Description as a Tweet:

Flexin’ On The Haters is a revolutionary technology that allows you to flex online every time you flex in real life!

Every time the user flexes their muscles, our device chooses a baller photo and description and posts it to their Instagram, flexing on their internet haters.

Inspiration:

In the modern age, it’s important to have an online presence. This affects everything from your social life, to your career, to even matchmaking. Alongside all the time put in through content creation, comes dealing with Internet Haters, otherwise known as H8RZ. These H8RZ mock and show hate to your posts, and responding to them can be such a time waste. That’s where our creation comes in.

Flexin’ On The Haters is able to not only create content through a mix and match system of pictures and descriptions, it also allows you to flex on the H8RZ, every time you physically flex. This revolutionizing technology allows for multi-tasking, time saving, and all around feeling like a boss. By using Flexin’ On The Haters, not only will your social media improve, but your mood, time management, and overall coolness will improve with every use.

What it does:

Every time the user flexes their muscles, our device chooses a baller photo and description and posts it to their social media, flexing on their internet haters.

How we built it:

By using Python, InstaPy client library, stretch sensors, and an Arduino, we’re able to create a device that is able to sense when the user is flexing their muscles, and relays that into a command to post a picture to their Instagram feed. It’s able to do this by receiving analog information on whether or not the rubberized band is being stretched. This information is then sent to the Arduino board, which processes it into our code. The code creates an ‘if then’ loop that reads the analog data, and by using the InstaPy library, it’s able to choose a picture file from a folder, and the accompanying caption to go with it. The Arduino then sends out the post to the user’s Instagram, and before you know it, you’re Flexin’ On The Haters.

Further documentation is available on our Domain.com registered website, BestMLHProject.com.

Technologies we used:

Python
Arduino
Other Hardware

Challenges we ran into:

Throughout our development process, we encountered a few problems with our hardware and software. During the initial testing of sensors, we realized our first choice of a sensor that measured muscle activity was actually burned out before we even plugged it in. Due to this, we rummaged through our bag of sensors and were able to come up with an alternative solution using the Stretch Sensor instead.

On the software side of things, one challenge that we faced was the threat of Instagram's botspam detection. In order to work around this, we created a large catalog of possible photos and descriptions to post, as to minimize the chance of being shut down for spam.

Accomplishments we're proud of:

Some accomplishments that we're proud of is the adaptation of our original idea, and being able to work around the challenges we faced with our sensor burnout troubles.

What we've learned:

During the process of creating this project, we were able to teach basic Python skills, such as importing client libraries and pseudo code to our less programming inclined members.

What's next:

The next step in our project's development is the evolution of making our hardware more portable and ergonomic. At the time being, we're currently using a wired model. In the future, we plan on creating an armband which contains the necessary sensors, and can be easily worn during a workout session for maximum flexing.

Built with:

For this project we used Python, InstaPy client library, Adafruit Conductive Rubber Cord Stretch Sensor, and an Arduino.

Prizes we're going for:

Best Hardware Hack
Best Documentation
Best STEM Hack
Funniest Hack
Best Domain Registered with Domain.com

Flexin' On The Haters (BestMLHProject.com)