A mop developed by a group of KAIST students has won 1st place prize for the People’s Choice Award during the Student Innovation Contest, which was one of the programs of the 27th Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) User Interface Software and Technology Symposium (UIST).

The contestants have to incorporate state-of-the-art hardware provided by the organizers into interaction devices. For this year’s contest, each of the teams had to use Kinoma Create – a hardware for developing internet of things devices – to develop household interfaces.

The Daydream team developed a mop that allows the user to enjoy the mopping process while doing it more efficiently. The team members include Hanjong Kim and Seijin Cha, both Masters’ students under the supervision of Professor Tek-Jin Nam at the KAIST Department of Industrial Design, and Sunjun Kim, a Ph.D. student under the supervision of Professor Geehyuk Lee at the KAIST Department of Computer Science.

The mop recognizes the position and direction during the cleaning process and notifies the user of regions floor space that need more mopping via a display located on top of the mop. It also includes a game that challenges the user to find virtual hidden targets while mopping the floor. The team received high praise from judges and other contestants for turning a boring household chore into an easy and fun activity as well as the high quality of the finished product.

ACM UIST Symposium is one of the major symposiums in the field of human-computer interaction (HCI). A team from KAIST has previously come in second place for the People’s Choice Awards, but this is the first time a team has won the first prize.

Professor Nam, who oversaw the team during the contest, said, “24 prestigious universities including Carnegie Mellon University, Georgia Tech and Tokyo University participated in the Student Innovation Contest. Our accomplishment shows the excellence of KAIST education and research”