ASUS Philippines has just concluded the ASUS ZenFone AR Hackathon held at Whitespace Makati. The 3-day hackathon aimed to develop Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) applications that would benefit the lives of Filipinos and address challenges through the power of these technologies.
There were 6 finalists who competed from June 22-24. These were: Team ARBotics and Team ImagineAR from Quezon City, Team Studio 3 from Makati City, Team MB from De La Salle University-Manila, Team Semicolon STI Global City, and Team Dark Fire from Cebu City. Like any hackathons, these teams spent 48 hours within the confines of Whitespace to develop Augmented and Virtual reality applications that were special to the capabilities of the Zenfone AR. To further challenge the app developers, the teams picked 2 different fields of specialization, which they had to provide AR or VR innovation into an application.
Ranging from various problems on IT/Telco and Medical to Lifestyle and Design, each team was judged according to the following criteria: 25% Relevance, 15% Creativity, 30% Usability, 20% Problem Solving, and 10% Popularity Vote from media and fans. Team ARBotics, a group of UP Diliman Students and Haraya VR/Diwata-1 engineers won the top prize by showcasing a virtual reality application that aims to solve IT-Telco and medical issues through their application called “AR/ER”. ARBotics developed the application for on-the-go medical practitioners who would need access to a body scanner, in the event of an unforeseen accident. They were awarded not only the P100,000 cash prize but also a 5-day exclusive immersion in ASUS Taiwan, under the Research and Development AMAX department, slated for October 2017.
“The ASUS ZenFone AR Hackathon is only one way to help Filipinos understand this new kind of technology present today. Fans and enthusiasts can expect more efforts from ASUS Philippines to support AR and VR efforts spearheaded by industry leaders, Google Developer Groups, The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) and as well as the private sector. We believe this effort is only a beginning towards the incredible” says Mr. George Su, Country Manager of ASUS Philippines.
The Zenfone AR is available for pre-order from July 6 to 16! Pre-order now to get the Zenfone AR together with its exclusive bundle of the ZenPower Ultra, exclusive Zenfone AR Clear Case and Tempered Glass, as well as the Zenfone AR VR Cardboard.
