VaGo
Friday, October 2, 2015 marked the beginning of the 3rd annual AT&T Notre Dame Hack-a-thon. The weekend long competition brought students and visitors down to the Innovation Park at Notre Dame for all the food they could eat and a shot at thousands of dollars in prizes.
Marking my 5th hack-a-thon, I was excited to go in and learn something new. The area I wanted to explore was Internet of Things (IoT), which was perfect as AT&T brought their digital life connected home system for hackers to play with.
My app idea was sparked from a saying I once heard: "The only thing better than owning a beach house is having a friend who owns a beach house". I decided to build an app that allows home owners to give control of their beach house or condo to friends and family for weekends or holidays. The app would be able to control lights, doors, windows, thermostats, and the security system.
VaGo (combination vacation and go) was the name I chose for my app. I decided to go with a native iOS app, as that is where I was the most comfortable. It had been over a year since my last app, requiring me to dust off my coding skills and relearn some aspects of Xcode and Objective-C.
The main page of VaGo presents the user with a login page. Once authenticated using your last name and a password given to you by the homeowner, the user has access to recommended food stops, a guest book, and a way to contact the homeowner.
Other pages include a page to control the thermostat, a page to access door locks and a page to control lights. Guests will have access to every important aspect of the house.
Once the guest's stay is over the login credentials expire and the user will no longer have access to the house and app.
After presenting to a panel of judges I was awarded with a top-3 digital life hack, best UI & polish, and 2nd place overall.
