Grocery Guru

Members

• Maggie Archer,
• Anna Cossio,
• Amelia Delzell,
• Andrew O'Sullivan (TA)

Overview

Grocery shopping, inevitably, will take far longer than necessary. During a trip to the store, the average shopper becomes distracted by intriguing items, struggles to find obscure products on their list, and needs to revisit the same aisle multiple times in order to retrieve forgotten items.

Additionally, products on a grocery list were likely added in the order they were brainstormed by the user; not into groups based on their location in the store!

We aim to eliminate these inefficient practices with our project by creating an iPhone app that allows the user to form their own grocery list. When one runs out of an item in the house, they will take out their phone, open the app, scan the barcode on the item, and, if the item is sold at the grocery store, the item will be added to the list. Their groceries will be organized with respect to their location in each aisle throughout the store. Our app will also provide the approximate time it will take the user to complete their shopping run.

Objectives

1. Find a database of UPC numbers for a Giant Eagle grocery store
2. Create a mobile application in iOS using Xcode that allows a user to input a list of items needed at a grocery store and rearranges the items into sections based on location in the grocery store
3. Create a program that identifies key words or the first few letters of items typed and provides suggestions for the item based on the stock of the grocery store
4. Apply an algorithm that provides an estimation of time spent in the store based on the sections in which the items are located and the distance between the sections in the grocery store
5. Program a barcode scanner that can identify a grocery item based off the UPC number, and add it to the list
6. Demo our project by scanning a random order of supplied items into the app, so that it can add the items to the grocery list and reorganize the list by the type of product
7. Create a user interface for the app that displays the grocery list itemized by section and has an "add" menu that allows the user to add an item by navigating either to a screen displaying a search bar for manual keyword search or to a camera which will scan barcodes

Challenges

1. Learn how to create a mobile app for an iPhone
2. Learn how to code in Swift using the Xcode app developer
3. Learn how to code a barcode scanner into the mobile iOS app in Swift
4. Find data for and create a database that efficiently stores product locations and UPC's
5. Learn how to navigate and use Amazon RDS for storing database of product data
6. Create a self-explanatory and easy-to-use application interface
7. Map out a Giant Eagle and create an algorithm that organizes the grocery list based on the location of the stock
8. Ensure that frozen items are placed last on the list despite their location in a store
9. Create a program that recognizes keywords so that it is not necessary for the user to input the exact product

Gantt Chart

Budget

1. Device with iOS (previously owned) - $0.00
2. Xcode 8.2.1 - $0.00 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/xcode/id497799835?ls=1&mt=12
3. Schnucks 2% Milk - $2.59 (prices were obtained from the item lookup Schnucks app)
4. Schnucks Cereal Apple - $2.19
5. Schnucks A-Medium Eggs - $1.39
6. Schnucks Ice Cream - $2.97
7. Schnucks Diced Tomato - $0.89
8. Amazon Free Tier - $0.00 https://aws.amazon.com/free/