Multitouch Student Innovation Contest
Get your thinking caps on and ideas flowing for the first annual USCD Simulcast Lectures Multitouch Student Innovation Contest. The goal of the contest is to innovate new interactions on state-of-the-art hardware. We give you the latter, and you show us what you can do.
This year we’re going to be working with our brand, spanking new Multitouch Table. In addition to supplying you the hardware for free, we’ll be hooking you up with exclusive access to a pre-release of the Simulcast Lectures API. You’ll get a chance to hack together some cool demos before everyone else gets their hands on the API. You can even join the TIES team and get credit to work on your project after you’re done!
Contestants will demo their creations at the November 16th demo reception. The winner will be announced the following day.
This is all thanks to Ryan Kastner, Mandy Bratton, Ping Wang and the TIES Simulcast Lectures Development team from UCSD. They donated the hardware and software that make this contest possible.
IMPORTANT DATES
October 15 [Sat] – Reservation deadline (an email to reserve a spot – nothing due!)
October 16 [Sun] – Notification to teams (hardware access times will be given)
November 16 [Wed] – Contest reception, demos, and winners announced.
AWARDS
Innovation comes in many forms, and we’ve decided that applications will be judged as follows: 10 pts for creativity, 10 pts for usefulness, 10 pts for implementation and 20 pts for the people’s choice category in which attendees will vote on their favorite projects. These prizes are made possible through generous support from our project sponsers.
While we reserve the right to change the award stucture based on factors such as the number of participating teams, we currently plan on providing prizes for first, second, and third place. More information about the prizes will be announced closer to the demo reception. More importantly, you will have the respect of the attendees, your peers, and bragging rights.
CONTACT
If you have questions or comments, please contact the contest chairs: James McCloskey and Kevin Crossan.
RULES
1. At least one person on a team must be registered and present at the reception. This is for four reasons: 1) You have to demo your idea, 2) You have to claim your prize, and 3) this is an awesome event.
2. Teams must be unique in the composition of the members. Basically, this means that no two teams can have the exact same members. An individual can, however, be on several teams.
3. During the contest voting period, each team will be allowed to demo an idea. Teams will not be allowed to demo multiple ideas (i.e., switch between different ideas). Different demos of the same idea are permitted.
4. Teams must bring supporting computers and hardware to run their demos, we will provide the multitouch table. No additional equipment will be given out at the reception.
HOW TO ENTER
To reserve a place in the contest and to receive an hardware time slot for development, contestants must submit an entry email to the contest chair no later than October 15th, 2011. This email should contain:
1. Members of the team and their affiliations. Minimum team size is 1; maximum is 4. UCSD Students only. See above note about team composition.
2. Primary contact name (one person)
3. Email address
4. Phone number
Send these details to: James McCloskey
HARDWARE DETAILS
Your applications will be run on Simulcast Lecture’s Multitouch Table. This table is based on a 32″ 720p (1366×768) HDTV, so your applications will look fairly large on the screen. The table supports multiple inputs at once, and inputs will be sent to your application using the TUIO protocol. Many different programming languages have libraries for supporting TUIO (or you can, of course, write your own implementation), so feel free to use any language you wish. Applications should support being run on Windows and/or Linux.
FAQ
Q: What if something happens the contest committee did not foresee?
A: We reserve the right to change the rules at any time.
Q: Can I publish a paper on what I come up with?
A: Yes.
Q: Do I own the intellectual property (IP)?
A: Yes.
Q: What happens if I wish to withdraw from the contest?
A: Teams are welcome to withdraw. Please email the contest committee at least a week before the reception.
Q: I am not a UCSD student, can I participate?
A: Unfortunately, the contest is limited to UCSD Undergrad and Grad students.
Q: How many people can be on a team?
A: Maximum four. All must be students.
Q: How will you stop people voting multiple times?
A: Student volunteers will be monitoring the voting boxes.
Q: Can other people help me develop this code?
A: It is permissible to get external help for bugs and other issues. People external to the team cannot contribute large pieces of code (or ideas).
Q: Can my adviser help?
A: Ideas can be discussed with advisers, but core ideas should come from the team members.
Q: What if only a few teams enter?
A: We reserve the right to change the rules at any time. If a small number of people were to enter, we are likely to award only a single (potentially larger) prize.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
This webpage was almost entirely a re-post of the 2011 UIST Student Innovation Contest. We think they did an excellent job with their contest rules, so we’re using about 90% of their material.
Special thanks to David Freitas who painstakingly shot and edited our contest demo video.
Special thanks to Lance Castillo for helping out with the multitouch project.
