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technology
THE KEY CHALLENGES
One of the main tasks at hand was to find new ways to
improve the way people experience KONE’s equipment.
The hackers were also asked to consider how to make life
easier for service engineers and building supervisors, and in
general how to make a building ‘smarter’.
Helsinki-based Streamr was among the competitors
who pondered over what kind of data was trickling in from
the elevators. “Different data has different qualities,” says
Streamr’s
Juuso Takalainen
. “When you combine them
you often get a bigger picture that’s more valuable than the
original data.”
And with the right tweaks, that “bigger picture”
morphed into the concept of a telepathic elevator, which
knows where a building resident, for example, wants to
go before they’ve reached over to press the button. “The
telepathic elevator was just one of the crazy ideas that felt
the most kind of doable,” says Takalainen.
FICTION VS REALITY
Doable is a key word. That’s why competitors on day two
were given the chance to get feedback on their first host of
ideas. “The sessions were organized to make sure no one
was barking up the wrong tree, and the ideas actually deliver
expected improvements to users and facility managers and
ease technicians’ daily work,” Salmelin points out.
Fantastic ideas are one thing, feasible ones quite another.
The buzz around ‘the Internet of Things’ is a perfect
example, because while the chatter has grown louder, there
have been few concrete and easy-to-commercialize ideas.
Streamr would like to help change that.
“Data in, data out, then do something sensible with it;
that’s what the Internet of Things is supposed to do, but
while the concept shows promise, it’s yet to deliver,” says
Takalainen. “Maybe the telepathic elevator will be the big
breakthrough for the elevator industry.”
THE WINNING STREAK
On day three, KONE announced there were five finalists –
and Salmelin points out that KONE would like to keep the
dialogue open with all of them, as they presented solid
ideas for the future. But in the end it was Streamr, not least
thanks to its “really striking” idea presentation, that took
home the top gong.
“It’s a unique idea that will enhance People Flow, have
true commercial value, and above all, is doable,” says
Salmelin. Riding on the success of the first hackathon,
tentative plans are underfoot to hold similar competitions in
KONE’s key growth markets India and China.
“Novelty is the whole point of a hackathon,” says
Takalainen. “If you want a specific solution, you’d hire a
consultant. With a hackathon, you’re solving problems
before people realize they have a problem.” /
FAST FACTS
• 65 hacker teams applied to
take part in the competition
• 15 teams, ranging from
university students to existing
start-ups, were selected for the
three-day event
• Programmers used KONE- and
IBM-enabled APIs
• What Takalainen refers to as
the “quick and dirty fashion”
of hackathons helps innovation
flourish
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