Microsoft Imagine Cup 2014 – the most interesting projects – BBC News

Since the first edition of the Microsoft Imagine Cup, students from around the world are changing the world for the better. Through innovative solutions attempt to improve the quality of life and the health of those most in need. This year, our attention turned not only Poles, but also teams from Australia and Qatar. With it will be easier to diagnose anemia and work with autistic children.

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EYENAEMIA – winners of Microsoft Imagine Cup 2014

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Students from Rzeszów University of Technology prepared a project that will enable paralyzed the use of personal computers. Thanks to its ingenious Polish team was in the finals of the world’s largest technological Olympics. Is their idea will be a success? … Read more

It is worth noting that the Polish team Power of Vision presented a system that allows paralyzed people to control the computer. This is made possible thanks to the Kinect for Windows device and an application. Both of these elements plus a regular computer with Windows 7 or 8 for operation of programs and games and only with the help of speech, movements of the head and mouth. The solution is cheap and effective, so it may not count for very many people who have so far been exclusively dependent on aid loved ones.

At the presentation teams from category Social Projects we pay attention to the two other teams. One proposed solution in the field of diagnosis, while the other has an idea on how to get involved in the play of children with autism.

EYENAEMIA – Australia

About 2 billion people worldwide suffer from anemia. The problem applies particularly to countries in Africa and South America, where it is detected very late or not at all, because there is this relevant sites and money. Students from Australia came up with the idea of ​​how people can make themselves at home to diagnose the disease. To do this, you do not need to see a doctor or specialist tools, just phone with a camera and a pattern of colors. How does it work?

“Patient” must reveal the bottom of the eye, the pattern entered by him and shoot. With the appropriate application must be sent, and wait until the system will analyze the data. After a while, we get the result – a numeric value that must be applied to the scale. That’s enough to see if we find among these two billion cases. Only this information is the basis for further diagnosis and treatment.

Efficiency of the system is 95 per cent., And within six weeks benefited from it 900. What is particularly important – the more images to be analyzed, the better becomes the system. Not only that, the test may be used any phone equipped with a camera, and the image may not be in high definition.

Research and score

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team from Australia was one of my favorites. Similarly, the jury has considered the first and final stage of the competition, because EYENAEMIA won the cup by winning the Microsoft Imagine Cup in the final against Russia and New Zealand.

– Highlights of this year’s Imagine Cup projects related to the diagnosis and rehabilitation. How do people use the Internet and data to solve important problems. The most interesting in my opinion is used to diagnose anemia. It is a simple and practical solution – said in an interview with INTERIA.PL Kurt Steck, general manager for Audience and Platform Marketing of Microsoft Corp..

And Copy You – Qatar

Female team from Qatar is intended to help autistic children, and the most important part of the solution is small and very lovable robot. His task is to perform various tasks – mostly repeating the movements of the child or the teacher, which is possible thanks to the Kinect controller. The second option to interact with the robot based on games. For now, there are several – for different age ranges.

The presence of the robot is not accidental here. This toy definitely better than a man focuses autistic children who have a huge problem just maintaining eye contact. The system works great and is available commercially. However, costs more than $ 600., And consists of a robot, and a set of Kinect games.

Brainy Studio – Russia

Noteworthy is also the team with the games category, and Russian exactly Brainy Studio. The production called turnon embodied in the form of a spark, the task is to restore electricity to a certain city. The whole was bear beautiful artwork and sound, and the gameplay itself is very nice. Game will face with dozens of stages dotted additional special levels where our hero must navigate through the pipes to the beat of the music.

turnon GamePlay by Rami Ismail

Brainy Production Studio is very mature, and her presentation was conducted masterfully. Game demo version is available for download from the store Windows Phone Marketplace. All these factors contributed to the success of students beyond our eastern border, as they were in the top three finalists vying for the Cup Imagine Cup.

Microsoft did not stop to help students

Imagine Cup is primarily a way of involving young people in to work on their projects. Microsoft supports their inter alia, his tools and trainers. At the beginning shows the way, but the rest depends on how take advantage of the opportunity given to them.

– We want to inspire and engage students from all over the world to introduced their ideas to market. In the future, we will still want them to support projects like Imagine Cup and the Imagine camps Camps. We also support locally, giving young people the tools to create complex projects. As a result, children can familiarize themselves with new technologies, sometimes at a really young age – said Steck.