Announcing the WINNER of Our Raspberry Pi 5 Contest!

We’re very excited today to announce the winner of our Raspberry Pi 5 contest!

You’ll recall that back on October 4th, we put out a call for the craziest idea that you could come up with for a Raspberry Pi 5.

And, as long as it wouldn’t destroy the Pi, we would also enact it on one of ours and write an article about it.

And we really appreciated the immediate barrage of comments, e-mails, and direct messages.

I have to commend everyone who submitted an idea, whether crazy or not. There were so many really cool ideas that ranged from overclocking and underclocking the Pi all the way to using the Pi as a portable signal jammer.

In the end, we really had a difficult time determining the winner.

So let me start off with some honorable mentions for their very fun ideas.

Then I’ll announce our second-place winner, who will be receiving a Raspberry Pi 5.

And finally, I’ll announce our grand-prize winner, who will be receiving a full Raspberry Pi 5 kit, including a 27W USB-C Power Delivery (PD) Power Supply, a Raspberry Pi 5 case, an SD card, and a Raspberry Pi 5.

Honorable Mention: The Ghost Pianist

I really appreciated this idea of the ghost pianist from Alfio. Here was the submission:

“Raspberry Pi Ghost Pianist” Imagine creating a system that allows a Raspberry Pi to control a piano automatically, as if it were played by an invisible pianist. Here’s how you could do it: Electric Piano: Purchase or use an electric piano or MIDI keyboard that can be controlled by a Raspberry Pi. Robotic Fingers: Build a robotic system with mechanical fingers that can independently press the piano keys, controlled by the Raspberry Pi. Musical Detection: Use music recognition software and sheet music analysis to enable the Raspberry Pi to “listen” to a variety of musical pieces. Musical Compositions: Create original musical compositions or arrangements of existing songs that can be automatically played on the piano. Interactive Performance: Organize shows where the audience can “see” the piano playing by itself, as if guided by an invisible pianist. Style Variations: Implement the ability to change the piano’s playing style, making it appear as though it’s played by different imaginary pianists with different styles (classical, jazz, pop, etc.). Lights and Special Effects: Add lights and special effects that activate during the performance to create a unique visual experience. Remote Control: Allow the audience to remotely control the “ghost” piano from a mobile app or website so they can request specific songs or change how the music is played. This project could be an extraordinary public performance and a unique entertainment experience. Of course, it’s essential to ensure that the piano and mechanical hands are safe and do not damage the real piano.

Alfio had one of the few project ideas that revolved around art performance. I think this is a really fun idea and I’d love to see something like this done. Thanks, Alfio, for the submission!

Honorable Mention: The Near-Space Balloon

Another honorable mention was this submission from Phill Burton:

You could send your Pi 5 into near-space attached to a weather balloon. Be sure to fit GPS, a camera module and some Lego figures. Record the whole journey and once it returns to earth (hopefully on land) have it audibly request to anyone nearby to be returned by post. You can then analyse how well it operated at different heights, the temperature changes, which route the balloon took, and all the forces it felt throughout.

A similar idea came from Rainer S., who sent in the following submission:

Hallo pi3g-Team, Das verückteste habe ich schon gemacht, ich habe schon zweimal, wahrscheinlich AKS erster, einen Pi 3 mit einem Wetterballon in die Stratosphäre geschickt. Die Kameraaufnahmen sind schon nicht schlecht. Die Sensoren haben leider nicht funktioniert und da wären Temperatur, Luftdruck, luftfeuchtigkeit durchaus wünschenswert :smiley: Fröhlich grüßend

So thank you Phill and Rainer, for your wonderful project ideas. I don’t know if we’re going to get to do them without destroying a Pi. But, if we’re able to, I’d love to do something with weather balloons and a Raspberry Pi in the future!

Second-Place Winner: The Collaborative Art Project

The winner of second place and the winner of a Raspberry Pi 5 is Stephen Brown. Stephen came up with the idea of a collaborative art canvas that brings the office to life!

Here was the submission:

Collaborative art project? Connect 25x 16×16 NeoPixel panels together to form a 80×80 pixel ‘canvas’ using the Pi GPIO pins, then plug in a USB webcam pointing at it. Install a web server on the Pi and allow users visiting a artypi.com (or whatever) to colour one pixel of their choice per 30s using a colour palette picker. The webcam can then show the ‘real world’ look of the panel as it changes. You can then have a live, ever-changing ‘artwork’ on your office wall – it’s like the thing they do on Reddit except you can walk up to it and see it. Alternatively, if you’ve got people who know how to drive a stepper motor, you could let people sketch one line at a time onto a whiteboard with a 2-axis home-made plotter. Users are asked to work towards a target thing (e.g. an apple, a car). Each hour, the canvas is wiped and a new ‘thing’ must be drawn. You could have a gallery of previous attempts…

We’re definitely going to be playing around with this idea! So, be sure to stay tuned for more on this project.

And congratulations to Stephen Brown, who receives a Raspberry Pi 5!

Grand-Prize Winner: The Fish-Controlled TV Channel Surfer

The grand prize goes to Wolfi for the crazy idea of a fish-controlled TV.

Here was the submission:

Fish-Controlled TV Channel Surfer Concept: Let your pet fish decide what you’re watching tonight. Implementation: 1.) Set up a camera above your fish tank connected to the pi. 2.) Segment the tank into zones, each corresponding to a TV channel. 3.) Train an object detection model on your fish. 4.) The Raspberry Pi detects where the fish is swimming and changes the channel accordingly via infrared. Maybe fish like soap operas? Extension for making the project really crazy: A mechanism similar to that of an electric eel to deliver a painful electric shock to the fish and urge it into the desired section when manually switching.

We’ll be doing this one without causing any pain to the fish.

But we’ll absolutely be putting this project together and writing an article about it soon.

And Wolfi gets a free Raspberry Pi 5 kit, complete with a power supply, case, and SD card.

I want to again give a special thanks to everyone who offered up their ideas. We at pi3g all had a real blast reading through them.

We’ll be reaching out to to Wolfi and Stephen in the next few days regarding their prizes!

Be sure to sign up for our Newsletter to keep up with future contests. And to see the fish-controlled TV project!