Israel Active

Israeli startup GearEye uses a radio frequency ID (RFID) scanner, tags, and an app to locate your important belongings.  GearEye sought to raise $60,000 on Kickstarter.  It ended up with over $500,000.  

I’ve reported previously about the Air Mule flying car from Israel’s Urban Aeronautics (also known as Tactical Robotics). Here is the latest on the Unmanned Air Vehicle – now renamed the Cormorant. Its target for launching on the aviation market is now 2020.

Here is the latest report on the progress of the Ashalim project – building the world’s tallest solar tower, deep in the Negev desert . When complete in 2018 it will generate 310 megawatts of power - enough for 130,000 households, or roughly 5% of Israel’s population.

Israel’s Laser Detect System (LDS) has developed the SpectroDrone that can identify explosives and other hazardous materials from several meters away. The system uses a multi-wavelength laser, range-finder, high resolution camera and an algorithm and can be placed on a UAV, robot or vehicle.

Israel’s Elbit Systems presented its new Emergency Scenarios Virtual Reality (VR) Trainer for emergency response teams at the Homeland Security and Cyber Conference in Tel Aviv. It also unveiled GroundEye, which provides data and high resolution imagery for crises monitoring.

Professor (Emeritus) David Faiman of Ben Gurion University has been given the David Ben Gurion award for his life’s work researching and promoting renewable energy.  The prize is awarded to those whose “actions fulfill David Ben-Gurion’s vision and follow his legacy.”

Nevada’s WaterStart public-private joint venture and Israel’s National Technological Innovation Authority signed a memorandum of understanding on water-use innovation, to pave the way for Israeli water companies to set up facilities in the arid state of Nevada.

Facebook is holding its first Israeli developer conference, to help creators of Israeli technologies develop their products in line with the social network’s plan to create a connected world.  Over 600 Israeli developers are attending, along with Facebook officials, engineers and product managers.

Coca-Cola Israel and Tel-Aviv based creative agency Gefen Team have designed a Coke bottle that takes a selfie photo of the drinker.  The novel device easily attaches to a half-liter Coke bottle. It then senses the exact moment the bottle reaches a 70-degree tilt, the ideal angle for taking selfies, before snapping a photo.

A research team from Ben Gurion University of the Negev has won a gold medal at the worldwide synthetic biology competition iGEM, held at MIT. The students’ genetic engineering technology (PlastiCure_BGU) breaks down plastic waste and releases energy.