All Codemania attendees will be getting electronic badges. The best badge hack of any sort wins an Amazon Kindle, and a second electronic badge (just in case the hack involves disassembly of said badge). Discretionary awards and honorable mentions may win a spare badge or other prize.
Speakers will judge the "best" hack on the day, with completely open criteria. Judges' decision is final.
The badges display a 36x12 matrix of single-colour LEDs. You'll get software* and a USB cable with your badge so that you can program simple messages and images. Messages can be up to 250 chars long, and the badge can store 6 messages. Images can be up to 384x12 pixel 2-colour bitmaps (black for LED on, white for LED off), and can either scroll, or be shown page-by-page, 36 columns at a time. The intelligent among you will click that this allows a 10-frame animation =).
The badges have a built-in USB-to-Serial adapter, and appear when connected as a COM Port. The protocol for direct serial programming is described (badly) in the document below.
*The software provided by the badge supplier only works on Windows, but you're welcome to hack on any platform you feel like. We'll make sure there's a Windows PC available for you to program your badge if you need to use the default sofware.