Finding the time, money, and energy to complete a project can be difficult. Even when you come up with a superb idea, sometimes you just can’t follow through. Our design contests have inspired some designers to push ahead regardless of the difficulty. It’s probably a combination of the prize money at stake, the challenge, and finding the right part for the project. Whatever the reason, we’re happy that our contests can elicit the fantastic projects that come from those superb ideas. A few such projects from the Philips ARM Design Contest 2005 and the Renesas M16C Design Contest 2005 are in this month’s issue.

Everyday nuisances are often the inspiration for contest projects. Some mundane hassle or annoyance with the mediocre performance of a product can lead to great things. A contest can be the spark a designer needs to start experimenting with innovative solutions to upgrade or replace whatever widget is bothering them. Bernard Debbasch didn’t have to look any further than his answering machine for a device that could use improvement (p. 40). Bernard was disappointed with the machine’s poor recorded voice quality, limited storage, and clunky user interface. When the Philips ARM Design Contest 2005 was announced, he decided to see what he could do with an ARM device. Bernard won First Prize for his project TAM-TAM, which is designed around an LPC2138 microcontroller. Bernard achieved his goals of using a better algorithm for clearer voice quality, increasing storage capacity, and improving the user interface. Best of all, TAM-TAM is web-enabled, so he can check messages over the Internet. 

Carlos Cossio was interested in figuring out a way to preserve his cellular phone’s phone book data in the event that he ever loses or breaks his phone (p. 12). After taking all the time to input important data, he didn’t want to risk losing it. Then he heard about the Renesas M16C Design Contest 2005. Carlos used the M16C/62P demonstration board to build a backup system for the phone book. Carlos’s Mobile Phone Book acquires the phone book data, which is stored on his phone’s GSM SIM smart card. Then, Carlos can display the data on the demonstration board’s LCD and save it in the on-board microcontroller’s flash memory. He also has the option to send the data to a PC or another SIM card for backup storage. Carlos’s well-made project won Honorable Mention in the Renesas M16C contest.

Jens Altenburg wanted to couple a small robot platform and image processing (p. 28). Like Carlos, Jens saw the Renesas M16C contest as the perfect opportunity to move on from the concept stage to the building stage. Using an M16C/62P demonstration board and an OmniVision CMOS image sensor, Jens created algorithms to handle object tracking and image data compression.

Perhaps reading about these contest projects will help you generate your next great idea. If you need any extra incentive, remember the deadline for the Atmel AVR Design Contest 2006 is July 19!

jennifer.huber@circuitcellar.com