Texas Instruments (TI) India hosted the “DIY with TI” event designed to encourage its engineers to build innovative solutions for real-life problems, using technology and TI devices. The theme this year was ‘Technology for Good’ – and DIYers were tasked with developing projects that showcase how technology can solve real-world problems.
The event saw several innovative solutions – such as smart water meter, speech recognition on low cost MCU, doorbell for hearing impaired people, self-balancing spoon or protection against tremors, Congestion Adaptive Traffic Signaling, automatic distribution system, respiration monitoring system for infants, visible virtual 3D assistant, bicycle radar, paperless braille device and many more.
The first prize went to the team that devised a smart spoon for people suffering from hand tremors or limited hand mobility. This self-balancing spoon is able to stabilize irrespective of the person’s hand mobility. It is aimed at people suffering with tremors or limited hand mobility. The team had this to say, “Around 7 to 10 million people worldwide suffer from some form of limited hand mobility or tremors.
The scale of the problem is huge. This can deeply affect the quality of life – simple tasks like eating become insurmountable. We wanted to create a simple solution that gives people suffering from hand tremors a better quality of life – where they can sit together with their families, enjoy a meal and at the same time, feel independent and empowered”. Using 3-axis accelerometer and TI’s C2000 Piccolo microcontroller for real-time processing they created a self-balancing spoon.
This product can be extremely helpful for people with multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease and other nervous system disorders. First runner up went to the team who made paperless braille device for blind people.
‘DIY with TI’ is an event that aims to nurture a culture of innovation in TI by providing a platform to TIers that helps them explore alternate and newer ways to solve a problem by doing what they love.
For more information, visit: www.ti.com
