LockedIn

Inspiration

As students ourselves, we’ve all struggled with the same issues when studying: maintaining good posture, staying focused, and managing our time effectively. We wanted to create something that could help not just us, but other students facing these challenges as well. Something that brings all these things together in one, easy to use hub.

What it does

Locked In is our all-in-one study hub that tackles both mental and physical well-being while studying. It includes a posture detection system that uses body tracking to make sure you’re sitting properly and avoiding bad posture. It also features a Study Buddy AI, powered by GenAI, which helps you take notes, summarize content, and stay on track. For time management, we implemented the Pomodoro technique, which prompts you to take breaks after focused work intervals.

How we built it

We built the web app using Streamlit, a framework that allows for fast prototyping of interactive apps. The Study Buddy AI is powered by GenAI, which interacts with users and helps with notes. For posture detection, we used MediaPipe to ensure users maintain proper posture during study sessions. We also incorporated Pomodoro timers and reminders to take active breaks, keeping both mind and body refreshed during study sessions.

Challenges we ran into

Initially, we planned to use YOLO for object detection, but it proved too slow and resource-intensive during work sessions, impacting performance. Realizing it wasn't efficient enough for our needs, we decided to drop it. Instead, we shifted our focus to MediaPipe, which offered better performance for posture detection and integrated smoothly into our project. Working with Google Cloud also posed challenges, as we had limited experience with databases, buckets, and authorization. Additionally, Streamlit's lack of customization made it difficult to adjust the website to our vision. To top it off, a blue screen crash on the laptop hindered our progress, requiring us to troubleshoot and recover lost work. Despite these setbacks, we were able to adapt and move forward.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

One of the things we’re most proud of is using GenAI in a real-world application to generate code and improve the user experience. We’re also really proud of integrating MediaPipe for posture, which was new for us, but we managed to make it work well within our project. Bringing together these tools was an exciting challenge, and seeing it all come together was a great accomplishment.

What we learned

We learned a lot about working with technologies like GenAI, Streamlit, and MediaPipe, all three of which were critical to our project’s success. We also learned how to integrate AI, computer vision, and web development into one seamless app that’s functional and interactive. It was a valuable experience that pushed us to grow as developers and try out new technologies.

What's next for LockedIn

Looking ahead, we’re planning to add a friends feature so users can connect, study together, and keep each other motivated. We also want to gamify the experience with a streak-based system and a point system, similar to Duolingo, to make studying more engaging and rewarding. Another way we wanted to implement the web app would be to streamline it towards the workplace, where it is common for people to spend long hours at a desk and become sedentary. This could improve quality of life by promoting better posture, and encouraging healthy habits. By adapting the app for workplace use, we aim to reduce the negative impacts of prolonged sitting, improve overall productivity, and foster a healthier work environment.

We’re excited about these future developments and can’t wait to keep improving the app!