Tech Talks Central

Ronni Solomon, Executive Vice President and General Counsel for the ECRI Institute, a non profit organisation, dedicated to improving healthcare through discovering and educating on best medical procedures, devices, drugs etc. explains how the institute works and why they are considered highly credible, when it comes to their findings. The ECRI Institute and Ronni Solomon are very concerned with HealthIT and its associated safety issues. She gives us examples of hazards they have discovered in medical devices and software, numbering them to over 3.5 million in their 50 years of working on the subject. We couldn’t avoid asking her about the ‘ransomware’ cyber attacks happening right now on US hospitals and how the issue must be handled. She gives an interesting possible solution. Ronni Solomon will be speaking at the eHealth Week organised by HIMSS Europe, coming June in Amsterdam. Interviewed by Vicki Kolovou for Tech Talks Central.

PhotOral is the first intra-oral blue light wellness device, suitable for controlling your mouth’s microbiome. Stamatis Astra, CEO at PhotOral, life science startup based in Boston, explains how the product stemmed from biomedical research conducted within the Forsyth Institute; and how they plan to have it in the market by the end of 2016. He also talks about product development costs, investor backup, dental studies and what led them in the development of a new product, this time for pet hygiene. Pantelis Angelidis, founder and president of Vidavo, an mHealth company based in Greece, explains their incentives behind their investment in PhotOral and how they’re contributing to the company’s growth with expertise knowledge derived from their own specialisation in the eHealth domain. Interviewed by Vicki Kolovou for Tech Talks Central.

Christopher J. James, Professor of Biomedical Engineering at University of Warwick and Senior member of IEEE explains how patient care is now changing from treating incidents at hospitals -where the patient was just a participant and the clinician was the ‘king’- to maintaining wellness through technology and monitoring at home. He emphasizes on the need for a common platform that will monitor and record continuous data in the home, which will change how we cure illness, by acting on activity patterns. Dr. James explains why bringing wearable technology into the system can add longer periods of activity monitoring, really attached to the end user, which would produce enormously valuable datasets. Activity data that can refer to patient behaviour. Interviewed by Sakis Triantafyllakis for Tech Talks Central

If you’re into digital marketing and Google Adwords, then this is an interview you should be listening to. RocketROI is a marketing automation tool, for small or medium enterprises, that need an efficient way to plan their advertising with Google Adwords while raising their ROI. Ignacio Rodes, CEO & founder of RocketROI, decided to make his own tool when he couldn’t find one to do the job for him. He gained expertise by actually preaching what he believed in; that using robots, for marketing analysis of ads, was more efficient than using humans. In the online travel agency, where he used to work, he managed to triple sales and cut advertising expenditure to half. The startup has already raised 500K euros from one of the largest buyers of advertising channels, on Facebook and Instagram, for Southern Europe and Latin America. Interviewed by Sakis Triantafyllakis for Tech Talks Central

Slock.it was the winner of the IoT competition at 4YFN, for 2016. Their system allows anyone to rent, sell or share anything without the use of a middleman. They have set up an ethereum-based locking system -based on blockchain technology- that can be opened with money. Stephan Tual, Founder & COO at Slock.it, gives an example of its use, explaining how someone could rent their house, without having to put it on a platform like AirBnb; which might not be available in every country and in the end takes a commission. What they would be renting out is the actual door of the apartment -an autonomous object connected to the Internet- using a decentralised database of sort, allowing the users both types of access; to rent and use. Everything can be done through a phone and obviously the prospects are enormous and, may we dare say, quite democratic. Took a lot of imagination to realise the potential of considering every object autonomous, thus transferable, but the guys seem to be onto something. A startup worth kee

Jordi Boza, CEO at Remote Eye, explains how his 3rd startup focuses on remote technical assistance to enterprises, saving them money and time. By using their B2B software solution a company can use a smartphone, tablet or smart glasses to provide technical service or any type of assistance, remotely, without having to bare the cost of shipping someone physically. With the introduction of augmented reality they’re even able to physically show, the person on the ground, where he has to put his own hand or tool in order to solve the problem. Remote Eye participated at 4YFN during MWC16 and they’ve already accumulated several awards, including one from Google for developing for Google Glasses. Jordi explains the difference between augmented and virtual reality and how they’re looking into developing telepresence solutions for health applications. Interviewed by Sakis Triantafyllakis for Tech Talks Central

Our 3rd TTCvoice podcast was recorded and broadcast live from Mobile World Congress 2016, in Barcelona. The biggest mobile technology event along with an amazing city, became the suitable backdrop for us to meet the people behind Barcinno, the online collaborative platform that shares news, knowledge & events of Barcelona’s startup, tech and innovation communities. It will be an understatement to say we weren’t thrilled meeting them; these guys excited us with all their knowledge and inside information. Join us and listen to the Barcinno team, Scott Mackin, Hector Manzano Diaz, Lina Maria Ruiz and Sindre Hopland talk startups, local ecosystem and why Barcelona is the Mobile World Capital. Playing hosts for Tech Talks Central: Vicki Kolovou, Sakis Triantafyllakis and Yannis Rizopoulos.

"Are we thereeeee yet?" Grownups no longer will you suffer the ear piercing drama of children on long, or short, car trips. Igor Ponikarchik, CMO-Head of Mobile Unit Bamboo Group, talks to us about how ŠKODA LITTLE DRIVER will keep your kids happy and engaged while actually introducing them to the concept of driver safety. Igor lets us play with their new connected car app, designed as an interactive game, to teach kids driving basics and main traffic rules. The app simulates every component in real time, by using the data generated by the vehicle while on route. So when mom or dad uses the blinkers, so can the child driving through the app. Kids get points for simulating the correct/safe action and also can teach a thing or two to grownups who may or may not be choosing the safest action. Igor shows us how their development team integrated the ŠKODA API, creating an app fully compatible with the infotainment system of the car. Using the SmartGate system, ŠKODA Little Driver can analyse the vehicle parameter

Talkitt was designed to help people who have been speech impaired after a stroke, Parkinson's, Cerebral Palsy or other diseases and afflictions that may cause speech impairment. Stephanie Anais Cohen, Strategic Advisor for Voiceitt, explains how Talkitt adapts to intelligible speech by considering it a form of language accent, evolving with the user to essentially almost think and interpret the context of what they are trying to say with voice. The vocabulary -dictionary of terms- they have created for the application and the system, learns as it goes and adapts to the user achieving higher recognition in a shorter calibration time. The technology is working to understand what you want to say and "the person does not need to practice and practice," says Stephanie. The company is working on collaborations with Apple and IBM with the goal to have the application available around the world. Voiceitt encourages anyone who is experiencing speech impairment to go to their website and join up, record their voice a

Alain Falys and Michael Rolph are two of the Co-founders of yoyowallet, a mobile wallet that enables brands and retailers to answer the big three questions: Who are my customers; how do I engage with them in a more personal way; and how to sell more. Alain reveals how they have increased their users and developed their community by focusing in large closed environments. Michael highlights what is their key differentiator to other competitors and how they focus to providing one solution with the best user experience. They both believe that the data and insights they have, from all those transactions, enables them to better understand their users’ behaviour and how they will be scaling their business. A really insightful interview regarding mobile payments from a startup that has raised 24 million dollars up to now. Interviewed by Sakis Triantafyllakis for Tech Talks Central.

Who hasn't thought of creating a game at one stage of his or her life?! Peter Symons, Managing Director at OJOO, wants to gamify the world with ‘the Wordpress for mobile experiences’. He explains how easy it is for non-technical people to design, create a game and instantly an iOS and Android App. They have discovered that gamification can be applied to many different industries and they are now focusing on partnerships in order to scale their business and grow. As a serial entrepreneur he talks about his experience and lessons learned from the past. Interviewed by Sakis Triantafyllakis for Tech Talks Central

We caught up with Tim Carter, Health Innovation Technologist at Equinix, after his presentation and panel discussion at ECHAlliance Digital Health & Wellness Summit hosted by Mobile World Congress. Tim talked about the new wave of eHealth being IoT or Io-Everything as they prefer it at Equinix. He predicts how devices connect to each other is where healthcare is going, quickly transforming the industry and taking people by surprise. Tim talks about the rapidly growing healthcare economy and explains the real question is not health digitization but rather health and healthcare outcomes. He explains Equinix's part in "connecting the dots" for fragmented ecosystems and how part of the ECHAlliance summit was answering: how do you connect the dots and how can you help others connect the dots in a better more efficient way that is going to work for better healthcare outcomes. We talk about the phenomenal amount of innovation and ideas and how regardless of the various stages of funding, companies in this industry

Online freedom means protecting your privacy and security and at the same time enjoying a free and open internet. That’s what Keezel is all about according to Friso Schmid, Co-Founder & COO of keezel. Their initial funding target on Indiegogo -August 2015- was 60.000US dollars and up to now they have raised more than 700.000! They are working on developing their product and shipping their first 3.000 devices, by June. Friso points out where their focus is right now; where they’re looking for partnerships; and what their plans are for the future. Last but not least, he mentions some privacy and security threats happening as we speak and how their device can offer cyber security in a very user-friendly way and with no technical skills. Interviewed by Sakis Triantafyllakis for Tech Talks Central

Have you ever tried to verify your identification through the internet, in order to do business? A nightmare in some cases. Forget all about it, as Authenteq is an automatic Identity Verification service for online marketplaces and it only takes 60 seconds. Yeah just 60 seconds by comparing a photo of yours and your passport. Kari Thor Runarsson, CEO & Co-founder at Authenteq, discusses with us about their proprietary and patent pending technology; the Authenteq’s team expertise; their plans, and how their service can benefit customers and users. He also highlights how important security and data privacy are for their company; mentions some of their achievements and where they will focus, geographically, in the upcoming months. Interviewed by Sakis Triantafyllakis for Tech Talks Central

Pepe Borrell, Managing Director at CrowdCube Spain, a subsidiary of CrowdCube UK explains how their crowdfunding service works and how the opportunity, for a department in Spain, appeared. He mentions the platform tools available for investors and what kind of startups have access to their service. He does mention investment figures and specific amounts, to give us an indication how crowdfunding investors receive the same deal as large VCs. Interviewed just a few days after the end of Mobile World Congress 2016 by Vicki Kolovou for Tech Talks Central.

Ever dreamed of looking through walls or your own skin with the use of supervision? Well it’s here and very soon the technology can be incorporated in every mobile device. Raviv Melamed, CEO and co-founder of Vayyar discusses with us their breakthrough technology, that involves several intellectual patents and has attracted serious funding. While he did show us on the spot how a mobile device can look through a wall and see the pipes going through it, he emphasized on more serious applications, like checking for breast cancer. Vayyar’s technology is a low cost alternative, to the expensive and large mammograms, meaning that cash-strapped clinics or hospitals in remote areas of India or Africa will be able to offer a basic type of examination for all women. In the future examining our own breasts with our mobiles suddenly doesn’t seem so utopic. Interviewed by Vicki Kolovou for Tech Talks Central.

Chris Wright, VP Chief Technologist at RedHat explains how the Internet of Things is being built on an infrastructure with core source components based on open source software, the main domain expertise of RedHat. He mentions several IoT components that fit well with their technology, part of the middleware stack, and goes on to respond several more questions on of which is on security issues that will arise with the expanding use of connected devices. Interviewed by Vicki Kolovou for Tech Talks Central.

Helen Keegan, organiser of Swedish Beers and Mobile Advertising Expert, Troy Norcross, Startup Adviser and Digital Strategy Expert, Ilicco Elia, Head of Mobile at DigitasLBi and Rafe Blandford, Mobile Strategist at DigitasLBi discuss with us all about mobile trends and what they expect to see anew, at this year’s Mobile World Congress. In a beautiful down-town Barcelona apartment we got together on a Sunday morning, just before MWC16 hit off, and talked about mobile advertising, adblocking, educating users, virtual reality and much more. On the microphone for Tech Talks Central is Vicki Kolovou, while the rest of the TTC team Sakis Triantafyllakis, Yannis Rizopoulos and Venetia Kyritsi made sure to capture the whole conversation on image and tweet about it.

Vkansee produces miniaturized high resolution fingerprint sensors with a resolution of 2000 ppi which is 4 times higher than what is being used today -in our mobile phones that use fingerprint recognition- enabling higher security. Jason Chaikin, President at Vkansee, talks about how the company is focusing on commercial markets that require biometric security, mainly mobiles and IoT, while he does mention key generators for mobile payments and cross border authentication systems. Although still in development stage they have spoken with all main mobile manufacturers and they will be announcing new collaborations within the year. Interviewed by Vicki Kolovou for Tech Talks Central.

Combining organic chemistry, physics and electricity, StoreDot has created a chemical compound which, along with a complete redesign of the battery, allows it to charge very very fast (1 minute for a mobile). Doron Myersdorf, CEO & Founder and Erez Lober, SVP of Electric Vehicles at StoreDot -an Israeli startup that has raised 66 million in funding from Samsung Ventures- goes beyond mobiles and batteries to talk about how they’ve launched the Electric Vehicle sector, which they believe will be the most promising market for the future. We believe this is a startup that you should be keeping an eye out for in the future. We sure will. Interviewed by Vicki Kolovou for Tech Talks Central.