It’s The Last Week To Vote For Your Favorite Prototype

This is the last week to vote for your favorite entry to the Pitch Your Prototype challenge, a collaboration between Make: and Cornell University with the goal of digging up the most promising prototypes from the Maker community.

Visit this page to view all contestants and cast your vote. Here are some late-breaking entries that caught our eye:

• The Ohmbrewer is a modular, computer-controlled brewing system with the goal of offering homebrewers the same controls as commercial breweries. The version entered in the Pitch Your Prototype challenge looks to control the pre-fermentation processes.
• The Hard Candy is an open source chassis for holonomic drive robots. The platform can be controlled by LEGO Mindstorms, a BrickPi or another I2C microcontroller.
• The Ergonomic Posture Standing Chair Yoga Prop is a plank that you lean on while standing for a little bit of support. Models using the chair look almost as though they are planking, but the designer says it provides welcome back relief.
• Mechanek uses active restraints to restrict tethers during an automobile crash. An initial test showed that it reduced head acceleration by 25 percent compared to an existing device. The team plans to commercialize the device.
• The GrowBox is an Internet of Things device that monitors and takes care of plants. “Our target market is people who grow plants at home and people who want to but do not have the time and space to do it,” its inventors wrote.
• NullSpace is a haptic feedback suit for adding realism to virtual reality. Its inventors say it lets users feel in-game objects “with incredible fidelity,” using 30 feedback zones on the body.

Remember, judging is based on the following criteria: 30 percent on applicability to a real world proble, 30 percent commercial viability, 25 percent originality and 15 precent the quality of submission materials and documentation. The winning individual or team will receive $5,000 and will appear onstage at MakerCon New York.

Here are some more photos from the prototypes: