wearable technology

Onyx Motion’s digital coach Swish featured on Canada AM

April 14, 2015
Susanne Staer
Media Coverage

Swish, by Onyx Motion, is a wearable virtual coach that helps basketball players improve their shooting technique while emulating their hardcourt heroes.

UTEST company Onyx Motion‘s lead product, Swish — a basketball virtual coach that currently works with Android Wear smartwatches to help basketball athletes to improve their shooting technique and emulate their heroes — was featured on Canada AM this morning.

Watch the clip of Onyx Motion’s Swish on Canada AM, CTV’s flagship morning show. Product feature plays after advertisements and begins at 1:40 mark.

Think you’ve got an equally great software-based idea for a start-up? UTEST is currently recruiting for its fourth cohort.

Tom Emrich, a Toronto-based consultant and blogger who specializes in mobile, tablets and wearable technology, presented Swish to Canada AM hosts Marci Ien, Beverly Thomson and Jeff Hutcheson using a Sony SmartWatch 3.

“The application takes your form, measures it and, using the motion sensor of the smartwatch, compares it to experienced players’ data and provides you with a tip,” Emrich explained. “It’s really trying to make sure your next shot is going to be a slam dunk.”

Onyx Motion is part of UTEST’s third cohort. The incubator program, which MaRS Innovation co-directs with the University of Toronto. UTEST is currently recruiting companies to its fourth cohort.

How to get accepted into the UTEST start-up incubator: Drive and differentiation

April 1, 2015
Susanne Staer
CoursePeer

UTEST is now accepting applications to Cohort 4

Editor’s note: As of today, the University of Toronto Early-Stage Technology (UTEST) program, which MaRS Innovation co-directs with the University of Toronto, is accepting applications for Cohort 4. The full application is available on the UTEST website.

In meantime, it’s our pleasure to reprint Brianna Goldberg’s “day-in-the-life-of-an-entrepreneur” feature on Cohort 3 company Nvest, published for U of T News.

Jackie Yan focuses on tweaking his PowerPoint slide deck despite the chaos unfolding around him.

Nvest team at work in front of a computer

Near the entrance to the office space he shares with teams from the six other startups that are part of the UTEST accelerator program, a phone spits distorted tones of an investment-related conference call at Hanna Tomory, CEO of a fatigue-management start-up called Syncadian, as she scratches a list of notes.

A few steps down the hall, Marissa Wu, founder of the digital sports coaching wearable startup called Onyx Motion, goes over presentation notes with her co-founder Vivek Kesarwani. They discuss the finer points of athlete training with the intensity of so many layup drills performed on the basketball net propped against the wall of their desk space.

Across the table in the conference room where Yan is feverishly editing his slides, James McCrae pieces together 3D sculptures of horses, wasps and dinosaurs created with software from his start-up, FlatFab.

“We’re hoping to make more stable structures with our 1.0 design, maybe integrating finger-joints,” McCrae explains as he prepares to demo FlatFab’s wares for a video crew from the Privy Council Office in Ottawa, Ontario.

The videographers are producing a video about MaRS Innovation today, which co-directs the UTEST accelerator program with the University of Toronto, and are capturing b-roll of UTEST founders at work on their ventures. With seven companies currently sharing the working space, there’s always something happening.

Onyx Motion to appear on NextGenDen, web-based Dragon’s Den CBC show for mobile and Internet companies

January 27, 2015
Susanne Staer
Media Coverage

UTEST company Onyx Motion, makers of an Android wear app called Swish that provides digital coaching for sports like basketball, will appear on CBC's NextGenDen. UPDATED! You can watch the…

Baycrest’s “My Virtual Dream” brain exhibit at Ontario Science Centre Jan 17-18, 2015

MaRS Innovation is a My Virtual Dream event sponsor and commercialization partner

Toronto, ON (January 12, 2015) – Baycrest Health Sciences’ dazzling brain science exhibit from 2013 Scotiabank Nuit Blanche will be on show at the Ontario Science Centre’s BRAINFest, Jan. 17-18.

My Virtual Dream is an innovative and interactive live performance experience at the intersection of science, art and music. The installation will enable participants to use their brain waves to communicate with each other through an immersive audio and visual expression that will be projected onto video screens.

“Participating at BRAINFest is a great way to share Baycrest’s renowned strengths in cognitive neuroscience in a highly artistic and interactive way with the public,” says Dr. Randy McIntosh, vice-president of Research and Director of Baycrest’s Rotman Research Institute. “Baycrest wishes to thank the Ontario Brain Institute for bringing My Virtual Dream into the Ontario Science Centre and to MaRS Innovation as our key collaborative partner.”

The concept for My Virtual Dream is inspired by an ongoing international project led by Dr. McIntosh and the Rotman to build a virtual, functional brain – a research and diagnostic tool that could one day revolutionize brain healthcare.

The installation, created by Baycrest and the University of Toronto for Nuit Blanche 2013, was a huge hit with fans of the festival. It also represented an extraordinary neuroscience experiment that explored how people can collectively synchronize their brain waves to co-create a multi-sensory environment that merges art, science and technology. In a single night, Rotman researchers collected brain data from over 500 people who signed on to be research subjects.

UTEST announces third cohort of U of T software start-ups

December 10, 2014
Susanne Staer
Appulse Power

Products range from wearable digital coaches to socially-drive financial investment tools

TORONTO (Dec. 2, 2014) — The University of Toronto Early-Stage Technology (UTEST) incubator, co-directed by U of T’s Innovations & Partnerships Office (IPO) and MaRS Innovation, has announced its third cohort of computer science start-up companies.

Betakit and Electronic Products &Technology covered this announcement; TechVibes featured Syncadian and Onyx Motion in recent features. The U of T magazine also featured Syncadian and CEO Hanna Janossy in this recent profile.

The five companies and the diverse sectors they target are (scroll for full company descriptions):

FlatFab Inc. — 3D printing (designing 3D objects that print in 2D)
ICE³ Power Technologies Inc. — hardware (universal charger for portable devices)
Onyx Motion Inc. — wearables (digital coaching)
Nvest Inc. — financial investing (socially-driven stock recommendations)
Syncadian Inc. — digital health (fatigue management for enterprise clients)

Past graduates include Whirlscape, TrendMD, Crowdmark, eQOL and Granata Decision Systems, among others.

Minuum launches iOS 8 keyboard, expanding product to Apple users

September 18, 2014
Susanne Staer
Media Coverage

Whirlscape, a graduate of the UTEST program’s first cohort (co-managed by MaRS Innovation and the University of Toronto), has launched their little keyboard for big fingers to Apple users.

The software, released to coincide with Apple’s iOS 8 launch, is part of Whirlscape’s larger efforts to develop typing solutions for wearable devices, including smartwatches, Google Glass and other applications.

The Minuum product launch for iOS was covered in TechCrunch, The Next Web and Mobile Syrup, among other tech blogs, and was mentioned in articles dissecting iOS 8’s overall improvements for Apple users (see Yahoo Tech, Mobile Syrup and Digital Trends).

CBC’s Lang and O’Leary Exchange features Whirlscape’s Minuum keyboard

August 1, 2014
Susanne Staer
Media Coverage

UTEST graduate Whirlscape, makers of the wearable, one-line Minuum keyboard, were recently featured on CBC’s Lang and O’Leary Exchange.

Minuum has also broken the 100 billion pixels mark in screen space saved for its users. Read about it on input, the Minuum blog.

Founder and CEO Will Walmsley was interviewed by Amanda Lang. The footage was also made available on CBC News, and was included in CBC’s weekly summary of the week’s top business stories. Watch the video.

Here’s an excerpt:

Typing on a smartphone is hard enough – imagine doing it on a smartwatch or other wearable device.

A Toronto startup called Minuum is trying to solve that problem with a tiny virtual keyboard.

It’s a downloadable app costing $3.99 that combines a tiny keyboard with a powerful autocorrect that helps you get the message out, no matter how you punch it.
[. . .]
“What really drives us to work on this technology is the future potential it has. The core concept is a keyboard that is just one line of characters, which means if you can imagine typing on a line anywhere, that can be a keyboard,” he said.

The Varsity on UTEST and start-up culture at U of T; Whirlscape launches new Minuum smartwatch demo

“Start-up culture is fast taking hold at U of T, with an array of incubators and accelerators providing student entrepreneurs the resources and mentorships required to get their businesses up and running,” writes Ameya Charnalia of The Varsity, the University of Toronto’s student newspaper.

Charnalia’s article focuses on new student-focused incubators, such as the UTEST program, which provide entrepreneurs cash, access to in-house expertise, working space and mentorship to advice their ideas.

It appeared in the same week that recent UTEST graduate Whirlscape released a new demo video showing their Minuum keyboard technology running on a LG G watch, which is also an Android Wear device. The announcement was covered in TechCrunch, engadget, Pocketnow, Android Police, SlashGear, BGR, Mobile Syrup, 9to5Google, and DroidLife, among other tech blogs.

Globe and Mail: Strong incubators are key to driving innovation

Jeff Cates’ op-ed in the Globe and Mail‘s Small Business/Digital Innovation section on June 19, 2014 argues that incubators have a key role to play in fostering innovation, entrepreneurship and growing new industries in Ontario.

Cates states this is particularly true when incubators when they provide programs and services to help young entrepreneurs succeed.

The University of Toronto Early-Stage Technology program (UTEST), co-managed with MaRS Innovation, is one such program. UTEST is set to announce its third cohort within the next month.

Portfolio Snapshot: Minuum debuts on Google Glass, Crowdmark named most innovative at SIIA

May 14, 2014
Susanne Staer
Awards

There’s been lots of activity in MI’s portfolio this week (and it’s only Wednesday). Read down for what you need to know about Whirlscape, Crowdmark, OtoSim, and ApneaDx.

Whirlscape launches Google Glass demo video

Whirlscape’s Minuum keyboard nabbed a four-star review from CNET’s editors only days before announcing their technology is now available for Google Glass. Watch the UTEST graduate‘s newest demo video.

Reaction coverage: BNN, the Telegraph (U.K.), WPRO (radio), CNET, Mashable, TechCrunch, Mobile Syrup and Android Central, among various other tech blogs.

Crowdmark named “Most Innovative” at SIIA conference

The Education Division of the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) showcased some of the newest and most innovative products in the education technology market, and recognized the best among them as part of the Innovation Incubator program at the 13th annual Education Industry Summit, the leading conference for the K-12 and postsecondary education technology market, held May 12-14 at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco.

From their blog:

Crowdmark was named Most Innovative among more than 50 applicants,

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