Epson and IEEE Computer Society Announce Winners of Moverio 'Smart Glasses' Application Contest

LONG BEACH, Calif., July 17, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Epson America and the IEEE Computer Society today announced the winners of its Moverio "Smart Glasses" Contest with innovative application ideas that could enhance kids' health while they're playing video games, bring assistance to those with depth perception issues, and allow users to create 3D animation in real space with hand movements.

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The contest challenged full-time college students who meet the contest qualification requirements to come up with an application idea for the Moverio™ BT-100 "smart glasses" either via a short YouTube video or a written essay.

Powered by a handheld Android controller, Moverio smart glasses allows users to view digital content on a virtual 80-inch perceived screen that appears to be floating in the user's real world environment. The unique characteristics of the see-through wearable display glasses provide for an endless array of potential applications.

The winning entries were:

• Grand Prize Winner -- Suneil Nyamathi, Graduate Student, UCLA
  "Truly Immersive ExerGaming," an application idea that combines exercise with gaming to enable kids to be active and have fun at the same time; the 3D game idea would let kids run in place and dodge obstacles through the eyes of an on-screen character;
• Honorable Mention -- Kamal Kajouke, Undergraduate, UCLA
  "Depth Perception," an application that would modify the Moverio BT-100 with a depth-sensing camera and sensors to give people who lack stereoscopic vision the ability to perceive depth by varying degrees of contrast in their field of view;
• Honorable Mention -- Ryan Burgyone, Undergraduate, Arizona State University
  "SpaceCraft," a 3D application idea that would enable users to craft, view and control 3D animations in real space anytime, anywhere for education, entertainment, science and more;
• Honorable Mention – Shane Pase, Graduate Student, Fielding Graduate University
  "Geo-Based Location Air Quality," an augmented reality application that would provide up-to-date air quality data, UV indexes, airborne allergen contents and ocean quality via a colored graphic overlay using the Moverio BT-100.

The Grand Prize winner will be awarded an $8,000 scholarship cash prize while the Honorable Mentions will win scholarship cash prizes of $2,000 each.  A Moverio BT-100 unit was also given to each winner. Entries were judged by the IEEE Computer Society based on creativity, novelty, practicality of implementation, and benefit to humanity.

"We developed this competition to encourage college students to bring their next-generation ideas to the forefront, and test the boundaries of our exciting Moverio technology," said Eric Mizufuka, product manager, New Markets at Epson America. "We received some very creative and compelling ideas and are grateful to all who participated.  We hope they will continue to be inspired by the possibilities of the platform and work on seeing their ideas come to pass."

"The contest received numerous entries from university students around the country," said Brian Kirk, lead editor of IEEE Pervasive magazine. "Having the opportunity to see and judge all of these creative submissions was a highly rewarding experience, and my hope is that many of these students' application ideas find their way into the real world."

For more information about Epson's innovative, transparent smart glasses, please visit www.epson.com/moverio.

Connect with Epson America on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/EpsonAmerica), Twitter (http://twitter.com/EpsonAmerica) and YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/moverio).

About Epson

Epson is a global imaging and innovation leader whose product lineup ranges from inkjet printers and 3LCD projectors to sensors and other microdevices. Dedicated to exceeding the vision of its customers worldwide, Epson delivers customer value based on compact, energy-saving, and high-precision technologies in markets spanning enterprise and the home to commerce and industry.

Led by the Japan-based Seiko Epson Corporation, the Epson Group comprises more than 81,000 employees in 97 companies around the world, and is proud of its ongoing contributions to the global environment and the communities in which it operates. Epson America, Inc. based in Long Beach, Calif. is Epson's regional headquarters for the U.S., Canada, and Latin America. To learn more about Epson, please visit: www.Epson.com.

SOURCE Epson America, Inc.