Winners of Smart Product Challenge for IoT Solutions showcase cellular IoT innovation

A smart insole for diabetics, a sustainable commute solution offering incentives to commuters, and a secure box for storing bicycles have been named as the winners of Tributech Solutions’ inaugural competition to uncover the next generation of cellular IoT innovators.

The Austrian IoT technology company recently held the ‘Smart Product Challenge for IoT Solutions’ with the support and sponsorship of Nordic Semiconductor, Microsoft, Infineon, and Magenta Telekom. Each entrant received a free smart product development kit including Tributech’s nRF9160 SiP-powered ‘Tributech OEM module’, Nordic’s nRF52840 DK, and Infineon’s Shield2Go sensors.

Ten selected finalists pitched their idea for a smart and secure product using innovative sensor hardware and connectivity technologies to a jury of experts comprising Tributech, Nordic, and fellow sponsor companies. At the conclusion of the pitching event, sendance, Carployee, and JUHUU BikeBox were declared the winners. The winners receive a share of a €33,000 ($37,000) prize pool, additional smart project development kits, as well as a free one year subscription to Tributech’s IoT and Data Platform.

sendance is a spin-off from the LIT Soft Materials Lab at Johannes Kepler University, Linz in Austria. The company has developed ‘sendance-grid’, a network of sensors with conformable connections that can be produced in a flat, 2D shape and then applied to the complex surface of 3D printed wearables. The first application for the product is custom made orthotics—such as diabetic insoles or prosthesis shafts—that when embedded with pressure, temperature or humidity sensors, for example, could support patients and their physicians and help prevent diabetic ulcers and sores. Wireless connectivity could provide users and doctors with near real time feedback to improve the efficiency and safety of orthotic therapy.

Carployee, part of U.S.-based RideAmigos, is developing a tracking solution as part of its ‘Pave Commute’ app that would provide stakeholders in the commuter mobility supply chain—such as employers, local governments, transit agencies, and micromobility companies—access to a rich set of data that could be used to reward commuters for making transport choices that reduce congestion, emissions, and parking costs. At the same time the data could be used by stakeholders to optimize transportation options and mobility choices for commuters. The blockchain-based data market would consist of commuters earning tokens for providing mobility data, while data-accessing parties would burn tokens to access the information.