Viber: Expanding Communication on a Global Level

Viber is an Israeli-based mobile application that allows users to make free phone calls and send text messages to other Viber users within its network, under Wifi or 3G/4G. The application has expanded to include Windows and Mac OSX as well. Upon installing the app, an account is made using the user's phone number, and synchronizes with the phone's address book, making the app easy to operate. At the end of last year, Viber Out was launched, which allows users to call mobile and landline numbers at lower rates. Viber Version 2.3 also incorporates "smileys" and other stickers.  The company is run from Israel, but extends its development facilities to Belarus. Viber is currently available in 30 languages, including English, Hebrew, Arabic, Albanian, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Portuguese, Urdu, Spanish, and Russian.

Viber was founded and co-owned by four Israeli partners: Talmon Marco, who serves as CEO, Igor Megzinik, Sani Maroli and Ofer Smocha in 2010 initially as an iPhone app, but the company's popularity rapidly increased, and now offers service to a multitude of phone providers, boasting over 200 million users. On February 14, 2014, Japanese Internet services company Rakuten acquired Viber for $900 million. Rakuten, an electronic commerce and Internet company, is the largest e-commerce site in Japan, and one of the largest in the world. This purchase will have enormous benefits in expanding the base of Viber and strengthen communication on a global scale.


Links to information about Viber:

1) http://www.timesofisrael.com/japanese-internet-giant-snags-viber-for-900m/
2) http://viber.com

Viber screenshot.
http://cdn.timesofisrael.com/uploads/2014/02/Download-Viber-2-3-1-0-for-Windows-Phone-8-371702-2-635x357.jpg

Viber's logo.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/57/Viber-logo.png/200px-Viber-logo.png

Israeli Technology: Helping to Prevent Cyber-Attacks in Real-Time

Israeli cyber-security company Titanium Core, founded as part of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, has been working on the development of technology that will hinder and ward off cyber attacks on mission-critical systems and avert these attacks in real-time. The company was just recently awarded one million dollars, the largest start-up prize ever given in Israel, by Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP), along with an opportunity to work in JVP's laboratories in Beer Sheva, Israel. The firm won the first "Cybertition" competition, spearheaded by JVP. The competition seeks the best early-stage cyber-security technology, and the recognition and award was announced Tuesday night in San Francisco, as part of the annual RSA Security Conference. The company, along with thirty-five other cyber-security corporations, vied for the coveted prize, in which they presented solutions to the task posed by the JVP: finding an innovative idea or product that could deal with the cyber-security issues in a well-defined market. In addition to the technological aspect, the start-ups were assessed on the practicality of their idea, their business plan, and the potential marketing strategy for their goods or services.

Dudu Mimram, co-founder and chief technology officer for Titanium Core remarked, "Our patented technology can provide an unbreakable security layer around core, mission-critical systems… This funding, along with the guidance of the Cyber Labs incubator, will allow us to bring our vision to market and ensure that this technology can be used to protect the world’s critical IT assets." The co-founder of the company is Professor Yuval Elovici, director of Telekom Innovation Laboratories at Ben-Gurion University, and one of Israel’s most prestigious cyber-security experts.

In today's world, cyber-attacks are rampant. This technology has the potential for enormous success in combatting and solving this problem, and therefore protecting the world from one of the major struggles it grapples with.

Below are links to articles about Titanium Core:
1) http://www.timesofisrael.com/start-up-nabs-million-dollar-cyber-security-prize/
2) http://www.jns.org/news-briefs/2014/2/26/ben-gurion-university-startup-wins-cybertition#.Uw_iRHkvEds

http://cdn.timesofisrael.com/uploads/2014/02/jvpcybertitionwinner.jpg

(L to R) Dudu Mimran, co-founder, Titanium; Yoav Tzruya, Partner, JVP Cyber Labs: Looking on: Nimrod Kozlovski. Partner, JVP Cyber Labs; Omri Cherni, JVP. (Photo credit: Brian L Frank)

The PillCam: Using Minuscule Technology to Treat Large Diseases

Given Imaging, an Israeli company located in Yokneam, is involved in the development, manufacturing and marketing of ground-breaking, brilliant devices for the examination of gastrointestinal diseases. Given Imaging was the first company in the world to develop capsule endoscopy technology, a medical procedure in which a capsule containing a miniature camera, the PillCam, is swallowed by the patient. The technology was FDA approved in 2001. The minuscule camera transfers high quality color images of the digestive system, allowing the physician the ability to visualize the gastrointestinal system. This procedure is non-invasive and causes no pain or inconvenience to the patient. The products are sold in over 70 countries. More than one million patients in over 5,000 medical centers worldwide have benefited from capsule endoscopy.

PillCam SB is the most commonly used, patient-friendly device for directly observing the small bowel to discern and track abnormalities in the body. By using PillCam SB, physicians can see the entire small bowel without having their patients undergo a lengthy procedure that can cause discomfort or requiring them to be sedated. The process is simple: by swallowing a vitamin-sized capsule, physicians can view ulcers, lesions, tumors, and bleeding inside the small bowel. This technology, along with the many others manufactured by Given Imaging, have the potential to really benefit the world in the realm of gastrointestinal diseases.


Below is the link to Given Imaging's website and a FAQ page about the technology:
1) http://www.givenimaging.com/en-int/Pages/default.aspx
2)http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/johns_hopkins_bayview/_docs/medical_services/gastroenterology/pill_cam_sb_faqs.pdf

The PillCam SB.
http://www.givenimaging.com/en-int/Innovative-Solutions/Capsule-Endoscopy/Pillcam-SB/PublishingImages/pillcamsbcapsule.fw.png

Israel: Creating Breakthroughs in Medical Technology

Recently, the Ministry of Health in Israel approved the marketing of an Israel-developed colonoscopy device, which consists of three cameras and wide angle photography, three times what previously existed. This will result in more than 71% precise testing and quality for early detections and diagnoses of colorectal cancer. The endoscope, called Fuse™, from the company EndoChoice, involved an international collaborative effort from both Israel and Germany.  The new colonoscopy device will be installed for the first time in the next two weeks in an Israeli hospital, Elisha, and has already sparked interest in other hospitals. The company anticipates that the device will also be implemented in other gastroenterology screening areas in the coming year.

Colon cancer is common in Israel, the second-most prevalent cancer after breast cancer. Every year 3,200 patients are diagnosed with colorectal cancer and more than 1,800 die from it. On average,  nine people are diagnosed with it everyday and five people die from the disease. This technology will prove extremely useful in detecting the cancer at an earlier stage, and will benefit both Israel and the world at large.


Below is the link to the article and a video describing the technology:

1) http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-4472073,00.html

2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y58iPsZl9as

The Fuse™  Endoscope Device.
http://www.endochoice.com/img/fuse_main_1C-1G_2013.12.jpg

Israel: Helping People Return Home

These are remarkable times for Israel, not only in the realm of adult progress, but in the spectrum of the younger generation, in this case particularly Israeli teenagers, who are developing a unique, one-of-a-kind satellite system, called Duchifat, set to launch in April that will provide a new way to approach the aging, and quickly outdating emergency alert system for hikers and travelers around the globe who cannot use phone or wi-fi connections to send distress signals.

This nano-sized satellite is only ten centimeters square, and once released into orbit will offer assistance to users of Automatic Packet Reporting System (ARPS) compatible devices who are in need of help and cannot connect with rescue services. However, what is one of the most extraordinary aspects of this project is that it is in the process of being built by a group of forty 16 and 17 year old students from Herzliya, who are participating in a special project in which dozens of minuscule satellites will be launched as a collective international effort to discover and explore the lower thermosphere, which is currently mostly unmonitored. The Israeli satellite is being developed as part of a special QB50 EU project for students.

The most important use of APRS is for sending distress signals; therefore, a hiker who is lost in a mountainous location or a desert, or an individual adrift at sea or even trapped on an unknown island, is never truly “alone” if equipped with an APRS-capable device; if they send out a signal, someone will pick it up at some point. "The Duchifat," says Meir Ariel, who directs Herzliya Science Center High School program (where the satellite is being built), will help strengthen the life-saving APRS. “Signals that reach Duchifat will be downloaded to a server at the high school, which will be monitored by students,” he said. “When a distress signal comes in the students will inform the authorities in that region of the location of the person sending the signal, and hopefully they will respond and take care of the problem.” According to Ariel, the Duchifat will circumnavigate the world approximately every hour and a half or so at varying courses. “It can pick up signals within a radius of 4,000 kilometers on earth from any point in the atmosphere, so at some point in a 24 hour period just about anybody anywhere would be within its range,” Ariel continued.

This project has the incredible potential to not only help stranded hikers and other travelers send out help signals, but to help return them home. Below is the link to the article:

http://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-high-school-kids-build-life-saving-satellite/

The Duchifat cubesat.
http://cdn.timesofisrael.com/uploads/2014/01/דוכיפת1-copy.jpg

Students working on the Duchifat cubesat.
http://cdn.timesofisrael.com/uploads/2014/01/תלמידים-בחדר-הנקי-copy-635x357.jpg

Israel: Assisting Both Customers and Retailers Alike

Many times, a call to a representative requiring assistance on a certain product or service can result in being anything but useful. Customers can become even more bewildered after completing the call than before they began it. Enter Israeli start-up CallVU, founded in 2012 by Ori Faran, Doron Rotstein and Roee Halfon, who have created a system where a customer requesting help can see what advice the person on the other end of the phone is offering. Designed for mobile phones, the system operates in the following way: customers who call a help agent submit their names and wait for an agent to answer. If they do not wish to remain on the line, they are given the alternative of a callback. When the "help" call begins, the customer reports their problem and the agent can not only reply verbally, but also with texts and pictures-sending images and further directions on how to solve the problem directly to the customer's screen.

The company is said to possess so much potential that they recently won $25,000 in the second annual MasterCard Israel Technology Award, a competition that included 45 start-ups vying for the coveted prize awarded to emerging companies with novel ideas that can both help customers and retailers.

Below is the link to the article:
http://www.timesofisrael.com/an-israeli-start-ups-solution-for-the-customer-service-blues/

Ori Faran and Doron Rotstein accepting the MasterCard Israel Technology Award in a ceremony in Tel-Aviv.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/an-israeli-start-ups-solution-for-the-customer-service-blues/

Israel: Tikun Olam, One Child At a Time

In central Africa, the Kairo School and Orphanage serves as a place of refuge for children whose parents have died, many of them from AIDS. The orphanage allows the children to continue to develop in a safe environment. However, up until the implementation of Innovation: Africa, the orphanage suffered from an energy issue. Due to the location having no electricity, the only manner in which the orphanage could illuminate the rooms at night was by using kerosene gas or candles. However, this was extremely dangerous, especially for kids, and the faint quality of the light was damaging the children's vision.

Enter Innovation: Africa, founded by Sivan Ya'ari, which installed an Israeli-developed solar energy system in these areas. These systems have provided light to not only the 500 children of the Kairo School, but to hundreds of thousands of residents in the region as well. The project is distinctive in Africa and it recently won a prestigious award from the United Nations. With this new-found light, the children in the orphanage can now have more prolonged days, with extra evening programs teaching them to how to read and write.

In addition to light, the Innovation: Africa projects supply 20,000 liters of clean water a day (due to the solar water pumps they have installed), and drip irrigation systems have produced sources of food and income for farmers and their families. Solar energy units yield not only light for schools, but refrigeration for hospitals, which for the first time can stock and store medicines safely. Also, because of the solar-powered refrigerators, vaccines for many diseases that are prevalent in Africa have been administered to over 300,000 people.


Below is the link to the article and an interesting video featuring Sivan Ya'ari:
1) http://www.timesofisrael.com/lighting-up-africa-with-israeli-technology/
2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zh3D2j-pnYg

Sivan Ya'ari being presented with an award for Innovation: Africa at an awards ceremony in Nairobi, Kenya.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/lighting-up-africa-with-israeli-technology/