android Studio and Java to design and code the app. We used the System Alert Window(SAW) to alert the user to take a break after a certain amount of time which can be modified using the settings screen in the app

Challenges we ran into

We had difficulty using the System Alert Window API as it was not documented well we made a few mistakes (e.g. not declaring permission, service, etc.) which caused our app not to work, and it was very problematic. After adding several log statements to locate the sources of error, we managed to fix those errors.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We managed to create an Eye Break app that would benefit many people, as it will remind others to take breaks and rest their eyes while using their phones.