SkyLive

Home Page
Graphs
Emergency
Recording a Current Run
Recorded Runs

Inspiration

One of the most vividly remembered sports we have done was indoor skydiving. Though the actual skydiving part happened in a very short time, we remember wanting to return again and again to do better, so that we could begin practicing stunts like flips and spins without losing control of our dive. When the DevEdge kit’s sensors were revealed, our team considered tying our project to skydiving, and so we decided to create the app SkyLive.

What it does

The app provides a way for skydivers to track various statistics, such as air pressure, altitude, or orientation, of their dive. By storing these runs in this app, skydivers can review the data from their flight in order to reflect on their performance or simply share the information. Furthermore, the app includes emergency services, along with a feature that automatically sends data about the ambient environment to help rescuers better assess the dangerous situation.

How we built it

For the frontend, we used the development app as a reference to design our own app that suits our user’s needs. Using Swift UI, we are able to build a simplistic and clear home page that displays all essential information live. For the home page, we implemented the gyroscope, the location map, and the environment statistics of the latest dive. We also implemented a Record page that has a button for the user to live record the data for their dive, and display previous dive analytics. For the backend, we have a serverless application interacting with the DevEdge Kit using the tmo json CLI. The DevEdge Kit uploads the sensor readings to the database for the frontend to retrieve and for data visualization on MongoDB. We also had to make minor amendments to the firmware and flash it to the board.

Challenges we ran into

Since we had no prior experience with Swift, learning new syntax to implement our ideas was quite difficult. Coming from the more intermediate level of embedded hardware, we have only worked with Arduino and Raspberry Pi. Working with the DevEdge Kit was more difficult than we had imagined as it required users to have background knowledge on firmware editing and flashing, as well as building a serverless application to interact with hardware.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Most of the accomplishments we’re proud of are ones that resulted from either tedious work or code. To demonstrate a function of our app, we created a timer in Figma. A few features of the app function well, especially those regarding data gathering and display. Also, there is a 3D man. Implementing him into the code and exploring 3-D models for the first time was really interesting.We’re also proud of learning so much new development tools in such a short time. For instance, we had to learn how to code in Swift and experiment with different options when figuring out how to display our frontend to align with figma, and also learning how to implement functions such as buttons, scroll bars, and sliders.

What we learned

Despite the difficult code that often required help from mentors, we enjoyed ourselves throughout the endeavor, and felt prouder about successes, demonstrating the necessity of celebrating small accomplishments. Ultimately, we were able to demonstrate how the app functions. In regards to tech stack, we learned a lot about Swift, 3-D modeling, and Figma. Most importantly, we learned about teamwork and completing a project that we are all passionate about in a time crunch.

What's next for SkyLive

In the app, we want to add an emergency button in case of a crisis during a dive. Additionally, we want to add user ability to customize the app and delete data, and possibly sharing user data among friends. Besides the modifications we want to make to our app, SkyLive is useful because of its applicability to not only skydiving, but other sports like paragliding or BMX biking. Making it waterproof also adds sports like surfing or wakeboarding. The sensor’s ability to track a variety of statistics also makes it suitable for research; for example, tracking bird migrations. The many sensors of the IoT kit makes it highly applicable to a myriad of situations.