Following an all night hack, a spirited game of 2 am laser tag, a voting finale in speed-geek format (think speed dating for hackers), and with the support and advice of over 15 developer evangelists from some of the leading API providers, the winners of ProgrammableWeb’s first APIcon hackathon were announced yesterday at APIcon. Winners included two security camera apps, an automated travel expenditure app for the connected car, and a machine language chat support client. Teams were given one main criteria (to use as many of the sponsored APIs as possible) and encouraged to unleash their creativity.
Here’s what they came up with:
1. AllSpark
APIs used: Wit.AI, Twitter, Nexmo, Orchestrate
Elevator pitch: Call a number to carry out voice-activated search or Siri-like functions (for example, send a tweet), when you don’t have a smartphone or an internet connection
Maker details: First time you use the app, you need to authorize your Twitter details. This is saved in an Orchestrate database so that on future use, the app recognizes your phone number and knows you are authorised to tweet.
Prize: Sponsor prizes (Wit.AI and Nexmo)
2. Sharing is Caring (SiC)
APIs used: Orchestrate, Nexmo, Concur
Elevator pitch: Makes the sharing economy more peer to peer
Maker details: Built on node.js (Javascript on the server side).
Prize: Sponsor prizes (Nexmo, Orchestrate)
3. Your places. Visualized.
APIs used: Concur, Getty Images
Elevator pitch: Looks through your Concur expense account and draws up images from the locations you visited
Maker details: Used HTML5 Navigator
4. Twitter Insight
APIs used: Twitter, Google Maps
Elevator pitch: Shows the locations of where a Twitter user has tweeted from
Maker details: Uses Twitter Bootstrap, built on node.js and express.js
5. EventSense
APIs used: Wit.AI, Nexmo, Twitter
Elevator pitch: Realtime event feedback system so organizers can respond to participant feedback based on sentiment analysis of event tweets
Maker details: Sends texts to organizer if sentiment analysis of tweets about event (based on hashtag, twitter account or location) are negative. Event organizers can also text to ask for an overall average sentiment reaction from everyone who has tweeted from the event.
Prize: Sponsor prizes (Twitter and Nexmo)
6. Car Assist
APIs used: Mojio, Nexmo, Wit.AI, Concur, Orchestrate
Elevator pitch: Connected car app that monitors all trips and automatically adds business trips to Concur expense account.
Maker details: Additional features could include reminding you of where you parked, noticing if your car is getting towed, and letting you check diagnostics from a text message (for example, fuel level).
Prize: Second prize (tied), Sponsor prizes (Mojio, Concur)
7. WittyChat
APIs used: Wit.AI, Getty Images, Orchestrate, Twitter
Elevator pitch: Chat application that can triage support service, providing automatic replies or calling a live operator if the support question cannot be resolved via natural language processing.
Maker details: Team met 30 hours ago at the hackathon, all had thought Wit.AI “was such a compelling API, we wanted to do something special with it”. Additional features include allowing customers to tweet their satisfaction rating of the support response. Built with Twitter Bootstrap, website interface used content from Getty Images.
Prize: 3rd prize
8. Timbre
APIs used: Wit.AI, PubNub
Elevator pitch: Productibvity app takes meeting notes and can act on specific discussions or when triggered by key phrases (such as “assign action item” could send copy of meeting notes to specific staff member or “meeting adjourned” could automatically send every meeting attendee a copy of the minutes).
Maker details: Additional features would aim to silence ambient noise. Uses PubNub to create a peer to peer connection and record an audio stream. Wit.AI then transcribes audio into notes and parses for actionable phrases.
9. 3rd Eye
APIs used: Eagle Eye, Nexmo, PubNub, SecureKey, Evernote
Elevator pitch: Security alert system for connected home or office
Maker details: Triggered when camera detects specific movement near a door (for example), sends a text with photo of what the camera sees and stores a complete copy of all photos/instances in Evernote.
Prize: 1st prize, Sponsor prizes (SecureKey, Evernote, Eagle Eye Networks, PubNub)
10. PY-Point
APIs used: Point.io
Elevator pitch: Open source RESTful coding of storage services
11. SupportMe
APIs used: Nexmo
Elevator pitch: Provides workplace, anonymous emotional support network
Maker details: Relays chat via Nexmo to ensure anonymity between sponsor/sponsee.
Prize: Sponsor prizes (Nexmo)
12. Twit Anonymous
APIs used: Twitter, Getty Images, Evernote, Nexmo
Elevator pitch: Twitter meets Secret
13. Cam Alert
APIs used: Eagle Eye, Nexmo
Elevator pitch: Nanny cam activated when specific events are recognized and recording sent to you
Maker details: Uses Eagle Eye’s smart notification capabilities, for example, triggers video recording if more than two people are in the room and sends you a message via Nexmo to let you know maybe your babysitter is having a party, along with a video of what is happening so you can check for yourself.
Prize: 2nd prize
14. Vocaldash
APIs used: Wit.AI, Twitter, Getty Images
Elevator pitch: Voice-activated task manager can post tweets, search for images, and save to Evernote via voice. Uses Wit.AI to understand intent (for example, it knows hello and hi are the same thing).
Maker details: Uses PHP background and runs curls to APIs, with Angular for the front end.
Prize: Sponsor prizes (Getty Images)
Congratulations to all winning team members: Sreejumon Purayil and Adarsh Uppula (3rd Eye), Gabi Zuniga and Ethan Fan (Car Assist), Noah Kaplan, Robert Queenin and Michael Larson (CamAlert) and Billy Chia, Chris Sund and Anurag Parashar (WittyChat).
