pnobs

'pnobs' is a social platform at heart, allowing users to share door unlocking privileges with each other

Comment

Inspiration

The idea came to us while the sponsors introduced themselves and described the vision behind their prizes. A multiple prizes seemed to be in the 'life-hack' / 'dorm-hack' / general hardware hack, so we rolled with that theme.

What it does

an outline of the 'pnobs' system:

  • Each device instance attaches just below the door handle on the inside of users’ doors
  • The door / device combination is known as a ‘pnob’ in the application
  • Users have control over (ie: are able to unlock / manage permissions for) ‘pnobs’ that they own
  • What makes our system different:
    • Users can make a pnob accessible to other users by either giving them direct access, or allowing them to request an unlock

How we built it

Our website is hosted on DigitalOcean, and was built with HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and PHP. The physical model was created with 3d printed parts, a Raspberry Pi (along with a motor / driver), and a whole bunch of Popsicle sticks.

Challenges we ran into

Many of the issues we had involved the web hosting services, and the 'disappearing act' our website enjoyed playing on us. In addition programming our Raspberry Pi ended up being quite a challenge, and involved debugging code / operating system problems almost constantly. We also would like to thank the generous hacker who allowed us to use his keyboard most of the weekend---we would have been unable to do almost anything without it.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of our working model, and the fact that one of our team member's parents were able to successfully unlock our 'door' from across the country.

What we learned

For most of us, our web-design skills were tested the most exhaustively, but we were also often working on and exposed to 3d printing parts, and creating circuits with the Arduino and Raspberry Pi.

What's next for pnobs

We are looking to finish our database implementation and focus on any security issues we may have overlooked during the Hackathon. Also, please feel free to give us feedback!

Share this project:

Updates