Adlink announced a “20/20 Vision Hack” competition for the best vision AI concepts based on its Vizi-AI SBC and Intel’s OpenVINO, with prizes up to $10,000. Avnet’s Newark is launching a “Winter Games” circuit board design competition.

T’is the season for all good embedded computing developers to shake off the Covid-19 blues with some hackathon competitions. Adlink and Intel are collaborating on a 20/20 Vision hackathon contest for vision computing concepts. The hackathon uses Adlink’s Vizi-AI SBC, which runs Linux on Intel’s Apollo Lake and incorporates an Intel Myriad-X VPU and OpenVINO toolkit. Avnet’s Newark has its own Winter Games virtual event that asks developers to compete at two online challenges: Circuit Maker and Open the Box.

Intel NCS2

Both events offer multiple prizes, with Adlink’s 20/20 Vision challenge promising a $10,000 grand prizes. In addition. Newark’s Element14 community is offering its own Engineer and Maker’s Wishlist giveaways and holiday project competition (see farther below).

 
20/20 Vision Hack

Sponsored by Adlink and Intel, the 20/20 Vision Hack invites “enterprise developers and industrial IoT and machine vision AI communities” to develop machine vision concepts, and eventually, prototypes, using the Vizi-AI dev kit and Intel OpenVINO toolkit. The goal is to use machine vision technologies “to address pervasive challenges existing in industrial environments” in one of four categories: manufacturing, distribution, workplace safety, and energy.

In phase one, which begins now, developers are encouraged to submit written proposals for machine vision concepts suited to the Visi-AI. The first 100 participants that complete a short OpenVINO tutorial will receive a Myriad X and OpenVINO equipped Intel Neural Compute Stick 2 (NCS2).

Visi-AI (left) and Visi-AI workflow diagram
(click images to enlarge)

Ten finalists will receive the Vizi-AI Industrial Machine Vision AI Developer Kit, a $199 value, and will use it to create a prototype for the approved design. The winning design, which will be announced in April 2021, will receive $10,000 and “go-to-market support” from Adlink and Intel.

The Vizi-AI board is an x86-based variation on Adlink’s Rockchip PX30-based Industrial-Pi SMARC Dev Kit (I-Pi). The somewhat Raspberry Pi like board is built around Adlink’s Intel Apollo Lake based LEC-AL SMARC module. LEC-AL is equipped with a quad-core Atom x5-E3940 and 4GB to 8GB LPDDR4.

The Vizi-AI carrier provides 2x GbE ports, a pair each of USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 host ports, a micro-USB client port, 40-pin GPIO, and the Myriad X module for AI. The 12V SBC also supplies an audio jack and optional LVDS or eDP.

The Vizi-AI ships with Debian Linux 9.9 and the Adlink Edge Vision Software Stack, which includes an AI model manager, frame streamer, AWS model streamer, and training streamer. You also get the Adlink Edge Profile builder and an Intel OpenVINO tookit with a range of pre-built OpenVINO compatible machine learning models.

 
Newark’s Winter Games

Newark has announced the opening of its Winter Games competition, in which participants compete on embedded development oriented online games. This month, participants can play Circuit Maker, in which they select components and complete a circuit board against the clock, with prizes going to those with the fastest times. In January, the competition shifts to a game called Open the Box.

Circuit Maker graphic (left) and Raspberry Pi 4 Starter Kit
(click images to enlarge)

Every week, the highest scorers will receive products worth $25 to $50 from Newark’s private label brand, Multicomp Pro. In February, Newark will announce the Winter Games grand prizes, which include Newark’s Raspberry Pi 4 Starter Kit in black and white, as well as a PC Oscilloscope.

 
Element14 Engineer and Maker’s Wishlist

The Element14 community, which is also owned by Newark and Avnet, is hosting its annual Engineer and Maker’s Wishlist event for its over 750,000 members. The event a gift guide, as well as three separate giveaways for test & measurement, circuit assembly, and the Raspberry Pi. Each giveaway asks participants to answer market research type questions for a chance to win gifts. The prizes include oscilloscopes, multimeters, soldering stations, the Raspberry Pi 400 Starter Kit, and more.

There is also a holiday project competition that challenges makers to “create something that reflects what the holidays mean to them.” Winners receive a tool kit (about a $500 value) with a handheld oscilloscope, USB soldering iron, bench power supply, wire strippers, and a $400 shopping cart. The prize also includes an additional $100 gift to share with another member of the community for their project.

 
Further information

More information may be found on Adlink’s 20/20 Vision Hack website, as well as the Newark Winter Games announcement on EEJournal and the Winter Games site. The Element14 info can be found at the Element14 Engineer and Maker’s Wishlist site.