Archive for July, 2009

iQ Prize winner announced: Decisions for Heroes

Thursday, July 9th, 2009

Winner: Decisions for Heroes

Robin Blandford (Decisions for Heroes) picking up his iQ Prize

After their Dragon’s Den style presentations to the judges earlier in the day, the 8 shortlisted candidates had to do it all again and present their elevator pitches to the 200 people in the audience.

Robin Blandford came out on top and picked up the €10,000 iQ Prize for his Decisions for Heroes application last night in the Guinness Storehouse.

Decisions for Heroes

Founded by young Irish entrepreneur Robin Blandford, Decisions For Heroes helps rescue teams ‘save more lives‘. Identifying a common set of problems found in emergency services, the software was created to capture the information surrounding their rescue operations and training exercises. The system automatically performs analytical charting, draws heatmaps, and benchmarks reports to outline areas of strength, weakness, and expertise.

Robin plans to use the prize fund to travel to the United States with an aim to launch official trials with their emergency services, while back home in Dublin he’ll grow the company by taking on an operations expert, who will focus on data security, availability, and scalability.

Honourable mention: Plink

Plink, a very clever image-based search, picked up the people’s choice and a cheque for €1,000. Plink also got an honourable mention from the judging panel, with Facebook’s Head of Online Operations (EMEA), Colm Long, describing it as “game-changing technology“.

What’s Plink?

Here’s how it works:

  • Take a photograph of something with your mobile phone, instantly get more information.
  • Snap a photo of a book cover, get reviews and price comparison. Snap a CD cover, hear it on iTunes.
  • Snap a movie poster and instantly see the trailer.
  • Snap a painting, read the Wikipedia article.
  • No barcodes, tags or markers – Plink aims to provide direct recognition of the object, quickly and accurately, from a database of millions of items.

Thanks to our judges

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A massive thank you to all our judges who really underpinned the success of the iQ Prize. In taking time out of their busy lives, they added real veracity, validity and independence to the whole process. We really appreciate the time and effort they put in.

Thanks to everyone who:

  • Entered the prize. Our judges were truly overwhelmed (and overworked) by of the quality of the entrants.
  • Supported the idea and got the word out
  • Turned up on the night to support the shortlisted candidates

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Introducing the iQ Prize Shortlist: #8 Neurosynergy Games

Monday, July 6th, 2009

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Neurosynergy Games is the brainchild (no pun intended) of two neuroscientists, Dr David Delany and Dr Lorraine Boran, and is the first brain-training software designed to enhance both intellectual (’IQ’) and emotional (’EQ’) functioning.

The patent-pending IQ-EQ brain trainer software is an integrated set of innovative brain fitness games designed to not only enhance the mental capacities of healthy individuals, but to also address an unprecedented range of psychological disorders including learning, mood, anxiety, psychosis, and impulse-control disorders. By targeting both the causes and effects of these psychological disorders, the IQ-EQ game has a substantial advantage over existing approaches.

Neurosynergy Games is currently working with innovation partners in Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin, NUI Maynooth, Carlow and Waterford IT to develop and validate their IQ-EQ games, and has quickly gained attention elsewhere, winning the Best Start-up Category at the SEEPP Enterprise Awards 2009 and securing a place in Microsoft’s Innovation Accelerator Programme as part of the Microsoft Imagine Cup 2009.

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Introducing the iQ Prize Shortlist: #7 MyHotel.ie

Friday, July 3rd, 2009

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Having spent 10 years in hotel operations & 5 years learning the management of e-commerce websites, brothers David and Matt Sherlock were well prepared when they decided they wanted to change the way hotels can generate sales through the web in Ireland.

MyHotel.ie is an Irish-based hotel booking portal offering a comprehensive resource for both users and hotel owners. Businesses can promote all aspects of their hotel’s location, events, features and facilities, while users will be able to receive up to date hotel information, book rooms, compare wedding venues, and find that ‘special’ offer through one address.  With a unique booking model, MyHotel.ie presents savings for both businesses and users alike.

David and Matt popped into the iQ offices today for their turn in the hot seat:

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Introducing the iQ Prize Shortlist: #6 Octopied

Friday, July 3rd, 2009

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David Behan, Ronan Morris, and Michael Flanagan were all working as freelancers and dreaming of the perfect application that would help them manage the multiple roles they were needed to do. Technical Manager David had the idea to do some draft design work, the idea grew legs (or tentacles!) and Octopied was the result.

Freelancers often have to be a receptionist, sales person, project manager and more, and Octopied is a web app which combines the management of these tasks into a single tool. This allows freelancers to run their business efficiently, effectively and more profitably.

With two-time Golden Spider winner David involved, keep an eye out for their new website which will be launched on Tuesday and follow them @octopied.

Watch Octopied’s David Behan below as our next iQ Prize shortlistee in the interview chair:

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Introducing the iQ Prize Shortlist: #5 Decisions For Heroes

Friday, July 3rd, 2009

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Volunteering as a cliff rescue climber for the Irish Coast Guard is pretty inspirational on its own, but Robin Blandford took an innovative step beyond, using his experiences to develop a new web application that saves lives – Decisions For Heroes.

Decisions For Heroes helps rescue teams record & analyse their rescue operations. Instead of archiving information as paperwork, the tool generates real-time profiles of members, available resources, and experience levels. This data is then used to monitor and deliver live and intelligent information to the field.

This unique idea has also captured attention beyond the iQ Prize, with Decisions For Heroes listed as a finalist for Seedcamp Week 2008, nominated for two prizes at the Irish Web Awards and most recently named as a finalist in The Europas award for Best Social Innovation.

Follow Decisions For Heroes at @D4H and Facebook, and check out our interview with Robin:

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Introducing the iQ Prize Shortlist: #4 GetItKeepIt

Friday, July 3rd, 2009

A big mahogany chest belonging to one of the founders’ mothers provided the spark for our next shortlisted entry GetItKeepIt. The chest in question was used as a filing cabinet, with a few hours of dedication required should any important piece of correspondence need to be retrieved from the 20 years worth of documents inside. This combined with a self-confessed “allergic reaction to filing” led to the business idea being formed.

Attempting to prevent the filing challenges presented by paper being repeated with digital correspondence, GetItKeepIt offers subscribers an online portal for the receipt, management and retention of all their important documentation (bills, etickets, insurance documents, credit card bills, etc). Subscribers can gather, analyse, file, tag and action any documents that are important, require attention and need to be retained.

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Introducing the iQ Prize Shortlist: #3 Our Writers’ Bloc

Friday, July 3rd, 2009

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After seeing how quickly digital downloads revolutionised the music industry, Karl Quinn and Owen Gallagher thought literature could do with a similar makeover. The introduction of e-readers from some of the industry’s major players confirmed they were on the right path and Our Writers’ Bloc was born.

Ourwritersbloc.com aims to be a open marketplace where authors can reach readers without having to approach major publishing houses. Works can be submitted at no cost and will be formatted for use on a number of digital devices such as the Sony Reader, Amazon Kindle, and iPhone. Authors can then sell to and interact directly with their audience, creating a literary social network.

Watch Karl and Owen from Our Writers’ Bloc as they jump into the iQ Prize hot seat:

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iQ Prize Award Night

Wednesday, July 1st, 2009

We’ve picked a venue for the iQ Prize Award Night on July 8th – so if you entered the iQ Prize or just want to show your support for innovative Irish startups,  come along and have a drink on us.

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As well as announcing the winner, there’ll be a People’s Choice award where one of our shortlist can win an extra €1,000.

Feel free to spread the word – just make sure to let us know if you’ll be there.

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Introducing the iQ Prize Shortlist: #2 Pendle House

Wednesday, July 1st, 2009

The high commissions and wide spreads of traditional foreign exchange operators prompted the creation of our second iQ Prize shortlisted entry, Pendle House.

The website provides an online currency exchange market that allows individuals and companies from around the world to trade directly with each other. By cutting out all transaction costs, Pendle House provides a zero-spread, zero-commission service.

This week we’ve invited the iQ Prize shortlist into our offices for a chat – Michael Furey from Pendle House is the first one up in front of the camera.

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Introducing the iQ Prize Shortlist: #1 Plink

Wednesday, July 1st, 2009

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Whilst conducting his PhD research into “developing a probabilistic approach to appearance-based place matching that tackles this issue of perceptual aliasing”, Mark Cummins and fellow research student James Philbin teamed up to find a way to introduce the technology they were generating to the outside world.

Their solution was to form their own company – Plink – which develops image-driven search engines.

Take a photograph of something with your mobile phone, instantly get more information. Snap a photo of a book cover, get reviews and price comparison. Snap a CD cover, hear it on iTunes. Snap a movie poster and instantly see the trailer. Snap a painting, read the Wikipedia article. No barcodes, tags or markers – Plink aims to provide direct recognition of the object, quickly and accurately, from a database of millions of items.

We’re not the only ones who’ve noticed their potential – Plink was one of the final 20 teams at the Mini Seedcamp in London in April.

Follow them @plinksearch.

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