Inspiration
My wonderful mother, who calls me at least 20 times when she's at the store to ask what we have in the pantry, and my dad, who doesn’t call at all, leading to us stockpiling 20 boxes of cereal.
What It Does
Our system uses barcode scanners to dynamically track the food in your pantry, making inventory management effortless. When an item’s quantity drops below your set threshold, it’s automatically added to a shared grocery list accessible via a Google sheet (for now). Multiple Raspberry Pi stations throughout the house sync with a central database, ensuring seamless inventory updates.
Our goal is to create a seamless, frustration-free inventory system that makes grocery shopping effortless and prevents those all-too-familiar pantry mishaps.
How We Built It
We developed the system using Java and SQL, integrating world.openfoodfacts.org for its extensive barcode database. The interface runs on Raspberry Pi touchscreens, allowing for convenient, real-time tracking from anywhere in the home.
Challenges We Faced
None of our team members had much front-end experience, so designing an intuitive GUI took time. Additionally, optimizing the interface for the 7" Raspberry Pi touchscreen proved tricky, as development was done on larger laptop screens, leading to plenty of trial and error.
Accomplishments We're Proud Of
Discovering world.openfoodfacts.org was a game-changer. Initially, we feared users would need to manually enter product details, but this database links barcodes to product names, images, and additional metadata. This streamlined the user experience, allowing effortless item scanning.
What We Learned
We gained valuable experience in building user-friendly interfaces and optimizing UI design for embedded systems.
What's Next for Home Inventory System
Modernized UI: A sleek, intuitive interface to enhance user experience.
Mobile Tracking app: Add a custom tracking app that gives you access to the generated shopping list and the full inventory database.
Unpacking Feature: When scanning bulk items (e.g., a 32-pack of toilet paper), users can specify individual unit quantities for better tracking.
Custom Item Uploads: Users can take photos and manually add items not found in the barcode database.
Smarter Search Functionality: Implementing AI-assisted search to recognize related items (e.g., searching for "crackers" returns "Ritz" and "Saltines," even if "cracker" isn’t in the name).
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