Contest Encourages Engineers to Create Home Monitoring, Automation Applications

June 25, 2014
New Solutions Could Be Applied to Various Remote Control Home Devices, Appliances

A global competition has been launched to encourage engineers to use new software and design tools to create home monitoring and automation designs.

Recruitment for the "Forget Me Not" design challenge will continue through July 14 with final submissions due in October. The initiative will use a core kit featuring popular products: Raspberry Pi, EnOcean Pi, EnOcean Sensor Kit and WiPi, as well as an oscilloscope courtesy of Tektronix.

The “Forget Me Not” challenge aims to solve common everyday problems for home owners and apartment dwellers, such as remembering whether or not they have locked the front door, taken out the trash or left the oven on. With wiress sensors and loT technologies, this information can be transmitted to smartphones and tablets, providing users with real-time updates and status reports. These applications could be applied to other away-from-home tasks such as feeding pets or watering plants.

Competitors will also be provided with Eclipse SmartHome, an open-source software framework that helps accelerate the development of home automation solutions, a $500 budget for additional materials. A total of 15 competitors will be selected to build their designs and blog at the element14 design community throughout the challenge, addressing their ideas and key challenges. The competition will conclude in late October 2014.