The largest worldwide show devoted to new technologies, CES (Consumer Electronic Show) came to an end last week in Las Vegas. It offers an opportunity to present the Walloon companies present that succeeded in being noticed, with three of them earning recognition during the CES Innovation Awards ceremony.
In Las Vegas, the Consumer Electronic Show brought together more than 165,000 visitors, 3,800 exhibitors and more than 6,500 approved media sources. Four Walloon start-ups were led by the private Liege-based business incubator, The Factory (the first four in the list below).
"As I was able to test a few years ago with EVS, it is essential for a company that is targeting an international market to be able to meet its future distributors and customers, as well as its competitors at a show such as CES. That is why a company such as Riiot Labs, which is starting to commercialise its product and intends to tackle the American market in 2017, must be present at the CES", declared Pierre L’Hoest, the founder of The Faktory.
Altostratus was present with Pioupiou, a connected anemometer that does not any require electricity or Internet access. This ultra-modern and designer version of a weather vane measures the wind speed and direction as well as the intensity of gusts. This miniature and affordable weather station (rental package from €25 a month) is aimed at paragliders or windsurfers, who will benefit from the essential wind measurements on their smartphone. A first version of the product has already been installed for 600 customers without any marketing efforts. A second version, which is even more accomplished, is expected for the 2nd quarter of 2017.
Kanopy Technologies presented Kanopy 25, an intelligent dish placed beneath your plant's pot which ensures the optimum management of watering. The device integrates sensors which, on the basis of the weight of the plant, sends data about changes in the earth's humidity. Thus, owners are able to follow watering in real time and, consequently, monitor the health of the plant, on their smartphone. The Kanopy also includes a pump which ensures optimum watering, even during absences.
P-Heal is offering a connected pillbox, which ensures more effective monitoring of drugs to be taken every day and acts as a reminder. Equipped with scales which detect changes in weight, P-Heal constantly monitors changes in the quantity of pills and determines whether users have taken their tablets or not. A light indicator serves as a reminder. And, after a defined period of time, P-Heal informs users by SMS that they have forgotten to take their medicine.
Riiot Labs presented Blue, an intelligent pool water analyser, which earned it an Innovation Award in the "smart home" category. Blue analyses and communicates information about the water quality (temperature, pH, salinity and chlorine level) of any swimming pool to the smartphone in charge of maintaining it.
Lix Pen: a compact and easy-to-use 3D pen. Beneath it's extremely traditional appearance, it allows users to design objects in 3D in just a few minutes. In order to bring these creations to life, the pen does not use ink but plastic sticks. Heated to a temperature of between 160°C and 230°C (thanks to the element located inside the pen powered by USB cable), the latter solidifies when it cools.
Calyos: specialising in fan-free cooling systems for high-performance computers (in particular for gamers). This Liege-based company won a prize in the "Gaming" category at the CES Innovation Awards for Calytronics.
Bloom Technologies won an award in the "Wearable technologies" category for Bloom-Life, a connected sensor which analyses the contractions of pregnant women in real time without communicating any radio-waves to the future child.
Source: Le Soir
