Several teams of hackers “got their bot on” at the MaRS center over the weekend as part of a robotics hackathon aimed at creating robots that promote healthy people and environments.
Teams of four could choose either a beginner base kit with an Arduino or a more advanced base kit with a Raspberry Pi. Wearables were also available to borrow such as Pebble Watches, Estimote Beacons, EEG-enabled gesture control Myo bands, the Nod Ring for gesture control, Microsoft Kinnects for 3D imaging and vision, 1mini A8 for GPS Tracking, Tobii EyeX and EyeTribe Trackers for eye tracking, and the EEG-enabled Muse Headband.
Participating hackers were also given demonstrations and one-on-one time with technology experts.
The hackathon ended Sunday with a demo to determine the winning projects. Calmstress, Indie and GestJump won.
Congratulations to the winners! Calmstress, Indie, & GestJump #GYBO2015 @GetYourBotOn pic.twitter.com/JkBwcQ7hlw
— COSSA YorkU (@COSSAYorkU) September 13, 2015
A team from the University of Toronto’s Health Innovation Hub (h2i) built CalmStress which pushes on pressure points when stressed.
GestJump, made by members of OCAD’s Imagination Catalyst, is a skip rope for the social media age – encouraging fitness by sending selfies while skipping.
The Indie robot is aimed at providing patient data to a doctor more conveniently.
Judges included CBC Radio host Nora Young, AutoDesk’s Gord Kurtenbach, and MaRS Discovery District’s Jon Dogterom.
For tweets from the event, check out #GYBO2015.