BEACON Mobile (beacon-mobile)

BEACON — Blind Enhancement and Assistive Cap with Optical Navigation — is a companion system designed to help visually impaired individuals perform daily activities more safely and independently. It pairs a smart wearable cap with a mobile application to deliver real-time navigation, object detection, and voice-guided assistance.

This repository contains the BEACON mobile app: the primary interface where users sign in, manage their profile and emergency contacts, receive audio alerts, and interact with guidance surfaced from the wearable and backend services.

System Overview

BEACON is split across three repositories that work together:

Component	Repository	Role
Mobile App	beacon-mobile (this repo)	User-facing app for authentication, emergency contacts, alerts, and voice guidance
Backend API	beacon-backend	User management, data persistence, messaging, and automated emergency email notifications
Camera AI	beacon-camera	On-device AI on the wearable cap for object detection, crosswalk recognition, and distance estimation

Features

Authentication & Profile

• Secure user registration and login
• Session management for returning users

Emergency Contacts

• Create, view, edit, and remove emergency contacts
• Contacts are used when the system triggers automated safety notifications

Alerts & Assistance

• Audio alerts — spoken notifications for important events and AI detections from the cap
• Voice guidance — turns real-time navigation and detection updates into clear, hands-free instructions
• Emergency email notifications — automated emails sent to configured contacts during critical incidents (e.g., fall detection or proximity alerts)

Daily Support Tools

• Location and navigation helpers
• Task management
• Weather and time utilities
• Camera and sensor integrations for on-phone assistance

Tech Stack

• Expo (~54) with Expo Router
• React Native and TypeScript
• Voice, location, speech, and sensor APIs via Expo modules

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js (LTS recommended)
• Expo Go on a physical device, or Android/iOS emulators

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/SabarishAV/beacon-mobile.git
   cd beacon-mobile

2. Install dependencies:

   npm install

3. Copy environment variables (if required):

   cp .env.example .env

   Update .env with your backend API URL and any other required values.

4. Start the development server:

   npx expo start

5. Open the app in Expo Go on your device, or press a / i in the terminal for Android / iOS simulators.

Other Scripts

Command	Description
npm run android	Run on Android device or emulator
npm run ios	Run on iOS simulator
npm run lint	Run ESLint
npm run build:eas	Build Android preview via EAS

Related Repositories

• Backend API — beacon-backend
  REST API, database, and email delivery for user accounts and emergency notifications.

• Camera AI — beacon-camera
  Python-based perception pipeline on the wearable cap for real-time scene understanding.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.