Inspiration

Approximately 46% of American adults and 56% of children have an inadequate diet, which underscores the necessity of our project to enhance eating habits. Hale Mate is a platform founded on the concept of boundless potential, specifically the potential to cultivate healthier dietary patterns that may contribute to improved physical and mental well-being..It is widely acknowledged that a good diet has a significant positive effect on physical health, and its impact on mental health is equally substantial

Expert validation and feedback of your food choices can positively impact your mental health by providing reassurance, confidence, and knowledge for making informed choices that improve your mood and overall well-being. This validation can also help overcome negative thoughts and emotions about food, promoting a healthier relationship with it.

A study published in the journal Appetite in 2021 found that social support and positive feedback from family, friends and experts can play an important role in promoting healthy eating habits and improving mental health. Additionally, a 2020 study in the Journal of Health Psychology found that receiving positive feedback and support for healthy food choices can help individuals overcome negative thoughts and emotions about food, and ultimately lead to a healthier relationship with it.

What it does

The application enables its users to obtain evaluations of their eating habits from both specialists and other users. By uploading images of food and providing brief descriptions, users can receive feedback by having their food swiped right for healthy options and left for unhealthy options. The color scheme of the app's feed adjusts in accordance with the hale meter rating, which serves as an indicator of whether the food is considered healthy or not.

By offering suggestions and showing appreciation, individuals can enhance their dietary habits and cultivate a lasting inclination towards consuming healthy foods. Additionally, to ensure user retention and user is following healthy habits, we provide incentive programs where individuals who maintain a healthy diet for 10 consecutive days are eligible for rewards. Overall, if experts suggest that your food choices are good or bad for your mental health, it is an opportunity to learn more about how your diet can impact your mental well-being and make positive changes to support your overall health.

How we built it

Developing a mobile application called “Hale-mate”,involves the following steps:

-Define the scope and purpose of the application: Determine the purpose of the application and identify the features and functionalities that the application should have. -Conduct market research and check if product is good fit to solve problem or address the problem for greater good -Choose a platform and technology: We utilized technologies such as React Native, TypeScript, Firebase Storage, Firebase Authentication, Expo, and MySQL -Design the user interface and user experience: Create mockups of the application's screens, menus, and navigation. -Develop the application: Write the application's code using the chosen technology, and integrate any required third-party services or APIs. -Test the application. -Deploy the application

Challenges we ran into

Developing a hale-mate application some of the challenges that we face include:

One of the most time consuming challenges we faced was to integrate the camera module to the home page. For someone who had not used firebase in the past, we had previously considered making a web application but with a cross platform technology, the reach to the users will be high.

Encouraging users to engage with the app regularly can be a significant challenge. Developers must create a user-friendly interface, provide personalized and relevant content, and offer incentives to keep users motivated

Accuracy of health information: The accuracy of the information provided by the app is critical. Developers need to ensure that the information provided is accurate, up-to-date, and from reliable sources. One of the biggest obstacles that took up a lot of our time was incorporating the camera module onto the homepage. Since there was no proper documentation or readily available component.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are fond of the concept that a straightforward, quick-to-use, subjective approach can assist individuals in improving their quality of life.

There are several milestones, including: -Coming up with a concept that addresses a societal issue -Creating a fully functional solution from start to finish -Overcoming all technical challenges without getting stuck in a deadlock -Data visualization

What we learned

1. The adverse effects of consuming unhealthy food on both your physical and mental well-being in relation to social causes.
2. Practicing gratitude and acknowledging positive actions can help cultivate healthy habits.
3. Develop a software application that can function across multiple platforms.
4. Techniques for increasing the interactivity of a user interface.

What's next for Hale-Mate

Our Hale-Mate app has the potential for various future scopes, some of which are:

1. Expanding the user base: The app can expand its user base by adding more features that cater to the needs of various demographics, age groups etc. Such as adding chat bots, chat with experts 2.** Collaboration with health and fitness brands**: Hale-Mate can collaborate with health and fitness brands to promote their products and services, thereby generating revenue for the app and offering value to its users. 3.** Gamification**: The app can introduce gamification techniques to engage its users and incentivize them to maintain healthy eating habits. This could include challenges and rewards for achieving healthy eating milestones.
2. Integration with wearable technology: Integrating with wearable technology can provide users with more accurate and detailed feedback on their eating habits and allow them to track their progress in real-time.
3. Artificial intelligence (AI) integration: The app can leverage AI to provide more personalized feedback and recommendations to its users based on their eating habits, preferences, and health goals. In addition, we have the option to install a plugin that can calculate the calories and macro nutrients based on a photograph of the food item using computer vision

Overall, Hale-Mate can continue to evolve and grow by incorporating new features and technologies to improve its user experience and offer more value to its users.