Walabot - Power to the Makers

The challenge

Imagine seeing through solid objects

Radio Frequency technology has been around for a long time. From enabling us to listen to the radio to giving us wireless communication, RF is rapidly evolving in new surprising and exciting ways!

Meet Walabot, a programmable 3D imaging sensor that sees through objects using radio frequency technology that breaks through known barriers, bringing highly sophisticated sensing capabilities to your fingertips!

Walabot senses the environment by transmitting, receiving and recording signals from multiple antennas. The broadband recordings from multiple transmit-receive antenna pairs are analyzed to reconstruct a three dimensional image of the environment.

This opens the possibility to develop apps for Walabot in many fields including 3D imaging through solid objects, target tracking, breath detection and many more.

Interested? We're giving away 50 Walabot units on a rolling basis to the best ideas now through Jan 1, 2017!

If you simply can't wait, click here and get your Walabot for 50% off!!!

In this contest, we want to see how innovative you can be in creating a whole new app for Walabot !

To get you started, we're giving away 50 Walabot units on a rolling basis to the best ideas now through Jan 1, 2017!

So pitch us your ideas! Maybe you want to build an app that creates visual art using gestures, or an app that monitors you heart rate and according to that chooses just the right song to play for you! Whatever you come up with, we want to hear about your amazing idea!

Features

• Three-dimensional radio-frequency based sensor

• Uses an array of linearly polarized broadband antennas

• Frequency range: 3.3-10.3 GHz (US/FCC model) or 6.3-8.3 GHz (EU/CE model)

• Based on VYYR2401 A3 System-on-Chip for signal production and recording

• Cypress FX3 controller for USB communication and data pre-processing

• Micro-USB 2.0 for high-rate data communication. Option to provide supply from USB.

• Single supply voltage 4.5-5.5v input for non-USB power applications.

Check out the full specs here.

SDK

We built Walabot SDK for Linux, Windows and RaspberryPi. The SDK provides shared libraries with a defined API. Development of an application for Walabot can be done either for Windows/Linux or for Android. Programming languages can be:

• C#

• VB

• C++

• python

• Matlab

Step 1: Register for the contest

• Start by creating a free account on Hackster.io (or sign-in if already a member)

• Register for this contest by clicking "Register as a participant"

• Get inspired by playing with open source apps

Step 2: Apply to win one of 50 Walabot units by pitching an idea*

• Submit your project idea by Jan 1, 2017 at 11:55 PM PT

• Click "Apply to receive Walabot" and fill in the template. Tell us what you want to create using the Walabot

• We will select the top 50 winners based the originality, quality, and creativity of your idea

Step 3: Enter to win the grand prizes by building and submitting your project

• Go to our getting started page and download the SDK compatible to your OS.

• Watch our tutorials in order to setup your Walabot

• Build your app for walabot. Don't hesitate to use and learn from our open source projects

• Describe your project. Include plenty of details: what are you creating? What does it do? Why does it matter?

• Create a short YouTube video demonstrating the application, see example

• Add your project by clicking on "Add my project"

• Submit your project by May 14, 2017 at 11:55 PM PT

Project submissions should include:

• Source code

• Clear project documentation

• Story and high-quality images

• A link to your YouTube video

Winners will be selected based on the following criteria:

• Creativity (50 points)

• Story/Instruction – Show how you created your project, including images, screenshots, and a video (20 Points)

• Project Documentation (20 Points)

• Code – Include working code with helpful comments (10 Points)

* By submitting, you are agreeing to abide by our contest rules.

Start here

Visit our quick start guide page. It has both the SDK's for you to download and also a link to our tutorials on youTube. Make sure you have your walabot set right before you start programming.

Play with our apps

Here are some cool apps that our engineers built in order to get you started developing Walabots apps, you can use them for getting started with our sensor and build your own magical experience.

• Hello Walabot - Prints the cartesian coordinates of every found target

• Raw image - Display of the image given by a Walabot

• Targets sensor- Display targets given by a Walabot over it's arena

• Robotic control - Control a Pololu Dual Motor Driver Kit through gestures

• Air piano - Game application that acts as an air piano

• People counter - Detects people entering/exiting rooms

• Personal trainer - Counts your push ups

• Big brother- A human head follows you as you move around the room

Think of new ideas

To get you started, we came up with some cool ideas featuring Walabot's various capabilities. you are free to use any of these ideas as you see fit:

Gesture:

• Paint - create art using gestures

• Treasure hunt - find hidden object: coins in sand, keys in sofa..

• Wind chimes - use Walabot to play relaxing sounds according to the wind

• Breathing monitor - monitor your breathing and determine heart rate

Tracking:

• Falling detection - detect when people have fallen and send an alert

• Robot tag - attach a Walabot to a robot and play tag with it

• Smart home - trigger smart home electronics

• Camping alert - detect if a bear or other animal is approaching

• Perimeter alert system - define a perimeter and use Walabot to detect whether it has been breached.

• Distance measurement - use Walabot to determine the distance of objects from you

• Speed measurement - measure speed of moving objects

• Tailored clothes - determine your measurements

See through:

• Security aid - identify concealed objects in bags, pockets...

Try Walabot out at these Maker Spaces around the world

• California - Noisbridge Hackerspace 2261 Market Street #235-A, San Francisco, CA 94114

• California - TechShop Mid-Peninsula 2415 Bay Rd Redwood City, CA 94063

• Arizona - TechShop Chandler AZ 249 E Chicago St Chandler, AZ 85225

• Washington – Metrix Create:Space 623 Broadway E, Seattle, WA 98102

• Virginia - TechShop DC Arlington 2100 Crystal Dr Arlington, VA 22202

• Texas - ATX Hackerspace 9701 Dessau Rd #304, Austin TX 78704

• Massachusetts - Artisan's Asylum 10 Tyler Street, Somerville, MA 02143

• Wisconsin - Milwaukee Makerspace 2555 South Lenox, Milwaukee, WI 53207

• Michigan - TechShop Detroit 800 Republic Drive, Allen Park, MI 48101

• Ohio - Colombus Idea Foundry 421 W State St, Columbus, Ohio 43215

• Germany - Fab Lab Berlin Prenzlauer Allee 242, 10405 Berlin Germany

Technical Resources

• Getting Started

• Example Apps

• API

• Full technical specs

Prizes

Best of United States

1 winner

Apple MacBook NEWEST VERSION

-

$1,600 value

Best of Europe

1 winner

Apple MacBook NEWEST VERSION

-

$1,600 value

Best of China

1 winner

Apple MacBook NEWEST VERSION

-

$1,600 value

Honorable Mention

1 winner

Gift card

-

$100 value

Honorable Mention

1 winner

Gift card

-

$100 value