ippi days are here again

The interactive TV device ippi uses mobile networks to convert TV sets into communication centres for videos, photos, voice messages and email. It has won kudos in its native Sweden, and was launched to the rest of the world in Barcelona last week.

Swedish developer In View is going global with the ippi, a device that promises to transform TV sets into communication centres.

The ippi has already been nominated for the European ICT Prize and in October 2007 won the influential Swedish Embedded Price. At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last week, it began its advance on the rest of the world.

ippi is connected to the TV, which is converted to a communication centre where users can send and receive messages via MMS, SMS or email from mobile phones all over the world.

ippi has its own mobile telephone subscription or cash card, and alerts you when you have received a message, more or less like a normal answering machine. By switching on the TV and activating ippi, the message is displayed on the TV-screen. You can reply directly from ippi through the built-in microphone. Users can also send normal mails or pictures that have been saved in the integrated memory.

“ippi has a fantastic global market potential. There are more than five billion people in the world with a low or medium IT-maturity. ippi can work as an initial PC substitute and a first line connection, delivering content such as email to everyone. Our ambition is to make two billion TVs interactive,”” says Jon Simonsson, CEO at In View AB.

In View believes there are many fields of application for ippi, including both social and business interaction.

The technology connects individuals who can share videos, voice messages, pictures and email through the TV screen. Typical industrial applications and services include email communication, banking and invoicing, elderly care, content subscriptions, TV commercials/ interactive advertisement and eGovernment.

“”The diversity of our technology in combination with the fact that it works with all mobile phones is the foundation on which we’re building this product,”” says Simonsson.

The In View web site also suggests these specific uses:

The reporter When you want to tell your story to those who stayed at home.

Keep in touch When you want to show something to Grandma in Rome.

Care in the home When you want to show who is coming to visit today.

Base camp/Notice board When you want to leave a message for those returning home before you do.

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