The Startup Sauna has finished its travels within Finland and it has found two promising startups to participate in its the seed accelerator program. This week, two cities in the North of Finland were visited; Oulu and Tampere. Both cities host top research and technical Universities and the Startup Sauna’s goal was to find this untapped technical talent.

The city of Oulu boasts the invention of Internet Relay Chat (IRC) and the Startup Sauna was very keen on finding their next innovation.  The one that stood out the most is the one that might save your life if ever you were in an emergency situation. A startup called Spektikor is making a disposable heart beat indicator for first-response rescue personnel.

At the moment the only way to check the pulse of someone is done by physical examination with stethoscope or by touching the victim’s artery.  At an emergency scene where there is a multiple critical victims, it can be quite time consuming to check the pulse of everyone and to determine which victim need immediate help.

Spektikor’s innovative device called CardioLED is a disposable heart beat indicator with a light. The light blinks at the rate of the victim’s heart beat. When there is a critical change in the victim’s condition, the LED indicates it by changing the light into red.

CardioLED saves time for the health care personnel to focus on the most critical victims. When attached to the victim the health care personnel can observe the victim’s heart beat even from the distance. This saves a lot of time, which is often the most critical factor in saving lives.

Spektikor is made by Ilkka Ellilä and Esa Leskelä and they are running after the Defence Forces and the hospitals first. Because CardioLed is a small compact device, inexpensive and easy to use, the teams behind the technology aim to have CardioLed in every rescue pack and ambulances around the world.

From heart beats to Music

The Startup Sauna went also to Tampere and found Ovelin, a startup that is aiming to change the way we learn how to play guitar. In the light of Idols and talent shows, playing the guitar is as popular as ever. So is playing videos games. Ovelin has combined the two to make learning to play the guitar fun and addicting.

Up to 85% of people that learn to play the guitar quit soon after. Therefore, Ovelin developed a software that combines addictive features of computer games with music exercise, so users get hooked on practicing guitar. Ovelin is targeting children and teenagers who many of them already play countless hours of computer games.

Unlike Guitar Hero, Rock Band and others, where you require buying the game as well as the plastic instruments, Ovelin requires only the game your computer and a real acoustic guitar.  The music exercises are designed to best support education and the gaming features keeps the users motivated.

Ovelin’s team is formed with guitar teachers and game enthusiasts; Christoph Thür, CEO, Mikko Kaipainen,  and Jukka Holm are based in Tampere, Finland and are looking to expand to the international market quickly