SafeTrip

Our app helps users avoid high-crime areas by showing crime records near their selected destinations.

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Hi! We are team Caffeine and our members of Lan, Kanisha and Yujin.

Inspiration

SafeTrip is inspired by the need for safer KW experiences. As KW becomes busier and more populated, concerns about personal safety, especially in high-crime areas, have risen significantly. We wanted to create a solution that empowers women to make informed decisions about their routes and destinations by providing real-time crime data.

Also, personal experiences shared by friends and family regarding unsafe encounters while traveling motivated us to find a way to enhance safety through technology. By integrating location services and crime reports, we aim to help users avoid potentially dangerous areas and feel more secure in their journeys.

What it does

SafeTrip is an innovative application designed to enhance personal safety while traveling. The main features of the app include:

  1. Crime Data Integration: Users can input their desired destinations, and the app provides detailed information about crime records in those areas, helping them avoid high-crime zones.

  2. Real-Time Crime Reporting: The app allows users to report any crimes they encounter, contributing to raising awareness and improving safety.

  3. Emergency Contact Network: In case of an emergency, users can quickly send messages to their emergency contacts when they get a notification about high-crime zones.

How we built it

** Frontend** React Native and Expo: Mobile web app development and Expo for building and testing the app quickly. Backend Python and Flask: To create RESTful APIs that handle data requests from the app. Twilio: For SMS functionality, enabling users to send alerts and notifications to emergency contacts directly from the app. Firebase: User Authentication Geolocation Services : Track user locations and display nearby crime data

Challenges we ran into

Our team faced several challenges during development. The first major hurdle was that Expo would not run on Kanisha's laptop, which limited her ability to code. To work around this, I set up the UI components while Kanisha handled the CSS from my laptop. Lani also aimed to extract and process crime report data from CSV files using Pandas, but we ultimately struggled to implement this feature. Also, I encountered issues like losing files when trying to revert commits and dealing with CSS layout inconsistencies, which added stress and consumed valuable time. Despite these obstacles, we learned a lot and found ways to overcome each challenge together (ᐢᗜᐢ)

Accomplishments that we're proud of

  1. Successfully integrated the Google Maps API, allowing users to see the route to their destination and reflecting their actual location.
  2. Ensured that the app could read and write data from the database without issues, accurately 3. 3. Pinning crime locations based on the retrieved data.
  3. Implemented Twilio to enable seamless message sending for emergencies.
  4. Maintained team focus and dedication throughout the project, contributing to our collective success.

What we learned

During the development of our project, we picked up some really valuable insights about different technologies and how to work together as a team. We figured out how to effectively use the Google Maps API for real-time location tracking and route mapping, and we got pretty good at using Firebase for managing our database, learning how to read and write data smoothly. On top of that, working with React Native and Expo really helped us appreciate mobile app development and cross-platform functionality a lot more. Overall, this project not only boosted our technical skills but also made us better at collaborating under pressure.

What's next for SafeTrip

We're looking to implement the feature that will let us import and utilize real crime reporting records from CSV files, which we weren't able to accomplish this time. And we want to organize the database by user to improve data management. We also plan to update the UI and refactor the code to enhance the overall user experience and functionality!

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