What if you could prevent a huge number of deaths due to heart issues by just using a simple app? Kardi Ai does exactly that: it helps track arrhythmia, a heart condition which on its own isn’t too dangerous, but over the long term can be the cause for many more serious conditions like stroke and heart attacks. Kardi AI is a relatively new startup, started by a professor of cardiology and his neighbour. One day the neighbour was complaining about the holter he had to wear to detect if he had arrhythmia, a massive contraption that seriously impedes mobility. Worse yet, the holter has issues when recording instances of arrhythmia. Measurements on the go The solution that this unlikely duo came up with, explains Kardi Ai CEO Vlastimil Hrabal in an interview, is very much home in the 21st century. When users subscribe to Kardi Ai’s service, they get access to the smartphone app and also get sent a belt. The belt is clasped over the chest and acts like a mobile ECG, measuring arrhythmia – and only arrhythmia. It cannot detect heart attacks and the like, which a “real” ECG can. Kardi Ai works on a subscription system,...
The major cryptocurrency Bitcoin is losing momentum as its prices are seen to be close to their top for this year. Bitcoin prices surged in the middle of March amid a raging banking crisis in the United States and Europe. The market cap of Bitcoin has jumped by 65% to over $536 billion since the beginning of 2023, commented Martin Marsovsky, chief manager of Finmex Academy. The collapse of the start-up host in California, Silicon Valley Bank, happened because it failed to sustain its business due to a lack of liquidity. Soon after the crypto friendly Signature Bank was shut down by New York state regulators followed by Silvergate Capital Bank. Even after the dust is beginning to settle on this situation, there are still some major questions that need to be answered related to these shut downs. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) announced that Flagstar Bank would acquire the assets of Signature Bank with the exception of $4 billion in crypto-related deposits. FDIC said it will dispose of these assets on its own, while it was rumoured that potential bidders had asked to buy the bank’s crypto assets, but were told they could not bid for this part of Signature’s business. Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco has allegedly forced Silvergate...
The Czech startup boom began in 2010 when new projects and accelerators popped up. Now, the country is not only a ‘gateway’ to other European hubs like Berlin and Vienna, but also has a healthy and strong presence of innovation hubs, incubators and accelerators itself. Last year, the Czech startup scene saw some big deals – such as when online grocery startup Rohlik raised $100 million, becoming a Czech unicorn. In addition, Prague-based SaaS startup Rossum announced $100 million, one of the largest ever Series A rounds to come out of eastern Europe. These are all startups that have launched fairly recently (after late-2017) and are offering innovative solutions. Resistant AI – Prague-based Resistant AI is a SaaS-based AI and machine learning security company that protects financial services from manipulation, fraud and financial crime. In October 2021, they picked up over €14 million. Founded in 2019, Resistant AI is on a mission to create an intelligent shield to protect companies against an epidemic of fraud and attack. As financial services embrace digitisation and use AI to automate and scale, so are those wanting to exploit and manipulate. Born Digital – Founded in 2019, Born Digital focuses on the automation and digitization of conversation between companies...
Czech researchers have developed a biochip that is as fast as an antigen test and reliable as a PCR. A team of Czech scientists from the Institute of Physics led by Hana Lísalová has achieved the most crucial milestone in the development of a unique system for the detection of the SARS-CoV-2 virus causing COVID-19. Biosensor research, which the system is based on, confirmed their sensitivity and reliability and opened new options for further development in this area. The method is a result of the collaboration of the physicist with teams from the Biological Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences and the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice. The outcomes have now been published by the ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces journal. “The results of our current research were preceded by years’ long work on the development of biochips intended for detection of other pathogens such as the ones causing hepatitis or E. coli. After the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, we came up with an idea to use it to detect the SARS-CoV-2 virus,” says Hana Lísalová, the leader of the research team from the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences. The basic research has now been completed and the functionality and...
With a playful video, the Faculty of Electrical Engineering shows what it has to offer in the field of robotics. Last week, the Czech Technical University’s Faculty of Electrical Engineering sent out their Christmas greetings in a fun, impressive, and unique way. That is, they produced a video that shows robots celebrating the holiday season by having their own Christmas party in the university’s empty halls. As TheMayor.eu reports, the opening scene of the video seems ominous as the audience is initially presented with a dark and empty lecture hall. Then, it immediately becomes playful, showing a robot wearing a small Christmas hat, impatiently looking at the clock in the hall. The next few shots show robots from all over the university’s grounds making their way (by either crawling, walking, or flying) up to another room. The clock then strikes 20:00 and the doors of the room open up to reveal a Christmas party held by and for the university’s robots. With this playful Christmas video, the Faculty of Electrical Engineering seeks to make several points, the first of which is that robotics must not be associated only with work but also fun. Second, it aims to demonstrate what it...
European finals of the global startup competition Startup World Cup were a part of Prague’s event Startup World Cup & Summit. This SWCSummit was entirely conquered by the Czech projects Tatum and Readmio. The first offers a platform that revolutionizes blockchain creation. The second project makes reading more attractive to children through a mobile application by complementing storytelling with sound effects in real-time. Startup Tatum won the main prize of the jury and the title of European champion with it. Readmio stole the hearts of the spectators and won the audience prize. Both projects continued their successful journey from the previous day when they also dominated the regional competition of the Visegrad Four region. During the continental finals, nine startups from all over Europe fought their way out of other regional rounds and associated startup competitions. Each project had four minutes for its presentation, followed by another four minutes of questions from the jurors. This time, a five-member jury admits to having a hard time determining the winner. “In the regional round of V4, the victory of the Tatum project was unequivocal. In the continental final, however, we considered other candidates until the last second – for example, in the...
From September, Starlink could officially start operations in the Czech Republic. A subsidiary of SpaceX that wants to cover the entire planet with fast satellite internet, has already registered with the Czech Telecommunications Office as a business entity that provides Internet access. However, it is not yet clear whether the end services will actually be available to Czech users in two weeks. It is possible to check Czech addresses on the official starlink.com website, but the answer is that Starlink will not cover the territory until 2022 and that the launch is subject to regulatory approval (which it has already obtained). The beta version of the service is already available in 12 countries, including neighboring Germany and Austria, in some other countries there are private tests, but Czechia is probably not among them. Starlink has already launched over 1,700 satellites into orbit, about 1,400 of which are fully functional. But Elon Musk would like to have tens of thousands of satellites in orbit. About Starlink Starlink is a satellite internet constellation operated by SpaceX providing satellite Internet access to most of the Earth. The constellation consists of over 1600 satellites in mid-2021, and will eventually consist of many thousands of mass-produced small satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO), which communicate with...
U.S. cybersecurity company NortonLifeLock Inc said on Tuesday it has agreed to buy London-listed rival Avast Plc for up to $8.6 billion in cash and shares to create a leader in consumer security software. The companies, which announced merger talks last month, said the combined group would unite their complementary strengths for more than 500 million cyber safety customers. Vincent Pilette, chief executive of NortonLifeLock, said his company was strong in identity theft protection whereas Avast was strong in privacy. “We both have the vision of a common platform, where frankly we really have scratched the surface,” he said in an interview. Founded and based in Prague, Avast is a pioneer of “freemium” software, whereby basic applications are free and subscribers pay for premium features. It had 435 million active users at the end of 2020, of whom 16.5 million were paying. NortonLifeLock, previously known as Symantec, was renamed after it sold its enterprise business to Broadcom in 2019, leaving it focused on consumers. It has a larger premium business selling products to combat viruses, spyware, malware and other online attacks. Pilette said freemium and premium could successfully coexist, with the former educating consumers about the value of security and...
Czech device will help increase astronauts’ safety of the next Moon flight. Czech company ADVACAM will help answer one of the most important questions of space travel: “How to protect crews and equipment from the negative effects of cosmic rays?” NASA will use the results of the research for the Artemis program, a mission planned for 2024 when, for the first time in history, a woman will fly to the Moon. Artemis will also be NASA’s first crewed flight to the Moon since 1972. Radiation research will be provided for NASA by the US State University of Louisiana (LSU) which invited the cooperation of Czech company ADVACAM, an innovator and manufacturer of unique imaging detectors used today, for example, by astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS). ADVACAM will thus become the first Czech company whose product will reach the Moon. The Intuitive Machines Nova-C lunar landing module, which will carry the ADVACAM detector, will be launched from the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in the first quarter of 2022. The module will spend two weeks on the Moon. Data will be collected by highly sophisticated ADVACAM MiniPIX TPX3 miniature cameras recoding traces of individual particles of space radiation. ADVACAM’s state-of-the-art...
Are you constantly wondering where to go on a trip in Czechia? You don’t have to anymore – Placehunter mobile app gives you a handful of tips for trips. Placehunter is a mobile app in English where you can find around 150 unique places to see in Czechia. In addition, you will also find practical information for each location – such as photos, place description, parking space, physical and time requirements, weather forecast for the place, whether the area is suitable for strollers, dogs, camping, and more. “The goal was to create an app with all the information the user needs to know before the trip, so they don’t have to look for anything else and can spend the trip without headaches,” says Eliška Hudcová (travel blogger), who is one of the two creators of the app. Her fiancé Jarda is a graphic designer, who has his own company specializing in creating mobile and web applications, so all the development was done in-house. The idea to create a placehunter started during the first wave of covid-19. As passionate travelers, they couldn’t travel the world as they were used to. And so they began to discover Czechia, but they often spent an incredible amount of...
Virtual reality (VR) is becoming increasingly popular. At present, these catchy technologies are used, for example, for non-traditional forms of employee training, but also to support communication and cooperation within companies or to improve the customer experience. Simultaneously, the expected market for virtual reality is referred to as a new wave of communication and is predicted to proliferate. In 2021, the value of the VR and AR (Augmented Reality) market is expected by analysts to reach $ 215 billion. Given that we have already seen several highly successful uses of these technologies in business, it can be expected that half of the companies not yet using VR will become interested in these technologies in the following years. Let’s have a look at some of the VR Prague-based startups. Beat Games Beat Games is a Prague-based game studio and makers of the hit VR game Beat Saber. Beat Saber is a VR rhythm game where you slash colorful cubes to the beat of adrenaline-pumping music as they fly towards you. The studio was founded in 2018 and is based on simple game principles – a red and blue lightsaber, and with them, you have to cut blue and red boxes...
Rummage through trash cans, beg, steal, consort with criminals – do what it takes to survive the harsh winter. This is the content of the new Czech computer game Hobo: Tough Life, in which players take on the role of a homeless person in the streets of Praslav, a made-up city located in the center of Europe. Perun Creative, a small independent team of Czech developers, was inspired by the reality of Prague, as well as by real stories of homeless people while developing the game. The authors have been working on the game for almost four years and plan to continue improving it. Hobo: Tough Life is out on PCs and available on Steam; later it should also come out on game consoles. Up to four players can participate in the survival. “Welcome to Praslav, a cold Central European city that grows even colder with the coming winter. Praslav is recovering from the political turmoil that followed the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Communist regime, which held the country in its iron grip for decades. While most people eagerly awaited the coming of democracy and capitalism, some were unable to adapt to the new...
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