Higher!
README
Schrodigner's Team presents... Higher!
This application aims to help solve the problem of the passive lifestyle. With so many people using technology in their everyday lives to stay connected, to entertain, and to learn, we say, why not to stay fit, too? Higher! is an augmented reality game which enables the player to claim mountain peaks and to challenge themselves or their friends to do better. The higher the peak, the more points the player gains.
Inactivity, caused by a passive lifestyle, has been known to leave a person easily distracted, irritable and, ultimately, unproductive. By encouraging someone to explore their neighbourhood for peaks, they could engage in friendly competition and discover new adventures. Functionally, the player only needs to carry their mobile phone with GPS enabled, and the app will take care of finding the peaks for them. When they arrive at a peak, they'll be able to determine if it is unclaimed or if they can challenge someone else's claim. The first to claim a peak will earn the honour to name it.
We made this app with the help of the Canadian Digital Elevation Data (particularly for a little valley in British Columbia) for their elevation data, making the experience all the more realistic: you will actually get more points for being further from the ground. This also avoids a problem we would have faced had we used altimeter data instead; namely the problem of people climbing onto temporary elevations to score more points. We would have loved to have access to some data for the buildings in large cities (for a more urban experience), but we contented ourselves with the CDED Data for this competition.
In a true implementation we would like to use the entirety of Canada's elevation data to make a true user experience. However, given lack of server space and whatnot, we simply used the BC Dataset for testing and evaluation purposes. Maybe with a supercomputer...
In terms of productivity, as outlined briefly above, we all firmly believe that the more active your lifestyle, the more productive you will be. We are all students, and when faced with a seemingly impossible problem, going out for a run is a great way to clear your mind and focus your energy.
This is the data we used:
http://data.gc.ca/data/en/dataset/1d5a6c5a-c4b1-4995-b8e1-ef659ed40ee4
Note: sorry for the late submission! We had some issues getting an API key so we could properly export from Android Studio.