Notesin.Space
Description as a Tweet:
What if you could see your neighbor's notes in virtual reality? Better yet, what if you had interactive, real time AR reviews of local businesses? Notesin.Space does it all!
Inspiration:
Everyone on the team was really passionate about VR and we wanted to find an original take on how we interact with our surroundings. As one of our members develops VR games as a hobby and another is a film and media student, it felt like a natural choice.
What it does:
Notes in Space is an interactive web experience wherein users can find and leave notes in VR/AR for other local users. They can post messages with specific AR "emotion" 3D models which can be seen by anyone located within their geofence.
How we built it:
We split our team into 3 parts at the beginning. One of us focused on learning a-frame, one focused on the react app, and one focused on deploying the database and API in Node.js, Google Cloud, and Cassandra. Over time, we then began to share responsibilities until we all worked together on the React app and A-frame implementation.
Technologies we used:
- HTML/CSS
- Javascript
- Node.js
- Express
- React
- Misc
Challenges we ran into:
We some significant struggles with figuring out how a-frame worked, especially as a member of our team was new to tech. Our backend focused member also had issues with figuring out how to get our API set up on Google cloud, work with HTTPS requests on Node, and handle security concerns. We also initially wanted to make this a mobile project, but ended up having to scrap that idea after running into issues with setting up the specific tool we'd planned on. Our biggest goal was to stay adaptable and focus on iterative design.
Accomplishments we're proud of:
Developing and deploying API server to Google Cloud, getting practice working with react, learning new arts and media technologies
What we've learned:
Almost every technology that we worked with was new for us, even if some were a bit familiar. React, Cassandra, Radar, Google Cloud, A-Frame were all almost entirely new to us, even if two of us had prior experience with some JavaScript and web development projects. The only prior experience working with these technologies that any of us had were some very basic React skills. It also pushed us to strengthen our knowledge of network protocols, cloud architecture, and design.
What's next:
First, we want to patch up some of the issues with functionality that we ran into when designing this app. Then, we want to go back and figure out how to build a mobile version of this program using a lot of the same stack with the addition of Cordova.
Built with:
React, HTML, Sass, Node.js, JavaScript, Radar.io, Datastax Cassandra, CQL, Google Cloud
Prizes we're going for:
- Best Web Hack
- Best Use of DataStax Astra
- Most Creative Radar.io Hack
- Best Use of Google Cloud
Prizes Won
Team Members
Anna Lippincott
Alden Burgess