smartARM: A Canadian team has taken the top prize at Microsoft’s 16th annual Imagine Cup world finals.

smartARM, the team behind a robotic hand that uses artificial intelligence to adjust its grip, took home $130,000 in cash along with Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Azure grants, and a mentoring session with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

smartARM

smartARM, is a prosthetic hand that uses artificial intelligence to assess the grip necessary to hold an object. 

The team behind the project are two students from based in Ontario; Hamayal Choudry, a second-year student at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, and Samin Khan, a third year at the University of Toronto.

How Does it Work?

The robotic hand is a prosthetic which has an embedded camera in the palm. It is equipped with Azure’s computer vision, along with machine learning, and has cloud storage capabilities enabling it to “learn”. smartARM recognizes an object and then decides how to grip it. It then stores that data in the cloud to “remember” it for the future.

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Looking forward, smartARM is already considering partnerships with the Canadian government and with hospitals.

After the team’s win, one of its members Hamayal Choudry confirmed this during an event press conference: “We reached out to the ministry of tech, science, and economic development and we had a positive response,”

The Imagine Cup

The Imagine Cup is an annual tech and innovation competition aimed at third-level students. Throughout this year’s competition, artificial intelligence, big data, and mixed reality were major themes. 

Themes that feature can always be considered as a glimpse into the future of tech. Also, the event showcases a new generation of “brains” behind the next wave of technological innovations.

Runner-up projects also implemented machine learning and included a crying-baby decipher which attempts to “understand” the cries of a baby and relay the babies needs to the parents via an app. And also a hearing-aid aid, which could isolate a single voice from a din and identify who’s voice that person belonged to.

The possibilities showcased highlighted very exciting ideas for the future. Microsoft CEO Nadella’s words on the matter were as follows:

The impact that you all can have is just enormous, the opportunity is enormous…I also think there is an amazing sense of responsibility.”

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