Pigeon Corporation (Headquarters: Tokyo; President: Shigeru Yamashita), a manufacturer of comprehensive childcare products, hosted the Pigeon Student Idea Contest 2019 "Babycathon" on March 20 at Kanda Myojin Hall (Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo). The term "Babycathon" was coined by combining the words "stroller" and "hackathon," and the contest is a competition for university students to compete for ideas on the theme of "IoT-based strollers that make the daily lives of babies, mothers, and their families more comfortable and enjoyable. Five universities in the Tokyo metropolitan area (Ochanomizu University, Shonan Institute of Technology, Chiba Institute of Technology, Tokyo Institute of Technology, and Nihon University) participated in the contest and presented their ideas at the venue after spending about a month developing them.
The guest judges were Miki Fujimoto, a celebrity and mother of two, and Koji Koizumi, representative of IoTNEWS, who listened intently to the students' presentations from their respective perspectives as a mother and an IoT expert.
After scoring and judging the entries based on IoT innovation, creativity, and contribution to mothers and babies, the Tokyo Institute of Technology won the Grand Prize. The idea for a "baby stroller sharing service" was proposed, which allows users to rent and return a car model of their choice at a location of their choice. The idea was also based on the data obtained by measuring the baby's comfort and ease of use from a sensor mounted on the stroller, and the result was an idea for an "osanpōku map" that would make people feel at ease even when visiting a new place for the first time. In addition to the originality of the idea, the students' presentation, which included interactions and demonstrations, was also highly evaluated by the judges.
The President's Award went to Ochanomizu University, which devised a function that recommends a walking course by recognizing objects of interest and comfortable stroller sways from the baby's facial expressions and eye contact, and collecting data.
At the award ceremony, the award winners said, "All of the ideas were ones that I would never have thought of even if I were raising a child. I hope you will hold the 2nd award again," said Ms. Fujimoto.
It was wonderful that all the universities were not biased toward cutting-edge technology, but rather were close to the mothers' and babies' perspectives," commented Koizumi. They expressed their hopes for the next event and gave encouragement to the young engineers who will be responsible for the future.
