Sigma Designs Announces Winners of Z-Wave Smart Home Maker Challenge

FREMONT, Calif., Dec. 21, 2017 -- Sigma Designs® (NASDAQ:SIGM), a leading provider of intelligent system-on-chip (SoC) solutions for connected smart TV platforms and smart home IoT, today announces three winners of the Z-Wave Smart Home Maker Challenge. The competition, hosted by Sigma and the Maker Share community platform from Make:, a leader of the Maker movement, was announced in September 2017.

Z-Wave

All eligible submissions to the contest received a free Raspberry Pi equipped with the Z-Wave Developers kit and one Z-Wave certified device to help contestants build a smart home application to turn their dream smart home experience into a reality. Sigma Designs is pleased to announce the winners of this year’s contest:

Grand prize: Cameron Henkel – Aging in Place with Z-Wave: Remote Medication Dispenser - Using Z-Wave, Cameron designed a remote, smart medication dispenser that could be pre-loaded with the proper medication doses that would then be delivered on a set schedule to the user but also alert a caretaker if a dose was missed. As the grand-prize winner, Cameron will receive a hosted-trip to CES in Las Vegas, January 9-12, 2018. His smart home project will be showcased in the Z-Wave Alliance Smart Home Pavilion, located in the Sands (Booth 41717).

“I was initially interested in entering the challenge because I thought it would let me explore an area of computing and tech I wasn't familiar with,” said Cameron Henkel, grand prize winner. “I really like working with the Z-Wave technology because it gave me my first taste of developing for the Internet of Things and the considerations involved. With the experiences from this project I'm eager to continue working on smart home applications in the future.”

2^nd Place: Soren Daugaard – Smart Home Automation Powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) -  Soren entered the competition with the goal to design a smart home experience. Rather than rely on a remote or smartphone to trigger specific smart home events, Soren sought out to create CLAIRE (a Continuously Learning AI Rules Engine) that would learn his habits and automatically adjust his smart home based off the data collected by sensors around his home and the time of day. As the second-place winner, Soren will receive $2,000 worth of certified Z-Wave devices from secondary sponsor Zwaveproducts.com.

3^rd Place: Tim Sills – IoT Sentry: Tim created an indoor/outdoor monitoring solution using off the shelf sensors and Z-Wave technology to create the IoT Sentry. The IoT Sentry houses Z-Wave sensors, is Internet accessible, and integrates with online service providers to trigger actions. It can lock/unlock doors, turn on and off lights, control water systems, send SMS messages, write to Google Docs, and control devices outside of the Z-Wave eco-system. As the third-place winner, Tim will receive $1,000 worth of certified Z-Wave devices from secondary sponsor Zwaveproducts.com.

“The contest was a great success and we received so many excellent submissions,” said Carsten Steffensen, Moderator of the Public Z-Wave Forum for Sigma Designs. “We launched the contest to get more Makers accessing the Public Z-Wave specification to create unique and interesting Z-Wave applications. The community did not disappoint. Congratulations to our winners and a huge thank you to everyone who participated. Stay-tuned for similar competitions from us in the future.”

For more information about Sigma Designs and Z-Wave technology, please visit www.sigmadesigns.com. 

About Sigma Designs
Sigma Designs, Inc. (NASDAQ:SIGM) is a world leader in enabling smart home convergence. The company designs and builds the essential semiconductor technologies that serve as the foundation for the world’s leading Connected Smart TV platforms, and Internet of Things (IoT) for smart home devices. For more information about Sigma Designs, please visit www.sigmadesigns.com.

About Z-Wave
Z-Wave technology is an open internationally recognized ITU standard (G.9959). It is the leading wireless home control technology in the market today, with over 2100 certified interoperable products worldwide. Represented by the Z-Wave Alliance, and supported by more than 600 companies around the world, the standard is a key enabler of smart living solutions for home safety and security, energy, hospitality, office and light commercial applications. Z-Wave® is a registered trademark of Sigma Designs and its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries.

Safe Harbor Statement
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including statements about consumer adoption, and the anticipated features and benefits of Sigma’s products and solutions with respect to Z-Wave and various Z-Wave offerings. Actual results may vary materially due to a number of factors including, but not limited to, consumer and customer acceptance of Z-Wave, Sigma’s ability to deploy and achieve market acceptance for Sigma’s products in its target markets, including the IoT market, the ability of the Z-Wave development kit, chipsets and modules to compete with other technologies or products in these markets as well as other risks that are detailed from time to time in Sigma’s SEC reports, including its report on Form 10-K. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward- looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. Sigma undertakes no obligation to publicly release or otherwise disclose any revision to these forward-looking statements that may be made as a result of events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.