The NEWCP team from the Da Nang-based Le Quy Don High School for the Gifted won the first prize at the recently-held U-Invent Contest Season 2, themed ‘Better health, better life’, for their ‘Spread Smile’ – a smile detector functioning as an on-off switch.

Two of the NEWCP members holding the Spread Smile product

Accordingly, the NEWCP team consists of 5 members, namely Nguyen Tran Duy Khang, Nguyen Duc Hoang, Huynh Trung Nhat, Nguyen Minh Hieu, and Hoang Nghia, all of whom are Year 11 pupils.
Khang, the leader of NEWC team, and the owner of the idea of the ‘smile switch’, said, he once watched a video of ‘Smile mirror’, a mirror designed for cancer patients that becomes reflective only when the user smiles.

The idea behind the mirror is that smiling, even if faked, can make us genuinely feel better (known as the facial feedback hypothesis), and that laughter can improve immune function, and even ostensibly make us live longer.

The talented pupil affirmed that smile helps to stimulate the release of hormones that increase the feeling of excitement and happiness, thereby easing the feelings of frustration and depression, and enhancing their mental health.

The Spread Smile product consists of 3 main parts: input (computer camera); information processing function with a smile detection programme integrated on the computer, an arduino and wires; and an output with certain devices.

When the computer camera receives a smile, the computer will recognise the smile through a programme written by the group. Here, the computer continues to use the 68 Landmarks algorithm to identify face morphing, face averaging, and face swapping on the user's face. Next, the information is transmitted to an ardunio to control ON/OFF of the device. If the user laughs, it will change the status of the device: ON or OFF, if not, it remains unchanged.

The group also have received suggestions for perfecting their product from Mr. Dang Duc Long, the Head of Biomedical Sciences at the city-based Viet Nam-UK Institute for Research and Executive Education (VNUK). The product should be a chatbot-like robot with the ability to analyse and give pieces of psychological advice, and send the status data of users to psychologists for in-depth analysis for appropriate treatment directions.

The annual ‘Creative Experience Competition with Intel Galileo U-Invent’ is an initiative of the US Texas A & M University, under the framework of the ongoing ‘The US Agency for International Development Connecting the Mekong through Education and Training (USAID COMET)’ project.  This contest has been organised in many countries in the Mekong region.

Hosted by VNUK, this year’s municipal-level event attracted many teams from senior high schools.
Under the completion’s rules, the contestants were required to create the most useful and practical inventions under the theme ‘A Smart City’ using Intel Galileo circuit boards.

Featuring 4 rounds, namely startup, design, implementation and presentation, the contest inspires creativity and spirit to test new ideas for the pupils under the enthusiastic guidance of experts in science, technology and business.