TrailGuide

Don't get lost

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Inspiration

Introducing TrailGuide, an innovative service designed to enhance your hiking experience through the power of artificial intelligence. TrailGuide is AI-powered and accessible through SMS, allowing hikers to interact seamlessly with a virtual assistant throughout their journey. Imagine having a reliable companion providing real-time information on your route, delivering weather notifications, conducting periodic check-ins, and offering a plethora of useful insights for an enriching hiking adventure. Whether you're a seasoned explorer or a novice adventurer, TrailGuide is here to make your outdoor experience safer, more informed, and ultimately, more enjoyable. Say goodbye to uncertainty on the trail and let TrailGuide be your intelligent guide to a smarter and more connected hiking experience.

What it does

TrailGuide revolutionizes the hiking experience by offering a comprehensive set of AI-powered features accessible through SMS. That means you can access TrailGuide without an internet connection! This innovative service offers real-time information on your hiking route, keeping you informed about upcoming terrain, points of interest, and potential challenges. TrailGuide goes beyond navigation, offering dynamic weather notifications to ensure you're prepared for changing conditions. The periodic check-in feature enhances safety by prompting users to confirm their well-being during the journey. With TrailGuide, hikers can interact naturally through text messages, receiving personalized and context-aware responses, making the entire adventure more enjoyable, informed, and secure. Whether you're a solo hiker or part of a group, TrailGuide is your intelligent companion, providing a seamless and enriching hiking experience like never before.

How we built it

  • For the app, we used React-Native and Expo, Google Maps API to show map.
  • We used Infobip to exchange SMS messages with the user.
  • Using Google Cloud's Vertex AI, we classified requests and generated responses.
  • Our weather, washroom, and campground data are all from the Government of Canada.
  • The MySQL database is hosted on GCP using CloudSQL.
  • GitHub actions automatically test our APIs using Postman's Newman. Actions also automatically containerize and build our app in Google Cloud using Cloud Run.

Challenges we ran into

  • Displaying routes using the Google Maps API was quite difficult. We ended up using GeoJSON to map coordinates in GoogleMaps and the Polyline component to display the route.
  • We had issues importing data into MySQL
  • Creating GitHub actions and modifying them (if it wasn't obvious from the commits)

Accomplishments that we're proud of

  • We were able to automate deployment and testing using GitHub actions
  • It's our first time using MySQL
  • We are able to send and receive SMS using Infobip

Building a React-Native app for the first time!!! It was really fun learning about how to use components in React-Native and make a development build through Expo.

What we learned

  • How to use Infobip
  • How to use GitHub actions
  • SQL syntax
  • Managing applications in GCP

What's next for TrailGuide

Implementing an algorithm to find the optimal hiking route between two locations and show potential alternative routes.

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