Inspiration
Amidst skyrocketing medical examination costs, accessing crucial healthcare evaluations has become increasingly out of reach for numerous Americans. This unfortunate reality often leaves individuals grappling with treatable health concerns, including vision impairment. Enter MySight—a no-cost online user-friendly resource allowing users to assess their vision conveniently from the comfort of their own homes requiring only a smart device, circumventing the need for extensive equipment.
What it does
MySight employs modern technology to assess the vision in each eye independently, utilizing the Snellen Chart methodology. Through dynamic generation of characters displayed on the screen, users are prompted to identify letters or words that start with the displayed characters through voice recognition. Success is measured by achieving at least 2 out of 3 correct identifications, advancing the user to subsequent rounds where the font size progressively decreases. The test concludes when the user is unable to accurately identify more than one character in a round. This comprehensive evaluation is conducted for both eyes, culminating in the display of visual acuity results for each eye and an overall assessment.
How we built it
In developing the frontend, we employed HTML and CSS to craft a diverse array of layouts, and integrating captivating visual effects throughout. Transitioning to the backend, JavaScript was pivotal in handling user inputs, dynamically adjusting font sizes, and computing acuity scores for each eye. Speech recognition relies on the user's browser's built-in JavaScript libraries, eliminating the need for external dependencies and allowing for smooth integration between the frontend and backend components.
Challenges we ran into
Coming into this project, we lacked extensive experience in JavaScript and Full Stack development. Some of the backend became tedious at times and we had to learn a lot of the JavaScript as we progressed through the project, and relied on a lot of trial and error. We also ran into multiple issues in creating dynamic components and getting the microphone to work. But through the numerous hurdles we encountered along the way, we were able to persevere though challenges using our problem solving skills and teamwork to solve them.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We are proud that we were able to develop a responsive web application that can facilitate at home vision testing. We are proud that we did it without the need of frameworks and databases, keeping the website lightweight.
What we learned
Being our first hackathons, we gained invaluable insights and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Throughout the event, we came to appreciate the importance of teamwork, particularly when tackling complex projects with tight windows. We gained a new perspective into the field of web development and a lot of respect for those who make it their careers. Lastly, we acquired a range of new skills that will provide immense value for our future careers in Computer Science.
What's next for MySight
As we advance our skills in web development, we look to incorporate more frameworks and technologies that can further streamline development and introduce new capabilities. Additionally, we also aim to support more languages to ensure broader accessibility across diverse demographics, which in addition would help to address potential inaccuracies in scoring that may occur as a result of accents or language barriers.
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