December 14, 2007
A Data Patch From Toumaz
Toumaz, a UK company, is in the news with its wearable, actually stickable, wireless sensors for healthcare applications.
The front-end, or sensor patch, looks neat but the system it fits into looks a bit daunting.
Here is the front end
Here is what it takes to make it useful
Posted at 02:52 PM | TrackBack | Permalink
January 29, 2007
Self-Heating Ski Gloves The Latest In Wearable Tech
Reusch, a sporting apparel maker, is launching a new series of lightweight, self-heating ski gloves. The tech for heating the ski gloves was developed in close cooperation with Interactive Wear, a spinoff of Infineon that we like to keep our eye on.
Although it seems a bit untimely to introduce the ski gloves in one of the warmest winters we've had over here in decades where people are spending their weekend walking in the hills rather than skiing, but we do like the LEDs indicators on the gloves. And the technology could be useful in other types of apparel.
It sounds pretty flexible anyway.
The main components of the basic system include:* An electronics unit with a 16-bit microcontroller that manages the intelligent power and temperature control and executes custom and application-specific programmable heating algorithms.
* Special, highly flexible thermal conductors that can be attached to nearly any type of fabric/textile.
* Particularly flat and lightweight lithium ion batteries that feature a high degree of efficiency and – depending on the application and the requirements for heat/power – can be attached individually or distributed on/in the garment in a way that is nearly invisible and is very comfortable for the wearer. These rechargeable power sources supply heat energy for several hours at a time.
* Signaling and power lines that are integrated into the textile to link the temperature sensors, on/off switch, indicator LEDs and batteries with the central electronics and the heating elements.
Read - High Technology for Ski Gloves - Never Have Cold Fingers Again
Posted at 02:54 PM | TrackBack | Permalink
January 18, 2007
Smart Ball Startup From MyOrigo Founder
We just learned that Ball-IT Oy has raised funding from Finland's Aura Capital for its smart ball business. The deal actually closed a while ago but we only learned about it when we asked Johannes Vaananen, co-founder of the 15 month old company, to tell us a bit about his new startup earlier this month.
With an undisclosed amount of capital, Finland-based Ball-IT has developed a pingpong ball-sized Bluetooth-enabled remote control device for Windows and Mac applications.
Support for smartphone applications is next.
The Ball-IT device is not a direct desktop mouse replacement. "Rather it is a multi-purpose device," said Vaananen. Indeed, he sees consumers using it for motion-controlled gaming, interacting with 3D applications, surfing Internet and menus on Home Theater Personal Computers, and as a logging pedometer. It contains newfangled silicon accelerometers, magnetometers and pressure sensors (MEMS devices).
More details than these about the product were not provided as Vaananen said he is under NDAs with first customers. But products from an OEM should be available in the first half of the year, if it goes according to plan.
Readers familiar with the mobilephone market will know Vaananen as the founder and CTO of MyOrigo, a company that hit trade press headlines three or four years ago with its pioneering smartphone designs that enabled zooming, panning, and scrolling without a mouse, and simpler interactivity in general (see image left).
But innovative UI features have seen slow uptake by the world’s cellphone manufacturing companies -- just ask Tao Group, Surfkitchen and their peers how long it takes to win a contract -- and MyOrigo was acquired by US-based F-Origin, where Vaananen stayed unitl September 2005 when he left and teamed up Juha Rytky (CEO) to create Ball-IT.
The firm's business model involves both licensing the technology and its software to original equipment manufacturers (OEM), as well as manufacturing in partnership with an EMS partner for OEM's that in turn will handle sales channel logistics.
The Finnish startup has come quite far in a short time but making it big is going to be a challenge. We've seen companies like Anoto, also from the Nordic region, come to market with new ways to interact with computer applications, but it has struggled to get growth.
But unlike Anoto, Ball-IT is going beyond the PC. And there European startups have a better chance. The reportedly fast market uptake of France’s Nabaztag (also known as the WiFi bunny) from Violet SA (See Neteco link below), as well as the growth of TomTom on the back of GPS navigation gadgets, and Bluetooth gadget innovators, such as Parrot SA, has us thinking this way.
For techie a:c readers, you can get a software development kit that includes a Smart Ball to work with sometime in the first quarter from Ball-IT.
Read - Nabaztag doit montrer qu'il y a une vie après le PC (neteco)
Posted at 10:44 AM | TrackBack | Permalink
August 08, 2006
Oktoberfest Outfits For Digital Adults
This is a bit of a stretch we think: traditional German apparel with integrated MP3 players. But then again, the folks that walk around in clothing like this - these are typically pricey togs - can probably afford to pay for the digital cachet.
Lederhosen with integrated Mp3, optional mobilephone control.
The tech comes from Infineon spinoff, Interactive Wear, an electronic textile startup, and Lodenfrey, designer and manufacturer of traditional German and Austrian evening and daywear, in business for more a hundred years.
Read - Laptop in der Lederhose: Elektro-Mode von Lodenfrey (Focus Gadget blog)
