Inspiration
Knowing the status of the public transport quickly and efficiently
What it does
The application contains several layers depending on how to access the wanted user data. We used Twitter's API to look up the last tweet from official accounts that give the status of the metro system (either up and running/ down/ resuming) Our application understands the latest tweet and returns to the user the current status of the metro.
The application also handles the local train and bus using GTFS data (google format that they use to populate google maps with the local public transport). To return the next bus in the correct direction.
How we built it
We used the Twitter API, the GTFS data for the Montreal local train. These tools where our "Backend" and is how we acquired the necessary data. We decided to use Alexa as our medium to return that data to the users.
Challenges we ran into
We live in a French/English city, Alexa was having a lot of difficulty to understand the commands and sometimes would return 2 different results for the same typed input. While the technology is very impressive, Alexa has difficulty handling French/English at the same time
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Getting the Alexa service up and running and answering the correct results that where understood from recent tweets
What we learned
Using the Alexa Development tool and adding Alexa skills
Log in or sign up for Devpost to join the conversation.