With a little bit of imagination and a lot of patience, a team of four ISU students developed a device that tells the blind who is around them.

The four members of the SystemCy team — Adam Mishler, senior in computer engineering, Dave Lawson, senior in computer engineering, Andrew Riha, senior in computer engineering, and Mike Schmitt, recent computer engineering graduate — traveled to Redmond, Wash. on June 17 and 18 to compete in Microsoft Corporation’s Windows Embedded Student Challenge, where they demonstrated their technology in front of judges and competed for a prize of $8,000.

The competition challenged teams of four undergraduates working with a faculty mentor to design a computer device that has a real-world application. All teams were required to use Windows CE, an operating system typically used for small devices designed for specific uses.

The ISU students developed a device called RADVIS, or Radio Auxiliary Detection for the Visually Impaired and Sighted, for the international competition.

“It is an embedded system, like a small computer for the visually impaired. The device has an earpiece, which senses someone around,” Riha said.

“It uses radio frequency identification to announce the person into the earpiece.”

The device reads radio frequency identification cards within a 5-foot radius, Riha said. Radio frequency identification cards are used a lot in access security control, where certain cards will open up certain doors.

The ISU team was one of 30 finalists worldwide, which included teams from Turkey, India, Romania and Australia.

“We didn’t make the top-10 cut,” Schmitt said. “The teams that got into the top 10 went back on Saturday and competed for the top spot.”

An Australian team won the competition with an invention that allowed them to irrigate crops based on weather forecasts.

Six teams were from the United States, and none of them made it to the top 10.

The team experienced complications with the technology. Although the device is working properly, space for the speech engine was an issue, Riha said.

The team also encountered administrative issues, like getting set up and receiving equipment from Texas Instruments.

Riha said it was easy for the team to get together and get involved once they found out what needed to be done.

“The adviser of the computer engineering department told us there would be free pizza and a representative from Microsoft would be talking,” he said.

“So me and my teammates ended up going, listened to the representative and wanted to get involved.”