A team of 11 boys and girls from Bulgaria won the international competition of the space agency NASA Space Apps Challenge for 2015 in the category "Best Hardware Application" with their "smart glove".
The project "Valkyrie", as the smart glove is called, is an accessory with numerous applications. Connected to a computer or smartphone, the glove allows users to control home appliances remotely, play computer games, monitor various body indicators such as pulse, steps taken, and... control a spacecraft. All this is made possible by a special application that processes data received through glove movements or voice commands.
Competition
The competition is extremely difficult, as it gives participants only 48 hours to prepare their project, which competes with over 1000 others from around the world.
The ultimate goal is to create applications and machines that can improve people's daily lives, both on Earth and in Space.
For the two days, Bulgarian students created a working prototype of the "smart glove" from leather and elastic material and multiple sensors that recognize 16 different movements.
According to the Bulgarian inventors, the device is capable of learning at least 60 more. Additionally, it can operate for around 70 hours at full speed.
The creation of the smart glove cost the Bulgarian participants around 800 BGN, and an additional amount was required for producing a promotional video for the project.
The successful Bulgarian team is primarily composed of students from TU – Sofia ( Martin Kuandzhiev, Theodora Malashevska, Krisi Ilieva, Borislav Filipov, Petar Lazarov, Violeta Kuneva, Georgi Velev, Evgeni Sabev ), but also includes a Bulgarian student at the University of Sheffield – Moroslav Dobrev, a pupil from the Natural Sciences and Mathematics High School in Burgas – Konstantin Zhlebinov, and Filip Yankov – an "Artificial Intelligence" specialist at SU.
First place in the competition gives the boys and girls from Bulgaria the opportunity to attend the launch of a spacecraft in September.
Smart glove
"We created something that is closer to people. That is, we developed a 'smart' glove that can be used not only by astronauts but by anyone. For example, a businessman who returns home and wants everything to happen smoothly, to be able to rest well, by controlling his entire home with the help of the glove and a mobile application," explains Martin Kuandzhiev, a student at the Technical University of Sofia.
According to him, the device could prove most useful for astronauts, who will be able to control spacecraft or a robotic arm to perform various operations in outer space through it. This is done with the help of a mobile application that recognizes hand movements or voice commands. However, at the moment, it only understands English.
"According to our data, 15% of our graduates are absorbed by large European and American companies. Many of them work for Facebook, Microsoft. Those who remain in Bulgaria are attracted by the R&D centers here, again by large companies," Prof. Ognyan Nakov, Dean of the Faculty of Computer Systems and Control at TU, told Radio Bulgaria.
According to him, training software developers is a key factor in attracting IT investors to the country.
According to Prof. Ognyan Nakov, the best thing about the victory of Bulgarian students is that software specialists in our country are heard again. However, the problem is the fact that most of them will probably be invited by industry leaders from other countries and will probably leave Bulgaria.
