Junichi Katsu (aka JKSoft in mbed community) and his team designed a unique gadget at TBS TV HACK DAY in Japan. And it got the highest prize with cash 1,000,000 JPY.

What is this?

TBS is one of the big TV stations in Japan, and "TBS TV Hack Day" is a hackathon hosted by TBS TV, focusing on TV related project. API is provided by sponsors i.e. NTT docomo, Philips, etc. The event was held early March. Mr. Junichi Katsu (aka JKSoft in mbed community), one of the Japanese mbed super developers, and his team designed a unique gadget named “Interactive TV - Tere-Boo” controlled by mbed. And it got the highest prize with cash 1,000,000 JPY!!

• Event website: http://www.tbs.co.jp/tv_hack_day/ (written in Japanese)
• Media article: http://itpro.nikkeibp.co.jp/article/NEWS/20140310/542315/?ST=system&P=1

Demo movie

System overview

The Tere-Boo is a name of small soft toy and it is interactive TV control system. User can chosee TV channel by talk to Tere-Boo which has microphone, speaker, microcontroller (mbed LPC1768) and IR remote controller. Speaking audio data (digital voice) will be went out to cloud server using communication API and channel information API provided by Docomo (one of API sponsor). Then, Tere-Boo calls back appropriate TV channel and change to the channel at a time. It can be placed at the frame of TV screen and performs simple moving such as bowing by servo motors inside of it.

Congratulations!