PenPal - Copilot for your journal

Journaling is hard due to lack of time, a desire for perfect writing, and trouble recalling daily events. PenPal writes automated and interactive journals using your phone's call, location, etc. data.

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Inspiration

At "PenPal," we are excited to present our project that beautifully captures the essence of the "Cycle of Life." Our team recognized the struggles many individuals face when trying to document their daily experiences due to time constraints, forgetfulness, or digital distractions. With PenPal, we have developed a solution that not only eases the journaling process but also provides an immersive journey through the cycles of life

We wanted to provide an easier way to journal.

What it does

PenPal automatically scrapes the data from your daily phone activities to form a story of your day. Your journal entry can then be edited, allowing you to change the words and easily add photos.

After the journal entry is finished, the fun is just beginning. Users can share their entries with others, have the entries read in their own voice using AI, and even interact with an older persona of themselves built from past journal entries.

Some highlighting features of our app:

  • Automatic Journaling and Storytelling: Our project excels in storytelling by creating journal entries that eloquently narrate the events, emotions, and transitions within a day. This storytelling aspect beautifully captures the cyclical nature of life, from morning routines to evening relaxation, forming a complete circle of experiences.

  • Editing and Personalization: PenPal empowers users to take charge of their narratives. You can easily edit your journal entries, adding personal insights, memories, and emotions. This personalization ensures that each entry resonates with the unique cycles and rhythms of your life.

  • Voice Cloning: One of our proudest achievements is enabling users to have their journal entries read in their voice using AI. This not only adds a personal touch but also creates an auditory representation of the phases in one's life, enhancing the documentation experience.

  • Interacting with Past Self: PenPal goes beyond traditional journaling. Users can interact with an older persona of themselves, constructed from past journal entries. This unique feature allows for introspection and reflection on how different phases have shaped your journey.

How we built it

  • The UI was built using Flutter and Dart
  • The data was scraped from an android phone (including contacts, locations visited, phone calls, text messages, apps used, etc.)
  • The journal entry was built using the Chat-GPT API
  • The voice clone was generated using ElevatedLabs

Challenges we ran into

It was difficult to scrape photos from the phones in such a short hacking window. We decided to allow users to upload their photos instead.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of all we've been able to build in such a short time. As well, several team members also worked overnight for the build, which is a dedication worth honoring.

What we learned

Scraping data from the phone was in some ways easier and in some ways more difficult than expected.

What's next for PenPal - Daily Automated and Interactive Journaling

We are working on enhancing our digital personas and eventually plan on integrating virtual reality to bring preserved precious moments back to life. Additionally, we would like to incorporate fitness, weather, music, and videos to help make journal entries accurate and engaging. We would like to add additional functionality as well as begin extensive user testing. We plan to then add PenPal to the Android app store shortly.

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