Take a look back at 2017 AT&T Developer Summit and meet the winners of the VR/AR Challenge and Entertainment Project.
VR/AR CHALLENGE FINALIST WAYPOINT RX TAKE THE GUESS WORK OUT OF FILLING PRESCRIPTIONS
Q: How did you come up with the idea for your project?
A: We held an ideation session where we discussed various problems that could only be improved through the application of augmented reality (AR). Although we identified several potentially valuable applications, we were most interested in applications that created a strong positive impact on individual lives. Umar’s wife is a surgeon and had often complained about problems related to obtaining medications during emergency situations. Other team members had also dealt with pharmacy errors in various situations. Realizing that this was a potentially underserved but important problem that was uniquely suited for AR, we decided to work on addressing it.
Q: Tell us a little bit about your team and how you worked together to create your entry:
A: We first met in October 2016 during the Reality, Virtually Hackathon (the biggest AR/VR hackathon in the world); realizing that each of us had very complementary skills, we decided to form a team. Over the course of the ensuing 50 hours, we worked almost telepathically to learn completely new programming languages, UX paradigms, game engines, and even design skills in order to create a groundbreaking (and functional) AR application designed to help pharmacies fill prescriptions accurately and quickly. Ultimately our prototype won two prizes at the hackathon, including the grand prize for AR. After realizing how amazing it was to work with each other—particularly in a high-stress, high-pressure environment where we were all learning something completely new—we knew we needed to form a startup together.
Q: What does the AT&T Developer Program and contests like this mean to you?
A: Developing AR applications is a unique task that requires a lot of feedback from user testing. Obtaining this feedback is often very difficult. However, getting a chance to demo our prototype to a large group of people provides an incredible opportunity for us to test our work and gain feedback in a short amount of time. In addition, as a young company it is always helpful to get support from larger companies such as AT&T, as well as get the chance to earn award money to fund further experimentation and development of our prototype.
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ENTERTAINMENT PROJECT FINALIST DISPATCH TURNS A LIGHT ON THE UNSUNG HEROES OF EMERGENCY COMMUNICATION
Q: Describe your project and what you aim to achieve with it
A: I really wanted to bring awareness to the emergency communications/dispatch community. They truly are unsung heroes, they do so much and go through so much for us every day and they just keep going. I wasn’t aware, myself, how much they do for us until I started researching for this film. I was blown away by the traumatic and incredibly hard circumstances emergency dispatchers face on a regular basis.
Q: How did you come up with the idea for your short film?
A: I read an article about a 911 call where a victim of abuse was trying to call for help by “ordering a pizza.” It was an incredible story, so I started digging deeper into what dispatchers face. After listening to and reading interviews with real dispatchers I knew their story needed to be told. They deserve so much honor and respect for what they do for us.
Q: Tell us a little bit about your team and how you worked together to create your entry.
A: From the crew to the cast, our team was phenomenal. I couldn’t have asked for a better team. It went so smoothly. Most of us had worked together on other local projects before so we all were pretty close and clicked really well. The set just felt like family. We had a great time together.
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