I open-sourced an app, contribute if interested
I have open-sourced an app called Symbio. The vision with an app is to help users never be confused at the supermarket again. All users have to do is scan the barcode of a supermarket product and instantly receive information in their language on
- Dietary concerns (e.g. vegan, high-protein)
- Allergens (e.g. nuts, honey, gluten)
- Causes that matter (e.g. environmental and social causes like fair trade, compostable)
You can find more information here https://symbio.club.
The initial target audience is ex-pats and we did the pilot in Tallin, Estonia, where we got some very good reviews from customers, however could not find a way to monetize it. the app right now does the following things:
- Scans barcode
- Googles the barcode
- Extracts (scrapes) information from the website
- Translates the information to English using google translate
Currently, the app shows the product image, name, description, ingredients, allergens and origin. We’ve tested it on 600 products in Tallin Estonia and the results were:
- 80% of products have at least 1 data point
- Around 50% of products have all information except allergens
- 30% of products have all the information.
It is easy to extend the service to any other location. I will continue to maintain and work on it in my spare time and if anyone else is interested to contribute, I will help you with onboarding
