{"slug":"s-kbd67","name":"S-KBD67","hackathon":"hack-the-north-2025","tagline":"A Nerf blaster rebuilt as a first-person-shooter controller.","placement":{"status":"finalist","awards":["Hack the North 2025: Finalists"],"track":null},"team":{"size":null,"members":["Dorothy Fanzhu"]},"problem":"Shooter games are played with a mouse and keyboard; the physical fantasy of actually aiming a blaster is missing.","solution":"Microcontrollers, a gyroscope, a joystick and buttons mounted on the blaster stream motion and inputs over Wi-Fi as UDP packets to a Python app that maps them to mouse and keyboard events.","demo_moment":"Pick up the toy gun, aim, pump to reload, pull the trigger — and the game on screen responds.","build_style":"hardware-software","tech":{"stack":["esp8266","esp32","gyroscope","python","udp"],"ai_patterns":["none"]},"domains":["games-entertainment","robotics-hardware"],"analysis":{"why_it_stood_out":[{"claim":"Gives an object every judge recognizes a job it was never meant for; the idea fits in one sentence.","basis":"curator-inference"},{"claim":"Split into hardware and backend sub-teams that integrated at the end, keeping both halves moving in parallel.","basis":"team-stated","source":0},{"claim":"No AI at a 2025 AI-heavy event; wow came from physical play, not model calls.","basis":"curator-inference"},{"claim":"Organizer featured it as the lead past project on the next year's homepage.","basis":"organizer-stated","source":1}],"mechanisms":["familiar-thing-new-job","physical-artifact","demo-first-wow","one-sentence-clarity","tight-scope-finished","cultural-reference-hook"],"judging_lens":["wow-factor","originality"],"lessons":["A finished, playable toy beats an unfinished platform. Parallelize hardware and software from hour one."],"confidence":"medium"},"links":{"devpost":"https://devpost.com/software/s-kbd67","repo":null,"demo":null,"video":null},"sources":[{"url":"https://devpost.com/software/s-kbd67","kind":"devpost-project","retrieved_at":"2026-09-14"},{"url":"https://hackthenorth.com/","kind":"official-event-page","retrieved_at":"2026-09-14"}]}