91Èȱ¬

Software that turns a Raspberry Pi computer into a time-lapse camera has won a contest for teenage programmers.

PySnap was written by 12-year-old Aaron Hill and took first prize in the 13 and under category of the Raspberry Pi summer coding contest.

The software allows Pi owners to connect a USB camera to the device and fine-tune the interval at which it takes pictures.

For his coding prowess Aaron wins a cash prize of $1,000 (£627).

The Raspberry Pi is about the size of a credit card but is a fully working computer created to help young people get started with programming.

The two-month long competition was run by the foundation behind the Raspberry Pi and intended to find the best young programmers working with the bare-bones computer. Entries were sought in two categories: 13 and under and 14-18.

Writing about the competition entries on the Raspberry Pi blog, PySnap was "well thought out and designed". Runners up prizes of $200 (£125) went to two other programs; SerPint, by Louis Goessling, aged 11, made it easier to control more devices via the Pi and The Matrix by Conner Foxley, also 12, was a text-based world simulator.

Ashley Newson, 17, took the top prize in the 14-18 category for SmartSim which is a digital circuit and simulation package for the Pi. The four runners up in this category included a game called Neutron Craft by Bradley Pollard, aged 18,, a web server called Pancake by Yussuf Khalil (15), a file synchroniser built by Hannes Westermann, also 17, called BerryBox and a music player called RasPod from 17-year-old Aneesh Dogra.

"We had entries from all over the world which really delighted us," Ms Upton told the 91Èȱ¬.

The Raspberry Pi Foundation plans to run regular competitions to recognise and reward young programmers.