The Obview privacy protection system, which prevents illicit viewing of electronic monitors, has been chosen as the winner of the Start Me Up business idea competition. According to the panel of experts, the business idea is ground-breaking and has a huge global market potential.
The Obview privacy protection system can be used on a wide range of devices, including laptops, tablets, phones, and ATMs. The protection can be adjusted and the display can be protected e.g. from the right or left side. This makes it easier to do things like work with a colleague without compromising the content on the monitor. The system can be turned on at the touch of a button, and it provides good image quality and is completely invisible when turned on. The system also works for different types of monitor. Two patents have already been applied for the invention.
The idea for Obview emerged from the privacy needs highlighted in Business Finland’s TUTLI project. The developers are planning to set up a start-up business after the TUTLI project, and they are currently looking for partners and investors. In the future, the developers will be cooperating with e.g. optics professionals at the University of Eastern Finland.
– Compared to our competitors, we are able to offer a solution that combines a high level of protection and user convenience,’ says Teemu Ruotsalainen, the developer of the innovation.
Visual hacking is one of the forms of cyber crime. As screen sizes increase and people move around and work in public spaces, the risk of visual hacking continues to increase. Privacy solutions currently have a market of $600 million, with an annual increase of 8–9 percent. Obview is a solution that is offered to the market at a competitive price, and its developers see great potential in the invention.
– This year’s Start Me Up business idea competition, once again, offered one mind-blowing idea after another. A completely new and innovative idea with obvious potential was chosen as the winner, says Janne Pakarinen, Business Coach at Business Joensuu, the organiser of the competition.
The Start Me Up business idea competition also awarded prizes to the business ideas of students. The €9000 student prize was awarded to ideas created by students from three different educational institutions.
From the University of Eastern Finland, Team WonderBee’s nutritionally balanced pollen replacement for bees was chosen as the winning idea. Bees are a critical part of food production, but bee mortality is a huge problem today. The team has experience in the field, and it was able to provide credible justifications for the business opportunities of their idea.
From the Karelia University of Applied Sciences, the winner is Team Fraktus whose idea is an innovative and user-oriented mobile application for making notes.
The team responsible for developing the application combines the fields of entrepreneurship, media and programming.
From the North Karelia Municipal Education and Training Consortium Riveria, the winner is Team Nokiakka whose business idea is innovative gourmet preserves. The team has strong expertise in entrepreneurship, the restaurant industry and communications.
Start Me Up is an annual business idea competition organised by Business Joensuu that aims to find business ideas that have the potential to grow into new North Karelian success stories. This year marks the 20th time the competition has been organised, with a main prize worth €60,000. It included €30,000 in money, facilities at the Joensuu Science Park and expert services worth €31,400. A total of nearly 200 mind-blowing ideas were entered in the competition.
The award ceremony took place as a remote event on 19 May 2021.
Further information:
Business Joensuu
Business Coach Janne Pakarinen
Tel. +358 50 575 8859
janne.pakarinen@businessjoensuu.fi
Obview
Teemu Ruotsalainen
Tel. +358 400 327 351
teemu.ruotsalainen@vtt.fi
WonderBee
Arezoo Rahmani
Tel. +358 45 783 42466
wonderbee.pro.online@gmail.com
Fraktus
Andrei Potekhin
Tel. +358 40 815 1431
potekhin.services@gmail.com
Nokiakka
Karoliina Gavrilov
Tel. +358 44 305 0184
nokinen.akka@gmail.com