ROSS - Remote Operated Semantic Sketching

Problem

Galleries are mostly 2D visual work; blind and low-vision visitors cannot experience paintings.

Solution

Segment a painting into meaningful objects, convert each into simplified stroke graphs and millimetre coordinates, and have a two-axis robot trace them on the palm; warm vs cold colours map to heated vs cooled brushes, with narration and mood music in a Bob Ross voice.

Demo moment

Photograph a painting by voice, then feel its shapes drawn on your hand while a familiar voice describes them.

Why it stood out

• curator inferenceClear human stakes: a specific group gets access to culture they are excluded from.
• team statedThe warm/cold two-brush feature was not working; the team demoed one brush and no colour, and still reached the finals — a working core beat a complete feature list.Source ↗
• team statedDropped an LLM-based simplification approach for a deterministic geometric pipeline after inconsistent results.Source ↗
• curator inferenceBob Ross as name and narrator makes the accessibility message warm and memorable.
• organizer statedFeatured by the organizer as a past showcase project.Source ↗

Lessons for your next hackathon

• Cut the broken feature from the demo and describe it as next; never let the unfinished part define the pitch.
• When an LLM step is flaky, replace it with deterministic code before demo day.