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Israeli start-up wins Verizon competition

Demonstration of Sesame Enable's hands-free smart phone.NEW YORK — Israeli start-up Sesame Enable won first place in a competition held by telecom giant Verizon for its development of the world’s first hands-free smart phone, opening a world of possibility for the disabled.

An additional prize was awarded to Israeli Voiceitt for its invention of voice translation technology for the speech-impaired.

Both companies were founded by graduates of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology.

Verizon’s “Powerful Answers Award” challenges entrepreneurs and companies to provide innovative solutions to some of the world’s most challenging problems.

A total of $6 million in prizes was announced last week for discoveries in four categories — education, health, sustainability and transportation — with $1 million awards for the first place winners in each category.

“Sesame,” which took the gold in the education category, will also have the opportunity to partner with Verizon to further develop its product in a Silicon Valley-based “accelerator.”

Sesame’s winning solution is a smart phone that can be operated completely by head movements. The system tracks the user’s head movements using the phone’s built-in, front-facing camera and facial recognition software. No additional hardware is required.

Every smart phone feature that is typically operated by a swipe of the finger can be controlled with a nod of the head, while other functions are voice-controlled.

Those suffering from paralysis, cerebral palsy, ALS or even Parkinson’s disease can use the device to make phone calls, send text messages, play video games, read online — activities that were until now inaccessible.

“It may sound like a cliché, but the feedback we’ve received from our product testers, and from the public at large, is more exciting than the monetary prize,” said Oded Ben Dov, Sesame CEO and Technion graduate.

“We are opening up a whole new world for people who so desperately need it — people who are largely confined to their homes.”

THE SESAME story began in November, 2011 when Ben Dov, then a video game designer, was approached by Giora Livne, a quadriplegic who had seen his touch-free gaming technology on TV.

They clicked, as both were Technion graduates, and together they launched Sesame.

“This technology allows people like me to run a full range of functions on a (mobile) phone,” says Livne, Sesame partner and investor.

“Today I can do more things around the house: pay the bills, order food and buy flowers for my wife.”

Ben Dov and Livne plan on adding functions to expand the user audience and to enlarge the capabilities to support additional devices such as tablets. In time, they hope that Sesame technology will allow the disabled to activate lighting, TV, air-conditioning and more.

Voiceitt, a company co-founded by Technion graduates Danny Weissberg (CEO) and Stas Tiomkin (Chief Technology Officer), won a $250,000 prize in the health category for its innovative product Talkitt.

Talkitt translates unintelligible pronunciation from any language into understandable speech, and communicates in the user’s own voice.

It works by learning the speech patterns of the user, and is capable of translating the words both in writing and into understandable speech. Talkitt is for people who have motor, speech and language disorders.

Israeli mobile ticketing app HopOn, which lets bus passengers pay their fares using their cellphones, also won $250,000 in the Transportation category — bringing the number of Israeli winners to three out of the competition’s 12 prizes.




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