A virtual reality tour that takes guests through a Deloitte Digital studio with AR-based visuals, pre-recorded audio snippets, and voice commands. A “keg sensei” that monitors the tap handles on a kegerator, tracking the amount of pints poured and the volume of liquid remaining.
Every year, Deloitte Digital holds Hack Day, a one-day event that gives our studio talent the chance to work on a project that wouldn't normally be part of their day-to-day tasks. Teams can spend the day tinkering and creating cool stuff with new or old technology, be it AR/VR or Raspberry Pi, or simply native app or web. Participants are encouraged to break out of the comfort of their own discipline and explore new areas of technology and creativity. Teams have no restrictions on projects, but are encouraged to produce something that compliments and expands the studios’ overall knowledge and capabilities. In a surprisingly short amount of time, Hack Day brings out the best collaboration and creativity toward executing meaningful, game-changing ideas.
This year, we had six studios across 13 time zones participate in Hack Day. The Denver studio worked on projects ranging from text messaging apps, to developing a smart mirror, to an app to detect fake news. Many used Amazon's Alexa for a wide variety of projects, and some teams tinkered with motion-sensing devices to create an enhanced ping-pong table. The Los Angeles studio created a Google Home ordering bot that integrates with Slack and restaurants, including a persona for the bot and its capabilities.
Continuing with their culture of having occasional hackathons and ideation over the past few years, designers, engineers, and QA from the Mumbai studio generated solutions for problems that drive and affect them every day. Themes included image recognition, VR, conversational UI in the area of sports, eCommerce, and environment.
The burgeoning New York City studio DX team was joined by folks from Deloitte’s Salesforce team, the Deloitte Center for Immersive Learning, and the Deloitte Digital D.C. studio to create a crew of hackers. They showcased VR, Derivative Inc.’s TouchDesigner, Google Home and Alexa projects, among others.
The Seattle studio held their first Hack Day in their new space, and this generated innovative ideas to augment and enhance their environment. Projects included an AR studio tour, a voice-controlled Alexa room finder, Slack-controlled LCD desk nameplates, retro-gaming powered by a motion-sensing device, and Arduino-powered flow meters for an in-house kegerator. The studio’s new maker space was a highlight of the day, enabling some cool hardware-driven projects that would otherwise have been difficult to pull off.
Check out photos from the studios’ Hack Day.