Over the weekend of June 10-12, developers, business analysts, project managers and more gathered in Auckland to bring these machines to life at Datacomp 2016. Within 48 hours, teams created digital personal assistants and chat bots that solved real-world business challenges for our customers.
These were new, unique, and personalised experiences using Artificial Intelligence technology - that includes Image/Emotion Recognition, Speech Recognition, and Natural Language Processing.
The winning team dubbed themselves Oceania 17, and worked on a project for Oceania Healthcare. Often, there’s a communication gap between carers in aged care facilities and the families of residents. Oceania 17 created an intelligent personal assistant for aged care to help bring the family and Oceania Healthcare’s carers closer together. The assistant encourages engagement in activities and tracks health and well-being.
Second place went to Enviro Pulse, which worked with the Ministry for the Environment to create an application that was twofold. For the end user, it would allow them to take a picture of a New Zealand plant or animal, and return information on what that wildlife is likely to be. For the Ministry, the application also gives them incredibly useful data on what trails and parks people are regularly using so they can get an accurate picture of where to focus their maintenance work.
Chicken Soup for the Travelling Soul placed third, for creating a voice recognition system for Auckland Airport that would help you plan your journey before leaving for the airport. It would ask questions about travel time and destination, then return important information such as when you need to leave home.
But all teams deserve credit - this year, 142 competitors from across Australia and New Zealand created 10 unique solutions that solved problems and created opportunities. And we had some fantastic customer participation from organisations such as Queensland Council of Social Service and Unitec, as well as the three listed above.