Smart Juggling Balls wins Pitch for Prototypes Competition

It came down to a single point, but Smart Juggling Balls, by Roger Antonsen, squeaked past the Design Fabrication Store to win the 2014 Pitch Your Prototype competition — and the $5000. prize.

Antonsen, who is a senior lecturer at the University of Oslo, dazzled the judges with the way he used microcontrollers, sensors, and open source technologies to demonstrate the mathematics of juggling.

The Design/Fabrication Store, which came in second, is a storefront factory that leverages the efficiencies of digital tools, software, distributed manufacturing, and networked organizations to provide goods like furniture in a new way.

The D/F Store plans to offer a curated collection of objects designed for digital fabrication in a gallery-like retail space, next to a choreographed suite of digital fabrication tools. Store visitors can watch maker-pro, digital artisans producing the goods that are for sale in the store.

Other finalists included Trash Amps, the Hercules Robot, and PancakeBot.