{ "author": "Aimee Vu", "title": "A3C: Hacking What You Typically Listen To!", "thumbnail": "a3c.png", "date": "2016-10-12T21:10:33Z", "tags": ["all"], "published": true }
Hello fellow Hackers, Hustlers, and Hipster!
Just this weekend (10/7 – 10/9), we had an unusual hackathon! A3C is typically known as a music festival, however, this year, they decided to host a “music hackathon”: A hackathon where you can actually hack music (or at least the devices that the music comes from). Our own PantherHackers, Haroon Qahtan, Shannon Brown, and Yassin Alsahlani attended the event.
Haroon and Yassin were on a team together where they were trying to hack the Harmon Pulse 2 and the Harmon Everest headphone. “We learned a lot about the Everest headphones SDK” said Haroon, describing what himself and Yassin were doing, “and wanted to use the accelerometer and gyroscope to make the user interact with the headphones just by moving their heads”. Haroon then said that they did not get to finish the project in time, yet, one of the sponsors of the event, M. Cole, were so impressed with the concept that they gave Haroon and Yassin an Everest headphone to continue the hack.
On Shannon’s side, however, his team created “a web app that served the purpose of helping A3C conference goers decide which events would be the most time efficient to attend” called “Chill or Go”. Shannon stated that if an event was “tabbed green” meant that you can go to the event without any traffic troubles, however, if it was “tabbed blue” then that meant to “Chill” at where you are currently at since traffic might be cumbersome. Shannon’s team won a JBL Bluetooth speaker which Shannon says is “completely hackable”.
Both Shannon and Haroon described the event as small, but big enough to make new connections. There were five teams total in the hackathon, so it was a rather “chill” experience as described by Haroon. Sure, this might not be your typical hackathon, but it is a great way to get experience, new or experienced! Regardless guys, that’s all we have for now! Until next time, keep on hacking, hustling, and designing!
-Riyan Imam