Bitt Smart Book

A Brief Introduction

Bitt Smart Book is the official app for the world’s first augmented reality memoir titled: Butterflies in the Trenches by award-winning author, Curtis Carmichael. The app allows the reader to interact with the book to give them a whole new AR reading experience.

Challenges That We Faced at the Start

Bitt Smart Book pushes on the idea of bringing the characters and moments in the book to life. And how to do that? Use augmented reality! The client requested an app that could scan the pages of the book to play videos in AR. While the idea is brilliant, the client already had an iOS app and wanted our team to create an Android app for the same purpose. However, recreating the same app Android posed its challenges.

Scan Speed

The app must scan the images in the book and must do that quickly. We registered the early scan speed of 15 seconds but we needed to work on bringing this time down.

App Size on Play Store

According to the Google play store policies, we cannot upload an app above 200MB. But our app was between 550-600MB, hence, we had to work with Google Play Asset delivery to shrink the app size.

Multithreading

Bitt Smart Book app’s purpose is to scan, run AR, and play video simultaneously. It required careful integration so that the app could function optimally and without any lag.

Our Solution

Replicating an app that exists in iOS for Android is a challenging task. Since both the platforms present their banes and boons, app replication can pose a serious task. However, our team persevered and devised a solution for the app.

Decreased app size

Since the app size fell between 550 to 600 mb, we utilized Google Play’s Asset Delivery. It allows the core app to be downloaded first, while the predefined videos are fetched separately during installation. This way, all the assets are also downloaded with the app while ensuring appropriate user experience.
Quick Scan

During development, the android app was taking approximately 15 seconds of average time to scan the image and play the video. After we optimized the code, applied multithreading, we brought down the time for scan to five seconds.

Excellent Features that Shape Bitt Smart Book

Our developers studied market status and audience response to understand and create a one-of-a-kind solution. Each feature adds to the quality of the app and creates a cohesive environment. This enables users to freely interact with Bitt Smart Book and exploit its capabilities.

Scan & Map

The app can scan text images and dynamically map the corresponding video content onto the exact coordinates of the scanned image.
Dynamic Scaling

The overlaid video will adjust proportionally to the scanned image irrespective of movement or shake to maintain accurate alignment.
Focus Tracking

If the textbook image falls outside the camera’s focus, the video playback will pause automatically. Once the image falls back in focus, the video will resume.
Persistent Playback

Given the app is not closed, it will resume the last video played during the previous session. Any session will end once the user exits the app.

The Services We Provided

The team required an out-of-the-box thought methodology when working on Bitt Smart Book. We employed our world-class services to bring out the best in the app and create a market-leading product to serve the masses.

App Development

Project Management

Deployment

Quality Assurance

Project Milestones We Achieved

The team put up a massive effort to create innovative solutions for the app that would further be applied in future app development.

Requirement Gathering

The developers sat down with the Bitt Smart Book team to understand the project objectives and vision.

Duration:

1-2 days

Team Members

Business Analyst and QA

App Development

As the work began, the developers built various aspects and features; all that within the deadline.

Duration:

10-15 days

Team Members

Expert Developers, Designers

App Testing

The QA team thoroughly tested every aspect our developers built to ensure it was market ready.

Duration:

7-8 days

Team Members

QA, Developers, BA, Project Manager

Tech Stack

Our team employed state-of-art tools and technologies to create a sophisticated and user-friendly app. Leveraging the power of Kotlin, Android Studio, and more, we ensured a seamless user experience, robust functionality, and future-proof scalability. Every line of code and every integration reflects our commitment to excellence and innovation in app development.

Android

Our Android team embarked on a mission to redefine the Android landscape. They relied on the latest tech to create a stable Android app.

Kotlin
Android Studio

Quality Assurance

The quality assurance team spent dedicated hours to test the app thoroughly and share its view with the developers for a perfect app.

Selenium

The Result

Bitt Smart Book offers a completely new reading experience to its users with an immersive journey through the pages of “Butterflies in the Trenches.” With innovative features tailored to encourage engagement and immersion, Bitt Smart Book transforms the act of reading into a dynamic and interactive adventure. It defines a revolutionary way in which we engage with literature through an experience that transcends the boundaries of traditional storytelling.