Inspiration

This project, Illuminate, was born from my vision to advance the AI revolution and make AI an integral part of daily life. My dissatisfaction with current AI implementations and their superficial integration with our day-to-day applications led me to dream bigger. The movie ‘Her’ served as a key inspiration, captivating me with its portrayal of technological advancement through minimalistic and pure form of interaction - speech.

Building the Project

Working on Illuminate’s core, LumiOS, I seek to actualize this vision. The goal is to create a personal AI combined with an AI operating system, capable of retaining all our interactions and integrating seamlessly with various applications. This project provides a perfect platform for me to expand my knowledge in Flutter and NestJS. While using Flutter for building the frontend, I delved into the intricacies of Riverpod’s provider system. Meanwhile, NestJS allowed me to experiment with a new architectural design, combining Domain Driven Design, Clean Architecture, and Event Driven Architecture.

Challenges

The journey was not without its fair share of challenges. Issues with websocket instabilities provided significant hurdles, as did the steep learning curve associated with setting up a Continuous Deployment pipeline using Google Cloud and GitHub actions. These experiences, though testing, contributed immensely to my growth as a developer.

Reflection

Despite these obstacles, the overwhelming realization was that the vision of LumiOS is very much achievable with current technologies. This project has reinforced my belief that we are on the cusp of a radical transformation in the way we interact with technology, a transformation that will redefine our experiences in the years to come.

What’s Next for LumiOS

The journey of LumiOS is far from complete. My next big step is to introduce a speech interface to enhance user interaction, following which I plan on expanding its capabilities further. This includes adding access to emails, calendars, and the internet for research purposes, moving beyond the constraints of a mere chat-based interface. The ultimate goal is to continue to build on this idea, to drive deeper integration and create an AI that truly understands and complements the user’s lifestyle.

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