SAN FRANCISCO: Intel Corp awarded $500,000 to a group of do-it-yourselves who developed a wristband that turns into a camera-equipped drone. They won a contest that the chipmaker hopes will help guarantee it a leading position in the emerging market for wearable computing devices.
Like a boomerang, it returns to its owner and then syncs with the owner’s smart phone. Falling behind Qualcomm in recent years after it was slow to embrace smart phones and tablets; Intel has been keen to make sure its processors are at the front of future technology trends.
CEO Brian Krzanich in January launched the “Make it Wearable” contest to encourage entrepreneurs and hobbyists to use Intel’s chips to develop new kinds of wearable technology. The prize money is meant to help the winners bring their prototype to market. “This was an experiment to see what we could do in this space,” Krzanich said at an award event on Monday. “The real value in this was the diversity of the teams and ideas.”
