Fourth Round of 2017 Hackaday Prize Highlights Projects That Assist, Adapt, and Rehabilitate

Challenge focuses on assistive technologies that ensure a better quality of life for the disabled.

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Jul 24, 2017, 10:00 ET

PASADENA, Calif., July 24, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Hackaday, the most popular website read by engineers, makers, and inventors that celebrates hardware hacks, launches the Assistive Technologies round of the 2017 Hackaday Prize global engineering initiative.

Hackaday challenges participants to build something that improves the quality of life for those who are disabled or mobility-impaired. Potential project ideas include custom-fit eco-friendly respiratory masks, reliable utensils for the disabled, or refreshable braille displays for image text. The round continues through Sept. 4.

Participants can work alone or collaborate as a team. Twenty projects are selected from the Assistive Technologies round, and awarded $1,000 per project.

The other rounds are Design Your Concept (Mar. 20-May 1), Best Product (Mar. 20-July 24), Internet of Useful Things (May 1-June 12), Wheels, Wings, and Walkers (June 12-July 24), and Anything Goes (Sept. 4-Oct. 16). At the end of six rounds, 120 projects will advance to the finals, where six top prizes will be awarded. $250,000 in prizes are awarded to the most innovative and impactful open source projects over the course of the six technical challenges.

The Hackaday Prize winner of 2015 was a project from the Assistive Technology round: the Eyedriveomatic. Today, the interface for the eye-controlled wheelchair is available as a tutorial or a pre-assembled system and has helped hundreds of patients who have ALS.

The 2017 Hackaday Prize is sponsored by Digi-Key, Supplyframe, Microchip, and Texas Instruments.

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SOURCE Hackaday