BAWA Cane at Infineon LG Make Hackathon

Infineon and LG have teamed up to organise the </> Make Hackathon! Powered by corporate accelerator Plug and Play Mobility, a chance to develop game-changing proof-of-concept. Not to mention, the opportunity to roll with the big guns in the IoT sector. All-in-all, it has been a wonderful learning experience.

First and foremost, a little background information on Infineon LG Make Hackathon: This hackathon is to promote Infineon’s products and to spread the LG WebOS experience. With this in mind, our team agreed to experience at least some Infineon and LG WebOS features. In fact, the time could not be better to implement hardware-level security on top of software-level security measures into next-generation BAWA Cane amidst heading towards mass production.

Secondly, the organisers provided coaching and training throughout our prototyping phase. For instance, and not limited to, giving feedback on our presentation contents. As a result, we felt that we delivered quite an impactful presentation and demonstration on the competition day itself.

Lastly, all selected participating teams during the prototyping phase is given Infineon starter kit and LG WebOS. Surely, this is a hardware-related hackathon. The starter kit contains DPS422 barometric pressure sensor, IM69D130 MEMS microphone, TLI4970-D050T4 current sensor, TLV493D-A1B6 3D magnetic sensor, OPTIGA^TM Trust X hardware security chip, XMC1100 boot kit, XMC1100 XMC^TM 2Go, MH-ET Live EXP32 Minikit, and Raspberry Pi 3 Model B. The best part, not only we get to keep everything in the starter kit but also the once-in-a-lifetime experience piloting next-generation prototype with Infineon and LG.

For more information about Infineon LG Make Hackathon, feel free to visit their website here.

Infineon LG </> Make Hackathon Experiences

In this blog post, we share our experiences at Infineon LG </> Make Hackathon.

Allow us to start at the very beginning.

Our team was contacted by Jane from Plug and Play Asia Pacific regarding an opportunity to potentially launch commercial partnerships with Infineon and LG. Important to realise that this may be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, we took on the challenge. In the same fashion, we saw this as an opportunity to prototype next-generation BAWA Canes with strong backing from Infineon and LG. Hence, we submitted our application.

In our application, we briefly describe our proposed solution utilising Infineon’s product and LG WebOS. Given that the theme of this hackathon is ‘Future of IoT’ and our strong believe that security should not be an afterthought, we propose using Infineon’s OPTIGA^TM Trust X moving forward. Whereas, LG WebOS is used in our production line to test, track, and verify each unit before reaching the hands of our end-users. All-in-all, in-line with our company’s objective for this fiscal year—costing, customer satisfaction, and branding.

After our application got through, our team is invited to participate in online webinar workshops to have our questions and concerns answered by experts from Infineon and LG. Without delay, the starter kit is on its way from Infineon’s Asia Pacific office. Meanwhile, our team tried our best to understand the documentation and downloaded the samples available. Eventually, the starter kit arrived, and our team started ‘hacking’.

Throughout the prototyping phase, the Plug and Play Asia Pacific team followed our progress closely via weekly meetings and updates. Eventually, a month of prototyping came to an end. Regardless of the end results of the competition, we are already winners by showing up at the competition venue. To put it another way, the opportunity to meet Dr Reinhard Ploss, CEO of Infineon Technologies AG and Mrs Helen Choi, Vice President of LG Electronics Inc. amongst other top brass in person, to be able to exchange ideas, and learn from them.

In conclusion, it is the journey that matters.

BAWA Cane aims at minimising head-level and fall accidents by using advanced technology to enrich the lives of the blind and visually impaired. Existing white canes made smart by simply clipping BAWA Cane on. This allows our users to be more confident while moving around in unfamiliar surroundings.

About Infineon

Infineon Technologies AG is a world leader in semiconductor solutions that make life easier, safer and greener. Microelectronics from Infineon is the key to a better future. In the 2018 fiscal year (ending 30 September), the Company reported sales of 7.6 billion euros with about 40,100 employees worldwide. Infineon is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (ticker symbol: IFX) and in the USA on the over-the-counter market OTCQX International Premier (ticker symbol: IFNNY). Further information is available at www.infineon.com.

About LG Electronics Inc.

LG Electronics Inc. is a global innovator in technology and manufacturing with operations in 140 locations and a workforce of over 70,000 around the world. With 2018 global sales of USD 54.4 billion, LG is composed of five companies–Home Appliance & Air Solution, Home Entertainment, Mobile Communications, Vehicle Component Solutions and Business Solutions. LG is a world-leading producer of TVs, refrigerators, air conditioners, washing machines and mobile devices, including premium LG SIGNATURE and LG ThinQ products featuring artificial intelligence. For the latest LG news, go to www.LGnewsroom.com.

SOURCE Infineon Technologies AG/ LG Electronics Inc.

Cover photo: (Left) Dr. Reinhard Ploss, CEO, Infineon Technologies AG, (Center) Rohit Girdhar, Vice President, Strategy and Market Development, Infineon Technologies Asia Pacific Pte Ltd, and friends of the media witnessing next-generation BAWA Cane prototype demo at Infineon LG </> Make Hackathon.