Inspiration
Rgardless of the Pandemic, sharing is a very difficult process. There are some moments you just want to talk! Rant, obssess, scream and just talk! Without wanting to be asked questions, judged or be told how out of normal some statement is. Listening on the other hand is an art. It takes patience and a lot of practice. To be able to understand different perspectives through a stranger when no presumption exists really helps you understand and realise the bigger picture. This is the essence of our project! A platform where you anonymously connect with people and just TALK and while making sure you develop your listening skills.
What it does
Our platform which is majorly an Android Application and has a webapp based access too. The android application on logging in after registering shows 4 tabs, the first from left is your profile tab, the next is the listener tab, third is the talk tab and last there is the connections tab.
In the listening tab the user on clicking start gets to select from a range of emotions the kind they can listen to patiently. Once the emotion is selected the application pts them in that challenge and waits for a speaker in that challenge and connects them.
The speaker tab also lets the user select from a range of emotions and puts them in that channel and connects them to the listeners available in that channel.
When a speaker and listener are matched randomly, a video call stats with a timer. No contact information is shared at the starting or during the call. Once the call is over bot the listener and speaker get an option to connect. If both of them want to connect then the contact information is exchanged and they are added as connections in the last tab of the application.
To make sure that when using the platform to talk one doesn't neglect their listening skills and develops them to be able to better share and communicate, the platform has a token system. Everyone joining the platform starts of with one token. Everytime you talk, you use up one token, and every time you listen you get one token.
How we built it
We built an application as well as a web app to connect our users, so that they can easily hop on a call using either a mobile or website. To connect two users we have used the Agora SDK so that video calls can be connected on either devices and there is no limitation. Mobile can be connected to web and vice-versa. The app is made using AndroidStudio and the web app is using HTML/CSS and Javascript. We have also deployed a server using Flask for the identification of common interests and their connection later on. The data is pushed onto FireBase and the server, website and mobile application all fetch and data from a RTDB.
Challenges we ran into
We were definitely not very comfortable with the Agora SDK.This was our first time using it and therefore, that was a huge hurdle that we hopefully crossed with finesse. Next, the backend development and the server deployment using Flask was something very new but it was great process of how we learnt and could actually base off and entire project on it. Being locked up in our houses, our entire team was working remotely, there was definitely some distance due to the virtual nature of it but in the end we were able to collaborate successfully and produce a working project.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Most of us are very new to the concept of hackathons and the working remotely for a virtual one was surely a rollercoaster ride but we've managed to come out with something we're all proud of. Learning new technologies and actually implementing them and then integration with others, for a working model was really a huge success!
What we learned
Lots of new technologies, definitely the art of debugging since we ran into a new error every time the codes run. Working and collaborating with different types of people to effectively produce a worthwhile project. Going into the specifications we learnt a lot about: Agora SDK Integration of mobile and web apps Use of Firebase and Real Time Databases
What's next for Talk Talk
We want to have a talk to a professional channel where people can connect with verified professionals for a short period of time and get help anonymously. Also professionals looking for people for research surveys can use this platform to reach out to people and get accurate information while also helping someone out!
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