Meet the Best – The Finalists of the WT Innovation World Cup have been revealed
Munich, February 4: After an exciting evaluation phase of the Wearable Technologies Innovation World Cup, the jury of international technology experts has chosen the best submitted solutions. Three runner-ups have been selected for each of the categories – Sports & Fitness, Healthcare & Wellness, Security & Prevention and Gaming & Lifestyle. But there is only one overall winner: Recon Instruments from Canada, who won-over the jury with their revolutionary Heads-Up Display for sports use from the category Sports & Fitness. Through this display the user can see unobtrusivereal-time performance information (including speed, jump airtime and altitude) navigation, buddy tracking, and smartphone connectivity, transmitting SMS, caller ID and music playlists, instantly direct-to-eye via a micro LCD screen mounted inside the goggles frame.
The international experts had to choose between a large number of cutting-edge solutions and the finalists of the WT Innovation World Cup mirror the great potential of the Wearable Technologies market.
The runner ups of Sports & Fitness were MIO Alpha and Sensoria. MIO Alpha, the world’s first strapless, exceptionally comfortable sports watch-style continuous heart rate monitor you can wear on your wrist, was submitted by Physical Enterprises Inc. from the USA. Heapsylon LLC, also from the USA, impressed the jury with Sensoria, body-sensing socks equipped with an electronic tracking device, which help to monitor in-footwear pressure points to ensure wearing properly fitting shoes, insoles and orthotics.
In the category Healthcare & Wellness, Opto-Phone from Israel was chosen as the category winner with Opto-Care, a novel continuous and non-contact technique based upon laser illumination, which allows the extraction of biomedical parameters such as heart rate and shape, breathing, blood pulse pressure or estimation for glucose concentration in the blood stream. Thimble Bioelectronics and Sensodrive were selected as the runner ups. Thimble Bioelectronics from the USA presented its digital pain management system, which transcends TENS (Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation) treatment in a product that is as simple to use as a band aid. VibroTac, a vibrotactile feedback system created by Sensodrive, can assist and guide blind and visually impaired people by making use of the fact that vibrations can be very well perceived on the skin despite an acoustic and visual overstimulus.
In Security & Prevention, Behnam Molavi and Babak Shadgan from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, were chosen as the category winners. They submitted a smart fire rescue helmet – a non-invasive wireless system capable of monitoring several vital statistics in real time. Mounted in firefighters’ helmets, it can help a central monitoring center to become aware of any carbon monoxide poisoning or critical health conditions. Paul Pignon and Leon Borthwick from BPS Technologies from Estonia stood out with the BPS Ninja, a mobile, body-worn surveillance computing system with wireless streaming capability. Horatio from Potsdam, Germany was chosen as a runner up for the Kinder-Radar, a Bluetooth® low energy sensor that children can be equipped with. If a child wearing the sensor gets lost, a care person, such as teacher, will be able to locate the child by simply looking at the dedicated app.
Keytree from Great Britain was chosen as the winner of “Gaming & Lifestyle.” Their solution, CEO Vision, combines wearable technology displays, cameras and displays with other hardware and devices around you. The wearable glasses’ technologies perform augmented reality but connect wirelessly with kinects, which assist when tracking input.
The runner ups of “Gaming & Lifestyle” are IN10DID Inc. and Now Computing. The Mobile Keyboard from IN10DID, Inc. is a new human-computer interaction tool that can interface anywhere you touch. It is a new way to touch-type without looking at a touch screen for mobile devices.
Now Computing was recognized for StormFly, a super-fast storage device with an open source operating system (bootable in most modern PCs and Macs) embedded in a cool wristband using a combination of SSD and USB 3.0 technology.
The winners and the finalists have been announced at the world leading conference for Wearable Technologies, the WTconference in Munich on February 4th. Selected out of 300 participants from all over the world, the finalists will be able to benefit from marketing support through the sponsors and partners and the overall winner, the WT Innovator of the Year was awarded with prize money of USD 5,000.
“We are excited to witness the impact technology and tools can make when combined with innovative ideas,” said Volker Prueller, marketing director, Wireless Connectivity Solutions, Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI). “This year’s Innovation World Cup submissions show the industry’s drive to develop new wearable products that enhance the user experience, fun, safety and health.”
The WT Innovation World Cup would like to thank the sponsoring companies TI (Title Sponsor), STMicroelectronics (Preferred Technology Partner) and VARTA Microbattery (Sponsor).
About the WT Innovation World Cup
The competition Innovation World Cup was first launched in 2009. In the first three years the focus was on innovations based on Bluetooth® low energy technology, and its scope was enlarged in 2012. Participants from all over the world are now invited to submit solutions for Wearable Technologies in the fields of sports & fitness, healthcare & wellness, gaming & lifestyle and security & prevention. The contest is supported by Title Sponsor Texas Instruments, Preferred Technology Partner STMicroelectronics and sponsor VARTA Microbattery as well as an international network of innovative technology regions and alliances. Through Cluster 55 as the ICT association in the border region between Sweden and Denmark, the Continua Health Alliance, IOT Cloud & BuildInG Taiwan and the regional development agency Team Côte d’Azur, participants will be able to benefit from a large network of potential business partners and customers. This international competition was initiated by Wearable Technologies AG.
About Navispace AG
Navispace, founded in 2003, is the organizer of the Wearable Technologies Innovation World Cup. It is an international Innovation and Marketing company with focus on convergent technologies and solutions. We provide best-in-class global innovation awards, market and business development, international conferences and innovative event concepts, marketing strategies and services. Leading companies of the ICT and lifescience industries, research institutes, industry alliances and associations as well as trade fair organizations rely on Navispace. Navispace is the initiator and organizer of the M2M Challenge.
