[Photo Sparks] Product gallery: Underwater Internet, rugged phones and smart kiosks

PhotoSparks is a weekly feature from YourStory, with photographs that celebrate the spirit of creativity and innovation. In this photo essay, we wrap up our showcase of new products and startups at the annual Communicasia conference and expo in Singapore!

In the earlier 50 posts, we brought you a wide range of creative photographs from an art fair, world music festival, painting fair, telecom expo, art museum, mobile showcase, math museum, social hackathon, bookstore, co-working space, sensorium, international design week, flower show, outdoor ads, startup roadshow, computer museum, startup T-shirts, business cards, art therapy, startup festival, Diwali rangoli, Vesak, jazz festival, modern art gallery, ecopreneurs, painter-poets, health activists, eNGOs and digital innovators.

This is the fourth and final installment of our annual Communicasia product showcase. From underwater Internet and crowd monitors to rugged devices and smart shopping kiosks, check out how these products are transforming retail, transport, talent management and fleet monitoring. What do you think will be the hot – and cool – products next year?

Water, water everywhere – and Internet: Lantech offers a robust series of networking products for industrial settings, including underwater installations in harbours and oil rigs. The monitoring system helps with detection of temperature, voltage and current settings, and is robust under a wide range of settings.

Future rickshaws: Students from Nanyang Technological University have developed a three-wheeled car called NTU Venture 9, or NV9. It is intended to be flexible and manoeuvrable, with the feel of a glider plane along with a race car. The canopy offers protection as well as visibility. Power is generated by silicon solar cells that are curved to follow the car's shape, which allows it to capture as much sunlight as possible while also being aerodynamically aligned.

Anonymous crowd monitor: DFRC's City Analyser uses sensors to measure nearby mobile phone signals and can thus anonymously collect data about crowd movements and behaviour. This can be used by event organisers, malls and smart city projects to get aggregate data on traffic movements. Overall footfall figures can be used to passively track crowd movements and take responsive or corrective actions where necessary.

A James Bond phone: RugGear offers a range of rugged mobile devices including smartphones which are watertight, dustproof and resilient despite shock and impact. The devices are ideal for reliable communications in extreme and hazardous environments; some of the tough-performance devices can even float. They can also be packaged in sleek and stylistic modes, combining metal and plastic shells.

Mobile but secure: Sqoope is an enterprise-class mobile messaging application developed by TalariaX. It offers a range of authentication and confidentiality features which integrate multiple channels of communication. It offers two-factor authentication along with capabilities for emergency broadcasting. The solutions has been deployed in more than 20 countries, and won The Golden Bridge Awards 2014.

Hubs for harbours: AiReachNet offers land-based maritime wireless broadband access solutions for locations like harbours. This enables ships and other vessels to get wireless access across a range of licensed and unlicensed bands. Overall impacts include better work productivity, safety, security and operational effectiveness for the maritime community at ports and harbours.

Smart shopping: Korean company VFlap has developed face-recognition and pattern detection technology which can be deployed at smart kiosks in retail outlets. Shoppers stand in front of the kiosk which then shows exactly which apparel products are available in their sizes, and how they would look if they were to wear them. The photos can also be shared with the shoppers’ social networks to get second opinions and advice. Shopper details are indexed along with their face profiles so that recommendations can be made during subsequent visits.

The talent edge: XRemo is a job portal which helps recruiters and aspiring employees execute matchmaking more effectively. It offers candidates richer abilities for content creation and curation, with video as an additional outlet for self-expression. Employers in turn can get a better and more multi-faceted view of candidates.

Big data, smart data: Thailand’s SoftNix Technologies offers data and analytics solutions for the enterprise. It offers a range of options for scaling with the size of the enterprise, ranging from transactional activities to application analysis.

Make in India: A range of Indian IT and mobile developer companies also exhibited at the India pavilion organised by the Telecom Equipment and Services Export Promotion Council (TEPC). The 20 companies included Dura-Line, Exset Services, Embarc, Infinite Convergence Solutions and JMA Wireless. Embarc showcased its solution Find’n’Secure for tracking and fleet management requirements.

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See also the YourStory pocketbook ‘Proverbs and Quotes for Entrepreneurs: A World of Inspiration for Startups,’ accessible as apps for Apple and Android devices.