Screen Sense

Inspiration

In today's fast-paced world, we're all guilty of losing ourselves in the vast digital landscape. The countless hours we spend on our computers can easily escape our attention, as does the accumulating stress that can result from prolonged focus. Screen Sense is here to change that. It's more than just a screen time tracking app; it's your personal guide to a balanced digital life. We understand the importance of recognizing not only how much time you spend on your devices but also how these interactions make you feel.

What it does

Screen Sense is a productivity tool that monitors a user's emotions while tracking their screen time on their device. Our app analyzes visual data using the Hume API and presents it to the user in an simple graphical interface that displays their strongest emotions along with a list of the user's most frequented digital activities.

How we built it

Screen Sense is a desktop application built with the React.js, Python, and integrates the Hume AI API. Our project required us to execute of multiple threads to handle tasks such as processing URL data from the Chrome extension, monitoring active computer programs, and transmitting image data from a live video stream to the Hume AI.

Challenges we ran into

We encountered several challenges during the development process. Initially, our plan involved creating a Chrome extension for its cross-platform compatibility. However, we faced security obstacles that restricted our access to the user's webcam. As a result, we pivoted to developing a desktop application capable of processing a webcam stream in the background, while also serving as a fully compatible screen time tracker for all active programs. Although nearly half of the codebase was written in Python, none of our group members had ever coded using that language. This presented a significant learning curve, and we encountered a variety of issues. The most complex challenge we faced was Python's nature as a single-threaded language.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

As a team of majority beginner coders, we were able to create a functional productivity application that integrates the Hume AI, especially while coding in a language none of us were familiar with beforehand.

What we learned

Throughout this journey, we gained valuable experience in adaptability, as demonstrated by how we resolved our HTTP communication issues and successfully shifted our development platform when necessary.

What's next for Screen Sense

Our roadmap includes refining the user interface and adding more visual animations to enhance the overall experience, expanding our reach to mobile devices, and integrating user notifications to proactively alert users when their negative emotions reach unusually high levels.