Shortlisted hackathon apps:
1. Transmit strings between two phones using sound.
Why the fuck? Why are we reinventing the wheel?
2. Offline payment services app. Sounds cool but is no way feasible in the real world.

The judge of the hackathon was some old PhD college professor who was yawning at the begining of the presentation who didn't understand what was heroku and didn't even bother to listen.
Lessons learnt:
1. Stick to corporate hacakathons
2. Query regarding the judges of the hackathon

I actually like the first idea, it could have some really specific uses.

@nickpapoutsis pls enlighten me

@nickpapoutsis i wanna know too lol

To be fair hackathons aren't always meant to make the next Facebook, a lot of the times the culture around them is to get together with strangers and make something for the fun of it.. Something you'd never make otherwise. In that context if to phones transmitted strings though like a Morse code speaker system it would win in my book under the outlook above. It all depends on the purpose of your individual event.

@Oceas I agree about the uniqueness of hacakathons. But it's not about reinventing the wheel. What they built was noisy and their future improvement was to make it non audible. You know where they are going? They are reinventing Bluetooth.
Let me give you an example of ideas that are actually meant for hackathons. 1 team made a real time sentiment analyzer to monitor patients using their mobile keyboard. It's a simple idea with huge effect.

@frozentruth As personal assistants get popular the always-on mics will be the norm.

If you build an interface that's utilizing sound waves to transmit information you could do some nice stuff at cinemas, concerts, tv, videos, etc.

Imagine watching an ad and automatically receiving a coupon code through Cortana/Alexa/Siri/etc. or after watching a movie at a cinema getting freebie/discounts for merchandise or Blu-ray disks.

Yeah, I know that Bluetooth LE, Wi-Fi and a bunch of other protocols exist but sound creates no interference, can be embedded in any audio or video file and half the infrastructure is already built (speakers). The other half (standalone app or partnership with Amazon/Apple/Google/etc for integration) is, relatively, child's play.

You can base a dozen startups on this general idea.

Don't know if someone patented this but someone should. Don't forget to mention those guys and me though.
lol

Google already has developed an chrome app to send links with a sound. This is really helpful in classrooms because its fast and easy.

Check out RADON, an app which transfers data is using sound. Works pretty well...

Link:
Radon - Share using Ultrasound 4/5 stars (435 ratings)
WHY BEAM TO ONE PERSON AT A TIME? Skip QR codes or NFC, Radon lets you share to everyone nearby... https://play.google.com/store/apps/...

About #2, isn't that what money is for?

@nickpapoutsis what you are talking about is kind of different. Triggering events based on particular sound pattetns. There are already a dozen of real world applications out there based on this.
The premise of the app was to transmit string using sound. There are already standard mediums that achieve this with very less hassle and dependencies and far more reliable.

@mrbongiolo google about demobilization in India. They were trageting that. Moreover physical things are always restrictive

@frozentruth Ok, it's not exactly a string but it's based on the same idea.

For strings you could do a massaging app that works only over short distances.

@frozentruth I guess you are talking about demonetization, not demobilization.

@nickpapoutsis my question exactly. There are already other mediums which work far better for short distance messaging. Why are we going back to obselete methods?

@frozentruth You can't call it obsolete if it can be implemented easily and work reliably.

The only problem here is the execution, not the general idea.

@nickpapoutsis it is obselete in terms of a hackathon, it is easier to use Bluetooth than writing a sound protocol from scratch.
The beauty of the hackathons according to me is to build something amazing and solving world problems using existing tools/APIs etc. Not spend time on implementing something which is half a century old.

@frozentruth For me hackathons are also the place where you have the opportunity to present the wildest ideas, even if no-one can use it or make money on it.