Lighthouse

Lighthouse AI preset features
Immersive Focus - Focus Bubble Radius
Sleep routine stats
Immersive Focus timer
Immersive Focus - working on research report
Adjusting Focus bubble radius
Todo Today
Immersive Focus - Setting timer
Project Timeline
Routine Section

Inspiration for Lighthouse

As a team, we’ve spent a lot of time thinking about productivity—not just for this hackathon, but because it’s something we’ve all struggled with in different ways. Whether it’s trying to stay consistent with to-do lists, experimenting with apps, or learning from ideas like Atomic Habits and Flow, we’ve all had moments where we’ve searched for better ways to stay organized and focused.

We realized that productivity isn’t just about getting through tasks—it’s about aligning your daily actions with the bigger picture, like your long-term goals or the kind of life you want to create. But that’s easier said than done. Life gets messy. Some days are so busy you can’t think straight, and other days feel completely empty. Finding balance can be really tough.

When AI tools like ChatGPT, Midjourney and DALL·E started showing what’s possible, it sparked an idea: what if there was a companion that could actually help make life easier? Not just another app or to-do list, but something that helps you with everything from daily routines and habits to bigger projects and goals. Something that helps you manage the chaos while staying focused on what really matters.

That’s what inspired us to create Lighthouse. We wanted to build a tool that we’d actually love to use ourselves—something that could handle the little things, like keeping routines on track, and the big things, like tackling ambitious projects. For us, Lighthouse is more than a productivity tool—it’s about creating clarity and helping people move toward the life they want.

What It Does

Lighthouse is an AI-powered productivity companion designed to help you stay on track, whether you’re tackling daily routines or working toward ambitious goals. It seamlessly integrates into your life, offering features that simplify both the small tasks and the big picture.

To-Do Today: Focus on what needs to be done with a streamlined daily task list, designed to prioritize and guide your day effectively.
Habit Building through Routines: Stay consistent with your day-to-day activities using tools like routines, streaks, and a customizable stats dashboard.
Goals: Align your actions with long-term aspirations by setting, tracking, and visualizing your personal and professional goals.
Project Timeline: Break down your long-term goals into actionable steps, track progress visually, and never lose sight of what matters.
Immersive Focus Mode: Eliminate distractions with a distraction-free AR environment that helps you fully immerse yourself in deep work.
Augmented Overlays: Get step-by-step guidance with AI-powered overlays that make learning or navigating complex software effortless.
Desktop Integration: Use Lighthouse with virtual monitors, task prioritization, and real-time collaboration directly from your computer.

From managing daily habits to achieving critical milestones, Lighthouse helps you organize your life, focus better, and accomplish more.

How We Built It

The journey of building Lighthouse started with fundamental questions about productivity: What does it mean to be productive? How can it be measured? What role can AR, AI, and cognitive factors like motivation and flow state play in boosting productivity?

Grounded in Research:
We drew inspiration from books like Atomic Habits by James Clear, Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, and frameworks like Tiago Forte’s Building a Second Brain. These ideas, combined with our own experiences, shaped our vision of what a productivity companion should do.
Comparative Analysis:
We tested popular productivity tools like Daily Habits, Habit Tracker, and Rise.ai to understand what works, what doesn’t, and what’s missing. This helped us identify the key features Lighthouse needed to include.
Exploring Emerging Tech:
With the rise of AR glasses (like Meta’s Project Orion or Android XR), we imagined how AR could transform productivity—creating dashboards that adapt to your environment and AI that feels like a true companion.
Prototyping in Shapes XR:
Most of the prototype was built in Shapes XR, focusing on:
- Spatial dashboards that adapt to your space.
- Core features like To-Do Today, Routines, and project timelines.
- Multiple interaction modes: compact, expanded, and spatial.

Shapes XR code for our projects

Lighthouse Desktop - 46R99RXR
Lighthouse Navbar - 71SSE6SS
Experiments:
We conducted smaller experiments in Virtual Desktop, testing ideas like multi-screen setups to simulate real-world workflows where AI can transform workflows. These helped validate the functionality we envisioned.

By combining research, user insights, and prototyping, Lighthouse emerged as a tool designed to simplify daily life, manage long-term goals, and help users stay on track in a more immersive and engaging way.

Challenges We Ran Into

One of the biggest challenges was narrowing down our vision. We started with a lot of ambitious ideas and a broad scope, wanting to create a truly comprehensive solution rather than just another application. Initially, we were focused on showcasing all the features we had envisioned, but as the hackathon progressed, we realized that hackathons demand a different approach—one where you focus on just two or three features and present them in a way that clearly translates the idea.

After discussions with mentors, we decided to prioritize a few key features that meshed well together: desktop integration, immersive focus, and natural language processing through voice input. This allowed us to focus on creating a cohesive user journey that felt feasible and intuitive. By prototyping these interactions in detail within Shapes XR, we were able to bring our vision to life while staying within the constraints of the hackathon format.

Accomplishments We Are Proud Of

We were able to divide tasks naturally according to the strengths of our teammates, ensuring a smooth and efficient workflow.
We showcased the prime user flow through a compelling narrative and UI exploration, covering sections like To-Do Today, Routines, Lighthouse AI Section, Project Timeline and Goals.
We created a detailed, nuanced flow for features like desktop integration, immersive focus, and AI-powered solutions on the go. This was demonstrated through user interactions such as working on a research report and creating a design deck.
Our prototype, built in Shapes XR, showcases a high level of finish and polish, including features like sound, making it feel interactive and well-rounded.
We’re proud of how we brought together various ideas into a cohesive prototype that demonstrates both the narrative and the functionality of Lighthouse.

By focusing on these core elements, we were able to create something that feels practical, polished, and aligned with the needs of users.

What We Learned

Participating in this project taught us valuable lessons about collaboration, trust, and rapid prototyping.

Building Trust as a Team:
Although we only met a couple of months ago during a VR meetup hosted in Shapes, and had never met in real life, we quickly learned how to trust and work with each other. Despite coming from the same alma mater, our real connection was built through this project. Aligning our thought processes and working styles was a rewarding experience that strengthened our ability to collaborate effectively.
Prototyping with Shapes XR:
This hackathon pushed us to become much faster and more efficient at using Shapes XR for prototyping. We learned how to turn a strong idea into something tangible that people can experience, making our vision come to life in a way that feels interactive and immersive.

Overall, we gained insights not only about building a project but also about building a team that can work seamlessly together, even in a fully remote setup.

What’s Next for Lighthouse

We truly hope that this idea resonates with whoever gets to experience it. Our goal was to create something that not only organizes tasks but helps users align with their larger goals and ambitions. We believe that Lighthouse represents a direction that’s inevitable—an AI-powered, AR-integrated productivity system that seamlessly fits into everyday life.

The inclusion of productivity as a hackathon track itself shows how important this space is. With the rise of AR glasses and AI, a system that helps users manage both their day-to-day tasks and long-term critical projects is a natural evolution. It’s a no-brainer for the future of personal productivity.

One area we wish we could have explored more is mental health. While we touched upon it in our initial brainstorming, we realized that doing justice to this aspect would require much deeper research. We see this as a promising direction for future iterations of Lighthouse.

For now, we’re hopeful that our work during this hackathon captures the essence of what we envisioned. If the feedback is positive, we’d love to pitch this idea further and take it to the next stage. Lighthouse is more than just an idea—it’s a vision of the future we believe in.