How Top Three Wearables in Intel Contest Could Change the World
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makeit.intel.com(NEW YORK) — They look like something out of a sci-fi action movie, but the three wearables that came out on top at Intel’s inaugural “Make It Wearable” contest are out to change the world.
Snapping a selfie will no longer include the cumbersome process of holding your smartphone with an outstretched arm while trying to get the perfect angle.
Self-admiring techies of the future will instead be able to turn to Nixie, a drone worn on the wrist that can detach, take flight and snap photos from countless different perspectives.
The technology, which uses Intel’s Edison chip, took the $500,000 grand prize.
“You should be able with a gesture to tell the quadcopter to unfold, then it is going to take off from your wrist,” Christoph Kohstall, the inventor of Nixie, said in a video showing off the wearable drone.
“It knows where you are,” he said. “It turns around, takes a picture of you, comes back and you can catch it from the air and put it back on your wrist.”
Open Bionics, a team from the United Kingdom, took second place with their 3-D printed robotic hand that boasts a cost of under $1,000 but maintains the same high function as other more expensive, competing devices.
“It has tendons, just like your human hand and then a rubber surface to act like the skin and then actuators pull the tendons, which make the fingers move,” creator Joel Gibbard said in a video detailing the project.
His partner, Sammy Payne, said she was inspired to work on the project after her friend’s mother couldn’t afford a hand that cost 14,000 pounds.
“She just wants to be able to tie her hair back,” Payne said. “It’s just a small thing we all take for granted but that makes a huge difference to an amputee.”
If you want to feel a little like Michael Jackson while you work, then the third place technology — a power glove equipped with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Intel’s Edison chip — is for you.
Built by a German team, the ProGlove fits on the hand like a regular glove but promises to make sure workers are more ergonomic and productive.
“I worked in the car factory and I remember that they all had gloves in the production, so this would be a good point to start with a wearable device,” said Paul Günther, a co-founder.
Another benefit: The founders say the ProGlove could reduce “costly workplace mistakes.”
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