-
Spot the url ? Now just open the app and click the link, and you can access KPMG's social media accounts.
-
Got a website that you want your customers to visit ? #URLit
-
It's as simple as 1 2 3 !
Inspiration
We can all agree that no one likes the hassle of having to type out a URL. I have to type out a URL every geography class to register my attendance, and frankly, it's annoying ! We see so many URL's - be it on the big screen, or even a small piece of paper - and we are usually uninspired to type it out this seemingly complicated collection of alphabets and numbers; At Hack UMass, almost all of the Sponsor Company's pamphlets and cards have a URL on them. Realising the value that URL(s) carry for businesses, web-traffic, and simple day-to-day activities, we were inspired to develop URLit.
What it does
URLit scans images for URL(s) by picking up on web extensions like .com, .net, .edu, etc, and then proceeds to open the link in a browser. It saves consumers the time and hassle of having to type out a URL.
How we built it
We planned to build URLit by importing optical character recognition API onto a python script; however, we had to make many adjustments in order to import the code onto android studio. We were unsuccessful, so we began using Google's Tesseract OCR API, and we were eventually able to implement the code on Android Studio. We used the API to convert an image (that the user would take) to text, and further analyse the text to retrieve the URL.
Challenges we ran into
We found it difficult to import our python code onto Android Studio, and so we had to scrap hours of work, and start from scratch using a brand new API. We also came across difficulties in connecting our code with the camera. Furthermore, we faced a few minor hiccups with regard to the URL not being accurately processed.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We're proud to be able to finish a viable product with real life application, given that we started 10 hours after the hackathon began. We did run into a couple of challenges, but we were diligent in overcoming them in a timely manner. Our biggest accomplishment is achieving a step beyond our initial plan, and making our product work on a real-time interface (It's a bit like snapchat actually !.)
What we learned
We learned how to make use of Google's Cloud Platform and Tesseract, and we were very intrigued (and surprised) by the amount of help one can get from fellow developers on GitHub and StackOverflow. We also learnt that there's a lot of happiness to be gained at the bottom of a well written code which compiles with no errors.
What's next for URLit
Once we make minor tweaks in our product, we plan to make an iOS version of the app, and launch URLit on the play store and app store. We plan to launch the app for free, and raise revenue by allowing tiny ad-slots for companies. We have already reached out to a few companies, and they are very interested in advertising contingent on our user-base and number of app downloads post launch.
Log in or sign up for Devpost to join the conversation.