Stories about the developers: Lazybit Team, the winning team of the Russian final of the Imagine Cup 2015
Summer, it would seem, is the time of stagnation, but not for young developers and Microsoft - very soon the world final of the Imagine Cup is waiting for us. Last year, the team from Perm - Brainy Studio , with whom we were able to communicate not so long ago, won the technological competition in the “Games” nomination. Now, (pah-pah, not to jinx it) the chance to beat everyone and everyone fell through to the last level of the competition the IzHard team, consisting of students from St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg State University of Economics and the Polytechnic University with their OVIVO platform game .
We may still write about the St. Petersburg team, but now, while the eyes of the mainstream media are turned towards the world finals, we decided to take a look at the Russian final, where there were many impressive projects and teams.
')
One of our personal favorites was the Lazybit team, which, with the help of four of its participants, was able to implement a promising, interesting, if not to say innovative, project of an intelligent "reader" with a fully voice interface that allows you to listen to arbitrary information from the Internet and other sources using voice queries. About this project, participation in the Imagine Cup and many other things we asked the guys in our interview today.
Tell us more about your team. Who is in the team, how and what has united you?
Hey. Our Lazybit team was formed within the walls of Nizhny Novgorod State University in 2013 from two fellow students: Vladislav Vinogradov and Dmitry Tarasov. Fascinated by the world of modern information technologies and driven by the desire to create something of their own, we began to generate original ideas, some of which have now been implemented. We tried to participate in all significant IT-events of our city and not only. All this time we have paid special attention to Microsoft technologies and contests that the company holds. Actively participating and winning traditional hackathons for Windows-Phone-developers, we began to participate in the technological student competition Imagine Cup. At the same time, we were joined by Dmitry Makarov and Vladimir Matveyev. The guys took over the work on design, video editing, preparation of presentations and speech-writing.
For a long time in the "App Store" you can find your application " Game in the city ." Is this your first project?
"Game in the city" was born on the hackathon of developers for Windows Phone in Nizhny Novgorod in 2014. Then, under the inspiration of using voice interfaces, we decided to teach the smartphone to play that very game in the city just like a real person. The player says the name of the city to the smartphone and receives a voice in response to the city on the last letter. The game continues until a person or program can name the next city. This is our first application for the Windows Phone platform. It was interesting to go through the whole cycle: from the idea, the hackathon and subsequent refinement to publication in the "Store" and attempts to monetize the application. However, this is not our first project.
I would like to talk about the bold innovative project Sculpt Art, which we were fond of earlier, but, unfortunately, we could not continue for various reasons. Sculpt Art is a virtual workshop that allows a person to perform 3D modeling using gestures. The process is similar to modeling: a person can move the object through hand movements in the air: squeeze, press, compress and stretch the working material. We have created a desktop application that, using the connected Kinect sensor, receives the three-dimensional coordinates of human hands and performs the corresponding movements on the object. After work, the model can be saved and printed in a 3D printer.
Congratulations on your second place in the Innovations category at the Russian Imagine Cup final. How it was? What has changed for your studio after participating in it? What, in your opinion, you did not have enough to achieve the first place?
Thank! The Russian final of the Imagine Cup has traditionally become the main event of spring for Russian students who are passionate about modern technologies. This year the finals were held in the technopolis “Moscow” and gathered participants from all over the country. There was a very emotional atmosphere and a rich program for two days. Nobody got bored :) The second place is an important victory for us, which we are also happy about.
The experience of working on common tasks in a team, the experience of presenting and communicating with real users - all of this is obtained for the past path of the two finals and will certainly help us in our future journey. From the first place we were separated by strong competition and the fact that the application was not modified to the desired level. The competition was an incentive for us to constantly work on the application and opened new horizons. Special thanks to the organizers of the competition and to the people who help with the participation.
Tell us more about Lory Voice Reader . How the idea of ​​this application came to light, about its structure and about what stage you are now at.
Lory Voice Reader is an intelligent reader with a full voice interface. Its task is to read aloud arbitrary pages on the Internet, articles, books, documents in full, to navigate within readable texts thanks to an intelligent search for the content and the construction of the structure of a specific document. Lory "understands" only voice commands that can be spoken by a person with sufficient speech variations in their native language. In addition, the reader is able to add notes to remind the user to read something, insert bookmarks into readable texts and create plans for reading. Lory Voice Reader is really convenient to use on the road, during physical activities and workouts, in transport or traveling. And, of course, Lory will be an indispensable assistant for visually impaired people.
The idea of ​​creating a virtual parrot came from the constant desire to read something on the go. Initially, our team had two people, and, surprisingly, both independently felt the need for such an application. This led to a heated discussion, a clear formulation and subsequent implementation of the idea.
At the moment, we are finalizing the first version of the application for Windows Phone, considering the intellectual parts of the system (which speech recognition and synthesis services to use, how to train the command handler, etc.) and prepare for the competition UMNIK, where we intend to receive a grant for further development.
Your applications develop the idea of ​​voice communication with a smartphone. Why such close attention to voice recognition and speech synthesis?
The first. It is in certain cases convenient. Voice interfaces allow you to interact with electronics without touching it. As if you are talking to a person who knows how to perform certain tasks assigned to him. Such interfaces provide a way to solve already human problems, when the owner’s hands are busy, he is on the move, or he doesn’t want to be distracted by the screen of his device.
The second. Computers and other electronic devices are gradually getting ready to become personal assistants, full-fledged family members, who should certainly be able to talk to people in human language.
Third. It is interesting to us. Machine learning, tasks in the field of artificial intelligence - this is what we like to do.
What did you learn from the challenges of the Imagine Cup and the release of the app?
We were able to learn to feel our project, to realize that we are doing this for a large number of people. We have learned and continue to learn to set ourselves fixed tasks and determine exactly what resources will be required for this. We realized that people are interested in using voice-activated applications.
I would like to say that Imagine Cup helps to assemble and rally the team for a common cause, to meet interesting people and to get experience in presenting their brainchild to people who are not so easy to convince that it is our idea and implementation that are excellent.
What can you say about the Windows Phone platform as developers?
Pros : ease of development (good Visual Studio, powerful modern C # language, support for all modern technologies in devices), fast operating system on accessible smartphones, inspiring future vision.
Minus : few users, resulting in a rather weak support for third-party libraries.
Are you inspired by the coming exit of the “unified” Windows 10? Have you started to adapt your applications, or rather transform them into one?
Yes! Definitely inspiring! The ability to develop a single application for several types of devices at once is tremendous. You feel the power of the Microsoft idea when you present your applications equally working on smartphones, tablets, laptops, consoles, smart watches, on devices from the Internet of things and even in augmented reality glasses!
We have not had time to begin the transfer of applications to Windows 10. As soon as time appears, we will definitely create universal applications.
What problems most often deduce you as developers from themselves? Demoralized? How do you handle it?
The protracted development of the same medium-sized part of the product. When you realize that you sit unjustifiably for a long time on one task, especially a minor one, there is a feeling of depression, which is trying to force you to quit this task. In our team, the solution of such problems rarely ends with the cancellation of the task, since a startup has all tasks, even small ones, critically important. Therefore, they can not throw. You can get out of the situation by trying to break the task down into smaller ones, analyze the execution time of each part and either see that the task is really simple and is solved quickly, or give it “long-term” status and not cause panic about the “brakes”.
What can you advise those who are just starting their journey?
Well, a little about yourself: what do you like to do outside of development? Are you able to combine it with any other serious occupation?
So far, the main activity is studying at the university, so we are seriously immersed in the educational process. At the same time we try to combine the time of classes and the time of work on the project.
We may still write about the St. Petersburg team, but now, while the eyes of the mainstream media are turned towards the world finals, we decided to take a look at the Russian final, where there were many impressive projects and teams.
')
One of our personal favorites was the Lazybit team, which, with the help of four of its participants, was able to implement a promising, interesting, if not to say innovative, project of an intelligent "reader" with a fully voice interface that allows you to listen to arbitrary information from the Internet and other sources using voice queries. About this project, participation in the Imagine Cup and many other things we asked the guys in our interview today.
Tell us more about your team. Who is in the team, how and what has united you?
Hey. Our Lazybit team was formed within the walls of Nizhny Novgorod State University in 2013 from two fellow students: Vladislav Vinogradov and Dmitry Tarasov. Fascinated by the world of modern information technologies and driven by the desire to create something of their own, we began to generate original ideas, some of which have now been implemented. We tried to participate in all significant IT-events of our city and not only. All this time we have paid special attention to Microsoft technologies and contests that the company holds. Actively participating and winning traditional hackathons for Windows-Phone-developers, we began to participate in the technological student competition Imagine Cup. At the same time, we were joined by Dmitry Makarov and Vladimir Matveyev. The guys took over the work on design, video editing, preparation of presentations and speech-writing.For a long time in the "App Store" you can find your application " Game in the city ." Is this your first project?
"Game in the city" was born on the hackathon of developers for Windows Phone in Nizhny Novgorod in 2014. Then, under the inspiration of using voice interfaces, we decided to teach the smartphone to play that very game in the city just like a real person. The player says the name of the city to the smartphone and receives a voice in response to the city on the last letter. The game continues until a person or program can name the next city. This is our first application for the Windows Phone platform. It was interesting to go through the whole cycle: from the idea, the hackathon and subsequent refinement to publication in the "Store" and attempts to monetize the application. However, this is not our first project. I would like to talk about the bold innovative project Sculpt Art, which we were fond of earlier, but, unfortunately, we could not continue for various reasons. Sculpt Art is a virtual workshop that allows a person to perform 3D modeling using gestures. The process is similar to modeling: a person can move the object through hand movements in the air: squeeze, press, compress and stretch the working material. We have created a desktop application that, using the connected Kinect sensor, receives the three-dimensional coordinates of human hands and performs the corresponding movements on the object. After work, the model can be saved and printed in a 3D printer.Congratulations on your second place in the Innovations category at the Russian Imagine Cup final. How it was? What has changed for your studio after participating in it? What, in your opinion, you did not have enough to achieve the first place?
Thank! The Russian final of the Imagine Cup has traditionally become the main event of spring for Russian students who are passionate about modern technologies. This year the finals were held in the technopolis “Moscow” and gathered participants from all over the country. There was a very emotional atmosphere and a rich program for two days. Nobody got bored :) The second place is an important victory for us, which we are also happy about.
The experience of working on common tasks in a team, the experience of presenting and communicating with real users - all of this is obtained for the past path of the two finals and will certainly help us in our future journey. From the first place we were separated by strong competition and the fact that the application was not modified to the desired level. The competition was an incentive for us to constantly work on the application and opened new horizons. Special thanks to the organizers of the competition and to the people who help with the participation.
Tell us more about Lory Voice Reader . How the idea of ​​this application came to light, about its structure and about what stage you are now at.
Lory Voice Reader is an intelligent reader with a full voice interface. Its task is to read aloud arbitrary pages on the Internet, articles, books, documents in full, to navigate within readable texts thanks to an intelligent search for the content and the construction of the structure of a specific document. Lory "understands" only voice commands that can be spoken by a person with sufficient speech variations in their native language. In addition, the reader is able to add notes to remind the user to read something, insert bookmarks into readable texts and create plans for reading. Lory Voice Reader is really convenient to use on the road, during physical activities and workouts, in transport or traveling. And, of course, Lory will be an indispensable assistant for visually impaired people.The idea of ​​creating a virtual parrot came from the constant desire to read something on the go. Initially, our team had two people, and, surprisingly, both independently felt the need for such an application. This led to a heated discussion, a clear formulation and subsequent implementation of the idea.
At the moment, we are finalizing the first version of the application for Windows Phone, considering the intellectual parts of the system (which speech recognition and synthesis services to use, how to train the command handler, etc.) and prepare for the competition UMNIK, where we intend to receive a grant for further development.
Your applications develop the idea of ​​voice communication with a smartphone. Why such close attention to voice recognition and speech synthesis?
The first. It is in certain cases convenient. Voice interfaces allow you to interact with electronics without touching it. As if you are talking to a person who knows how to perform certain tasks assigned to him. Such interfaces provide a way to solve already human problems, when the owner’s hands are busy, he is on the move, or he doesn’t want to be distracted by the screen of his device.
The second. Computers and other electronic devices are gradually getting ready to become personal assistants, full-fledged family members, who should certainly be able to talk to people in human language.
Third. It is interesting to us. Machine learning, tasks in the field of artificial intelligence - this is what we like to do.
What did you learn from the challenges of the Imagine Cup and the release of the app?
We were able to learn to feel our project, to realize that we are doing this for a large number of people. We have learned and continue to learn to set ourselves fixed tasks and determine exactly what resources will be required for this. We realized that people are interested in using voice-activated applications.
I would like to say that Imagine Cup helps to assemble and rally the team for a common cause, to meet interesting people and to get experience in presenting their brainchild to people who are not so easy to convince that it is our idea and implementation that are excellent.
What can you say about the Windows Phone platform as developers?
Pros : ease of development (good Visual Studio, powerful modern C # language, support for all modern technologies in devices), fast operating system on accessible smartphones, inspiring future vision.
Minus : few users, resulting in a rather weak support for third-party libraries.
Are you inspired by the coming exit of the “unified” Windows 10? Have you started to adapt your applications, or rather transform them into one?
Yes! Definitely inspiring! The ability to develop a single application for several types of devices at once is tremendous. You feel the power of the Microsoft idea when you present your applications equally working on smartphones, tablets, laptops, consoles, smart watches, on devices from the Internet of things and even in augmented reality glasses!
We have not had time to begin the transfer of applications to Windows 10. As soon as time appears, we will definitely create universal applications.
What problems most often deduce you as developers from themselves? Demoralized? How do you handle it?
The protracted development of the same medium-sized part of the product. When you realize that you sit unjustifiably for a long time on one task, especially a minor one, there is a feeling of depression, which is trying to force you to quit this task. In our team, the solution of such problems rarely ends with the cancellation of the task, since a startup has all tasks, even small ones, critically important. Therefore, they can not throw. You can get out of the situation by trying to break the task down into smaller ones, analyze the execution time of each part and either see that the task is really simple and is solved quickly, or give it “long-term” status and not cause panic about the “brakes”.
What can you advise those who are just starting their journey?
- Burn your idea.
- Learn to tell others about your project for the hundredth time just like the first.
- Qualitatively work through the architecture of your project before starting to write code.
- Try to work a lot on the presentation.
- Use Git (or another VCS), Google Drive, OneNote, Google Groups, Skype to organize joint activities.
- Gain perseverance and strength.
- If you want to help for free, be sure to accept this help.
Well, a little about yourself: what do you like to do outside of development? Are you able to combine it with any other serious occupation?
So far, the main activity is studying at the university, so we are seriously immersed in the educational process. At the same time we try to combine the time of classes and the time of work on the project.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/260653/
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