The central region final round of the 2014 Viet Nam TI MCU Design Contest concluded at the Learning Resource Centre of the Da Nang University of Technology (DUT) on 3 October. 

The PIV-VK team from the DUT won the top prize of 800 USD for their Intelligent Mirror work.  The team members are Le Tu Hieu, Phan Ngoc Diep and Nguyen Huu Vinh, and they are final-year students of Class 10DT2 from the Faculty of Electronics and Telecommunications. 

The team’s intelligent sensor mirror features many different parts which are connected via wireless devices, and this mirror starts automatically when a person stands in front of it.  The mirror, with its touch control system, allows users to adjust the light in accordance with their demands. 

PIV-VK Team and their Intelligent Mirror

When standing in front of the mirror, the users’ weight, height, and heartbeat will be displayed on an LCD screen.  In addition, the mirror can play music and broadcast radio by connecting to users’ mobile phones via Bluetooth technology.  Furthermore, users can send text messages from their mobile phones to the mirror’s screen via Bluetooth technology.

The mirror also features a wireless temperature sensor which is run on solar energy.  The purpose is to remind its users to take umbrellas, raincoats or hats before going out when it is going to rain or it is sunny.  Most notably, the multi-function machine doesn’t consume as much power as many people might think.

This year’s TI MCU Design Contest was open to all students from Vietnamese universities and colleges across the country.  Participating teams were required to use TI MSP430 and Tiva C ARM Cortex-M4F as their main processor, and they had to design their own hardware platform or use existing TI EVMs to implement certain functions.

The national final round of the contest will take place at the DUT next month, with 9 outstanding teams from the northern, central and southern regions taking part.