twitt.ar

A unique application that seeks to revolutionize the way we view and interact with our Twitter Feed using Augmented Reality technology.

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Inspiration

We think that Augmented Reality (AR) / Virtual Reality is the future. By being able to try our hand at a difficult concentration of software engineering, we hoped to learn a lot about this technology and the way it works for mobile applications. In creating twitter.ar, we really wanted a fun and unique way to interact with our Twitter Feeds! Using AR technology, it allows us to create an immersive experience with tweets in a whole new point of view. We thought this was a challenging yet fun way to spend our time at #codechella.

What it does

This new side of Twitter will allows users to view Tweets in augmented reality. Tweets are displayed where the original user sent it! Of course, this is to the discretion of each user if they want their location on or off. Think about it as a fun way to get involved with Twitter in the real world!

How we built it

We first made a mockup of the design and the ideal application using InVision Studio and the available Twitter Brand Resources. twitt.ar revolves around the use of the Twitter API along with CameraX, Google's ARCore API, and Google Maps API to have precise tweets tied to the location of the user. gathering twitter information was done through Python with the help of Tweepy.

Challenges we ran into

In our project, we first created the Android application and the Python scripts separately. The Android application was one of the hardest parts since we ran into login authentication problems and, of course, the challenge of implementing augmented reality. Specifically, gathering coordinates from tweets was a massive hurdle for us since an extra layer of authorization was put in place by Twitter. Lastly, the ability to connect the different modules was also a major task, with login page, maps, and the camera all being their own projects in android studio.

On top of these challenges, only one of the team members is experienced with Android, and while another was experienced with iOS, he still had a learning curve. Overall, we definitely think the time constraints and our lack of expertise played a large part in us not fully implementing the application and connecting all of the working pieces.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are so proud of creating a unique, interesting idea that we tried to create in a fast environment such as a hackathon like Codechella! We are especially proud in the implementation phase that we were able to get augmented reality, login authentication, Python scripts, and version control in working order.

What we learned

We learned that creating an application is difficult, especially when pressed for time and not having much expertise. Planning and setting a timeline were some things we had to learn right away as well as understanding how certain technology worked to get our idea possible. In the end, we learned so much about version control, Android applications, the Twitter API implementations, and scraping using Python. Most importantly, we learned the amazing value of diverse and effective teamwork to put something amazing out there to make the world a cooler place to live.

What's next for twitt.ar

Some Refining is still needed of certain features within the app such as the AR UI for tweets as well as refining the way markers are set in the AR world. Several other activities are still waiting to be developed such as the filtering screen, and a map screen through the use of fragments.

As a team, we plan to keep working on twitt.ar and see where it leads. We truly believe this is an amazing concept to view Tweets in a unique and interesting way, so we will definitely continue tweeping on.

Below you will find a link to the interactive protoype and the GitHub repository

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