NeverShoot

Contestants: Hiroyuki Ikegami of University of Tokyo, Ryuichiro Ohira of Sony, and Katsuya Oda of Network Applied Communication Laboratory
Affiliations: University of Tokyo, Sony, and Network Applied Communication Laboratory
Semi-Finalist






Summary

How does your Smart Object/Solution use Internet Technology?

To communicate between our web service and our device.

Why did you choose to invent this? What problem does the inventor see that it can solve?

We need long battery life for our camera module. But battery resource is limited. So we choose that the camera module only has capability for sending picture to our web service. this enables saving battery resource. And the service has a rich user interface and tagging function.

What is the practical application of your innovation for the everyday user?

・Room monitering camera (Children, Dogs, Cats etc)
・Seculity camera
・Kitchen monitoring camera (We can take pictures and send it to recipe sharing web service.)
・Fridge inside camera

Did you invent new technology? How is your device unique?

We use a low power microcontroller and wi-fi module to achive long battery life. And generally camera device has many functions for image processing. We move these functions to our web service. This is our uniqueness.

What hurdles did you overcome in creating your device? Were necessary parts easily obtained?

One of technical hurdles is difficulties of embeded developing. We are newbies and used mbed. Our computes are Linux and Mac. So we uses mbed IDE on the web. The IDE does not have debugging function. So we faced many obstacles and overcame by print debugging. So we need easy and simple(like gdb) and cross-platform debugger.

※Highest hurdle is time to create prototype module… We have a daily business. So we made it in 6 weeks on week-end.

Are there plans to produce your entry for the marketplace, or is it already a product that can be purchased/obtained?

We will publish it on cloud funding service in the 2nd half of 2013. Now we are developing new PCB with a image sensor and low power microcontorller. After developing the PCB, we will publish new website at http://ikegam.hongo.wide.ad.jp/nevershoot .

Why would you consider your device/solution to be “innovative”?

Our objective is very simple. We want to get nice wireless camera, long battery life and easy to deploy. We want to make smart life by the camera. This is very easy and common idea as you know. But in the real world, providing these types of device is not easy. But we do. so this is innovative.

What would you like to see in the future for the Internet of Things? Why should more companies utilize IP?

In decades, many people dream smart life. It called ubiquitous. IoT enables the dream of ubiquitous.

Check out actual photos from the judging of the semi-finalists in Helsinki, provided by the NeverShoot camera!