WYApp

Inspiration

For some people, being organized is easy. For others, like each of the team members, we are constantly losing track of our important things. Imagine that you woke up late one day and realized that you have 10 minutes until your class begins...except you can't find your phone. You scramble to look for it, and asks your roommate to call your phone. Of course, it's on silent. After 15 minutes of desperate searching, you realize it was under your cover this whole time. #Truestory We decided to make an app that will solve this frustration easily.

What it does

WYApp uses voice recognition to allow the user to locate their phone. The user first designates a key phrase to be used. If the user is within the vicinity of the device, the phone will automatically play the ringtone for 5 seconds when the user says the key phrase. The user can repeat this process until he or she can locate the phone.

How we built it

We used Android Studio and Java to develop the app. We also integrate PocketSphinx, an open source speech recognition engine, for voice recognition purposes.

Challenges we ran into

One of the challenges was to determine the optimal threshold for the device. The threshold determines how accurate the sound input from the microphone has to be for the phone to detect the key phrase. If the threshold is too high or stringent, it won't work well with ambient noise. If it is too low, it may pick up false alarms.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

The app works in the background. Even if the phone is locked or on silent, the app will change the system volume to play the ringtone. Also, the voice recognition operates even when the phone is not in clear sight, i.e. covered by clothes, inside backpack, etc.