Smart Blu

Smart Blu is a virtual assistant that helps you learn how to use your utility properly and keeps you up to date on the CSGO Esports scene.

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Inspiration

We were inspired by the lack of quick access resources available to learn utility usage in CSGO. While there are many maps and websites available, there isn't an easy way to pull up grenade lineups in-game, which is solved by Smart Blu.

What it does

Smart Blu gives gamers the ability to ask for specific grenade lineups on the fly and be able to incorporate them mid-round seamlessly. Using voice commands, Smart Blu enables you to query and search for a specific grenade lineup without moving your hands away from the keyboard and mouse, creating a minimal distraction so you don't give up a free kill trying to find that ONE grenade you were looking for. Don't like the grenades already installed? With just the editing of a config file, you can add any smoke, flash, molotov, or HE grenade you need. Just insert a link to a resource (gif, image, video) and your grenade will be saved for later use down the line.

Smart Blu also offers many other multimedia commands, helping you keep up to date on all CS Esports news. Smart Blu can return a team's daily game and the time it takes place, as well as return any player transfers and news that has come up over the recent days. You can even watch games too, with built-in twitch integration, you can search up any stream, whether it be your favorite streamer or an esports game.

How we built it

Smart Blu was built by deploying python code onto a raspberry pi. The front end uses PyQt as our GUI framework, and Google Cloud's speech recognition API to parse any speech given to it. We have a MySQL AWS database that stores grenades, streamers, and notifications. We used Liquipedia's API to gather info relating to both recent player transfers, as well as the times and opponents of games given a team name. We also incorporate Twitch's API to search up any streamer and play their stream on Smart Blu.

Challenges we ran into

None of us have had very much coding experience, especially when it comes to Python. We also had a lot of issues with hardware, mostly in the form of performance issues when using the raspberry pi as our system. Because of these issues, we resulted in recording our demo connected to a desktop PC. Additionally, the microphone we bought specifically for use as a home assistant came in damaged, so we weren't able to get a replacement in time for the deadline.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

This was a lot of our first time's making a full project in any coding language, especially given a deadline. We are also proud of the fact that is a completely standalone device that can run on its own with just a power cord. We decided to connect it to the PC for demonstration purposes.

What we learned

We learned a lot about how APIs work and how you can use them to interact with your projects. We also learned a lot about working with Linux, as none of us had any experience with Linux in the past.

What's next for Smart Blu

I think the future for gaming-centered smart assistants has a very interesting outlook, and it could have a lot of applications, not only in Esports titles but also in RPGs and MMOs where there is a lot of information to digest.

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