Israel Active

I reported previously on Israel’s Freightos, which is making international freight transport easier and cheaper. Freightos also makes it eco-friendlier by providing a CO2 footprint calculation on every quote. Customers can then choose the route and mode (air, train, ship etc.).

I’ve reported previously on the Augmented Reality (AR) optical engines developed by Israel’s Lumus. Now Taiwan’s Quanta Computer is to manufacture AR headsets with the Lumus technology inside. The product is expected to be on the market by mid-2019.

Most people aren't aware that their credit cards or favorite retailers have price protection policies when products get discounted after purchase. Israeli startup and app Earny tracks the prices of products online and claims refunds for its users when prices of past purchases drop.

The Ashalim thermo-solar power station in Israel’s Negev Desert covers 988 acres with 28,000 tons of steel. With an adjacent thermos-solar plant and 2 nearby photovoltaic plants, they will provide some 300MW of electricity daily into the National Grid – 2.5% of the current total.

“PICO kids” is a program for two thousand children at 31 Jerusalem schools. Mentored by 80-plus university students and local entrepreneurs, they build useful devices, do lab experiments, program computers and use 3D printing and robotics to help (e.g.) the disadvantaged.

The award-winning, Israeli designed and manufactured Nanobébé bottle is said to be the first baby bottle designed to preserve essential nutrients. The bottle works directly with an expressing pump, allows for quick and even cooling and warming, and provides easy and efficient storage.

Israeli startup Sirin Labs is developing an ultra-secure mobile phone using blockchain technology. It has also hired Argentine soccer star Lionel Messi as its brand ambassador.

Israel-based startup Bugatone develops software that enables ordinary headphones to act as sensors. They can recognize you by your ears, take your temperature, start and stop playing music when you put them on or remove them, and more. Bugatone just raised $3 million of funds.

The Israeli Government and the Israel Builders Association have teamed up with SOSA, a company that connects startups with investors, to set up the Construction Innovation Zone. Its aim is to bring new technologies to cranes, planning and building procedures, and infrastructure.

Yaron Shenhav and Gadi Grottas, co-founders of Israel’s SolCold, and Hebrew University Professor Guy Ron have invented a high-tech coating that cools down structures when the sun shines. Photons from the sun hit the material which then emits a higher-frequency photon and loses energy.