From 30,000 feet, Plateonic is an easy way to meet people with similar tastes in food right now.
The goals? • Expand your social network by meeting people with a similar taste in restaurants. • Get exposed to new eateries nearby! • Have fun!
How does it work? 1. With one click, Plateonic retrieves all the information that we need to make a match - your name, number, and your current location - directly from your Facebook account. 2. All you have to do is choose what kind of food you want to eat. Simple as that.
Plateonic presents you with five restaurants within 0.5 miles of your current location to choose from. When you choose the same one as another user or group, we automatically give you the contact information you need to set up a meal.
A bit more on how it works and the vision... To keep the information current, each request to eat at a restaurant expires after twenty minutes. The goal of the application, as the name suggests, is to create a light-hearted friendly atmosphere between users that is based on platonic encounters over a common liking of delicious food.
Some users may treat their encounters through Plateonic as dates. This is to be expected. However, we believe that the casual premise of the meetings not only alleviates the awkwardness that may be associated with other such meetings for both parties, but allows for more organic growth of such relationships.
Ultimately, it really is all in the name. The application is supposed to be for the lighthearted and adventurous. It is for those willing to give random platonic encounters over a meal a chance.
Technical Features The application is comprised of a front-end client written in Java for the Android OS platform, as well as a back-end server written in JavaScript with the Node.js framework and a database managed by a MongoDB database.
Technical Highlights • Integrated with Trip Advisor API to provide information about the restaurants being presented. • One-click registration and information retrieval from Facebook’s Developer API allows users to be up in almost no-time. • Results updated in real-time create an atmosphere of immediacy about the network a la Twitter.
Potential Expansion • Allow for groups to meet other groups rather than limiting the application to individuals. • Allow for multi-category searching i.e. Chinese OR Mediterranean food in one query. • Make recommendations based on previous liking of restaurants and people. • Store user data so people-matches can be optimized.