Applications
Clothing Plus Oy
Clothing Plus Ltd. brings fabric technology know-how to the hard plastic
electronics industry. Moreover, the company has already stood the test by succeeding in adding new characteristics or services to existing products.
A good example of this is a fabric heart rate monitor which Clothing Plus Ltd. developed together with Polar Electron. The textile band is much nicer and much more user-friendly than its hard, plastic predecessor.
The company's CEO Akseli Reho believes that Ubiquitous Computing is the future.
As yet there is no intelligence in the fabric heart rate monitors. It is in fact a technological innovation.
A shirt containing intelligence would simply be put on and it would, for example, measure the heartbeat and body temperature. Therefore, there would be no need for any separate technical device. Intelligence would be one feature of the product just like its color, material or size.
Reho believes that in the future, electro-functional textile material can be used as fabric in mobile phones, watches, buttons on a remote control and in car seats.
On the other hand, in the future there will be the possibility to add even more intelligence to items such as bedclothes, homes, furniture, almost anything.
When asked about what makes Clothing +-products desirable, Reho lists the appearance of the company’s products, the comfort and lightness of the materials used and their terms and conditions of service. Their clients include athletes, the wellness industry,
the fashion industry and various different professional users around the world.
Reima, the sister company of Clothing Plus Ltd. specializes in wearable technology. It offers so-called intelligent textile technologies to the electronics industry. The company invests in
product development, but it also has a China-based production site. Clothing
Plus employs 16 people. The top textile company was founded in 2001, and
80% of its turnover is exported.
SmartParking
- Effortless parking / Intelligence in the car window
SmartParking is named after intelligent parking. The following description illustrates how easy the system is to use; first you touch the identifier decal in the car with an NFC- mobile phone, such as the Nokia 6131 NFC.
After that, you touch the identifier in the car park, which may be affixed
for example, to a lamp post. Text will then appear on the phone’s screen saying “Would you like to park the car?”. Subsequently, the phone sends the data to the background system.
The days of keeping coins loose in your pocket for parking are gone! Two touches are enough. Furthermore, the driver does not have to worry about the end parking time, and only pays for the time he/she uses. The actual paying takes place either by means of a telephone or credit card invoice. Additionally, parking control becomes easier and more efficient, because the traffic warden is able to check the car’s parking data simply by touching the car’s identifier with his/her mobile phone.
According to Pauli Tossavainen, CEO of ToP Tunniste Ltd., the consumer doesn’t
need to know what kind of technology products or services have backing them up, as long as it works.
With SmartParking, it’s enough to know that the car window has intelligence.
It enables easy parking, and according to Tossavainen the only limit is the imagination, when thinking about what other characteristics could be added to these tags.
He takes targeted advertising as an example. Basically the driver receives offers to his phone from the shops located near the car park.
SmartParking is currently being tested in Oulu, Finland. Testimonials of the users will determine whether intelligent parking is set to ease all Finnish
drivers’ parking woes in the future. SmartParking is part of the Itea SmartTouch project, which develops concrete radio frequency remote identifier-based applications.
ToP Tunniste Ltd. from Tampere supplies wireless, radio frequency remote identifier solutions (NFC / RFID) to industry, logistics and trade. Products of ToP Tunniste are the NFC / RFID -reader devices, intelligent tags and printers. The company was established in 2002.
Älyhimos
– on the way to becoming the most desirable Finnish tourist destination
Jämsek Ltd.'s co-ordinating Himoskylä 2015 – from a vision into practice II project intends to revolutionise traditional tourist services. The wireless, intelligent ICT solutions are designed, tested and implemented in a real customer environment mainly via mobile phones.
The introduction of new technology is used both to identify, charge,
account for, facilitate tourists’ life in travel centres, and
on the other hand, in saving time and money enabling things to be done more effectively and more quickly. Technology deals with the routines, so the customer service is able to invest in personal service.
In the future nobody will need to queue for ski lifts, hillside restaurants, ski rental companies or at the information counter in Himos.
Ski stands will lock automatically, parking will be paid for via mobile phone, the weather information will be compiled to your phone and putting snow on the slopes will be revolutionised…
What’s more, the staff will benefit from the new intelligence as cleaning, maintenance and rescue operations will be transferred to mobile phones.
In Himos trends are being bucked by the very act of doing things together. The development of the region is to take a holistic form. Both large and small operators, companies and educational organizations are co-operating. The cooperation is expected to serve the whole region, to create more jobs and to bring international visibility to the region. The goal is a common one: to render Himos Finland’s most desirable travel destination.
The Himoskylä 2015 II project involves 63 companies and about 750 people.
The aim of the project is to develop and enhance tourism and related incidental services in Himos.
