Winners
1st place was awarded a $3000 E-Giftcard ($3,000 value), 2nd place was awarded a Sonos Five Speaker ($549 value), and 3rd place was awarded a Garmin VivoActive 4 ($350 value)
The challenge
IntroductionWe live in an increasingly digitized and interconnected world, and Infineon is at the forefront of this trend. Our CAPSENSE™ technology has allowed for the replacement of over six billion mechanical buttons with more efficient and reliable capacitive sensors, not only saving a device’s energy but also providing more data feedback on use.
CAPSENSE™ based products are found everywhere, including smartphones, wearables, automotive dashboards, home appliances, and printers. Buttons, sliders, trackpads, joysticks....the technology has redefined the way we interact with modern tools and objects, and the future opportunity is still waiting to be unlocked.
Infineon is calling upon developers to explore more creative human-machine interface (HMI) applications and projects that leverage CAPSENSE™ to show how powerful this technology can be. The grand prize winner will be given a $3000 virtual gift card!
TechnologyCompared to a mechanical button-based design, a CAPSENSE™ based user interface:
- Does not involve moving parts and will not wear out over time
- Can be completely sealed to prevent moisture from seeping in
- Does not require force to operate
- Results in reduced BOM cost
- Offers more flexibility in button shape, size, and graphical representation for your overall design
Watch this 1-hour webinar that covers:
- An overview of the CAPSENSE™ solution from Infineon Technologies
- Applications for CAPSENSE™
- A demo showing how to implement CAPSENSE™ technology using ModusToolbox™ development tools on the PSoC™ 62S2 Wi-Fi BT Pioneer Kit.
We believe by reinventing and innovating with human-machine interactions, we can greatly enhance product design strategies and transform user experience - not only improve esthetics but also provide safer functionalities.
For example, in high torque power tools, a smart grip detection feature can utilize inductive or capacitive sensing to ensure proper and safe use of the tool by looking for handle deformation and the amount of grip covered. For tools that have a trigger switch, a non-contact-based position detection feature can be implemented using a capacitive or inductive slider array.
So what would be the next evolution of HMI innovation? Underwater touch? Whole camera touch? Gesture control? Proximity wakeup? We are looking for projects built by passionate individuals who can help us realize that vision.
HardwareThe giveaway window has closed on Nov 23rd, but you can still "bring your own hardware"!
So if you or your friends have PSoC technology lying around, or want to purchase your own parts - you're eligible to compete in the contest as long as your project is based on any of the products in the PSoC 4 Portfolio & PSoC 6 Portfolio.
We awarded free hardware to the best 100 project proposals that demonstrate a solution for changing the future face of HMI. Check out the hardware application tab to see the winning ideas.
The 2 types of developer kits we awarded are below:
1) The PSoC™ 4100S Capsense Pioneer Kit demonstrates a touch array with capacitive sensing technology. Remove the outer plastic cover and you will find a typical Arduino header to interface to any custom sensor designs!
2) The PSoC™ 4700S Inductive Sensing Evaluation Kit is a low-cost hardware platform that enables the design and debugging of the PSoC™ 4700S MCU. This kit has demo buttons and a proximity sensor, and an FPC connector is provided to evaluate various interfaces, such as a rotary encoder.
Watch this live unboxing of the hardware from Alex Glow
Prizes
1st Place
A $3000 virtual gift card
2nd Place
Elevate your listening experience with vividly clear and spacious stereo sound.
3rd Place
Tune in to your body, and tone up with a smartwatch that can track it all and help you reach your health and fitness goals.
Judges
A panel from Infineon product marketing team and application engineers will be judging all submissions.
Vibheesh Bharathan - Product Marketing Manager - CAPSENSE
Vibheesh Bharathan is a dynamic marketeer with strong engineering background in system design and semiconductor fields. Vibheesh Bharathan is a Product Marketing Manager responsible for theTouch sensing technology portfolio of theMCU product line at Infineon Technologies AG. He has over 15 years of experience in technical and business roles and enjoys technology and business development.
Clark Jarvis - Software Product Marketer, Infineon
Building on nearly two decades of product experience for embedded software and development tools, Clark focuses on creating efficient and intuitive design experiences to help embedded engineers ultimately master and speed the development of IoT and industrial applications.
Jaya Bindra - Director of Applications Engineering, Infineon
Jaya Bindra is Director of Applications Engineering, IoT, Compute and Wireless Division, Infineon Technologies. She loves to mentor teams and enable their creativity to build innovative solutions that make life easier, safer and greener. Jaya takes great pride in leading the Applications and Solutions Development group at Infineon in India. She had done her Executive General Management (MBA) from Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore India and her bachelor of Technology in Electronics and Communication from Kurukshetra University, India. She has more than 18 years of experience in thesemiconductor industry. During her school years, Jaya was a national-level gymnast and even today indulges in casual somersaults. She believes in simple and innovative solutions to problems. She is passionate about technology and has authored more than 45 technical write-ups in international magazines related to IoT and embedded systems. Jaya is also a column owner in an online magazine called Embedded-Computing.com.
Corey Wilner - Fellow and Field Application Engineer, Infineon
Corey Wilner is a Fellow Field Application Engineer in the Chicago area. Corey has been with Cypress and now Infineon for nearly 30 years and has seen and worked with every iteration of CAPSENSE™ since its inception in the early 2000s. He has worked with customers on very basic CAPSENSE™ designs, as well as some very challenging applications and has never seen Infineon fail to get a customer to market. He is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a BS in Computer Engineering.
Brendan McAndrews - Systems Application Engineer, Infineon
Brendan is a Systems Applications Engineer with the PSoC team out of Seattle. Brendan has been working on CAPSENSE™ and inductive sensing applications for 5 years and has a passion for creating novel solutions using these technologies. He is a graduate of the Baskin School of Engineering at UC Santa Cruz, with a degree in Electrical Engineering.
Resources
- Tech note: 32-bit PSoC™ 4 Arm® Cortex®-M0/M0+
- Tech note: CAPSENSE™ Controllers
- Design guide: PSoC™ 4 and PSoC™ 6 MCU CAPSENSE™ design guide
- Design guide: Proximity Sensing with CAPSENSE™
- Other Hackster projects based on CAPSENSE™
- Infineon Github
- PSoC creator IDE
- On-demand webinar "At the Core of the PsoC 62" with Clark Jarvis (one of our judges) exploring the new development flows related to Cortex-M0+ access and new features of ModusToolbox 3.0.
About us
Infineon is a world leader in semiconductor solutions that make life easier, safer, and greener. Our solutions for efficient energy management, smart mobility, and secure, seamless communications link the real and the digital world.
Contest Status
Timeline
Contest begins
September 1, 2022 at 12:00PM PT
Applications for hardware close
November 23, 2022 at 5:00PM PT
Hardware recipients announced
November 30, 2022 at 5:00PM PT
Submissions close
February 28, 2023 at 5:00PM PT
Winners announced by
Mar 16, 2023