Food Alert!

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Inspiration

There was a lot of free food at HackMIT that we did not know about - that is usually the case all the time at MIT! We think that it is way more convenient to be alerted pysically when free food is available than to keep refreshing Outlook.

What it does

It lights up the segment seven display to show the building and room number where free food is available RIGHT NOW.

How we built it

An IFTTT service forwards the email from the free food mailing list to the Particle Photon. It analyzes the messages from the list and identifies the location. Then, a sequence of LEDs light up to present the exact numbers of the location.

Challenges we ran into

1. Finding a number in an email is challenging
2. Lighting up three LEDs from one Photon Output cannot be directly done. 3.There were no segment-seven displays available - making one takes time!

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We got it to work! And the numbers look like numbers.

What we learned

How to make physical devices interact with the digital world.

What's next for Food Alert!

Helping college students around MIT not to starve!

Built With

• ifttt
• leds
• photon