A three-member team that included Creative Technology and Design undergraduate students Mason Moran and Colin Soguero, took first prize at HackCU for their project, ChessLens, an augmented reality application that helps chess players improve their game. The winning team also included听Luke Soguero, a computer science major and Colin鈥檚 brother. 听
Colin Soguero
ChessLens helps chess players improve their games using a smart chess board that communicates with an AR application, demonstrating to players their best next chess move听as well as evaluating the players' previous moves.听
鈥淚'm听so proud that听our project was worthy of a win, especially after spending 24 hours nonstop working on it,鈥� said Soguero, who is also a member of the ATLAS Institute鈥檚 ACME Lab.
Held virtually this year, HackCU is a CU Boulder annual invention marathon where participants build and share their creations in just 24 hours. The ChessLens team, which beat 23 other groups that submitted projects,听won听Nintendo Switch Lites and an all-expenses paid trip to the next Pinnacle Hackathon, an听invitation-only听competition听featuring four winners from each of the world鈥檚 largest collegiate hackathons.
鈥淢y team always stays up the entire time during hackathons,鈥� said听Colin Soguero, a veteran hackathon participant. 鈥淚t鈥檚 brutal, but rewarding in the end, and lets us get more done. We have fun getting our computers out, setting up shop, getting out the Red Bull and just going for the full 24 hours non stop.鈥澨�
Mason Moran
Colin says the project was a great fit for each team member鈥檚 strengths and interests. His听academic focus is augmented and virtual reality development, Moran's interest is听physical computing and Luke Soguero鈥檚 major is computer science. He added that the popular Netflix miniseries 鈥淭he Queen鈥檚 Gambit,鈥� as well as video streams that allow others to watch grandmasters play chess, has popularized the game听among the younger generations, himself included.
The team constructed the chess board during the hackathon from paper and sheet metal. An Arduino calculates the location of each chess piece on the board and sends the information to a chess engine which determines the player's next best move and evaluates past moves. The information is then sent to Unity, which is run on a HoloLens head-mounted AR display. Participants wearing the HoloLens see chess pieces holographically displayed on the board, along with suggestions for next moves.听
The three continue to tweak the application, but Colin doesn鈥檛 foresee continuing to work on it much longer.
鈥淚t鈥檚 just a nice portfolio piece,鈥� he said.
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