For diabetics, logging information about blood sugar levels to ensure they get the right amount of insulin each day can be a constant and endless task. We’ve already seen the Timesulin offer a helping hand by delivering data about the last time they injected, and now mySugr is an app that makes quantifying daily health more fun for diabetics by treating it as a monster that needs to be tamed.

Based in Austria, the startup aims to use gamification techniques to get diabetics to create detailed logs of their daily stats in order to provide a better view of what’s going on over time. Each user gets a monster – which they can give a name to – that represents their diabetes. The monster talks back to users when they enter some data – whether it’s blood glucose numbers, time of injection, the meals they have eaten or activities they’ve done – and reacts positively or negatively based on their performance. By keeping the monster happy, diabetics increase the amount of data they have on their condition and can use the app to create detailed graphs, informing them of how their body behaves in certain situations. The following video explains some of the ideas behind the app:

mySugr is free to download for the iPad and iPhone from the App Store. How could gamification help sufferers of other conditions better monitor their health?

Website: www.mysugr.com
Contact: www.mysugr.com/en/website/our-support/ask-fredrik/ask-fredrik.html

Spotted by: Alexia M and MM

Several years back we covered YrWall, an interactive virtual graffiti wall that requires no paint, and recently we came across a like-minded innovation that brings such capabilities to everyday consumers. Enter Tagtool, an iPad app that allows users to create digital graffiti and then project it on any surface, wall or building.

Now available in Apple’s App Store, Tagtool “turns your iPad into an intuitive live instrument for projection art,” in the words of OMA International, its Vienna-based maker. Users can create their graffiti using any combination of digital finger painting and animating, and they can also connect several iPads to work together as a team. When they’re done creating, the result can be beamed onto walls, buildings and other surfaces. The video below demonstrates Tagtool in action:

Tagtool works with iPad 2 or newer models and users need an AV adapter to show their Tagtool artwork on a projector or TV, or they can use an Apple TV for Airplay streaming. Marketers around the globe: time to test out the advertising possibilities?

Website: www.tagtool.at
Contact: office@omai.at

Spotted by: Murray Orange

The Bruynzeel My Grip pen may have been designed for kids by kids themselves, but it seems safe to say it lacks at least one feature that most schoolchildren would surely value. Imagine a pen that alerts the user as soon as they’ve made a mistake, and you’ve essentially got the Lernstift, a new innovation from an Austrian startup by the same name.

Electronics integrated into the Lernstift enable the device to recognize a wide variety of writing movements and alert the writer by vibrating when a mistake has been made. Specifically, two functions are available on the pen: Calligraphy Mode, which points out flaws of form and legibility, and Orthography Mode, which focuses on detecting spelling and grammatical errors. The company explains: “Lernstift’s subtle, yet unmistakable vibrating alert lets us know instantly and sensorially when a mistake was made. This makes Lernstift a unique and effective educational aid that makes learning a fun thing to do.” The video below (in German) explains the premise in more detail:

Future versions of the Lernstift will include a dynamic pressure sensor and a networking module to connect with PCs and other devices, as well as an open platform for app development. Its Salzburg-based maker plans to launch a crowdfunding effort starting in February, it says. Education-minded entrepreneurs the world over: one to get involved in?

Website: www.lernstift.com/index_en.html
Contact: service@lernstift.com

Spotted by: Vitus Zeller

Christmas trees are considered an integral part of the festive season for many, but most vendors sell trees that have already been cut down, meaning that by the time they reach peoples’ living rooms the decomposition process is well underway. Local authorities in Paris have already made an effort to make the industry more sustainable by crushing and replanting the trees as fertilizer in public locations, but our latest spotting is encouraging consumers in Austria to purchase a Living Christmas Tree that can be picked up and replanted after the season is over.

The service is offered by eco landscaping company Green Rabbit, who promise to deliver their Christmas trees for free to those living in Vienna and beyond. The trees are Nordmann firs, cultivated in sustainable nurseries, and are delivered in a pot. When Christmas has ended, the customer can either choose to plant the tree again if they can, or Green Rabbit will collect it to be replanted elsewhere. Those who choose to keep it are offered a guide on how to care for the tree. Trees ranging from 80 cm to 150 cm in height are available, priced between EUR 49 and EUR 72.

Green Rabbit’s Living Christmas trees could ensure that – however stressful the festive season is – consumers can have peace of mind that they are not damaging the environment. How else can the holidays be made more sustainable?

Website: www.greenrabbit.co
Contact: www.greenrabbit.co/kontakt

Spotted by: MM

Wildlife collisions pose a serious threat to vehicles on the roads – not to mention the drivers and passengers inside them – but new technology from Austrian IPTE Schalk and Schalk OG aims to reduce that risk dramatically. Specifically, IPTE’s newly revamped DeerDeter system uses strobe lights and sound to keep deer off the road while vehicles pass.

The result of extensive long-term testing in Austria and the United States, DeerDeter is a solar-powered roadside system by which an audible alarm and flashing lights are triggered when an oncoming vehicle approaches, starting from a distance of 200m; the vehicle’s headlights set the system off. The combination of those warning signals – which mimic the cry of a wounded animal and the reflected glare of a predator, according to Wired – make deer pause as the vehicle passes, minimizing the likelihood of any collision. The DeerDeter system can also be configured to incorporate a MESH communications system, allowing a link to a central location via a gateway through the cell-phone network. By virtue of that connection, units at the far end of the deployed system can detect approaching vehicles and activate units further down the roadway even before they sense the oncoming headlights themselves. Either way, once the vehicle is gone, deer and other wildlife are free to cross the road as they would have otherwise.

Some 10,000 weatherproof DeerDeter units have been deployed and tested in the US and Europe over the past five years, demonstrating a decrease in animal-vehicle collisions of 70-90 percent, or even 100 percent in some cases, IPTE says. Transportation entrepreneurs: one to incorporate on the highways and byways in your area?

Website: www.ipte.at/index
Contact: office@ipte.at

Spotted by: Tracy Chong

A holiday experience that engages tourists in the local culture is something that many people seek, and we have already seen Plus One Berlin offer connections between travelers and local residents. Located in Vienna, the Urbanauts project has now converted a street loft into a hotel room, where the usual amenities are outsourced to the local community.

Comprised of three Austrian architects – Christian Knapp, Jonathan Lutter and Theresia Kohlmayr – the team behind Urbanauts aims to provide hospitality for “authentic city adventurers” by encouraging visitors to get out of their room and out into the streets. The room was a former tailor store called Die Schneiderin and has been renovated to include a king size bed, a minibar, an iMac and two bikes. However, all other facilities are located in the nearby neighbourhood – breakfast is served at Cafe Goldegg and a local hamman becomes a spa for guests to relax – meaning that tourists get to see more than just the building they stay in. The hotel room is available at EUR 120 a night, and upgrades include a Vespa Piaggio scooter to enable guests to travel further a field or the option to have the room cleaned every day.

Urbanauts not only gets tourists to engage with the city they are visiting but also helps out local businesses by sending custom in their direction. An idea worth replicating?

Website: www.urbanauts.at
Contact: lofts@urbanauts.at

Spotted by: Raymond Kollau

Spain has already tried to encourage its citizens to regularly pick up a book with its National Reading Plan project which involved adding QR codes that linked to the first chapters of books on its public trains. Now the Austrian city of Klagenfurt has unveiled its own plan with Projekt Ingeborg, which aims to provide residents with a virtual library through QR code stickers placed around the municipality.

Launched at the beginning of the month, the project seeks to make literary classics more easily available to citizens of the city, which currently does not have a public library. Some 70 recognizable yellow stickers have been placed in locations around Klagenfurt – mostly at bus stops courtesy of support from STW Mobilitat – and passersby can either hold their smartphones next to them or use a QR code reader to be directed towards one of 70 different titles. So far, all of the available works are books that have fallen out of copyright and each sticker is placed in a location relating to the subject matter of the text. Users can download Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream by interacting with a sticker located near the beach, while Arthur Schnitzel’s crime novel The Killer is available near the Federal Police station. A map featuring the locations of all the stickers can be accessed at the Projekt Ingeborg website, while users of the Wikitude app can be directed to the virtual library through an augmented reality interface. The team behind the project hope to add works by young authors, as well as music from up and coming bands in mp3 format by August. The video below explains the concept in more detail:

Projekt Ingeborg aims to provide the city with a virtual library, improving literacy, while also encouraging residents to travel around their surroundings. One to replicate in your part of the world?

Website: www.pingeb.org
Contact: mail@pingeb.org

Spotted by: Raymond Kollau

It was only a few weeks ago that we covered Hive’s hybrid snowshoe with the ability to glide downhill, and recently we came across an innovation that brings similar flexibility to hikers navigating other types of terrain. Specifically, the Bergmönch is a mountain bike that can be worn as a backpack for the uphill climb but then can be unfolded for a two-wheeled ride back down.

Weighing just 9 kg, the Bergmönch folds into a small backpack that rests comfortably on the back, providing easy access to equipment and provisions on the trek up a mountain. When it’s time to come back down, however, the device unfolds in two minutes and converts into a fully spring-mounted downhill vehicle capable of handling rough terrain. Riders can kneel during the trail’s smoother stretches and then stand up during the rough sections. The video below demonstrates the Bergmönch in action:

Priced at EUR 1,499, the Bergmönch is now available through numerous European dealers. Retailers and tourism entrepreneurs in other parts of the globe: one to get involved with?

Website: www.bergmoench.com/En
Contact: thomas@bergmoench.com

Contactless credit cards have been around for several years already through the likes of RFID-enabled offerings such as MasterCard PayPass and VISA PayWave. What we hadn’t seen until recently, however, is a wrist watch offering similar capabilities. Sure enough, Watch2Pay devices include prepaid MasterCard PayPass technology to let consumers pay for purchases with a swipe of their watch anywhere PayPass is accepted.

The creation of Austrian watchmaker LAKS, Watch2Pay devices come with both a standard-sized MasterCard PayPass prepaid card, and a smaller version of the card which is fitted inside the watch. Both are linked to the same prepaid, reloadable account, and both are valid for two years. When shopping at participating MasterCard PayPass retailers, Watch2Pay users can simply hold their watch up to the retailer’s reader and payment is instantaneously made. The standard card, meanwhile, can be used at stores without PayPass technology. Available in numerous colors, each Watch2Pay device is priced at GBP 99. The video below explains the Watch2Pay premise further:

PayPass users spend roughly 25 percent more on their card each month than users of other cards do, MasterCard has reportedly said. What’s your brand doing to enable, support and encourage contactless payments?

Website: www.watch2pay.com
Contact: laks@laks.com

Spotted by: Charlie O’Connor

Carina and Tanja are co-founders of Nectar & Pulse, a personalized travel guide creation service. The pair, who have lived in Salzburg, Vienna, Hamburg, London, New York, Stockholm and Munich together, met while studying design and product management in Salzburg, before founding Nectar & Pulse in 2010.

Nectar & Pulse enables users to browse through a list of locals from the destination they wish to travel to. They can read about what these locals enjoy doing in order to determine whether they would be interested in hearing their local tips. If they are, they can click to add that person to their “shopping basket”. Once they have finished adding locals to their basket, Nectar & Pulse will print and deliver a customized travel guide to the user, complete with all the tips and hot-spots recommended by those in their shopping basket. Currently Stockholm, Vienna and London are supported, with plans to expand to Berlin, Barcelona, Paris, Munich, Salzburg, Amsterdam, New York, Tel Aviv and Hamburg.

1. Where did the idea for Nectar & Pulse come from?

We have traveled around the world but never found a guide which really satisfied our needs – so we decided to create our own.

2. Your approach is very curated; do you think you will be able to achieve the scale to take this concept truly global?

Definitely! Around the world there are enough urban nomads who are looking for a different, design-oriented guide, based on the insider tips of selected locals. More and more people want individualized, personal and authentic products.

3. Can you describe a typical working day?

We never have a “typical” day. Each one looks different. We love this adventurous and diverse lifestyle of having our own business. All in all, we write and answer a lot of emails, make phone calls to clients or business partners, drink a lot of coffee, discuss future plans, count numbers, edit our guides, laugh a lot, blog, twitter, facebook, manage our orders, write bills, take pictures and document our journey, pitch to sales partners, book flights, cook, exchange our experiences with our best friends, travel, read a lot about new spots which opened or research for new potential local soulmates. Meet people and test various spots. We never go to bed before midnight.

4. How do you unwind or relax when you’re not working on Nectar & Pulse?

Cinema and concerts. Sauna and Yoga. Running and skinny dipping. Skiing and dancing. Painting and baking. Reading and observing. Indulging and Loving. And of course: traveling

5. What’s the secret ingredient to success as an entrepreneur?

Passion. Persistence. Power.

6. What drove you crazy when building your business?

That everything took longer than expected. We are both quite impatient so that drove us crazy sometimes.

7. What motivates you to keep going?

Our big vision to create an international different lifestyle brand. Each other. Our soulmates.

8. If you were to start again, what would you do differently?

Nothing, since all mistakes were good experiences and made NECTAR & PULSE and us into the business and people we are today.

9. Where do you see your business in five years, and how will you get there?

NECTAR & PULSE will be an international lifestyle brand. We will have offices in Munich, Stockholm, Berlin and New York. We produce city guides for 50 different cities and additional products inspired by traveling.
We will have an inspiring design studio combined with a little café, gallery and NECTAR & PULSE flagship store.
How we will get there? Continue, persist and work hard.

10. If you weren’t working on Nectar & Pulse, what would you be doing?

We would probably be dead. There is no alternative for us.

11. Tell Springwise a secret…

Well, maybe not a secret any longer but we both tattooed one part of the company name on our wrists. Carina is Pulse. Tanja is Nectar.

12. Any final words for aspiring entrepreneurs?

1. Believe in yourself, your skills and your idea.
2. Find a great business partner you trust. It’s easier if you are two.
3. If you feel dejected – CONTINUE!
4. Focus on one idea and execute this one idea well.
5. Take risks! You have nothing to lose.
6. Surround yourself with people who see the potential in you and your idea, who are there when you fail and when you celebrate your successes.
7. Get it out there.
8. Take care of your customers and fans and…
9. Listen to them!
10. Don’t forget that it’s a game. You can’t win or lose it, you can only play it. Have fun!

Thanks Carina and Tanja!

You can read more about Nectar & Pulse in our article here, or visit the Nectar & Pulse website here.