It's over!!! The three judges have submitted their votes and the number crunchers tallied them up.
First off, I'd like to thank Dave Hyrinkiw at Solarbotics, Mark Tilden and everyone who submitted an entry.
Now for the moment you've all been waiting for...drum roll please...the Winners of the MicroVore Contest are!

Standing	Contestant	Prize
1st Place	Justin Fisher	Solarbotics Miniball kit
2nd Place	Bob Shannon	Chiu's Two-motor walker kit
3rd Place	Darrell Johnson	Solarbotics Photopopper kit
4th Place	Steven Audette	Panasonic 24x33 solarcell
5th Place	Mark Fedasiuk	2 Namiki 1701 pager motors

Keep your eye's peeled for the next contest! I've already got some pretty spectacular prizes lined up...

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Can't go to India for this years International BEAM Games??? Well here's your ticket to a little local competition brought to you by yours truely.

All you gotta do is build the smallest, coolest photovore you can and you may walk away with one of many awesome BEAM prizes. This contest it totally free to enter and absolutely anyone can participate.

Prize list is not complete yet but here's what I got so far.

• One Miniball Kit donated by Solarbotics!
• One Two Motor Walker parts kit with everything you need to start walking!
• One Photopopper kit donated by Solarbotics.
• One Panasonic 24x33 solarcell
• Two Namiki 1701 pager motors

Contestants photovores will be judged on a scale from 1 to 10 in three categories:

Aesthetics	Appealling to the eye. Interesting mechanical design. Neat assembly.
Size	Smallness counts in this contest. Try your hand at surface mount components and see how steady and precise your soldering really is. TPM motors, freeform consrtuction and low-voltage miniature electrolytic capacitors can all help to shave off those extra millimeters.
Coolness	A bare bones photovore won't score high in this category. Points go to unusual designs, extra functionality (ie. touch sensors) and anything "out of the ordinary".

All entries will be judged in ALL three categories. The competition is focused on who can build the smallest photovore but you can still win first prize with a larger one if it scores high in the other two categories. All categories are weighted equally.

The three judges are : Mark Tilden, Dave Hrynkiw and me. Bribing of judges is strictly prohibited unless monetary sum exceeds my university tuition fees! ;-)

Contest starts NOW and judging will take place on December 1st. That should give you enough time to order in those parts you need and build our photovore. If you end up winning a prize...it should arrive at your house just in time for Christmas!!!

You must have the means to post pictures of your photovore to the net. Required images are, a front shot, rear shot, side, top and a close-up (as clear as possible) of the electronics portion. The first four shots must be taken with your photovore sitting "on top of" a millimeter ruler. Also you must provide an image of your photovore's tracks as made on a small sheet of black construction paper with some light sand sprinkled on it (or white paper and dark sand). This allows the judges to see the step distance and gives us an idea of your photovore's behavior. Any image or animated clip that accomplishes this will also be accepted.

I'm willing to post pictures for anyone entering the contest on my website (e-mail me ). If you have no access to a digital camera or a scanner, you can mail your photovore to me and I'll gladly snap some pics and mail it back to you (e-mail me).

Along with the images you also must include a brief description of your photovore. What materials did you use? How did you construct the frame? What electronic components did you use? etc.

Many people have asked if they can submit more that one photovore. My decision...sorry to say...is no. Try building a couple, posting the pictures and ask the list for advice on which one to enter into the competition.

Only land-based wheeled photovores will be accepted to limit judging complexity. Anyone found faking pictures will be disqualified. Only BEAM technology can be implemented into your photovore.


If you are (seriously) planning on entering my contest please let me know NOW so I can get a rough preliminary head count.

When you're done your photovore, you can enter the contest by sending me an e-mail. Please include...

• Your name
• Your photovore's name (you do name your photovores...don't you?)
• The URL of the website with your photovores images
• Your e-mail address
• You mailing address

If you've got any questions or suggestions to make this contest better please don't hesitate to send me some e-mail.


Here's the contestants entered so far...(In the order that I received them)

Name :	Donald Papp
Photovore's Name :	Spider
URL of images :	http://homepage.oanet.com/haywire/spider/
Email :	donp@oanet.com
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Name :	Richard Stockstad
Photovore's Name :	Copebot
URL of images :	http://www.crosswinds.net/stockholm/~burken/copebot/index.html
Email :	burken@hotbot.com
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Name :	Bob Shannon
Photovore's Name :	Vore-n-more
URL of images :	http://www.the-nest.com/BShannon/
Email :	bshannon@tiac.net
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Name :	Mark Fedasiuk
Photovore's Name :	Explorer Bot
URL of images :	http://members.tripod.com/beamdream/Explorer-Bot/index.html
Email :	mfedasiu@sedona.ch.intel.com
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Name :	Chris Nichols
Photovore's Name :	Photovore #4
URL of images :	http://www.lifelinkcorp.com/staff/cnichols/pv/default.htm
Email :	cnichols@lifelinkcorp.com
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Name :	Darrell Johnson
Photovore's Name :	Twitch
URL of images :	http://www.sierranet.net/~polygon/index.html
Email :	stymie@inetworld.net
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Name :	Ben Hitchcock
Photovore's Name :	Alf
URL of images :	http://rabble.uow.edu.au/~marmion/index.html
Email :	beh01@uow.edu.au
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Name :	Steven Audette
Photovore's Name :	Mighty Mouse
URL of images :	http://welcome.to/bumper314
Email :	Bumper314@aol.com
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Name :	Justin Fisher
Photovore's Name :	Bug
URL of images :	http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Lofts/1121/beam/microvor.htm
Email :	jaf60@student.canterbury.ac.nz
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Name :	Ian Bernstein
Photovore's Name :	MicroBot
URL of images :	http://members.xoom.com/Synet/Microvore/Microvore.html
Email :	cibern@etsc.net
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Name :	Ivar Thorson
Photovore's Name :	Unnamed Photovore
URL of images :	http://members.xoom.com/robots/micro/
Email :	IMIvar@aol.com
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Name :	John Leo Zimmer
Photovore's Name :	PushmePullyou
URL of images :	http://www.novia.net/~jlz/pmpu/pushmepullyou.html/
Email :	jlz@novia.net
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Name :	Brian Hendrickson
Photovore's Name :	Mite
URL of images :	http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Hills/1022/mite.htm
Email :	hannah@nanospace.com
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Name :	David Connolly
Photovore's Name :	Midas
URL of images :	http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hangar/6611/microvore.html
Email :	connolly@uleth.ca

Sponsored in part by Solarbotics. The best...and only...BEAM supplier out there. Thanks Dave!


BEAM is a Trademark of Mark Tilden
All BEAM technology is Patented by Mark Tilden
I reserve the right to alter contest rules or completely withdraw this contest (just protecting my ass).


hits as of Sept 12, 1998


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