The International BitOlympics Committee announced the winners of the first BitOlympics this week, after a three week competition for makers around the world to meet six design challenges. Football, downhill skiing, table tennis, track and field, and rhythmic gymnastics were the Olympic events targeted for invention, along with a choose-your-own event challenge.
Jason Huang, Bou-Yu Chen, Chin Ia Hung, Orilla Lin, Hal Maa, Jyun Siang Wang, Huang Shu Ting and Travis Lin from Taipei, Taiwan were the overall winners, based on a project called The Exhalation Game in the Choose-Your-Own category. The project assumed that to succeed in the sport of rowing precise movements and very good respiration qualities would be needed. The game that the team designed tests lung capacity along with intensity and stability of the breathing.
A bend sensor, motion trigger and push button were used as inputs to test the user’s breathing. Several Little Bits components were used along with 3d printed pieces, a plastic bin for holding the water and lots of tape. The video is mostly wordless (except for the Taiwanese) but it’s fascinating to watch the engineering and design process play out as the inventors create first the boat, then the finish line and the testing methods. Online documentation shows the build process and at each step discusses the challenges that existed and how the design changed.
Borko Jovanovic and a team from Belgrade, Serbia created the bitSoccer Serbia project, designed to simulate a penalty kick. Built from a lego frame incorporating the LittleBits components, the project controls the goal keeper, the shooter, and two sets of fans in the stands.
Ten year old Jamie Quinlan from Ottawa, Canada created Harold Weightlifter 2.0, a robot that lifts weights using a controller, a motor and LEDs. Maria Renard from Santiago, Chile worked with a third grade class to create ten different projects and earned The Record Breaker Award for Most Uploaded Projects.
The BitOlympics competition was great because it showed what people could do in a very limited amount of time and brought inventors of all ages together to showcase their work. People of all ages from around the world submitted great projects showcased on the results page. Documenting the projects with pictures, step by step guides, and discussions of challenges and resulting design changes is also a great representation of the engineering process.