5G enabled IoT innovations created at IoThon

5G mobile networks are tested and built all around the world and companies are looking for new business areas and service concepts enabled by 5G. IoThon 2019 brought together 110 students and developers from all over Europe for a 48-hour hackathon with challenges set by Ericsson, Nokia, Siemens, Telia and RIOT community. The challenges ranged from novel use cases for 5G light poles to improving the environment of the Otaniemi campus area.

Aalto University and the industrial partners provided platforms that enabled access to the internals of the Otaniemi campus 5G mobile network. The participants could deploy sensors in any location within Otaniemi and implement their own services based on the data from the sensors.

The most popular challenge was set by Nokia: 17 out of 27 teams developed new digital services and business opportunities for smart LuxTurrim5G light poles. The solutions included for example using light poles for charging electric scooters, finding lost pets and warning drivers of a near-by deer.

The COMNET main prize was awarded to team Quadratic that took part in the Telia challenge. They developed an augmented reality coach that gives athletes real-time haptic feedback through actuators.

“The winning team produced a working prototype combining motion capture from mobile phone video feed and haptic feedback through actuators. The demonstrated system made use of the 5G low-latency communications and novel machine learning tools to provide a novel service that would be very beneficial for sports training. Especially, the jury appreciated the level of system integration the team managed to do in the given short time.”, explained the chairman of the jury, professor Riku Jäntti.

”We are happy that we found a solution that uses 5G network and that we got it working during the weekend,” said Perttu Yli-Opas from the Quadratic team. ”We most probably don’t have the time to take our solution any further. If someone with coding skills would like to continue with the solution there is potential to even take it to the market. Telia awarded us with a possibility to demonstrate the solution at ITS Europe Conference 2019 in Helsinki in June. This would bring great visibility for the sports coach!”