magazine
01732 759725
19
innovations
Smart technology for business people in the office,
at home and on the move
Free power for mobiles
Decommissioned red telephone boxes have many
alternative uses, from community libraries and
defibrillator points to showers and outside lavatories.
Another option is to use them as a source of free
power for smartphones, cameras and MP3 players.
After receiving £5,000 as a runner-up in the 2014
Mayor’s Low Carbon Entrepreneur competition, Solarbox
has opened the UK’s first solar-powered telephone
box charging point outside the Dominion Theatre on
Tottenham Court Road, London.
The vivid-green boxes are funded entirely by in-box
advertising and are free to use. Solarbox plans to open
more in 2015.
Next year’s Mayor’s Low Carbon Entrepreneur
competition opens on October 20 and closes in February
2015.Winners will be announced at the end of March.
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low-carbon-entrepreneur
Digital music
reader has
broad appeal
A graduate from Nottingham Trent
University has launched a portable
music reader with a 22-inch LED
touchscreen large enough to display two
sheets of music side-by-side.
Martin Smith, an MSc engineering
management graduate from the university’s
School of Science and Technology, has
spent five years developing the zik.
He said: “As an engineer I’ve always been
fascinated by the migration from paper to
digital. After working closely with musicians,
it quickly became apparent that the market
is crying out for a purpose-built reader with
a screen larger than those available with
most tablet or laptop computers.
“A 22-inch screen replicates the actual
size of sheet music and displays two
sheets at a time. It’s the same format that
musicians have used with sheet music for
hundreds of years.”
Musicians can turn the page by
touching the screen or by using a foot
pedal for hands-free operation.
One useful feature is the ability to
change the left hand page before reaching
the end of the right hand page, which
removes the temporary ‘blind spot’ that
occurs when turning both pages at once.
The reader comes with two gigabytes of
storage for digital downloads and scanned
sheet music.
Ziks can be pre-ordered from the
Indiegogo crowdfunding site.
Tap to save a life
Tap2Tag medical alert wristbands, designed to provide
potentially lifesaving information during an emergency,
are now available through the online shop of Epilepsy
Action, the UK’s leading epilepsy charity.
Tap2Tag wristbands, smart cards and key fobs use
NFC (Near Field Communication) technology to transmit
information about the wearer’s identity and medical
conditions to an internet-enabled smartphone.
The smartphone owner just has to tap the patient’s
Tap2tag device with their mobile and, within a couple of
clicks, they can see information the wearer has chosen
to disclose, such as their name, allergies, known medical
condition, blood group, medications etc..
The devices can also be used to send a message, either as
a text or email, to designated family members or carers to
alert them to the emergency.
SimonWigglesworth, deputy chief executive at Epilepsy
Action, said: “We know from previous research that many
people with epilepsy are worried about having a seizure in
public. Devices which give information about a person’s
epilepsy and seizure type can be very useful in helping
passers-by know what
to do.”
It’s a lockdown
Sesame2 is a new security application that automatically
locks your Mac or Windows PC when you move away from
your desk, ensuring that no one else can access your files,
email or programs in your absence.When you return, it
unlocks your computer automatically.
Consisting of a Bluetooth-enabled keyfob and an associated
app, Sesame2 boasts a number of enhancements over the original
product launched last year, including longer battery life, a shorter
locking distance and greater Bluetooth stability.
The app and the keyfob also support two-factor authentication,
requiring a combination of system password and close proximity
of the keyfob.
Sesame2 costs £39.99 inc VAT.
Sentiment analysis for unstructured text
Confirmit has expanded its suite of customer engagement tools with a new
solution that gives users valuable insights into unstructured text and social media.
Conformit Genius uses advanced statistical techniques to assign categories and
determine the sentiment by category for all types of unstructured text, including
verbatim survey responses, social media feedback, web analytics, call centre records
and CRM data.
Two editions are available: Confirmit Genius Text Analytics, which provides
categorisation and sentiment analysis for free-form text, including verbatim and
other unstructured survey data; and Confirmit Genius Social Analytics, which
captures social media feeds, online media feeds, forum comments, blogs etc..
