CORONA HELP ASSISTANT
Tags: googlecloud, node, googleassistant, javascript
Published: 2020-07-21 12:33:23

## Inspiration

The Google Assistant App is intended to be used by people across the globe to access accurate information about COVID19 pandemic and spread awareness about the claims that are globally being forwarded on different social media platforms either to create hatred or to mislead people. Some platforms are also misleading people with wrong statistics on number of cases. This all lead to the idea of making an interactive app "CORONA HELP ASSIST".
Sometimes, we reach out a hospital, but we find that there are no beds available and we have to move to another hospital, which can cost to death. The app also solves this problem, **you can simply ask Beds available in the nearest hospital or Beds available in the nearest hospital and the app will guide you!**

## What it does

The app can be used by voice and typing and through mobile phones as well as Google home devices.
The app has been trained to work on text input and voice. The app answers most of your asked questions on COVID-19 virus. It can also cross verify the claims that you get in whatsapp forwards or on other social media platform, So if you are not sure if the fact provided you is true or fake, You just need to ask for the fact check!
It also answers frequently asked questions about COVID-19, like what are the symptoms of COVID-19, Nearest COVID-19 dedicated hospital me, and more...
It solves a difficult problems related to hospital beds availability, **You can ask about bed availability in the nearest hospital or nearest hospital where beds shall be available or bed availability in hospital X**. It also notifies you of latest updates on COVID-19 (only if user wants to!).
The app also has the potential to dial the national COVID-19 helpline number in case of any emergency.

## How we built it

We have made it using [Google Action Console](https://console.actions.google.com). We used APIs from [COVID19INDIA.ORG](https://covid19india.org). We used different services offered by [Google Cloud Platform](https://g.co/cloud). There were a lot of issues at the starting but we fixed everything.

## Challenges we ran into

We were new to developing apps for Google Assistant. So it was a challenge for us to tackle all the issues we got. 
We were having problem with APIs first and when we resolved it then we had problem with deploying the app for testing
However, We were able to complete the project within 24 hours from the time of ideation.

## Accomplishments that we're proud of

1. **Completing the project within 24 hours from the time of ideation phase of our group.**
2. **Having first time hands-on experience of Google Action Console.**
3. **Developing all the intents and scenes easily.**
4. **We made it dynamic such that it would look as if you are talking to a real person and it uses different word at different time on the same question.**
5. **Using APIs**
6. **Implementing webhooks.**

## What we learned

We were extremely new to developing Google Assistant App, So, everything we learnt was new to us. Along with the basics we learnt, We also learnt making the speech of the assistant more clear and making it sound like real person. We also trained it to be dynamic, That means it uses different words when asked the same question multiple times.

## What's next for CORONA HELP ASSIST

It has not been released yet! We will have to fully develop it and add more functions to to submit it for review. After that, It will be available for everyone.
THE APP ISN"T AVIALABLE AS OF NOW IN GOOGLE ASSISTANT FOR EVERYONE AS GOOGLE HAS NOT REVIEWED IT YET!

## IMAGES
![Welcome Screen](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/7zvda3jtpzzcuehns0wa.jpeg)
![Nearest COVID-19 dedicated hospital and to know the symptoms of COVID-19(One of the ways to get the symptoms))](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/shf5o29s1i6xjfsem6qf.jpeg)
![COVID-19 cases in user's locality info and test centres near the user](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/434g0nie39ysl5rgbq6n.jpeg)
![Daily updates about COVID-19 and bed availability information in nearby hospitals.](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/xhy55frp2gqnj3htgk3e.jpeg)
![Fact check sample and COVID-19 stats data](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/ayhe5x0udp7prufx3383.jpeg)

## DEMO
{% youtube A8SzCQI832I %}