Project Info

LifeTap

Inspiration

We come from Indonesia, a country that sits on the collision of two tectonic plates. Natural disasters are not abstract to us, they are part of life. Some of the deadliest events in human history happened in our region. The 1883 eruption of Krakatoa altered the global climate. The 1931 Yangtze River floods killed an estimated several million people, one of the deadliest disasters ever recorded. The 2010 Haiti earthquake killed roughly 300,000. Behind every one of those numbers is a family that lost someone, often because help could not find them in time. That is the gap we kept coming back to. In a disaster, the problem is rarely that no one cares. It is that no one knows where you are. Pair that with the rise in kidnappings across the US and Asia, and the same truth holds: the faster someone knows your exact location, the better your odds. We wanted to build the simplest possible tool that closes the distance between "something is wrong" and "someone knows where I am."

What it does

LifeTap is a physical panic button built from an Arduino, a Raspberry Pi 3, a buzzer, and a GPS module. When you are in trouble, you press the button. Two things happen at once. An 80 decibel buzzer sounds for 30 seconds to draw immediate attention and disorient a potential attacker. At the same time, the device captures your GPS coordinates and sends a pinpoint location to your emergency contact over WhatsApp, complete with a Google Maps link so they can navigate straight to you. It doesnt need a user to unlock a phone. No opening an app. No dialing. One press, and the people who can help you know exactly where you are.

How we built it

The Raspberry Pi 3 is the brain. It runs the main logic, handles the GPS processing, and acts as the transmitter that sends the alert out over WhatsApp. The Arduino is the receiver layer, reading the GPS coordinates and the button state and passing them to the Pi. A green status LED pulses to signal that the device is connected and working, so the user always knows it is armed and ready. The flow is simple by design. The GPS module acquires a satellite fix and feeds coordinates to the Arduino. The Arduino relays the button press and the coordinates to the Pi over a serial connection. The Pi packages the location into a message and sends it out. The buzzer fires the instant the button is pressed, before any of the networking happens, so the alarm never waits on a signal.

Challenges we ran into

We forgot a dedicated transmitter module. Rather than stall, we improvised, wiring the Raspberry Pi and Arduino together over USB serial and using that as our communication link. It worked, and it actually made the system simpler. We hit complications getting a Twilio phone number provisioned in time, so we pivoted from SMS to WhatsApp for the alert delivery. WhatsApp turned out to be easier to integrate and works internationally, which fits our disaster-response use case better anyway. GPS was harder than we expected. Getting a reliable satellite fix, especially indoors at the venue, taught us a lot about the limits of consumer GPS hardware and forced us to think about fallback behavior.

Accomplishments we're proud of

We built a complete, working system in 24 hours. The connections hold, the button triggers the buzzer, the GPS acquires coordinates, and the alert reaches a phone over WhatsApp with a working map link. Every time we hit a wall, we improvised a path through it instead of cutting the feature. Walking up to the table with hardware that actually fires end-to-end, on our own wiring, is the thing we are proudest of.

What we learned

GPS and satellite connectivity are genuinely hard. Getting a fix depends on conditions you do not control, and building around that uncertainty is its own engineering problem. We also learned that WhatsApp integration is far simpler than carrier SMS for getting a location message onto someone's phone quickly, especially across borders. Most of all, we learned that improvising under a deadline is a skill, and that a simpler design that works beats an elegant design that does not.

What's next

We want LifeTap to connect directly to the nearest emergency services and post a live, continuously updating location, which means working with local government and dispatch systems rather than just private contacts. On the hardware side, we want to make the device smaller, cheaper, and longer-lasting on a single charge, and add a true satellite uplink so it works in the remote and disaster-struck areas where cell coverage disappears exactly when it matters most.

LifeTap Website

Public launch site for LifeTap — a hardware panic button that sends GPS coordinates via SMS on one press.

Built for Y Combinator outreach, investor demos, waitlist signups, and product documentation.

Features

Scroll-driven Two Futures story (with / without LifeTap)
Hardware prototype section with specs, blueprints, and architecture diagrams
Crisis stats, SMS mockup, and 911 comparison table
Docs hub (/docs) with hackathon guide, architecture, and roadmap
Waitlist API stub, Calendly demo booking, mobile-first nav

Stack

Next.js 16 (App Router)
TypeScript
Tailwind CSS 4
Framer Motion + GSAP ScrollTrigger + Lenis
Poppins via next/font

Quick start

npm install
cp .env.example .env.local
npm run dev

Open http://localhost:3000.

Scripts

Command	Description
`npm run dev`	Development server
`npm run build`	Production build
`npm run start`	Serve production build
`npm run lint`	ESLint

Project structure

lifetap_website/
├── content/              # Markdown source for docs pages
├── docs/                 # Internal project documentation
├── public/images/        # Hero, prototype blueprints, OG image
├── src/
│   ├── app/              # Routes, layout, API, docs
│   ├── components/
│   │   ├── layout/       # Nav, footer, smooth scroll
│   │   ├── sections/     # Homepage sections
│   │   └── ui/           # Reusable UI pieces
│   ├── constants/        # Copy, stats, image paths
│   ├── lib/              # Utilities
│   └── types/            # Shared TypeScript types
└── .env.example          # Environment template

Environment variables

Variable	Description
`NEXT_PUBLIC_SITE_URL`	Canonical site URL (OG tags, sitemap)

See .env.example for waitlist provider placeholders (Resend, Supabase, webhook).

Waitlist API

POST /api/waitlist with { "email": "..." } — stub ready for your email provider or database.

Docs

Live docs: /docs on the site
Architecture
Assets guide
Content & copy
Deployment
Roadmap

Deploy from GitHub

This repo is ready to host. Recommended: Vercel (free, built for Next.js).

Push this repo to GitHub (see below).
Go to vercel.com/new → Import Git Repository.
Select LifeTap-Website → Deploy (defaults work).

In Vercel → Settings → Environment Variables, add:

NEXT_PUBLIC_SITE_URL=https://your-domain.vercel.app

Redeploy. Your site is live.

GitHub Actions runs npm run build on every push to main so broken builds are caught before deploy.

Note: GitHub Pages alone does not support this app (Next.js API routes + server features). Use Vercel, Netlify, or any Node.js host.

See docs/DEPLOYMENT.md for custom domains and waitlist setup.

Push to GitHub

gh auth login
./scripts/publish-github.sh

Or manually:

git remote add origin git@github.com:YOUR_USERNAME/LifeTap-Website.git
git push -u origin main

Deploy (other hosts)

License

Analysis

Compare with all teams

View

Metric

Preston Susanto
1

Figures cover GitHub contributors during the hackathon window. A co-authored commit counts in full for each author, so per-member totals add up to more than the whole-team figures.

Technology

Found in codeClaimed only

CSSIn code
Next.jsIn code
ReactIn code
Tailwind CSSIn code
TypeScriptIn code
C++Claimed
HTMLClaimed
PythonClaimed
VercelClaimed

5 of 9 appear in the indexed code. 4 claimed on Devpost could not be matched to code, which may simply mean the tool leaves no trace in the repository.

AI coding agents

Claude CodeConfig
CodexConfig

Detected from committed agent config files and commit authorship. Absence of a signal is not proof an agent was unused.

Codebase size

Source size

180 KB

Source files

Counts recognized source files only; vendored directories, binaries and lockfiles are excluded, so this is smaller than the repository on disk.

Feature verification

7 Verified6 Claimed only

Crisis stats, SMS mockup, and 911 comparison tableVerified
Crisis stats, SMS mockup, and 911 comparison table sections
Claimed on readmehigh confidence
- src/components/sections/StatsSection.tsx — Stats section component present
- src/components/sections/SMSMockup.tsx — SMS mockup UI component present, showing simulated message with map link copy
- src/components/sections/ComparisonTable.tsx — Comparison table component present (911 comparison)
Docs hub at /docs with hackathon guide, architecture, roadmapVerified
Docs hub (/docs) with hackathon guide, architecture, and roadmap
Claimed on readmehigh confidence
- src/app/docs/[slug]/page.tsx — Dynamic docs route renders markdown content via getDocContent
- content/hackathon-guide.md — Hackathon guide markdown content exists
- content/ARCHITECTURE.md — Architecture doc content exists
- content/ROADMAP.md — Roadmap doc content exists
Hardware prototype section with specs, blueprints, diagramsVerified
Hardware prototype section with specs, blueprints, and architecture diagrams
Claimed on readmehigh confidence
- src/components/sections/PrototypeSection.tsx — Prototype section component present
- src/components/sections/HardwareBlueprint.tsx — Hardware blueprint component rendering diagram images
- public/images/prototype/system-blueprint.png — Blueprint image assets used in the prototype section
Marketing website built with Next.js, TypeScript, Tailwind, Framer Motion, GSAP, LenisVerified
Public launch site built with Next.js 16, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS 4, Framer Motion, GSAP ScrollTrigger, Lenis, Poppins font
Claimed on readmehigh confidence
- package.json:14 — Dependencies list next, framer-motion, gsap, @gsap/react, lenis, react matching the claimed stack
- src/components/layout/SmoothScrollProvider.tsx — Lenis-based smooth scroll provider is wired into layout
- src/app/layout.tsx — References buzzer/GPS copy and Poppins font setup for the site shell
Mobile-first navigationVerified
Mobile-first nav
Claimed on readmemedium confidence
- src/components/layout/Navigation.tsx — Navigation component present
- src/components/layout/MobileBottomBar.tsx — Dedicated mobile bottom bar component indicates mobile-first nav handling
Scroll-driven Two Futures story sectionVerified
Scroll-driven Two Futures story (with / without LifeTap)
Claimed on readmehigh confidence
- src/components/sections/TwoFutures.tsx — Dedicated component implementing the two-futures scroll section
- src/components/sections/TwoFuturesMobile.tsx — Mobile variant of the same section exists
Waitlist API stubVerified
Waitlist API stub ready for email provider or database (POST /api/waitlist)
Claimed on readmehigh confidence
- src/app/api/waitlist/route.ts:5 — POST handler validates email and logs it; explicit TODO comment shows it is an unconnected stub, matching the README's own description
80dB buzzer alarm on button pressClaimed only
An 80 decibel buzzer sounds for 30 seconds when the button is pressed
Claimed on Devposthigh confidence
Arduino/Pi serial communication and status LEDClaimed only
Arduino relays button press and GPS coordinates to the Raspberry Pi over USB serial; a green status LED pulses to show the device is armed
Claimed on Devposthigh confidence
Calendly demo booking integrationClaimed only
Calendly demo booking
Claimed on readmemedium confidence
GPS coordinate capture and WhatsApp alert with Google Maps linkClaimed only
The device captures GPS coordinates and sends a pinpoint location to an emergency contact over WhatsApp with a Google Maps link
Claimed on Devposthigh confidence
Physical panic button hardware (Arduino + Raspberry Pi + buzzer + GPS)Claimed only
LifeTap is a physical panic button built from an Arduino, a Raspberry Pi 3, a buzzer, and a GPS module
Claimed on Devposthigh confidence
Twilio/SMS alert deliveryClaimed only
Built with Twilio; README describes sending GPS coordinates via SMS on one press
Claimed on readmehigh confidence

An AI agent derived these features from the project’s Devpost page and readme, then searched the code for each one. Verified features are backed by cited code; claimed-only features had no supporting code, which is not by itself proof a feature is missing.