find your way with tech

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  Full Presentation Slide

Solution

An indoor navigation system to help visually impaired students locate difficult to find classrooms.

What it does

Provide audio instructions for how to navigate a building based on voice input

How I built it

Used Python scripts hosted on Google Cloud serverless Python Cloud Functions to measure distances between longitude and latitude coordinates, compute the shortest path, and return the optimal path in an intelligent set of directions.

The user interfaces with the platform through Apple Shortcuts which in turn issues HTTP requests to the back-end in Google Cloud.

Challenges I ran into

Needed a “map/graph” of the building, with waypoints at every “intersection” and classroom, and had to find a way to intuitively generate this map. For following certain paths, we started by trying to use phone accelerometer data but could not accurately get distance due to sensor noise. Attempted to use a pedometer and a coordinate plane measured in steps, but delayed sensor readings made this impractical. Difficult to have a 100% voice UI.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

Fine-grained GPS data gathering. Intuitive, complex UI using Shortcuts Allowed for instant integration with all iPhones. Entirely navigated through Siri, starting with “Hey Siri, help me find my classroom.”

What's next for find your way with tech

Integrate support for multiple floors. Streamline the process of map creation. Use GPS data to determine turn direction instead of hard coding them into map creation.

Built With

• google-cloud
• ios-shortcuts
• python