IC Hack: Imperial students challenged to solve a range of everyday problems

An application that helps dyslexics to read while wearing Google Glasses was one of the ideas developed at a "hack-a-thon", held this month.

This year’s IC Hack event, held at Imperial College Business School, brought together students from across the College to develop applications (apps) for devices such as Google Glass that could help solve everyday problems.

Developers had access to emerging technologies such as Google Glass, Pebble smart watches and Oculus Rift virtual reality headsets.

The “hackathon”, which ran for 24 hours, ended with teams presenting their ideas in front of a panel of judges, which included Professor Eric Yeatman from Imperial, David Slocombe, Vice President of product at Race Yourself and Joe Charlesworth, Partner at Playfair Capital.

Other ideas showcased included a game where the user was guided through solving a Rubik’s Cube using a Google Glass headset and an app which could track a child’s gaze whilst reading and provide assistance when they struggled with specific words.

Winning teams received more than £1500 worth of prizes including devices such as the Tobii Rex, cash and the chance to pitch for investment from the venture capitalists on the judging panel. Prize categories included ‘best concept applicable in an e-learning environment’ and the ‘idea most likely to change the world’.

The event was organised by Imperial’s Department of Computing Society in collaboration withthe Business School.

This Storify feed gives a flavour of what went on at last weekend’s event.