Be My Voice

Inspiration

We understand that access to services can be difficult for foreign-born people, particularly where mechanical translation is unavailable.

What it does

Allows a user to enter information about a phone call they'd like to make to, for example, a doctor's office. The app allows people to register as translators and connects the user to a translator who speaks their language and is willing to make the call for them. If the call requires sensitive information such as an alien number or passport number, the user can enter that information securely. When the translator needs that information for the phone call, they can have it read out from the user-entered-text. This ensures the user's information is not accessible, even for the translator.

How we built it

We set up an API in node that used websockets to pass user information.

Challenges we ran into

Getting websockets working. In general, the complexity of translating text to voice in order to be able to transmit secure information over the phone so that even the translator doesn't see it.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We worked together well as a team and pushed toward creating something we felt was genuinely useful.

What we learned

Talking to potential users early can point out needed features that we may have missed in our design

What's next for Be My Voice

We would like to integrate functionality that would allow for users to enter a wider variety of sensitive information. We'd also like to integrate a call back service in case the callee (doctor's office, bank, etc) needs to reach out to the user.