Guidio

Inspiration

Last month we landed in a new city with three hours to explore. Instead of enjoying it, we spent almost an hour searching the same things over and over: what should we see, is this place important, is it worth walking to. And when we finally arrived at beautiful statues, churches, and hidden landmarks, we realized the worst part: we had no idea what we were actually looking at. That frustration became a simple idea: the city should explain itself while you walk.

What we built

Guidio is a reactive audio guide that follows you, not the other way around. You move freely through the city and, as you approach a point of interest, Guidio automatically plays an engaging audio story about it. No fixed routes, no constant Googling, no rigid tours. The goal is for it to feel like a real guide next to you, short, clear, and actually enjoyable.

GitHub repository

How it works

Guidio uses live GPS to detect nearby landmarks and fetch context for each place. We then use an LLM to turn raw information into a listenable narrative and generate audio through ElevenLabs. In parallel, we started building a stronger knowledge layer by collecting Wikidata points, categorizing them with a lightweight model, and storing them in MongoDB so retrieval is fast and consistent.

Challenges

The hardest part was making it feel instant and natural. We also had to keep audio generation quick while making sure the stories sound human, not like a trimmed Wikipedia paragraph. Most of our time went into balancing caching and narration quality.

What we learned

We learned that the magic is not just AI narration, it is timing and relevance. When audio triggers at the right moment and matches what you are seeing, it feels effortless. When it does not, the whole experience breaks. That pushed us to think more like actual guides: keep it short, pick the most interesting angle, and adapt to the listener.

What’s next

Next we would want Guidio to support follow up questions, deeper personalization, and smoother city coverage. The goal stays the same: no planning, no limitations, just walk and discover.

Built With

• elevenlabs
• fastapi
• mongodb
• ollama
• openai
• python
• react
• react-native