Breadcrumbs

Find your way back with breadcrumbs made with AR

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Inspiration

We kept getting lost in the Penn Engineering building because we don't understand hallways and rectangles. So we made an app that can show us the way back to where we left our stuff and so we never forget where our stuff is.

What it does

When the user wants to find their way back to their original spot, they start our app. The app will track where the user is going and place "breadcrumbs" along the path they walked. When the user wants to return to their place, they hold their phone up and follow the breadcrumbs back.

How I built it

We used Android ARCore to display the AR features and Unity to build the 3d models. Fuse to build the human models.

Challenges I ran into

None of us had experience using AR with Android. We were experimenting with different AR technologies like Vuforia and ARCore and after spending lots of fiddling around those two technologies, we ultimately chose ARCore due to it's ease of use and good documentation.

We also had problems with compatibility issues, we know what ARKit for Apple phones has plenty of documentation but we couldn't use it because we did not have enough Apple phones.

We also ran into problems with compatibility issues of Android Studio and Unity. Merely setting up the project making sure they worked on all computers that we were working on was a problem.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We were not that experienced with making Android apps using Unity. We are proud that we were able to make an Android app in Unity and learn more about Unity as we code.

What we learned

AR is tough. We learned how to use Unity a bit more and how to make AR apps with Unity. We learned how to make graphics in Unity.

What's next for Living Philadelphia

Make the breadcrumbs customizable and you can make them into different things. This app has potential for indoor and outdoor applications. If you need to find where you once was, you use this app. If you need to find where you once was indoors, you use this app. If you need to find where you parked your car, you use breadcrumbs to find your car. If you need to find your campsite, you use breadcrumbs.

Also have the ability to see friend's breadcrumbs if they want to share it.

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