Inspiration
Personal experiences inspire our most creative thoughts. FairShare was inspired by a recent group visit to Taco Bell, when we struggled with calculators and mobile notepads. How often have we struggled to divide the bill without missing a cent or overcharging?
What it does
Whether it's accounting for individual tax contributions, service charges, or specific item costs, FairShare's precision ensures that everyone pays their exact share, neither more nor less. This attention to detail ensures fairness, preventing inadvertent discrepancies of every group dining experience.
How we built it
We used React Native for the frontend, providing a flawless mobile interface and combining various technologies such as Firebase and Google Cloud Function for the backend. Integrating Python with Azure Form Recognizer and OpenAI provided added layers of precision and trustworthiness to the OCR algorithm.
Our journey kicked off with basic collaborative sketching of the UI, refining user paths, and laying down the groundwork using React Native. At the core of the app, the OCR Python scripts paired with Azure Form Recognizer. To guarantee data integrity and precision, we tapped into OpenAI's expertise, amplifying our confidence in every bill division.
Challenges we ran into
Database structure assurance posed its own set of challenges, with an array of receipt designs and structures, maintaining accuracy proved exceptionally challenging. However, OpenAI played a pivotal role in smoothing out these discrepancies. Foremost, ensuring user privacy and safeguarding data was crucial. Crafting stringent security protocols without jeopardizing the app's efficiency required meticulous attention.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
One of FairShare's greatest achievements is its simple, attractive user interface. We spent a lot of effort refining the user interface since user interaction is crucial to app success. Our design approach was simplicity, fluidity, and reactivity to ensure a smooth experience for all consumers, regardless of tech knowledge. Our attention to this feature illustrates that we believe a good app is dependent on more than its functionality.
What we learned
The FairShare adventure taught many valuable lessons. The complexity of receipt forms and structures reinforced the concept that user-centric solutions must be effective and sensitive to users' real-world situations. Our collaboration confirmed that sharing skills and opinions typically yields richer, more polished solutions.
What's next for FairShare
As FairShare evolves, we're integrating services for detecting nearby users to streamline the process of adding users to a bill. For faster digital transactions and share payouts, our platform will interface directly with CashApp using BrainTree frameworks. Implement machine learning models to improve bill OCR efficiency and accuracy.
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