Jamming with Ubuntu Core

We celebrated the launch of Ubuntu Core 16 hackathon, or shall we say Snapathon, that took place in Shenzhen between 26-27th November. The 30+ hour gathering and coding session was attended by developers, makers and anyone that was interested in the Internet of Things and the technology that powers them. Attendees were from different backgrounds, industries and places, but demonstrated the same passion and interest to learn about Ubuntu Core and be part of the evolution of the Internet of Things.  

From smart homes to drones, robots and industrial systems, Ubuntu Core provides robust security, app stores and reliable updates. Ubuntu makes development easy…and snap packages make Ubuntu Core secure and reliable for widely distributed devices. This hackathon demonstrated how easy it is to package a snap and work with Ubuntu Core.

We kicked-off with a tech talk on Ubuntu core and then the hacking session took-place…

• 10 teams on site
• 29 hours of non-stop coding
• 6 different types of hardwares / dev boards and sensors (RaspberryPi 3, QualComm Dragon boards, LeMaker HiKey 96boards, Intel NUCs, Dell Gateway, and Pine A64 boards )
• And 7 snaps were born!

1、snap: water-iot-service: by Jarvis Chung and Lucas Lu

This project is an application that can help  monitor and test water quality and status under different environments, especially when it is difficult or dangerous for direct human access. It utilizes RaspberryPi 3 and a few sensors to gather information data, which will be remotely sent to Qnap’s NAS systems for data analysis. Result can be accessed through a web interface.

The team who worked on this project were from QNAP System. More information on QNAP and their solutions can be found here.

2、Project Cooltools, snap: sensor-gw: by Hao jianlin

This project used TI sensor tag to collect the location’s light condition, and accordingly the snap application can auto adjusts smart bulb’s lighting to achieve an optimized lighting ambience. The project is powered by Ubuntu Core and running on a QualComm dragonboard. A useful addition to your smart home solution!

The team behind this project is from Shenzhen CoolTools, a startup company focusing on developing smart IoT solutions and applications.

3、snap: crazy-app by Crazyou

Crazy-app was developed by Crazyou, a startup robotics company based in Shenzhen. Their crazy-app snap application provides remote monitoring, remote control and admin ability for their robots….as well as remote access to their robot’s webcam to capture surrounding images! More information about Crazyou and their robots can be find here. 

4、snap: Simcaffe by Lao Liang

Running on QualComm DragonBoard 410c, the project is powered by Ubuntu core and comes with an AI developed by using Caffe deep learning framework which can be trained to recognize different images. The project was designed to be utilized in smart surveillance systems. The project code is available on Github.

5、snap: Sutop by team PCBA

Sutop is a simple yet handy system admin tool which can monitor and manage your device system remotely.

6、My wardrobe by Li Jiancheng

Powered by ubuntu core, and running on Rasberry Pi –  it’s a simple snap that can store all your clothes images and help to organize all of them to provide matching options when you need some help with getting stylish.

7、Project Cellboot by Shen Jianfeng

It is a cluster snap that can utilize all connected ubuntu core devices to performance cluster data computing and analysis tasks.

Besides the above projects there were a couple more developed during the hackathon, however with time limitation, they didn’t come to life for  demo stage – though at some point we’re looking forward to seeing them soon in the store!

It was indeed a long night in Shenzhen but the amount of ideas and innovation that came out of it was amazing. Until next time…. !