24-hour Hackathon Produces Respectable Accelerometer Labyrinth

hackathon-labyrinth

We’re not sure if this was some type of corporate team building, but if it was sign us up for the next one. [Filipp], [Saluka], and [Michael] participated in a recent 24-hour hackathon hosted by Microsoft. They whipped up this labyrinth game controlled by a Nexus 4 Android phone.

This thing looks so well crafted we’re shocked that it’s a 24-hour build. Just putting together the walls of a maze that size takes some time. They then mounted it in a gimbaled frame which tilts the using servos. Check out the demo video below to get a look at the underpinnings. There are several elastic bands connecting the base to the maze. These act as shock absorbers to help keep the movement smooth and to prevent any oscillations from the frame flexing. For us this is an important design element that we’ll keep in mind (just in case we need to win another competition by designing a labyrinth).

An Arduino controls the servos, using Bluetooth to communicate with the phone. The team mentions some filtering used to help make the user experience more natural but we didn’t see many details on this aspect of the hack.

12 thoughts on “24-hour Hackathon Produces Respectable Accelerometer Labyrinth

  1. “…hackathon hosted by Microsoft…”
    “…controlled by a Nexus 4 Android phone…”

    Just wanted to get that out of the way. Now that it is, cool build. It’s like breaking out two control channels of a RC car, and using it for a different task.

  2. Hmm… I wonder what it would be like to make a larger version of this. But mount a weighted, waterproofed IP camera inside a fluid filled ball, so you could have a live view of the maze from the balls perspective.

  3. “They then mounted it in a gimbaled frame which tilts the using servos.”
    Mike, just a humble point of correction here; its either a word is missing between “the” and “using” or that “the” was intended to be an “it”.

      1. Counter-correction to your correction of my correction; I don’t quite agree with you, “the” is “the definite article”, and it’s used before something (or someone) that has already been mentioned. Now there was no mention of “servos” anywhere before that statement, therefore, there is also an error in the way you put it. So I stand by what I said. But then, going by what you said, I guess it could have read; “They then mounted it in a gimbaled frame which tilts using servos.”

  4. Surprising msoft allowed android,if it was team building it would be win only wouldnt it?

    Hack a Day wrote:

    > a:hover { color: red; } a { text-decoration: none; color: #0088cc; } a.primaryactionlink:link, a.primaryactionlink:visited { background-color: #2585B2; color: #fff; } a.primaryactionlink:hover, a.primaryactionlink:active { background-color: #11729E !important; color: #fff !important; } /* @media only screen and (max-device-width: 480px) { .post { min-width: 700px !important; } } */ WordPress.com Mike Szczys posted: ” We’re not sure if this was some type of corporate team building, but if it was sign us up for the next one. [Filipp], [Saluka], and [Michael] participated in a recent 24-hour hackathon hosted by Microsoft. They whipped up this labyrinth game controlle”

  5. Counter-correction to your correction of my correction; I don’t quite agree with you, “the” is “the definite article”, and it’s used before something (or someone) that has already been mentioned. Now there was no mention of “servos” anywhere before that statement, therefore, there is also an error in the way you put it. So I stand by what I said. But then, going by what you said, I guess it could have read; “They then mounted it in a gimbaled frame which tilts using servos.”

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