After the success of our first Developer Contest, Neosensory teamed up with Edge Impulse to host the “Expand your senses” contest on Hackster. Over 200 participants registered from all over the world to compete and follow along. We received more than 90 entries to win a Buzz haptic feedback wristband, and whittling it down to 13 finalists wasn’t an easy task.
Now we have the pleasure of announcing our prize winners!
Grand Prize: SensiGlove
The winner was awarded a Grand Prize ($1,000 value)
A low-power, low-cost, and practical device to enable people with prosthetic arms to feel touch again. Compatible with any prosthetic arm.
Students Hayden Jones and Ryan Peng came up with a low-cost, low-power, accessible sensory feedback device for prosthetic arms. The judges were impressed with Hayden’s presentation and well-thought-out project. By focusing on keeping their solution simple and flexible, the SensiGlove has the potential to become a real-world product. We look forward to the next steps of development. You can learn more about the project here.
Edge Impulse: Intelligent feedback system for Assistive Walking technology
The winner was awarded an Edge Impulse Prize ($300 value)
The Edge Impulse team had their work cut out for them as 65% of all entries used their machine learning platform. Robin Kanattu Thomas and Alex M Sunny worked with the open-source Exosuit project to provide better rehabilitation to people with lower-limb disabilities. The Buzz haptic feedback wristband allows the user to sense each step they take.
Robin and Alex collected their own data to train and test their model. The goal of their classification was to detect the different stages in a “normal” walking gait, then communicate those walking stages to the patient.
Going forward they aim to collect more data, improve their model and further their real-world testing.
Audience Favorite: Buzz Beat
The winner was awarded an Audience Favorite ($300 value)
The Buzz Beat team Sachin Singh Bhadoriya and Dishant Shat developed a health monitor that measures four parameters:
- Body Temperature (BT)
- SPO2 levels
- Heart Rate (HR)
- Heart Rate Variability (HRV)
The multi-sensor device is a low-cost solution for remotely monitoring patients. The judges were impressed that the team faced going into a hospital in the middle of a pandemic to get real-world data. With a road map for future uses and clear documentation, it’s no wonder Buzz Beat secured the Audience Favorite.
Judges’ Favorites: Snore Buster
Each winner was awarded a Judges’ Favorites ($200 value)
The father-son team of Bryan and Brayden Staley developed a solution to combat a widespread problem: Snoring! Snoring can be inconvenient and dangerous. The Snore Buster team aimed to interrupt snoring without waking the snorer or anyone sharing their bed.
Snoring was detected with the help of the pre-trained sound inference model YAMNet. Then a predetermined pattern was passed to the Buzz with the intensity determined by the strength and consistency of the snoring. This team even tested their solution on a real snorer. With promising initial results Snore Buster will look into improving its snoring model and other ways to personalize their snoring solution.
Judges’ Favorites: Sensory solution for firefighters
Emanuel Lowcock and Kevin Heath tackled a really hot problem: Giving firefighters the sense of infrared vision to assist them in rescuing people from burning buildings. While there are existing infrared-based solutions for firefighters, they are reliant on looking at a screen for the information. In a low vision, high-pressure environment, using haptics to communicate data makes perfect sense. Leveraging Edge Impulse for locating a body in an image, the team uses a simple haptic language of “sweeps” to let the firefighters know which direction a body is in their view.
Additional shoutouts:
Mithun Das entered the project BOON, which brought together an astounding number of different applications for Buzz. Mithun also developed an SDK for ESP32 which is a great addition to the growing number of platforms you can use in developing your own projects.
Zack Freedman entered Thunder Fingers, Twhich lets you touch AC and DC as it flows through circuits. Feel current within products and behind walls!
Thanks to all those who submitted projects:
echoSense- echolocation for the blind
Empowering the blind with the ability to use echolocation for more effective indoor navigation.
What’s HapPinging? Continuous Background Network Monitoring
HapPing is a sensory substitution application for feeling the status and stability of your network connection through vibrations.
Intelligent sensibility of our auditory surroundings
Using machine learning and the Neosensory Buzz we can sense auditory events without the need to be present.
BuzzNposes: Haptics for Cheap Prosthetics
Proprioception and feeling of touch through high-dimensional vibrational patterns on the skin via NeoSensory Buzz
Hand Protection Electronic Gloves Based on Neosensory Buzz
This electronic glove protects workers from getting caught in heavy machinery.
And, of course, thank you to our spectacular judges:
David Eagleman, Donna Auguste, Luke Robert Mason, Alex Glow, and Zach Shelby.
What’s next?
Our prize winners will be joining the Built with Buzz program. Make sure to follow us on social media to keep up with them. We love having contests, so stay tuned for the next one!
In the meantime, join the Neosensory developer’s slack channel and sign up for the newsletter. We also run a monthly developer’s chat where we meet with fellow community members, discuss ideas and troubleshoot projects. Follow us on Eventbrite to get all the invites.