Vantage Hub

GitHub Repository

Overview

Vantage Hub is a multi-functional Windows UWP desktop application designed to serve as a personal smart hub. It combines essential daily utilities—weather forecasting, alarm management, media playback, AI-assisted chat, and digital sketching—into a unified, modern interface optimised for both touch and desktop interaction.

📚 Academic Project
This project was developed as part of EGE350 - Application Development & Cloud Services.

Screenshots 📸

Home Dashboard

Alarm Management

App Switcher

Sketching & AI Chatbot

Media Hub - Music Player

Media Hub - Radio

Media Hub - Video Player

Problem

Users often juggle multiple standalone apps for weather, alarms, music, and productivity tools, resulting in a fragmented desktop experience. Vantage Hub consolidates these core features into a single cohesive application that provides quick access to everyday utilities, reducing cognitive load and improving workflow efficiency.

Key Features

🏠 Home Dashboard

• Real-time Weather — 5-day forecast with dynamic weather icons, temperature, humidity, wind speed, and precipitation probability using OpenWeatherMap API
• Real-time Clock — Day/date/time with time-aware greeting (Morning / Afternoon / Evening / Night)
• Customizable Greetings — Personalize your dashboard greeting message
• Touch-first Interactions — Drag + transform support via manipulation handlers

⏰ Alarm & Stopwatch

• Smart Alarm System — Create, edit, and manage alarms with:
  • Repeating days (weekday selection)
  • Custom alarm sounds (6 built-in tones)
  • Visual time-remaining countdown
  • One-time alarms (auto-disabled after expiry)
• Stopwatch — Precision timer with start/pause/reset controls
• JSON Persistence — Alarms and preferences saved locally

🎵 Media Hub

• Local Music Player — Built-in music library with album art
  • Play/Pause, Next/Previous track controls
  • Shuffle (Fisher-Yates algorithm) and Loop modes
  • Volume control with mute toggle
  • Progress bar with seek functionality
  • 🎶 All included music is royalty-free by Kevin MacLeod
• Live Radio Streaming — Browse and play Singapore radio stations via Radio Browser API
  • Auto-filtered for working stations with valid cover art
  • Metadata display (codec, bitrate, votes)
• Video Player — Play local video files (mp4, mkv) with fullscreen mode and file picker support

🎨 Doodle + AI Chat

• Digital Canvas — InkCanvas-based drawing with:
  • Pen/Eraser tools with pressure support (stylus)
  • Color picker and adjustable brush size
  • Load background images for tracing
  • Save drawings as PNG
• AI Chatbot — Powered by Google Gemini API
  • Text-to-Speech (TTS) for responses
  • Copy response to clipboard
• Speech Recognition — Voice input for chat using Windows Speech API
• Hover-to-Reveal Layout Swap — Switch button to swap Doodle and Chat panels

🔄 App Switcher

• Keyboard: Ctrl + Space opens the app switcher; while holding Ctrl, press Space to cycle; releasing selects (Alt+Tab style)
• Gesture: Swipe up from the bottom interaction zone to open the app switcher (touch-friendly)
• Acrylic UI Effects — Modern Windows Fluent Design styling

Tech Stack

API Keys & Services

This project uses external APIs that require authentication:

Setting Up API Keys

1. Copy secrets.template.json to secrets.json in the project root
2. Add your API keys to the JSON file
3. Note: secrets.json is excluded from Git via .gitignore to keep keys private

My Role

Sole developer responsible for:

• End-to-end UWP application architecture and UI/UX design
• Integration of external APIs (weather, radio, generative AI)
• Implementation of alarms (recurring + one-time), sound playback, and stopwatch utilities
• MediaHub development (music library, radio streaming, video playback)
• InkCanvas drawing tools + export pipeline
• Accessibility-focused features (speech-to-text + text-to-speech)
• Persistent storage for alarms and user preferences

Project Structure

Quick Start (User Controls)

• Switch apps: Ctrl + Space (hold Ctrl, tap Space to cycle, release to select)
• Touch switcher: Swipe up from the bottom zone to open the app switcher
• Doodle/Chat layout: Hover to reveal the switch button, then tap to swap panels

Permissions Required

The app requires the following capabilities (configured in Package.appxmanifest):

• Location — For weather based on current location
• Microphone — For speech recognition
• Internet — For API calls and radio streaming

Outcome

This project demonstrates proficiency in:

• UWP Development: Building a polished multi-page Windows application with touch-first UX
• API Integration: Consuming live data sources for weather, radio, and AI features
• Multi-feature Architecture: Coordinating alarms, media playback, AI chat, and inking within a cohesive UI
• Accessibility: Speech-to-text and text-to-speech for inclusive interaction
• State Management: Persistent storage, timers, and async flows across multiple modules