Inspiration
Getting through college is tough enough, but it's way worst to notice you're out of something vital in the pantry, like beer, Ramen, or Red Bull (c).
What it does
Grocenator makes restocking groceries quick and easy by adding a button beneath items in the pantry. Users hit buttons as they remove items from the pantry (inventory) and they get added to the Amazon cart by pressing enter.
How we built it
We started by taking apart a keyboard and making a command line system which launches a website based on what button you press. We fit in larger buttons for simplicity sake
Challenges we ran into
9+9+9+9+9+
Whoops...we bridged two leads early on and kept getting "9+" rather than a single character out from the buttons.
We learned Amazon has a couple different login screens with seemingly no pattern in which is displayed. This makes automating interaction more difficult, but it's more of an annoyance than a roadblock.
Accomplishments that I'm proud of
Stuff makes it into the Amazon cart without user interaction after pressing "Enter".
What I learned
- It's not as intimidating as it seems to parse through a webpage, and Selenium was a great tool to get started. PhantomJS could be used in the future for a somewhat more elegant solution, but this worked for a proof of concept.
- It's expensive to fully test automated ordering systems. Back to granola bars and Ramen for a few weeks. =(
- Keyboards are surprisingly simple at the core. By modifying an existing keyboard, it automatically installs the HID compliant drivers on any machine, making the only software concern whether the computer has Python and an internet connection.
What's next for Grocenator
Especially if the Amazon affiliate program terms of service are not violated, Grocenator could be a viable business model. We will be looking into this, with a more polished version of course. Think Raspberry Pi, smaller buttons, and a nicer case than a box.
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