A mesh based positioning and messaging application , that is completelely offline and is free to use without any installation cost.
Working of the App:- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptAid6plkws
Introduction
The PeopleFisher application was designed to work under the harshest of conditions and in the remotest of the locations , and these things
are usually common during disasters.
Tech Stack
Android - Used to create the mobile application. Heavily focusses on WifiP2p.
AZURE database - Used to sync the messages sent to an online server (Under development)
AZURE blob - Used to upload the apk file.
How the App satisfies all the criteria
1.Uniqueness of the solution:
Our app was built from the ground up considering disasters in the recent times.
2.Feasibility of the solution:
PeopleFisher is a free application and involves zero installation cost for the government and the NGOS.Since a wifi device in a phone
can reach upto hundred meters , this is extremely feasible for even modestly populated areas, as the mesh
can extend for ever.
3.Maximum impact to successful outcomes:
It is extremely economical to implement and can potentially save thousands of lives at zero cost.
4.Relevance:
People Fisher is relevant to the topic chosen
Tips for using the app:
Follow these tips to avoid errors:
1.Since peer to peer connection is a resource intensive task,
once the send message button is pressed, the user has to wait till the phone has attempted to send the messae to all the nearby peers(usually a minut or two)
This is a LIMITATION of the ANDROID device, and not the APPLICATION.
2.If the app choses not to respond, please switch off the wifi, and the application and try again.
3.Trilateration is currently not supported on all the android devices so please use the Trilateration button with utmost caution.
3.Buttons:
send : runs a for loop through the peers in range, and sends messages to them
takes time to implement a=due to device limitation so please be patient and do not spam the send button.
trilateration: this is similar but instead it requests data from the client , which is further used to calculate the latiude longitude of
the user
this is also a slow process due to device limitation so please do not spam the trilateration button.
Problems Faced
1.The main problem we faced was in implementing the wifiP2p chat proess , as in our app, every time you
send a message, you act as a message sender and send to clients without them joining your wifi group.
Since group formation takes a lot of time in allocating resources for a lot of connections(sometimes
leading to a delay of 40 50 seconds).so we had to set individual p2p connections for every phone in the vicinity, which took
considerably less time compared to group formation(30 seconds for 3 peers) by running a for loop.
2.We had tried different types of connections , such as Android Messages, Android nearby, which extremely didnt suit
our purpose, as they relied heavily on the internet and bluetooth.So we discarded them and made the custom p2p connection model,
with custom methods for the sockets(server and client).
3.We have used AZURE blob to upload our apk.
THANK YOU!!