Fridgee

Our Project

Fridgee is a food recommendation application that was created for the 2017 NASA Space Apps Challenge under the category “What’s for Dinner?” The app uses a Optical Character Recognition (OCR) API by google to scan a receipt and inserts the contents into a database, recording the contents for users to see. The fridgee app will recommend recipes for foodstuffs in your fridge close to their expiration dates, which will help limit excess waste in the process. -The application recommends recipes if there is at least a 70% match of ingredients, and also offers a list of food preservation tips.

You can learn more about the category the app targeted at NASA SpaceApps.

The rough draft one of our members drew for the project!

So what did I do ?

During this hackathon, my roles were to help create a short script in php and mySQL for a tab for preservation tips and researching information for the tips, and doing a voice over for a video presentation. I gave a voice over of the workings of the product while another member recorded the video and edited.

The experience

This was my first ever hackathon experience, and it was also on the second semester of the first year I have ever began learning what Computer Science was about. So, needless to say, many things confused me, even the whole idea of a scripting language confused me. Although I did not have much experience, a friend of mine and his teammates were all kind enough to accept me into their group, and even teach me a few things in the process. It was a nerve-racking experience, and it showed me how little I actually knew, and how an experience such as this one was incredibly valuable, even in terms of personal growth. I witnessed someone create almost the entire working android app by themselves from morning and even throughout the night – from scratch, with all their hardwork and perseverance. Although we did not win, I certainly believe that it was a success nevertheless.