DEMO Conference is the place to unveil your new company. Twice a year DEMO finds the hottest startups
with the coolest products that are about to launch. DEMO is all about launching new products...in 6 minutes. That's right, each startup gets 6
minutes to demo their product and explain how it works.
The conference is divided into four sessions of about two hours each where 20 companies present for 6 minutes each. It is a marathon of
technology demonstrations and information overload.
What stood out for me?
LeapFrog - A learn-to-read system for kids. Leapfrog uses a digital scanning pen
(like FlyPen) to "read" text on the page
of a book. It converts the words to voice so that a child can hear the words or sounds related to what they see on the page, making a mental
connection to aid the learning process.
Leapfrog appears to use technology from VisionObjects to power their "digital pen". I wrote about Kayentis and VisualObjects, two companies based in France that pioneered this technology, but used it in different applications. Basically they use special paper that has a grid embedded in it. The
digital pen uses this grid to identify where you are on the page and what sounds to play.
StepLabs - Amazing technology that filters out all background noise except your voice.
The demo was done with loud music, VERY loud music, people talking nearby, and the audience yelling as loud as they could. A decibel meter
measured the noise at 96 decibels. This is LOUD. I could see the demonstrators lips moving but couldn't hear a thing during the demo. He played
back the recording of his message and amazingly all the background noise was filtered out. This technology will have lots of applications in cell
phones and recording systems.
Other cool stuff - Every company that presented had cool technology...they must in order to get into DEMO.
Here is a quick run down of the other presenters in the morning session.
Time Trade - a meeting scheduler system that finds mutually convenient meeting times.
Similar to TimeBridge and Tungle, which was announced at DEMO last year.
Iterasi - a web bookmarking tool that keeps a real HTML copy of the page you bookmarked.
Important because web pages change frequently, but the bookmark only saves the top level URL. Similar to Onfolio.
LiquidPlanner - a web based project planning system that helps manage
uncertainty.
CitiPort - A local directory of travel highlights all over the world. Users post
pictures, comments, restaurant reviews, and travel tips. Similar to TripAdvisor and Yelp.
SkyFire - Brings the PC based browsing experience to your cell phone. Download the SkyFire mobile web
browser and view any web page complete with pictures, video, audio, etc.
Fabrik - Their product is called Joggle. They consolidate all your online content, photos, music, video,
all presented in a single view.
SpeakLike - Multi language IM/Chat. Type your message in English and your Spanish friend sees it in
Spanish on her end. When she types a Spanish response you read it in English.
NotchUp - A job finder service with a twist. The companies looking to hire candidates pay you for the
privilege of interviewing you. Links directly to your profile on LinkedIn. You set the price and select what types of jobs you are interested
in.
Education.com - SchoolFinder is a site to help parents find new schools when they are moving to a new
area. Schoolfinder also has lots of educational content and lesson plans focused on the exact age of your child.
800 PBX - A personalized telephone IVR system that converges voice and data that supports email, group
messaging, and chat.
