GuideBite

Inspiration

Thinking of issues that neurodivergent people have, the topic of overstimulation was on everyone's minds. We brainstormed on the many potential locations that could be overstimulating and hard for neurodivergent people to navigate. We deduced a college dining hall is the environment we wanted to tackle due to the potential for neurodivergent people to miss out on important social interactions. We overall thought to combat the overstimulating environment with a helpful AR experience which helps them navigate the stressful environment as quickly as possible.

What it does

The user will scan a QR code in front of the dining hall that connects it to the scenery server where the app is held. The app will first display the menu items of the day. When the user makes their decision the app calculates the quickest route through the dining hall to display to the user. Furthermore a helpful path of non intrusive arrows will lead the user to their desired meal. The user can also listen to the calm ocean waves to drown out the other unwanted stimuli. Once the user reaches the end a small chime will sound and a cute mascot will greet them congratulating them. This allows for a gamified experience that will create positive reinforcement for the users.

How we built it

We used scenery to develop the AR components of this project and found either free assets or developed them in various design softwares. These include figma, procreate, Adobe Illustrator, Blender, and Clip Studio Paint.

Challenges we ran into

The whole team had never tried out scenery which was the main platform to use for creating AR apps. Due to this learning curve and tight time limit, our idea for a customized and calculated route for students had to be scrapped to finish in time. However we made sure to accurately display the visuals and overall user experience that we envisioned in order to make up for missing our main mechanic.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

The team is proud of finishing our first AR app and the development of new technical skills to improve on in the future. We are proud to deliver on a product that closely matches our visual vision of the project and the many custom assets we were able to create.

What we learned

We learned to properly divide and concur this project and to play into everyone's strengths. We were a diverse team ranging from design and code skill but by playing into each of our strengths, we were successful. We also learned the importance of rest and tapping out when work gets overwhelming. Due to the whole time using scenery for the first time we all took turns with the software until we each got stumped.

What's next for GuideBite

We hope to gain access to the coding function of scenery in order to properly implement the calculating navigation aspect of the project. Furthermore we would like to either improve on our menu function by directly referencing real dining hall menus or making it a customized fixed camera menu.