HeadsUp

Inspiration

In today's day and age, we wake up and look at our phones. we go to class and look at our phones. But worst of all, we cross the road and look at our phones. Every waking moment, we forget the thousands of lives that are lost to distractions on our roads. Maybe it's time to bring your Heads Up.

What it does

Our app keeps track of how many steps you take while not viewing any distracting applications on your phone. This idea incentivizes not using your phone while walking by giving you points. These points can be redeemed for gift cards or other rewards provided by corporate sponsors and donations.

How I built it

We utilized React Native as our main framework for the application. We also used Firebase Firestore on Google Cloud Platform to store information provided by the pedometer of the cell phone as well as store the number of points accumulated. Firebase Cloud Functions are used to authenticate users and redeem rewards.

Challenges we ran into

One challenge was using React Native to obtain information on the system state, i.e. detecting if the phone was locked or not. React Native with Expo had its limitations, and given more time, we would have been able to develop a more accurate way to measure how often a phone is used while walking. Ideas would include implementing native code such as iOS Swift or Android Java/Kotlin.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

We were able to successfully obtain information from the pedometer and then integrate that data with Firebase.

What's next for HeadsUp

There are a lot of ideas that, given more time, we would like to integrate into this application. We would like to expand this to drivers on the road to help prevent distractions, such as encouraging the use of Apple CarPlay and Android Auto instead of a handheld device. We would like to eventually collect location data, using machine learning models, to develop insights into regions where distractions on the road are more common, in order to help promote a safer society.