Israel Active

Instead of mapping every single building, Israel’s Navin turns the smartphone into a mapping device. It enables people to find their way in every hospital, shopping mall, airport and train station. Navin generates data points using shared sensors of every nearby smartphone with the app.

Israeli startup SeeTree is launching a new service that will provide crop growers with “deep insights” into the health and productivity of every one of their trees. SeeTree takes high-resolution 3D images using drones, plus ground sensors and samples to identify diseases and precise irrigation needs.

The World Bee Project has launched a pilot to study honeybees in Israel, the UK and Ireland. They have fitted a beehive on top of Tel Aviv’s Dizengoff Shopping Center with solar-powered, Internet-linked sensors to record temperature, moisture levels and sound.

The European Research Council has granted 14 million Euros to Israel to build 10 shoebox-sized satellites for analyzing small clouds and their role in the climate. The mission is named CloudCT, inspired by medical CT (computed tomography) used to map the interior of a patient.

South Africa’s AECI subsidiary Nulandis has signed an agreement with Israel’s SupPlant to market SupPlant’s technology in South Africa and 14 other countries in Africa. SupPlant’s sensor-based system autonomously waters crops, optimizes water consumption and alerts farmers of the state of crops, soil, air etc.

I reported previously on Israel’s Fieldbit and its leading-edge augmented reality (AR) smart glasses app. Fieldbit 5.0 has just been launched, with its advanced AR allowing support engineers to guide end users through problem resolution without expensive field visits.

Tel Aviv University scientists have found that the evening primrose flower (oenothera drummondii) can hear the approach of pollinating bees and hawk-moths and produces extra and sweeter nectar in response. They also replicated the sounds synthetically and produced the same response.

Israel’s ViAqua (advisor Prof Avi Schroeder) develops a particle-based method for orally administering antiviral medication to combat deadly viruses in shrimp – a global market worth some $18 billion. ViAqua has just received investment from Singapore’s VisVires New Protein Master Fund.

I reported previously on Israel’s New Future Transportation (NFT) and its prototype electric car with wings that aims to solve congestion, while being affordable at $50,000. It will take-off and land vertically, is fully electric with a driving range of 100 miles and flying range of 300 miles.

Israel’s Convexum (Latin for drone) has developed a product that takes over drones flying in urban areas lands them safely in a pre-determined area.