January 31, 2014

Qeo Connected Home Challenge

With Qeo, Technicolor positions itself as a pioneer in inter-object communication.

 

With Qeo, Technicolor positions itself as a pioneer in inter-object communication. Acting as a universal language, this software platform is revolutionizing the connected home. Qeo enables full interoperability between ecosystems, applications and devices of all brands.

For the first time, between November 8th, 2013 and January 20th, 2014 Technicolor has opened its Qeo technology to independent developers by launching the Qeo Connected Home Challenge.

The objective of the challenge was to facilitate the development of applications or services for connected homes. The Qeo Connected Home Challenge took place simultaneously in Silicon Valley, Paris and Berlin. Contributors worldwide were welcome: developers, designers, company teams, startup friends, students, electronic engineers.

 

The Challenge was divided into three stages:

  • Between November 8th and November 16th, three hacking nights took place in Silicon Valley, Paris and Berlin. Over 340 participants worldwide pitched their ideas and build their teams.
     
  • On December 11th, 2013 during the “Fly Me to Vegas“ events held simultaneously in Paris, Berlin and Palo Alto, amongst the 30 original and innovative projects presented, 4 were selected by panels of experts (one in each city) and won their passport to Las Vegas to be demonstrated on Technicolor’s booth at CES:

Baby Synchro (France):  Synchronizes the parents' timing for toddlers’ pickup at the daycare centers. It also helps daycare centers to anticipate in real time any delay in parents’ arrival time. For more information: Xavier Lami.

Aura – Feel at Home or Your Personal Emotions Assistant (Germany): this service enables you to set up your environment (lights and music) according to your mood when you get home. By taking into account your calendar (the schedule you had during the day), the current weather (most of the people are less energetic in winter), the time of the day and your music habits, this app is able to play the music you need, when you need it. For more information, visit Aura.

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BeMyParty (Germany)
The social mood lighting and music app: this application that can be inserted into a variety of devices including smartphones and TV sets, enables people who are at a party to control the lights and the music simply by the way they move, dance and if they like or dislike the music.

 

QeoBlaster (USA)
How many of you have spent hours looking for your remote control? Thanks to QeoBlaster, search no more…by a simple body movement (generally the hand) it enables you to control your TV: you can pause or stop a video or a program for example. This application can also control other connected devices, regardless of the wireless technology you are using (zigbee, zwave…). For more information: Christopher Gammage.

 

  • On January 20th 2014, during the Grand Finale events that were held simultaneously in Paris, Berlin and Palo Alto, 3 panels of experts were able to choose the 3 best projects that received the 15 000 $ cash prize.
    Overall, 17 projects were presented: seven from Paris, four from Berlin and six from Palo Alto. The majority of the teams made a remarkable effort to push themselves and their projects to the next level following their initial presentations on December 11th.

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And after a long and intense deliberation in each country and at the international level, the winners of the Qeo Challenge are the following:

BeMyParty (Germany) and QeoBlaster (USA) that had won their passport to Vegas and a new team for France: KeoPlug, an environment-aware plug featuring multiple sensors that can learn user's habits, such as presence detection, room temperature, lighting... This all-in-one standalone product (no home automation box is required) is a simple, adaptable and future proof, low-cost home automation solution providing increased comfort, security and power savings.

 

Other noteworthy projects include:

From the USA

Event Social
The next generation social feed created for big and small parties. It captures essential party moments and makes them available to everyone at the party. People can even obtain portraits and group photos. The photos are captured by cameras (part of the app) positioned in various locations around the room. Attendees no longer need to use their phones to share pictures.

Qeo Sera Sera - Making Sense of Occupancy
Based on a range of cheap generic sensors capable of detecting presence, and signaling interested devices when an inhabitant enters or exits a room, this application measures the real-time occupancy of a building/house. This app opens up a wide new variety of opportunities for energy savings when spaces are not occupied: automatic switching on/off of lights and electronics, power conservation, zonal heating, smart displays following the user around the home, etc.

 

From Germany

Braci
A wireless, smartphone-based solution to alert deaf or hearing-impaired people in case of emergency or need (fire alarm, thief alerts, baby crying, doorbell, alarm clock…)

Ctrl Your Home
A user-friendly interface to manage your entire home: you can remotely control all your devices and see your activity feed (all that you did or that happened at home).

 

From France

AninAll
An ecosystem including a weight monitoring system, a GPS and a calculated food dispenser application all connected to a hub that enables pet owners, as well as veterinarians, to monitor the pet’s localization, wellness and health.

Capsule Just in Time
An application that includes a connected scale and that calculates in real-time, and according to your daily consumption, the date of the next order of Nespresso coffee doses. The app can also place the order for you.  

 

Congratulations to the winners and a big thank you to all the participants!