The competition for the Mascot will only last a week

Sep 16, 2015 13:41 GMT  ·  By

The Mycroft AI home automation system has been gathering quite a following, especially after it completed a Kickstarter campaign. Now, its makers are looking to find a fitting mascot for the Mycroft.

The project might seem a little too good to be true, but the fact is that Mycroft doesn't promise anything that can't be done today. The small device is powered by a Raspberry Pi 2 and Ubuntu, and it runs its own AI software. In theory, you can make Mycroft do almost anything around the house, as long as that function is controlled by something that connects to the Internet or at least LAN.

We've been talking for a couple of years now about IoT devices, which are currently getting to be more common than ever. Imagine that Mycroft is a small device that can be thought to control everything in your house, and that you can command Mycroft just by using your voice. Your house is suddenly a smart one.

Mycroft needs a mascot

The small device already has a rather human face, so it's not hard to imagine that people will anthropomorphize them right away. A mascot would be a great idea, and the Mycroft team is proposing a competition.

"We are looking for the best Mycroft 'mascot.' An illustrated version of Mycroft that we can plaster all over the Internet! I'll even make a 3D version of it and send it to the winner! So, make your best version of an illustrated Mycroft mascot (I, personally, picture an anime version of Mycroft). Then post it here! @Derick, @Senseiner, @zachspears, and I will decide the winner(s)!" wrote Ryan Sipes, the leader of the project.

The competition for this mascot will last a week, so hurry up. Mycroft is expected to land in June 2016, but the developers might release the voice control portion of the code much earlier than that. It should land first in Ubuntu, and after that in other distros as well.