Imagine Cup Dispatch: Return of the One Man Army

Kevin Pfister has at least one distinct quality over his competition: he's the only one-person team. (Oh, he's also the only Brit, so I guess that's another...) Not only has he made it to the Imagine Cup world finals for a second year in row, but has also landed himself in the final round of the Embedded Development category. Again.

Dubbed the "one man army" during last year's competition in Warsaw, he first introduced the world to eyeSight. It's a device attached to a pair of sunglasses that helps make day-to-day tasks for blind or partially-sighted people a whole lot easier. Specifically, voice recognition and Facebook are used to identify a person's voice and face when they enter a room.

He was my pick to win the category, but like almost every season of Project Runway, I was sorely mistaken.

Now a year later, Pfister has graduated from the University of York -- meaning this is his last chance to compete in the Imagine Cup -- and is out to win it all. His project Child Sleep Safe seeks to decrease child mortality around the world. Multiple sensors on and around a child create a monitoring and response system designed to reduce the chance of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome as well as enhance a child's overall sleep quality. Additionally, automatic alerts are sent to an app on a parent's Windows phone and the system continuously adjusts the room's environment.

Pfister said he hopes to continue working on the project with the aim of making it market ready. And if he doesn't achieve total domination this year, he said he'd maybe be willing to come back as a team mentor next year. Clearly, this guy won't be satiated until he claims victory.

WATCH:
Pfister updates us on what happened with eyeSight and fills us in on what it was like getting to New York.

FOLLOW Kevin Pfister on Twitter @MrPfister

READ THIS to track his Imagine Cup journey.