Team QuadSquad of Ukraine have walked away as the winners of this year’s Microsoft Imagine Cup, beating out rivals from around the world including our compatriots across the ditch, Team MobileEye from New Zealand.
QuadSquad won for its their program powered by Kinect that recognises sign language and speaks it to a user.
For winning the Imagine Cup’s software design category, Quadsquad walk away with $25,000 to help bring their idea to fruition.
QuadSquad were up against teams from Japan, Portugal, Taiwan and New Zealand.
Team Coccolo from Japan placed second. They built a system that can detect how much light is in a room and adjust the LED lighting systems accordingly.
Team wi-GO from Portugal placed third for inventing a robot that sees with Kinect and is designed to follow the mobility-challenged around and act as a helper. It can carry a shopping basket for example as well as carrying other items around the home.
Team MobileEye from New Zealand created a way for the visually impaired to better recognise the world around them, by giving a Windows Phone the ability to take pictures of an object, colour or area, identify it and speak what it is back to the user.
Team uCHAMPsys of Taiwan created an incredible FitBit-like sensor watch that acts as a biosensor to promote better health and record things like sleep and exercise habits.
Australian team StethoCloud weren’t able to make the finals for this year’s Imagine Cup, but we have heard that several venture capitalists have approached the team to talk to them about their idea. Good luck, lads!
We’ll also be finding out later on this evening where next year’s Imagine Cup will be held. Stay tuned for that.
The Imagine Cup world fair yesterday afternoon showed off the best that the teams from around the world had to offer. We’ll bring you a look at some of the cool and quirky inventions tomorrow.