The PlinkArt app
Next up is our Audience Choice winners Plink – Mark Cummins talks about the incredible few months they’ve had since the iQ Prize.
iQ. So what have you been up to since the iQ Prize?
MC: Well, we’ve been hard at work developing cool apps around our image recognition technology. The big news is that we were chosen as one of the winners of Google’s Android Developer Challenge, which came with a $100,000 award. We’ve launched our PlinkArt app on the Android market, an iPhone version is in the works, and we’ll soon be rolling out our Developer API to let other programmers use our image recognition system.
iQ. How did the iQ Prize help?
MC: I think probably the most helpful thing was that it gave us a deadline 
. When you’re in the very early stages of a start-up, things are pretty unformed and it helps to have a near-term target to aim at. We then got some good feedback and contacts at the event, and of course the cash was also useful (we put it towards getting some professional UI design for our app, which went on the win us the Google prize).
How PlinkArt works
iQ. What’s on the horizon?
MC: The app is now launched on the Android market. Next tasks are the iPhone version and our Developer API. We’ve also started discussions with some major art galleries to pilot the app as a replacement for those ancient tape-player audio guides that get used in museums.
iQ. What would you recommend to people looking to enter the iQ Prize next year?
MC: My feeling is that what impressed the judges is some evidence of a little momentum. It doesn’t have to be huge – we were definitely very, very early in our development when we entered – but it helps if you have a demo or something you can show that demonstrates where you might be able to take your idea.
Follow Plink’s progress via @plinksearch, @mark_cummins, and the Plink Art blog.
Tags: google android, james philbin, mark cummins, plink, plinkart
Posted in Love iQ Prize