Archive - 2007

HEI 4(9): An Estonian company Webmedia has developed and patented a programming solution that helps programmers save a lot of time, and has now made it commercially available for users worldwide.

With complicated programming languages like Java, it takes at least 30 seconds to see the results. On the average, it takes 2-3, sometimes up to 10 minutes, depending on the technology used and the size of the project. The lengthy process is known as ‘deploy' - for programmers, it is a sheer waste of time.

Whereas novice Java developers usually deploy after every two or three lines, the advanced ones perform the check a couple of times per hour. "Our invention cuts the deploy time down to just a couple of seconds," said Taavi Kotka, CEO, Webmedia.

The product was named JavaRebel. The very first online comment to the article about the invention perfectly summed up the fascination of the whole Java community: "This can't be true..."

WebMedia's JavaRebel can be downloaded from the Internet without restriction: a non-exclusive licence costs $ 100 per user. Up to now, most of the downloaders have been from the US, China and Germany.

HEI 4(9): In the city of Pärnu, a company named Skinnova plans to open a tannery where fishskins discarded by fisheries are processed into a durable and high quality product for the fashion and footwear industries.

According to Marina Kaas, executive of the company, expertly treated fishskin is virtually indistinguishable from high priced and exclusive reptilian hides. Basically, Skinnova is recycling the waste product of the fishing industry in the most sophisticated and value-adding way.

The Pärnu Tannery will start by giving an extreme makeover to salmon, trout and pike skins. The subtle tanning process consists of treating them with various chemical substances, after which they are dyed. The outcome is a beautifully patterned hide three times as strong and durable as animal hide - and indeed much more expensive.

The fishskins produced in Pärnu are marketed in Southern Europe. From there, via Italian fashion accessory workshops, they may return to the shelves of Estonian boutiques. Skinnova is also open to cooperation with any Estonian handbag, belts, footwear and haute couture manufacturers. 

HEI 4(9): The Estonian designer bathtub company Aquator has developed and manufactured a unique touch-screen control system LEAF for massaging jet bathtubs. This year, the company is introducing its innovative product in six countries abroad.

According to Sven Lõhmus, Aquator's designer, the idea had its origin in real life and plain common sense. "People wearing glasses always have a problem how to cope when they need to remove them. From my own experience I know that I can still always distinguish between different colours," he said. "Hence the solution - to use colourful icons on the screen instead of text. This type of panel will soon become an integral part of all massage tubs."

HEI 4(9): A radiation monitoring system forwarding real-time data over the Internet has been developed by Englo, a company based in the Tehnopol technology park.

The system created by Englo consists mainly of small sensors and a software solution that makes the relevant data readable online. The system allows recording of different types of radiation to eliminate any potential danger.

HEI 4(9): In October, the do-it-yourself mobile business platform created by the Tartu-based Mobi Solutions expanded to the Finnish, Swedish, Danish and Norwegian markets. In Scandinavia, the website launched under a new name, Fortumo.com.

"Fortumo enables everyone to set up his or her mobile business in five minutes, regardless of technical skills," said Rain Rannu, a partner of Mobi. Signing up with Fortumo is free. Members providing their services earn 40-60% of revenue, depending on the country, from every text message requesting their service.

Fortumo enables the users to create three types of mobile business services regardless of their tech skill: info message, text message campaign, and web page text chat. Also, Fortumo lets owners of the web pages program their text message based pay services.

Life in Estonia: In Estonia and the United States, work has been going on for years on a device called NarTest, which is set to truly revolutionize forensic science, primarily in the USA, but also elsewhere. In the past, when US police discovered drugs somewhere, weeks or even a whole year could go by while they waited for analyses from a narcotics lab. This used to slow down criminal investigations and, often, instead of being prosecuted, drug-dealers had to be released from custody.

The laptop-sized NarTest NTX2000 is an easily portable minilab, which makes it possible to identify cocaine, heroin, marijuana and amphetamines in the field within a few minutes. A three-dimensional profile of the substance being analysed is constructed using the fluorescence method, which the computer then compares to the profiles of well-known narcotics.

The main financier of NarTest Technologies, Endel Siff, deems the potential of the device to be great. "It contributes greatly to the fight against drug dealing, which has an annual turnover of 600 billion dollars worldwide. NarTest makes it possible to control trade routes; it can be used in police cars, deserts and uninhabited border areas, where enormous amounts of drugs are on the move," Siff explains. 

It is true that the technology of the device dates back a couple of decades, but new outlets and new energy have been given to it. Neivelt believes that NarTest has a real chance of being sold all over the world, because drugs are a universal problem.

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Life in Estonia: It doesn't often happen that, instead of the science pages of daily newspapers, it is the business columns of financial papers which begin to publicize the work of a scientist. "Estonian scientists' work worth billions" - such were the headlines which drew attention to the work of Estonian biochemist Mart Ustav and his colleagues this year. Mart Ustav himself does not keep track of the billions or, if he does, such figures mainly indicate the number of the DNA base pairs in humans or viruses.

"In order to secure its existence, the university has always had to pay duties - those had to be paid to God or ideology and to the king or government. But what was important was that which was left for the academic community: the opportunity to learn, to teach, to carry out research and create something important which nobody else could do." Those were the words of Professor Mart Ustav at the celebration of the 375th anniversary of the University of Tartu.

The big contribution of a small research group

Professor Ustav was not speaking in abstract terms. He was talking about himself and about his generation. When the 1960s gave way to the 1970s, at the time when Ustav was a first-year undergraduate, there were strong organic chemistry, physical chemistry and bio-organic chemistry schools born in Tartu. The same happened in physics, biology and other natural sciences. Ustav became part of the working group of

the active and intelligent scientist Artur Lind, which began to research ribonucleic acid. "The Estonian Bio-Centre, the Molecular- and Cell Biology Institute and the Technology Institute of the University of Tartu, not to mention several biotechnology companies, grew out of this small research group," says Ustav. He doesn't mention it, but Ustav himself played a significant role in the creation of each new research organisation. The newest one founded on his initiative is the Technology Institute of the University of Tartu, where this year he exchanged the Director's post for the role of professor, which enables him to do more research.

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Inseneeria 1/2007 (1): Estonian Minister of Economic Affairs and Communications, Juhan Parts, says in his address to manufacturing companies in Estonia that though the latest articles in the newspapers give a hopeless feeling about Estonian economy, the actual situation is much better. Those foreign investments that contributed to cheap labour force have really withered. But when that kind of foreign investments vanish, it is not a problem for Estonia since there are enough foreign investors in Estonia who wish to bring more expensive and better technology.

Estonian industry has increased steadily at a pace of 10% during recent years. Our entrepreneurs have several essential prerequisites for further development: flexibility, ability to learn, openness for changes, courage to take up new things.

Many manufacturing companies have acquired new state-of-the-art technology enabling to make export-capable products.

At the same time the Minister of Economic Affairs cannot say which direction the economy should take - Estonia no longer has planned economy. But it is just the right time to carry out a thorough discussion in Estonia about the niche to turn the focus of Estonian industry in the coming years. And here all the industrial brains should have their say - entrepreneurs, managers, engineers, scientists.

Inseneeria 1/2007 (1): Three years ago, Heikki Reitalu, owner of the metal processing company Enemat, hypothecated the whole property of his family to get a loan for buying the most state-of-the-art TRAUB metal processing workbench in Estonia. At present, he is very satisfied with his decision and he plans to buy a second bench.

This year, TRAUB gives already 75% of the company turnover. At the same time, the 20 Soviet workbenches still in use give only 25%. TRAUB is able produce one detail from start to finish, whereas 5 different benches would have been used previously.

Reitalu acknowledges that, in the beginning it was very difficult to find customers. But one should never give up in that kind of situation. Sometimes there was no other possibility to prove oneself than to make the sample details at one's own expense.

Heikki Reitalu does not see an opportunity for Estonian companies to compete with Asian countries with cheap labour force. That is why Enemat is specialised in sophisticated and expensive products, for there is a lack of such manufacturers in Europe.