The Pioneers Budapest event is approaching… IoT Startups, it’s high time for you to apply! If you are selected for pitching at the Budapest event, you have the chance to win a free ticket to the famous Pioneers Festival in Vienna in May, get shortlisted to the Pioneers Festival Startup Challenge Top 50 and receive coaching from their official coaches + a LogMeIn team professional coaching.
Réka Kovács, Liber8
The competition will be tough. Look at one of the candidates, Liber8 Technology, who is willing to take the challenge. Réka Kovács, business development responsible told us about their innovative #NObutton#NOcord#NOcharge wireless display technology.
So Réka, tell us more about the technology you developed at Liber8.
Over the past year, we have been working on a wireless display technology. It’s a technology that allows you to display an image on a screen without any button, cable or battery. It works with e-ink surface displays, the same screens that are used for instance on eReaders. Normally, to change an image on an e-ink screen, you would need some power. But our technology allows you to do it without any source of power! Who hasn’t once been faced with an out-of-battery phone that can’t be charged because you forgot the charger? Well, we liberate you from this inconvenience…
Concretely, how does it work?
It works with an NFC chip. This chip is present in most phones, and we have integrated one in the e-ink display. By approaching the phone to the screen, both NFC chips communicate and allow the tr
ansfer of an image. It operates without a battery and the hassle of having to recharge it. The Tago application is currently Android only. The iPhone 6 already has the NFC technology in it, but Apple hasn’t enabled the functionality yet. However, online rumor says that Apple is considering expanding NFC in its future iPhones beyond Apply Pay. The only other restriction is that the e-ink technology only allows black and white images. The colours come out as too dull, but that will change for sure in the future.
And what are the applications of this technology?
Now that our technology is far enough, we are working on our first product, the ‘Tago arc’ bracelet. It’s the world’s first wearable that needs no charge.
We call it the jewellery of the 21st century
It’s a high-end jewellery made in surgical stainless steel and available in various sizes and colours. The e-ink display is integrated into the bracelet so that it covers its whole surface and you can change the image as often as you want, to fit best with your clothes, your accessories or your mood of the day!
We are currently in a pre-manufacturing phase, we should have samples to show in the summer and we’ll be able to ship it in December of this year, in time for Christmas. We did a crowdfunding campaign called Indiegogo and it was very successful, we reached our funding goal within 24 hours and our product gained a lot of traction!
Do you already have ideas about other products?
Actually there are endless possibilities through design. Other displays can be used: bags, shoes… This is the next level of personalisation. Industries such as fashion, entertainment or billboarding are very hungry for it. We have some ideas, and we are actually looking for more. If by reading this article you get a crazy idea, reach out to us and we will be happy to discuss with you!
How do you see your product fit into this year’s theme for Pioneers, the Internet of Things?
Tago arc is an awesome piece of jewellery which is also an intelligent object, but it doesn’t do anything for you yet. We are looking at more functionalities, but we will keep the focus on producing a wearable that fits into people’s lives, not a gadget that they get bored with after 3 months. It will integrate in your every-day but the fact that it’s first and foremost a jewel won’t change.
Great! We hope to see you at PioneersBudapest. What do you expect from this event?
We would really love to pitch at the Pioneers Festival in Vienna. We hope to be able to tell our story, share it with people, see who gets enthusiastic. We participated already to the festival last year, but we were not in the pitching competition, we had a stand, and at that time the company was still very young and we couldn’t show what we were able to do. Now the impact would really be bigger.
Pioneers Festival is really amazing. It’s a lot of adrenaline, a huge networking opportunity, a great buzz!
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Well now… we wish good luck to Liber8 for PioneersBudapest and maybe for Vienna and even more!
