Orb

#013 Orb

COVID brought forth many challenges to our world, but also possibilities for many new digital solutions. One of these was the digital platform Zoom which enabled many regular events to continue. However, video conferences still had many disadvantages compared the the real world.
  1. To start a side bar or 'breakout room', the host was needed. In real life, if you want to talk to a certain subset of the conversations participants you can easily do so.
  2. I found that I had many opportunities to talk virtually with my close friends, but that I didn't find time to talk to those who were not as close.
To solve these issues, I created Orb. Orb works by requesting Google Meets from Google when users move close to each other.Orb is a graphical user interface that allows users to easily enter and leave video calls with other users. Orb works by requesting Google Meets from Google when users move close to each other. They do so by controlling a 2d avatar figure that navigates rooms, modeled with 2d art representing a classroom or cafeteria.
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For this project, I specifically learned:
  • 2D SVG Graphics design and manipulation via the Snap.svg library
  • WebSockets via flask-Socket.io
  • Google Calendar API integration to create/update/delete Google Meets.
  • Employing the Flask/Socket.io Web Framework to create a fluid user experience
  • Saving room state inside a SQLite database with Flask-SQLAlchemy
Go To Top Guess what? I made this website! Check it and many of my other projects on my github.