The Red Bull Creation contest is now in its third year, and I decided to enter. Details on the event are kinda sketchy at this point, but from what I've been able to glean, Red Bull will send 200(ish) of their "TurBULL Encabulator" boards to teams of makers/hackers/builders. The board has some lighting control circuitry, a 3 axis accelerometer, a temperature sensor, a DMX-512 output, and probably some other doodads on it. Teams are asked to "create something really wonderful using interactive lighting" using this board (yes, the rules really are that vague) and post a 3-minute video of the project. Six teams will be selected to go to Brooklyn to compete in a final build-off, and one will win $10,000.
The board apparently has an Arduino-compatible pinout, but using an Arduino isn't necessary. Entries must use the supplied circuit board, but the supplied circuit board doesn't need to be the only, nor the primary, part of the circuit.
I submitted my entry form and got an email yesterday that an Encabulator board is on its way to me. Woo hoo!
The deadline for posting the video is May 5. That's not much time! I have a few ideas for projects that I think have potential. I need more info on the Encabulator board before I can finalize my project choice. I haven't seen any technical details of the board yet; hopefully it ships with a datasheet. There are a few unboxing blog posts up, but so far I haven't found any detailed information. (Aha! An Arduino Library exists!)
You can apparently follow @RedBullCreation or hashtag #rbcreation on Twitter for the latest news, updates, speculation and (hopefully) trash talk. I've never been much of a Twitter user, but this contest could conceivably change that.
(And if you don't understand the reference to the "Turbo Encabulator," look here and here.)