Solarapy

With Solarapy, we're empowering individuals to take control of their mental health and find light even in the depths of winter.

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Inspiration

Our inspiration for Solarapy stemmed from a desire to address a pressing issue affecting millions of people worldwide: Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). We were moved by the impact that the lack of sunlight during the winter months can have on individuals' mental health and well-being. "Solarapy" comes from the words solar and therapy.

What it does

Solarapy is an LED ceiling light which is configured for light therapy sessions. We don't have the ceiling light yet, but we have the user interface of the mobile app. The mobile app allows you to:

  >control the lights according to your mood
  >access preset lighting systems to mimic sunlight and improve your mood
  >play music and sync it with your lighting system
  >talk to a chatbot when you feel sad
  >access a journal where users can log their thoughts and feelings, track their mood over time, and 
    reflect on their mental health journey

How we built it

  >Finalized the things we wanted to put in our lighting system and mobile app
  >Asked help and advice from friends, mentors, and organizers
  >Used Figma to create the project

Challenges we ran into

Since this is our first hackathon, we were a bit anxious and overwhelmed since we did not know what to do. We were also a bit intimidated by the other participants who looked adept and expert at coding. We found a website that allowed us to create our app. However, navigating this website and putting all the elements together also proved a challenge since it is our first time using this website.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

  >We were able to complete this project in a day.
  >We were able to create something like this even if we had no idea what to do from the start.
  >We were able to create an app without coding experience.

What we learned

This project led us to study more about the psychological and physical effects of reduced sunlight during winter to the human body. We also learned the basics of Figma.

Our first hackathon event taught us that if you persevere enough, you will be able to reach your goals. This made us more inspired to pursue our engineering degrees.

What's next for Solarapy

As we study our specialized engineering courses in the future (Software, Computer, and Electrical), we will be able to create the actual ceiling lights and better prototypes for the mobile app. Studying businesses courses at Lassonde can also allow us to sell this product to others.

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