Inspiration
F1 racing has been a part of all of our lives and with recent advances in AR and video technology, we realized that augmented reality would fit perfectly into F1 racing. AR presents a fantastic opportunity to bring fans closer to the sport that they love and experience it an a brand new way.
What it does
Our application takes race data from the OpenF1 API and translates them into coordinates within the augmented reality space. Using the ARkit of Apple, we then transmit those coordinates from a virtual track into your real space.
How we built it
We first pulled race data from the OpenF1 API and processed that data into a csv file. Then we moved onto Swift where we took inspiration from open source projects and YouTube videos to help visualize what we needed to do. Taking free models from online, we created nodes to help place them in the virtual space before feeding them the data to move them accordingly.
Challenges we ran into
We actually had a lot of problems with Apple's documentation and implementation of things in Swift. Normally libraries are under-documented and you can never find an exact function that does what you need. However, with working with Apple's ARKit we had the exact opposite problem. There were so many different implementations of very similar functions so it was very difficult to determine exactly what tools we needed to use. The documentation was also extremely thorough and technical, relying heavily on other Swift capabilities we were not familiar with. Ultimately, we learned a lot from navigating through it all to produce a product we are proud of.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
The greatest accomplishment we made in the last 24 hours was being able to integrate the various different technologies that we've never used before into a single complete product. Furthermore, being able to say that as a group we were able persevere and effectively work together through our first hackathon is one of the things we're proudest about.
What we learned
Throughout the duration of this event, there were a myriad of different skills we had to learn, especially given that none of us are CS majors. From pulling and processing data from an API to learning an entirely new coding language, we challenged ourselves to gain more knowledge in an area we were weak in. Beyond the hard skills that we acquired, there were many soft skills were integral to success as well. Given the 24 hour limitation, time management became a key factor to delivering our product. Along with that, we had to coordinate across different skill to effectively maximize our workflow.
What's next for F1ARE
There's a lot that we can add to make the track look more detailed and defined to increase emersion. Individual data and perspectives from all of the drivers would allow fans to drive along with their favorite drivers and personally experience the thrill of the race. We also want to improve the data visualization to satisfy the hard core fans.
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