Team ARBotics, comprised of UP Diliman students and Haraya VR/Diwata-1 engineers, won 1st place at the 2-day “ZenFone AR: A New Reality Hackathon”. Their app, “AR/ER”, requires access to a body scanner and may also be used to solve IT-Telco problems. ARBotics bested five other teams to win the P100,000 cash prize plus a 5-day immersion tour at the Research and Development AMAZ department at ASUS Taiwan. This is the first hackathon organized by ASUS Philippines alongside VR Philippines (a community of VR devs and enthusiasts) and key partners in the government and private sector. The aim is to both promote VR and AR and to encourage local talent to push both technologies, currently in their infant state, further. The ASUS ZenFone AR, the world’s first Tango-enabled and Google Daydream-ready smartphone, was also launched on the first day of the hackathon held from June 22 to 24, 2017 at Whitespace Manila, Makati City. The Zenfone AR is now up for pre-order (details below).
The Six Teams
Six teams spent 48 hours at their respective workstations at Whitespace Manila to develop Augmented and Virtual reality applications unique to the capabilities of the Zenfone AR and which aims to solve Philippine problems. The six teams are Team ARBotics from Quezon City, Team Studio 3 from Makati City, Team ImagineAR also from Quezon City, Team MB from De La Salle University in Taft, Team Semicolon STI Global City, and Team Dark Fire from Cebu City.
Criteria for Judging and the Three Finalists
Apps which aimed to address problems on IT/Telco, Medical, Lifestyle, and Design, were judged on the following criteria:
- 25% Relevance
- 15% Creativity
- 30% Usability
- 20% Problem Solving
- 10% Popularity Vote from media and fans
At 3rd place, with a P50,000.00 prize, is Team ImagineAR. This team, from UP Diliman and Los Baños established the ImagineAR mobile games company in Quezon City. For the hackathon, they developed the “EngineAR” application, an augmented reality app on Engineering and Transport that lets users to visualize their design.
At 2nd place, with a P75,000.00 prize, is Team Studio 3. This team of game developers from KLab Cyscorpions, Inc. based in Makati, came up with the “kwARrto” app. The augmented reality app allows users to view rooms and personalize them.
Overall winner is Team ARBotics, comprised of UP Diliman students and Haraya VR/Diwata-1 engineers, and led by former Diwata-1 developer, Juan Paolo Espiritu. Their app, “AR/ER”, requires access to a body scanner and is intended to be used by medical perosnnel. The team won the P100,000 cash prize plus a 5-day immersion tour at the Research and Development AMAZ department at ASUS Taiwan.
Each of the non-winning teams received P10,000.00 as consolation prizes plus an all-access pass to Google events in the Philippines.
The Panel of Judges
The panel of judges include Solon Chen (Head of Membership for GDAP), Carlo Ople (Vice President for Digital Marketing Strategy for PLDT Enterprise and International Carrier Business), Dominukus Susanto (Marketing Lead for the SEA Region of Qualcomm), and USEC. Monchito Ibrahim (Undersecretary for Management and Operations of DICT). George Su (ASUS Philippines Country Manager) served as the Chairman of the Judges during the hackathon.
ASUS Zenfone AR now available for pre-order
You can now pre-order the P45995, 5.7-inch WQLED Super AMOLED display, 8GB RAM, Snapdragon 821 ASUS Zenfone AR – the world’s first Tango enabled and Daydream-ready smartphone – from July 5 to 16, 2017. Pre-order buyers will get the Zenfone AR together with its exclusive bundle of the ZenPower Ultra, exclusive Zenfone AR Clear Case and Tempered Glass, as well as the Zenfone AR VR Cardboard. Check the pre-order mechanics here.
ZenFone AR (ZS571KL) Specs
5.7-inch QHD Super AMOLED 2560 x 1440 resolution (515 ppi), 2.5D curved glass, and Gorilla Glass 4 protection
2.35 GHz 64 Bit Snapdragon 821 Octa-Core Processor | Adreno 530 GPU | 8GB / 6GB RAM
Up to 128GB internal storage | micro SD card slot
Rear Camera: 23 MP f/2.0 Sony IMX318, Laser AF, OIS, dual tone LED flash; depth camera; and motion camera
Front Camera: 8 MP
3300 mAh battery with Quick Charge 3.0
Android 7.0 Nougat w/ ZenUI 3.0
WiFi, 3G, LTE Cat 13 w/ VoLTE, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS, A GPS, dual SIM (hybrid)
Accelerometer, compass, gyroscope, proximity, light, barometer, RGB, IR
Fingerprint sensor, USB Type C, High-res audio certified (24 bit / 192 kHz)
Comes in navy black, glacier silver, rose gold
158.67 x 77.7 x 8.95 mm | Weight: 170 g
Price: P45,990
“The hackathon is only one way to help Filipinos understand this new kind of technology present today. Fans and enthusiasts can expect more efforts from ASUS Philippines to support AR and VR efforts spearheaded by industry leaders, Google Developer Groups, The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) and as well as the private sector. We believe this effort is only a beginning towards the incredible,” said George Su, ASUS PH Country Manager.
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