Three annoying travel problems were top of mind for developers at Tnooz THack @ Bengaluru last weekend: airport security queues, finding inspiration for your next journey and patchy wifi connectivity.
Clever application of mobile technology solved two of the headaches, and an intriguing social media app addressed the travel inspiration issue.
Best in show was Team Hype, who actually is a sole Bangalore developer by the name of Winster Jose. He took home best project honors by a small team from the THack judges and was the People's Choice prize-winner in a vote by 14 teams.
Hosted at the Bangalore offices of RoomsTonite, the event drew an overwhelming number of first-time travel hackers. And a show of hands indicated half the developers never before had competed in a hackathon.
Team Hype's use case for the mobile browser application was a traveler entering the airport and finding a long queue at the security line. The solution: an Android browser app that uses beacons, Google's cloud messaging tool and a retrieve-trip API by Amadeus to help the traveler measure time in queue and pass the time shopping offers from airport merchants delivered to the app.
The app monitors the user's place in line, estimates time to clear security and delivers store offers for outlets on the other side of security.
The judges also highly commended another solo mobile developer from a team called Builder who presented a clever workaround to poor wifi service. The use case was smartphones that could not connect to the web.
To use map services by converting the rich mapping information into binary data delivered by SMS, the app renders routes, points of interest and other location-based data to offline maps on the user's smartphone.
Builder's app highlights traveler demand for connectivity to the most basic functions like mapping in places served by less robust network access.
The internet of travel things appeared in the hacker space in the form of self-propelled, robotic wheeled luggage. Awarded best project by a large team, an Amadeus crew called Mobag built a smart suitcase over the weekend that had developers and judges scrambling for a better view and snapping photos with their mobiles.
Mobag arrived as an 18-inch Star Wars-like droid with four wheels and black cardboard housing including luggage stickers. The operator controlled Mobag by voice command through a smartphone and the wheelie-with-brains followed another team member who walked through an imaginary airport terminal.
The social media winner for the day (as voted by IBM and Amadeus) was a three-person team called Refugees. They built a WhatsApp hack that used the IBM Watson personality profile technology to match travelers' interests to those of celebrity travelers.
The use case was famous people's tweets and other data gleaned from public media about their specific travel experience. The API judges were impressed by this approach to personalization in travel.
Here are the results of Tnooz's ninth and final THack of 2016 - THack @ Bengalaru:
- Tnooz best project by small team ($1,500) - Team Hype, for Android mobile web application to manage time spent in airport queues.
- Tnooz best project by large team ($1,500) - Mobag, a robot wheeled suitcases controlled by voice command through a smartphone.
- People's Choice in vote by developers ($1,000) - Team Hype
- Amadeus best use of API ($1,000) - Refugees, a social media bot embedded in a WhatsApp chat room that surfed celebrity journeys to inspire travel decisions through social media.
- IBM Bluemix best use of Watson software (hosting and mentoring) - Refugees.
- RoomsTonite best use of API (tie, INR5,000 hotel credit for each) - Reverse Gear, for trip-interruption planning, and Thought For Sail, for recommendation engine for travelers without a set journey plan and looking for personalized ideas and offers.