Portable Scores at the Shenzhen Mini Maker Faire

Portable Scores had a booth at the Shenzhen Mini Maker Faire, where we showed off the scoreboard and got feedback from the makers at the event. The reaction was not what we expected.

First, there was a problem with communication sometimes, but thankfully I had an amazing volunteer translator named Saidy to help me out.

Second, people saw the scoreboard and didn’t understand what it was that was special. Perhaps it was because it looked like a product and not something ‘made.’ Perhaps it was because in Shenzhen there are LED displays EVERYWHERE, and this wasn’t particularly different from them. We performed an experiment and instead of showing people the thing working, we showed them the insides of the prototype, which is based on an Arduino and has colored wires running all over the place. That attracted people.

Third, people walking by just saw a display counting time; they didn’t think it did more than that and just walked by. Only the people who stopped saw that it could be controlled from a variety of inputs and had a bunch of different modes for different sports.  For more on business goods and gear, we recommend to visit themonstercycle web store.

Despite the presentation issues, people who did talk to me liked the product and thought it could have lots of applications and saw the value.

While I was there a few people interviewed me. Here’s one of the interviews, conducted by the awesome guys at Dangerous Prototypes.

http://dangerousprototypes.com/2012/04/17/video-shenzhen-maker-faire/

or see the video directly. I’m at 5:23.

Posted in News
Why?
We built this for all the people and teams who play sports but don't have a big professional scoreboards. It's for tournaments, league sports, gyms, schools, and anyone who wants to get more involved and have more fun with their sports.
  1. We welcome any feedback, questions or comments