Tech Talks Central

Aimilios Chalamandaris from Innoetics explains how their text to speech technology is used for accessibility enhancement tools, education, GPS, mobile and much more. Whether emotion & expression can be included in artificial speech and how users can interact with their mobile phones in a more human way. Interviewed by Yannis Rizopoulos for Tech Talks Central.

Andreas Constantinou, Director & Founder of VisionMobile, gives an in depth analysis of some of the key trends in the connected industries and the announcements of the Mobile World Congress 2014: Big data, APIs, IoT/the connected everything, the Nokia Android (X) phone and why a Microsoft company would be moving in this direction. Is an Android phone, a calculated Microsoft strategy? Interviewed by George Voulgaris for Tech Talks Central.

The two co-founders of Contests4Causes, Nick Tsoniotis and Alexandros Binopoulos talk about their presence at Mobile World Congress 2014 and how they plan to get their application known to the world. They explain that Contest4Causes is a platform combining people who like participating in contests and those who want to help good causes; a twist to the Κickstarter model in microfinancing for a social need. Interviewed by Yannis Rizopoulos for TechTalksCentral.

Handy Games is going beyond mobile, getting their games on other devices, bigger screens, to users in their living room. Chris Kassulke talks about Nokia, Tizen, mobile trends and whether he believes second screen experience will catch up. Of course, as a renowned game developer we couldn’t miss asking him about Flappy Bird. Interviewed by George Voulgaris for Tech Talks Central.

George Saslis, Solution Designer of Cytech, the b2b software solutions company for the mobile sector, explains why SMS is not dead but on the contrary is the one communication medium that connects everyone. He goes on to identify other enterprise solutions that are showcased at MWC14 and predicts the future for NFC, iBeacons, mobile app development and more. Interviewed by Yannis Rizopoulos for Tech Talks Central.

Jonathan Nightingale, VP of Firefox, talks about its new Firefox OS phones and why they’re focusing on emerging markets and the next 2 billion smartphone users/clients of low end devices; the deal with Spreadtrum and how he sees Nokia and the rest of the competition, the price pressure downwards, the platform wars and who will win, finally. Interviewed by George Voulgaris for Tech Talks Central.

Noveltech has created a useful tool targeted to tourists and locals that allows someone to identify personal needs and interests; getting them around the city/town efficiently. Manolis Marazakis talks about how their app brands an area, creating awareness by sharing smart and useful information for visitors, curated by local municipalities and businesses. Interviewed by Yannis Rizopoulos for Tech Talks Central.

Mathew Valvis, Marketing communication rep for Jupitee gives us a brief description of how their platform allows you to build a native mobile application in a few minutes. Quite intuitive and straight forward it allows you to set it up in less than 2 hours. Interviewed by Yannis Rizopoulos for Tech Talks Central.

Nikos Avaritsiotis, responsible for new business development at Hotech, talks on the potentials of NFC whether it be ticketing, loyalty schemes, event management, identity, control, data collection and more. They’ve already expanded in the Middle East and were eager to find more partners through MWC14. Interviewed by Yannis Rizopoulos for Tech Talks Central.

Nikolas Kokkotas talks about M-STAT, the bulk sms provider and mobile app development company. They target medium & larger companies that are in the need of reselling sms services without further technical knowledge. Interviewed by Yannis Rizopoulos for Tech Talks Central.

Panos Tsakos, Marketing Director presents their large variety of online payment services included on Viva Wallet, a product of their initial platform of Viva Payments; the first licenced mobile payments solution from the European Central Bank, already expanding to many countries. Interviewed by Yannis Rizopoulos for Tech Talks Central.

Rick Spencer, VP of Ubuntu at Canonical Ltd. talks about their announcements concerning Ubuntu Touch on Meizu and BQ smartphones and what the linux dominance on cloud, servers, devices etc. will mean for the company and their mobile community. Interviewed by George Voulgaris for Tech Talks Central.

Vivi Ntrigkogia, Marketing Director & Research Associate of CERTH, the state funded Center for Research in Thessaloniki, Greece, talks about Social Sensor, an EU funded project, that collects, processes and aggregates big streams of data. The platform leverages intelligent techniques to deliver personalised content to its users, while responding to the need for real-time social intelligence and responsiveness. Interviewed by Yannis Rizopoulos for Tech Talks Central.

Angelina Kouroubali talks about FORTH’s Computer Science and Health research centre outcomes, ‘From Research to Αffective Ιmpact on Ηealth’ sharing 30 years of experience on eHealth, big data and creating actual products for the Greek market. Professor Karantanas takes us on a quick journey over their advanced medical imaging research and the possible opportunities in the market. He continues, deepening on the causes of public health care dysfunctionality, analyzing the disconnection between applied science and policy makers; wrong investments decisions; availability of funds and steps that need to be taken to turn the tide, in Greece. Interviewed by TTC’s George Voulgaris.

Professor Nora Kearney dives into a 10 year journey into the eSmart project mostly designed for cancer patient monitoring and relief. She analyzes the technical side; the risk algorithms and the triggers that alert health professionals, real time. A purely patient driven project, that doesn’t neglect clinical finds, it focuses on patient perspective developing prototypes for long term conditions and multiple chronic disease manifestations. Interviewed by TTC’s George Voulgaris.

We had the pleasure and honor to talk with Neelie Kroes, Vice President of the European Commission and leader for the Digital Agenda. Unfortunately - due to a last-minute rescheduling issue the Vice President only had time for two brief comments on the eHealth share within the 2020 Horizon framework and EU’s position in the prospect of a growing Sharing Economy. Interviewed by TTC’s Yannis Rizopoulos & George Voulgaris.

Leo Lewis, Senior Fellow at the International Foundation for Integrated Care, gives an overview of Integrated Care and the collective of services and organizations it comprises. Leo then gives some insights in the benefits and the implementation aspects of Integrated Care. We also talk about Change Management, one of the key challenges in executing large scale deployments of Integrated Care services. Interviewed by TTC’s George Voulgaris.

Pantelis Aggelidis, founder & CEO of Vidavo, dives into some of the practical issues of realizing large scale Integrated Care services. Pantelis talks about the central role of eHealth in any Integrated Care implementation, the impact of Integrated Care on Health Care processes and actions such as the integrated prescriptions and treatments, as well as the social and cost benefits. We then talk about IC impact on different patient groups and some ongoing implementations in Europe. Interviewed by TTC’s George Voulgaris.

Dr. Leo Anthony Celi, clinical research director for the Laboratory of Computational Physiology at MIT, gives an overview of the challenges faced and insights gained through the eHealth for resource-limited settings project. Dr. Celi then explains how the shortage of health data prevents the improvement of care in developing countries with limited resources. Our talk then moves into how technology is been leveraged in a research project led by Dr. Celo at the MIT in order to collect health data, create actionable metrics and ultimately improve and optimize healthcare. We finally discuss some of the key issue such as privacy and the benefits of using open source software during the project. Interviewed by TTC’s George Voulgaris.

Swedish ICT strategist, Helene Richardsson, talks about the benefits and improvements ICT brings to the healthcare sector and the cooperation needed from all involved parties, as we are faced not only with an ageing society but also with limited resources due to the economic crisis. Interviewed by TTC’s Yannis Rizopoulos.