NavAble

Inspiration

We noticed that while Google Maps is excellent for driving and long-distance travel, it often falls short for close-range navigation, especially for individuals with mobility challenges. For example, it may suggest routes that require wheelchair users to navigate stairs.

What it Does

NavAble is a web app that generates accessible routes by avoiding obstacles like stairs and steep inclines, making navigation easier for those with mobility limitations.

How We Built It

We built NavAble using JavaScript, CSS, HTML and integrated APIs such as ElevenLabs, GeoApify, and Gemini to power voice output, voice input, location data, and route intelligence.

Challenges We Ran Into

We faced issues with the Gemini API initially, encountered over 800 merge conflicts, and found it challenging to integrate multiple APIs in a cohesive way. It was also challenging to get used to working with APIs that we had not worked with, such as GeoApify.

Accomplishments We're Proud Of

We’re proud to have integrated the Gemini API and developed a smart route generator that intelligently avoids inaccessible paths, making navigation more inclusive. We were able to utilize Gemini to take parse users' voice inputs into a start and end location for GeoApify to route. Our use of multimodal inputs helps us ensure that all users can use our app.

What We Learned

Committing and merging relatively frequently to avoid massive conflicts
Intermixing APIs can be tricky but rewarding
Modularizing our tasks so that one task is less dependent on the timeline of another
Effective teamwork and preplanning can elevate productivity

What’s Next for NavAble

We plan to let users customize the types of obstacles to avoid (e.g., stairs, curbs, steep paths) and continue expanding support for other accessibility needs. Another change we planned on adding was a form of vision tracking to give real time feedback on whether the user was headed in the right direction. One feature we planned on implementing but ran out of time for was text to speech to help read out the route for users who have poorer vision.