When Greg Hesom explored heart monitoring equipment for his work assignment as the software developer and manager of Deloitte Digital, little did he know that this would become the inspiration behind his biggest project - the Heartrace Scalextric.
Heartrace is a slot-racing car game controlled by the heart rate of two human beings racing around a mini car race track. The cars are controlled by two people with Bluetooth heart-rate monitors strapped around their waist; they have to run on the spot to pump up their heart rates. The faster their hearts beat, the more voltage supplied to the slot cars on the track, and the faster the cars will move.
The laps are counted by a custom built-light sensor and beamed onto a custom-built iPad interface.
"We had been exploring heart monitoring equipment and sensory heart data info for a while because we had an assignment to build a heart monitoring system for one of our clients. That was when we heard about the Deloitte Digital Technology Global Mashup Day Competition," says Hesom, who is also the project leader.
He says he then decided to put together a team of four digital gurus to brainstorm and implement the Scalextric, which was entered into the competition. "One of the rules was to create the entire project in 24 hours.
"One guy worked on the Bluetooth straps, which monitor the heart rate; the other ensured that the Bluetooth receiver was well connected to the race track. I monitored the entire process while Jacques Millard, the fourth member, created the mobile Apple app which is at the centre of this project," he explains.
Millard, digital mobility lead at Deloitte Digital, says the mobile app communicates with all aspects of the Scalextric. The Heartrace works with various technologies such as the Adrenal Arduino board upon which the cars are placed, and the Rasberry pi Web server, used to control the app. There is also the Bluetooth heartrate monitor which keeps track of the heart rate determined by the speed at which the runners move.
Millard took 12 hours to build the app, which was made using Xcode software, the integrated development environment commonly used for creating Apple apps. The app monitors how many laps the runners run, it counts down the runner's time, and it has a start button. The iPad was then used to control and record the entire race.
"Althouth Heartrace will only be used for gaming purposes; I had to apply the same skills which I use at work as a software developer with Deloitte Digital. I was part of the team who created the Nu Metro app, so I was already familiar with the processes," he explains.
The Scalextric became the winning project for the Deloitte Digital Technology competition which was announced last week and this was the first year that a non-UK team won outright.
The competition brought together eight teams from the United Kingdom, Japan and South Africa to build innovative, useful projects that work, using any technology that the teams wished to utilise.
"Competing in this 24hr-Mashup allowed us to learn and explore sensor and hardware technologies which we are always eager to get our hands on," says Hesom.
Click on the following link to view a video of Heartrace.
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