Nature Nurturer

Inspiration

We wanted to create another incentive for people to go outside and interact with others. Many programs use punishment in order to encourage people to leave their house, creating a negative association with the outdoors. We decided to encourage outdoor activities with gamification. We've created a device that must be played outdoors. It promotes learning as well as collaboration and competition with friends.

What it does

Out project is able to identify plants based on camera data from ESP 32 MCU. It then displays the scientific name of the plant and the picture taken in the plant encyclopedia. Our application is also able to collect sensor data and live display the conditions around a player. Using the sensor data, we also include achievements for the player to complete.

How we built it

One part was camera, which we connected to a database of plant pictures. The other device was sensors, connected to a multitude of devices. After wiring the sensors, we decided to link everything up to the web application. This allows for all the components to be connected with each other.

Challenges we ran into

One challenge that we ran into was incorporating the camera and sensors to our web server. Additionally, we had difficulty soldering the screen. Creating the proper hardware was the greatest challenge in this project. However, after going through documentation multiple times and trouble-shooting code, we were able to finish our project.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We've created two functioning devices. Our first accomplishment was getting the camera to work. Shortly after, we managed to get outputs of plant information. Another accomplishment that we are proud of was getting the screen to work since setting up the software for the screen was complicated.

What we learned

We learned about sensor and camera incorporation into web applications. We were also able to learn more about web development and how to live update the web page based on input from our sensors.

What's next for Nature Nurturer

We plan on slimming down our product so that is is more easily wearable in the future. We also hope to develop a database so that players can explore nature together and compete with who can get the most plants.