From Idea to Reality: Building a Computer Vision Scavenger Hunt for SXSW

Roboflow orchestrated a computer vision-powered scavenger hunt during SXSW, aimed at engaging attendees and promoting the technology's innovative potential. The event invited participants to use their phones to identify a range of objects from the Microsoft COCO dataset, with a $1,000 prize incentive that was ultimately donated to Make a Wish by the winner. The app, developed rapidly in two weeks using technologies like Node.js and Supabase, was designed to operate efficiently on mobile browsers, leveraging the power of progressive web applications (PWAs) for accessibility. Challenges included adapting the COCO dataset for real-time mobile use and mitigating false positives in object identification. A leaderboard encouraged competition, while the open-source project collected data to help improve the COCO dataset for future applications. Despite the competition's conclusion, the game remains open for play, illustrating how computer vision can be integrated into mobile experiences and hinting at potential developments in the field.