Our inspiration for Kitchen Pal came from the daily challenge that many face: deciding what to cook. We wanted to create a tool that not only simplifies meal planning but also personalizes the cooking experience according to individual tastes and available ingredients. This is why we integrated AI to help users discover recipes based on what’s already in their fridge, making cooking creative and accessible.
Kitchen Pal uses AI to recommend recipes based on the ingredients available in a user’s fridge. Users can simply take a photo of their fridge contents, and our app will suggest what they can cook, providing step-by-step instructions. It aims to reduce food waste, inspire culinary creativity, and make meal planning a breeze.
Kitchen Pal is crafted with a robust and modern tech stack to ensure a seamless and efficient user experience across various platforms: Mobile Development: Kotlin: We chose Kotlin due to its safety features and interoperability with Java, which is crucial for Android development. Android Jetpack: Utilized to follow best practices and simplify complex tasks like background tasks, navigation, and lifecycle management, enhancing the app's reliability and maintainability. Kotlin Multiplatform: This allows us to share code between iOS and Android platforms, reducing time and effort in maintaining and updating the app. Jetpack Compose: Our UI is built with Jetpack Compose, which provides a modern, declarative approach to building native interfaces, making the app responsive and easy to use. Google Firebase: Integrated for robust backend services like authentication, analytics, and real-time databases which help in managing user data and interactions effectively.
Node.js: Powers our backend services, chosen for its non-blocking I/O model which is perfect for data-intensive real-time applications across distributed devices. AWS: Provides scalable cloud infrastructure, ensuring reliable data storage and computing power that can grow with our user base. MongoDB & PostgreSQL: We use MongoDB for its flexibility with large volumes of unstructured data and PostgreSQL for complex queries and transactional consistency, offering a comprehensive data management solution.
Bitrise: Utilized for continuous integration and delivery, enabling us to automate our testing and deployment processes. This ensures that our app maintains high quality and is up-to-date without manual intervention.
We are particularly proud of our AI’s ability to learn and improve recipe suggestions based on user feedback. The seamless integration of technology to make everyday cooking intuitive is also a significant achievement. Additionally, fostering a community through our upcoming social feature where users can share and rate recipes is something we look forward to expanding.
Throughout this project, we learned about the complexities of image processing and AI in real-world applications. We also gained insights into user experience design, ensuring that our app is not just functional but also enjoyable to use.
Moving forward, we plan to enhance the AI’s learning capabilities and include more diverse dietary options to cater to a broader audience. We are excited about introducing the social feature, which will allow users to share their culinary creations and tips, fostering a community of cooking enthusiasts.