Sports Pulse

Inspiration

There are over 30 million software developers and digital professionals globally, and a massive percentage share a common struggle: Flow State vs. Sports FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out). During major events like the Cricket World Cup or the Premier League, professionals constantly alt-tab to checking scores, prop up their phones, or run Picture-in-Picture videos.

The fatal flaw is that context switching destroys the "Flow State." Studies show it takes up to 20 minutes to regain deep focus after checking a distracting tab. Software widgets still require you to take your eyes off your code. We realized we needed a way to follow the game without ever looking away.

What it does

PULSE is an architectural concept and interactive simulation that transforms the Logitech MX ecosystem into a physical, eyes-free sports dashboard.

Tactile Alerts: We repurposed the MX Master 4's MagSpeed wheel as a sensory engine. A Boundary (4/6) triggers a double physical "bump" in the mouse wheel. A Wicket or Red Card forces the wheel into a heavy "Ratchet Lock." You literally feel the game in your hand.

Peripheral Dashboard: The MX Creative Keypad's OLEDs become a high-contrast scoreboard. A dynamic "Over Tracker" visually logs recent balls (e.g., 4 6 0 W 1 .), and the bottom row acts as a live text commentary marquee.

Hardware Scrubbing: Turning the physical Dial rewinds the text commentary, letting you read past plays without opening a browser. Scrolling the Fluid Roller instantly switches between active matches.

How we built it

For this hackathon, we built a comprehensive, high-fidelity interactive web simulation using HTML, Tailwind CSS, and JavaScript. This simulation visually and logically demonstrates our exact UX, data routing, OLED rendering, and tactile hardware mapping without requiring the judges to run a local backend.

Alongside the working simulation, we engineered the production architecture blueprint for Phase 2:

The Planned Engine: A local Python/Node polling service connected to live sports WebSocket APIs (e.g., Sportradar).

The Planned Bridge: A C# Logitech Actions SDK plugin that intercepts the parsed data, pushes Base64 UI graphics to the keypad, and triggers the MagSpeed electromagnet commands.

Challenges we ran into

Translating complex, fast-paced sports data into a 9-key OLED grid without overwhelming the user was difficult.

The Pivot: We realized that a sports companion must be "glanceable." We merged the bottom three OLED keys into a single, wide display dedicated entirely to the latest play-by-play commentary text. We also engineered the hardware Dial to act as a "Time Machine"—if you feel the mouse bump but miss the action, you simply turn the dial backward to scrub through historical commentary right on the keypad.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We proved that peripheral vision and tactile sensation are highly underutilized in productivity setups. By translating digital API events (like a goal or wicket) into physical electromagnetic resistance on a mouse scroll wheel, we created a truly "ambient" application. We are incredibly proud of how our interactive simulation visually proves this hardware integration to the judges.

What we learned

We learned that hardware can be an incredible behavioral enforcer. We added an "OS Default" toggle to the mouse's Actions Ring, allowing the user to instantly mute PULSE and return the console to normal productivity apps (like Zoom/Spotify) when a meeting starts. Hardware must respect the user's primary workflow, acting as an enhancement, not a distraction.

What's next for PULSE

Our immediate next step is to transition the interactive simulation into a functional prototype. We will build the live API polling engine, establish the C# SDK integration, and implement a micro-subscription model to sustainably cover the fast-refresh sports API costs. Give us the hardware, and we will protect your flow state.

Built With

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