Bizstartup.ie - NewsMedical tech firm wins innovation award

Headquartered in NovaUCD and employing 20 people, BiancaMed was presented with the Product/Service Innovation Category Award, sponsored by UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, for its wireless sensor technology for the non-contact monitoring of sleep and breathing in the home. 

BiancaMed’s SleepMinder technology uses a sensitive radio frequency motion sensor that can detect respiration and movement without being connected to the human body. The sensor incorporates sophisticated biometric software that converts the motion data into a measurement of sleep.

The SleepMinder technology was initially developed at UCD's School of Electrical, Electronic and Mechanical Engineering by Professor Conor Heneghan and Dr Philip de Chazal.

Additional venture-capital funding

Last year, BiancaMed secured an additional €6m in funding led by pan-European venture capital firm Seventure Partners with existing investors ePlanet Ventures, Enterprise Ireland and ResMed.

The company, which also has an office in Sunnyvale, California, is currently working with several major corporations to launch a range of consumer products in 2010 and 2011. This includes a baby monitor which uses a motion sensor to monitor a baby’s sound, movement and sleep. In addition, BiancaMed is developing a sleep apnoea diagnostic product and the company has launched a sleep-monitoring service. 

Photo (from left): Dr Philip de Chazal and Dr Conor Hanley, co-founders, BiancaMed, with Paul Haran, chairman, UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School

Article courtesy of Businessandleadership.com