Last year we launched a
competition with over $59,000 in prizes that invited makers to create the smart home gadgets of the future. Since then, Hackster's community has been busy inventing innovative smart home gadgets. The community used Arduino boards and Alexa to create a wide range of new and open-source devices with custom Alexa skills, from a glove that converts sign language into Alexa commands, to a mobile robot that feeds fish, to so
much more.
The entrants impressed us with their projects. To win, participants needed to build, document, and demo their skills and gadgets. A panel of judges scored the projects on a diverse set of criteria. Now, after much deliberation, we are excited to share the winning projects. Each winner will receive prizes designed to help them kick-start their prototype device into production.
By Koray Kirli and Jeremy Johnson in Boston, Massachusetts
Wise Chameleon is a modular solution that allows you to turn anything into a smart home device. The demo shows the device being used to open Venetian blinds and a dog feeder.
Scent-terrific turns traditional wax candles into smart lights that you can smell! Darian's invention is a very creative, and well-documented, use of mixing old with new smart home technology.
Feed the birds is an outdoor, solar-powered, voice-controlled bird feeder. Anastasiya's use of solar for power and GSM for connectivity is beneficial and an excellent example of IoT in the wild.
Drag and drop Alexa 'aware' controls in a virtual breadboard. James' product has an impressive service and seems very useful to those prototyping ideas.