Upcycle AI

Our app makes sustainability simple and fun. Using AI to understand the item you want to upcycle, it suggests practical and creative ways to repurpose it.

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About the Project: Upcycle AI

Inspiration

Every year, millions of usable items end up in landfills simply because people don’t know what else to do with them. We wanted to make sustainability simple, creative, and accessible, so we built Upcycle AI, an app that helps users reimagine their old belongings. Instead of throwing something away, you can snap a picture and get instant, AI-generated ideas for how to transform it into something new and useful.

What We Learned

We explored how computer vision and generative AI can work together to encourage sustainable behavior. Along the way, we learned:

  • How to extract semantic and material features from images using image-understanding models.
  • How to prompt-tune multimodal LLMs to produce creative and feasible upcycling suggestions.
  • How UX and sustainability design intersect: users respond more to ideas that are personalized and practical, not just aesthetic.

How We Built It

We combined AI, React Native, and AR to bring Upcycle AI to life:

  1. Image Analysis: Gemini identifies the object’s type, parts, and materials.
  2. Idea Generation: The backend uses prompt-engineered LLMs to generate creative and doable upcycling ideas.
  3. Frontend: Built with React Native for cross-platform use, featuring an optional AR component so users can visualize their upcycled designs.
  4. Backend: A lightweight Flask API handles AI inference, caching, and communication with the frontend.

Challenges We Faced

  • Getting the AI to generate realistic and buildable ideas instead of overly abstract ones.
  • Handling inconsistent lighting and backgrounds in uploaded images.
  • Integrating AR visualization smoothly in React Native.
  • Balancing creativity, sustainability, and user experience in the final output.

What’s Next

We plan to improve the community features where users can share and explore each other’s upcycling projects. We also want to expand the AR experience and integrate retrieval-based tutorials, so users can instantly see step-by-step guides for their chosen upcycling ideas.

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