International Fontys IT students come up with a solution for a typical Dutch problem
Smart navigation system: handles, vibrations and a mobile application
BiZi is a smart navigation system. It is a product that consists of two parts: handles and a mobile application. The application serves to establish a connection with the handles, to determine the destination and to start the journey. The handles receive the route instructions and convert them into vibrations. If you have to turn left, the left handle will vibrate, and the same goes for the right handle.
“It all started with the problem. We found that the existing navigation systems are not handy while cycling. Our solution does not have a screen or sound to follow the directions, but uses vibration instead so the user can fully focus on the road and reaching the destination", according to BiZi.
Interesting, inexpensive solution for the bicycle industry
The product is unique in its concept. It is an interesting and new solution for the bicycle industry. BiZi handles are cheap: for only 30 euros the user has a safe solution with a lot of functionalities. That makes BIZI affordable, even for students. Moreover, the Netherlands is working on a legislation to prohibit the use of a phone while riding a bicycle. It may therefore become impossible to use the common navigation systems on telephones. That's where BiZi comes in. They have the ambition to develop a start-up using the prize money and to further develop the product with a good PR campaign.
Exposure Award and Audience Award
Besides the ICTalent Award, there where two more prizes to be won. "Ability" won the Exposure Award powered by Greenhouse. They managed to create the most online exposure for their product within a limited time. The product is a voice assistant which enables the user to perform all standard functionalities of a banking app via speech. With their own online campaign they even got an article in the Eindhovens Dagblad with a self-written press release.
The audience favorite was "Sparky." They received the most votes from the audience and won the Audience Award. Sparky teaches children between three and six years to better control their breathing, through various exercises / mini-games. Children learn how to do their breathing training in a playful way.
ICTalent Awards: Enriching Society
FHICT is at the center of society. The main theme ICTalent Awards 2019 was therefore: Enriching Society. Even more than now, it is connecting to society.
“Unfortunately for many people this is not (yet) the association when they think of “ICT”. People often think that IT people just code and sit behind their laptop all day. ICTalent shows that FHICT provides IT professionals with broad training, devising and developing concepts with a social impact. After all, IT affects all processes that people in daily life (and the professional field) have to deal with. BiZi, Sparky and Ability are good examples of this." - according to project leader Maartje van Hees. She looks back with considerable satisfaction on the 7th edition of this competitive showcase from Fontys ICT.
Aftermovie ICTalent Awards 2019
Video: How to get to the Finals
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