Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Norwegian tech industry surging forward

USA: The press is invited to test drive some of the latest Norwegian technology inventions at an event on May 8 at Innovation Norway’s Silicon Valley office.

There will be live demos of some of Norway’s most innovative technology for the American market, from a next-generation touchless electronic interface and the world's smallest 360-degree camera to breakthrough software for education and healthcare. Information and communication technology has exploded in Norway in recent years, now representing one of the country's most powerful land-based industries attracting significant domestic and foreign investment.

The innovations displayed at the Innovation House, a Silicon Valley incubator, also attracts the visit of Their Royal Highnesses Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit, when visiting the region May 7-9. They will be shown some of the latest Norwegian technology inventions on a May 8 visit.  This event underscores a powerful recent trend that Norway has become a hotbed of science and technology.

Norwegian technology sizzling!
Norway has for years been in the forefront of innovation within the maritime and off shore industries and is today expanding into a dynamic center of new technologies. Official Norwegian sources report that information and communication technology has exploded in recent years, now representing the country's second-largest land-based industry and one that is attracting significant domestic and foreign investment.

To encourage this trend further, the Norwegian government created Innovation Norway in 2004, with US offices in New York, Washington, D.C., Houston, San Francisco and now in Silicon Valley. The latter was launched in 2011 by the Crown Prince via Twitter rather than in a formal ribbon cutting. The Palo Alto location is called Innovation House and boasts 26 "graduating" companies so far.

Crown Prince Haakon said: "The companies at the Innovation Norway offices demonstrate our focus on pioneering new products while creating synergies with the US technology industry. Norway is a lot like the Silicon Valley in regards to our strengths in education, research and technical innovations aimed at solving user needs."

Some of the companies participating in the technology showcase at Innovation House include:

* AIMS Innovation  - a monitoring tool that helps enterprises with system integration solutions such as Microsoft BizTalk to identify potential problems before they occur.

* Bipper Communications -MobileKids helps parents monitor and define limits to their child’s smartphone activities, while bSafe is an advanced personal safety alarm for everyone.

* Changetech -  has created the first health app called Easychange that uses psychology and neuroscience to deliver an online solution to change personal habits. Easychange has a success rate in excess of 70 percent for its programs.

* Elliptic Labs - the first commercial touchless gesturing solution using ultrasound, where users can move objects on a screen without touching the device.

* HighSoft Solutions -  a tool for software developers to easily create interactive charts online.

* ListNerd.com - a novel way to build lists online.

* MakingView - makes the smallest, lightest 360-degree camera for making 360-degree movies. The View360Cam includes an award-winning photo and video viewer.

* ShippingCluster.com - a professional network for the maritime industry. The company’s first service is a “mission-control” style dashboard for ship owners to manage vessel performance across shipping fleets.

* WeWantToKnow.com - DragonBox is an award winning game that secretly teaches kids to solve algebra equations in only two hours.

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