wesvance
Joined 10 years ago
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83
Submissions
17
Member since
Jun 1
Recent submissions
Comment · 1 year ago
Good shoutout - We partner with them to pull in HMDB data into the ExploreHere app We link back to them in the app too, at the bottom we show the 'source' of the info we pulled in.
Comment · 1 year ago
Thanks for sharing that! I haven't heard of Triposo before, so that was really helpful!
I think these kind of 'passive' trip companions are difficult to sell as they inherently fade into the background and support your trip, rather than trying to take all your attention and 'be the trip'...
But thats the kind of software I like and the kind I think we should try and build more of! Personally, when I'm exploring a new place I just want to 'do me' and have some gentle nudges if I'm near something really cool.
Comment · 1 year ago
We haven't ever hired anyone; its just 2 of us, but I've shared on HN before, so maybe you saw it then?
Comment · 1 year ago
We do! I'm in Japan right now, taking photos of as many markers as possible that I'll add into the app when I get back! We're also releasing a 'submission app' in early 2025 that will let you submit markers and get them added into the app so we can expand into more places!
Comment · 1 year ago
I built https://explorehere.app to help you learn about the history of the world around you by sending a push notification whenever you pass a new historical marker on your travels!
It’s a freemium app with a pro subscription for advanced features; our revenue is just under $1k/month.
We’re working towards ExploreHere being a passive adventure guide. As you go about your travels ExploreHere will nudge you about interesting information wherever you go; history, unique things to see, special food known only in the city you’re in, etc.
Comment · 2 years ago
Not yet :/ we’re wanting to validate the idea first.
Comment · 2 years ago
I'm working on a driving audio-guide version of this called ExploreHere | Stories (iOS). We pull data together from a variety of sources and generate a story based on your location and read it aloud using high quality audio.
https://explorehere.app
We're in beta, but if anyones interested in testing it out, here's a link to join our testflight beta program! https://testflight.apple.com/join/ExaAqkU8
Comment · 2 years ago
I'm working on a version of this now called ExploreHere | Stories. It's an iOS app where you drive around, and the app generates stories based on what's around you (data pulled from various sources), puts together a single unified story, and reads it aloud to you.
If you / anyone else is interested in beta testing, let me know, I'd love to get some feedback!
Comment · 2 years ago
I built ExploreHere | Markers App (iOS), two years ago to help fill some of the void that FieldTrip left. It has over 200k historical and interpretive markers so you can learn a bit about whats around you.
Based on feedback from the community, I'm currently working on an Audio-Guide version that generates and reads interesting stories aloud to you as you drive, all hands free! If you're interested, I'd love to send you the beta and see what you think!? https://testflight.apple.com/join/ExaAqkU8
Comment · 3 years ago
We just launched our first web feature, City Search!
This lets you find history around any US City - From there, you can explore historical markers on a map and have interpretive signs read aloud.
One of the best use cases we’ve had for GPT-3.5 has been as a quick and dirty classification algorithm. By providing GPT-3.5 with a prompt like “Rank this marker on a scale from 1-10 on how important it is to US history” GPT has been able to get us a quick MVP result much faster than traditional ML methods.
We then use this ranking to determine if a particular marker is worth converting to audio (via ElevenLabs), or just having GPT-3.5 provide us a summary of the marker’s content.
Here's an example of one a marker with ElevenLabs audio: https://www.explorehere.app/markers/6430addf66849758ea08c8b1
Comment · 3 years ago
You can build locally without ejecting; just throw the --local flag on the end of your eas build command This does what EAS would do, just on your local machine. If you remove the --local flag, it will send it up to EAS to do the build.
eas build --profile develop --platform ios --local
Comment · 3 years ago
I've used Expo going on 3 years now, their development team is incredible. There are very few reasons to use base react-native over Expo anymore; They make upgrades to new RN versions easier, can support any custom native libraries, have an awesome build service (EAS), support OTA updates, their docs are great... I could go on and on. If you're a RN dev and haven't tried out Expo in the past year I highly recommend giving it another go - its not the Expo you remember before their custom dev-client days.