Harmony

Connect with humanity

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Inspiration

When I was overseas I sometimes felt lonely, and I wished to just put a headset and be teleported somewhere beautiful where I could connect with more people in my same mood. I wanted it to be simple, without the overwhelming information from social media. I desired a space to relax and connect with the world. That is how Harmony was initially born. While coding it, I was also inspired by Sci-Fi films such as 2001 Space Odyssey or Blade Runner 2049, imagining a future where alien technologies created virtual worlds to help humanity mental health.

What it does

Harmony is a VR web application intended for relaxation and human connection on a spiritual level. You are not alone, so many people are feeling just like you.

You will be greeted by the Monolith, an alien technology that will teleport you to an environment based on your mood and will generate a network that represents other users emotional state.

How I built it

I built it with lots of effort and an open mind to any idea that came to me. The project shaped itself day by day, by multiple iterations. Sumerian was a great platform to use my background skills in design. Harmony integrates with multiple AWS services such as DynamoDB, S3, Lambda and Polly.

Challenges I ran into

Software development is all about challenges. I ran into hundreds of them. Using multiple AWS services and making them talk between each other was a big challenge. It was my first time using AWS and coding in Javascript. For example setting up Lambda and DynamoDB through Cloud formation was really intimidating as I had no idea about any concept and had to learn from scratch.

Other challenges were related to particle systems, async javascript, experience design, VR compatibility, etc. All kinds of flavours of challenges.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

I am proud that I was able to make it work besides all my technical knowledge limitations. The main accomplishment is that it works in VR(Tested in Oculus Go).

What I learned

I learnt a lot about AWS and Javascript in general, but I also learned things I didn't expect, such as user experience design, particle systems, css, 360 pictures editing in Photoshop or software models like manager and controller classes. Most importantly, I think I got a coding discipline, having set work hours, and learned to ask for help when needed, and to help others in the Sumerian community through Slack.

What's next for Harmony

This version is a prototype. I expect that future versions of the application have real time data of active users in the network, thousands of 3D emotions floating around the user and environments based on Psychology studies that have proven mental health benefits.

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