TravelBuddy

Forum Page in which users can post comments, view other comments, and search by voice.
Page that gets your location and processes it.
Map of the detected location that is interactable.
Chatbot that has been implemented and formatted, but still needs to be worked on in functionality.
Home page that can be used to navigate the numerous features of the app.

Inspiration

When traveling, it is difficult to find the best experiences in an area. It is even more difficult to determine whether or not those establishments are accessible and welcoming to people with disabilities. Hence, we created our website, which assists users in finding establishments that ensure the best experiences.

What it does

Our project utilizes location tracking to identify the user’s location and provides maps with guidance on the most efficient means of transportation. Additionally, we implemented a forum that can be used to gain an understanding of the quality of experience at certain establishments. For example, if a restaurant does not make accommodations for a wheelchair user, that person can post their experience to help others avoid a place that does not offer them accessibility. Our forum also uses voice-to-text to perform a search of the posts in case a user is looking for reviews of a specific place. We are also in the process of developing an AI chatbot using OpenAI to allow users to ask for advice about accessible traveling.

How we built it

Our idea of using the Replit coding platform was due to the code sharing ability it had. From there, we made basic HTML files to get a working layout of our website. We then implemented both CSS and Javascript for both the user interface and actual functionality, respectively. For specific features, we used different online resources such as OpenAI’s chat API and we embedded Google Maps onto our website. Additionally, to accommodate for the best user interface and to increase accessibility, we wanted to allow users to look for reviews of specific establishments through simply speaking to the website. We used speech recognition technology for to identify reviews that matched the user’s request.

Challenges we ran into

A major challenge we faced was to properly format the CSS and make everything function at the same time. Our first challenge we faced was finding an IDE that would allow for a collaborative workspace and serve the necessary purposes at the same time. After considering VSCode and using Github along with other methods to maintain our code, we found that Replit was the most efficient in terms of serving both purposes. Our next couple of challenges were trying to get the actual features to work as we wanted. Although we were able to get basic features down, like forums for user’s reviews and a location finder, we wanted the website to be more user friendly. From there, we focused on trying to store local data, which we fixed by using JSON to transport and store data for the forums. Then, we wanted to add in a map that shows the user’s location and the areas around it. Finally, our biggest challenge was the AI chatbot, which is still a work in progress, but we were able to cohesively add it to our website in its current version.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Storing data was particularly difficult, especially in the forums page, so we are proud of finding a solution to that, where we ended up adding to a JSON file to store the local data (for the reviews).

What we learned

After initial difficulties in trying to embed existing resources like Google Maps or the AI chat bot, we learned how to create API keys and URLS so that we could get real Implementation of features such as google maps, chat bots, and real-time updates in forums.

What's next for TravelBuddy

We want to fully implement our chatting feature so that users can efficiently chat with AI chatbots to get quick information on their queries. We would also like to incorporate an interactive map that finds alternate routes to a user’s destination to fit their needs (ex. avoiding uphill climbs, using public transportation, etc.)