Dutch tennis association fined €525,000 for selling members’ information

DutchNews, March 3, 2020 

Photo: Depositphotos.com

The Dutch tennis association KNLTB has been fined €525,000 by the Dutch privacy watchdog Autoriteit Persoonsgevens for infringing on the privacy of its members. 

The complaint dates back to 2018 when dozens of the organisation’s members complained about being emailed and phoned by companies with links to the KNLTB even though they had never agreed that their information should be sold. 

Under EU privacy legislation (GDPR), everyone should have been asked to agree. Nevertheless one sponsor was given the names and addresses of 50,000 members, another at least 300,000, the AP said in its ruling. 

The KNLTB, which says it plans to appeal against the fine, said it is extremely careful about what it does with members’ private information. 

In addition, the organisation says the size of the fine will have a major impact on its finances.

Indian start-up launches shoes that show you the way

Yahoo – AFP, Annie Banerji, 31 Aug 2014

Krispian Lawrence, CEO of Ducere Technologies, tries on a pair of GPS-enabled

 smart sports shoes called LeChal in his office in Hyderabad on August 11, 2014 (AFP 

Photo/Noah Seelam)

"Wizard of Oz" heroine Dorothy only had to click her ruby red slippers together and they would spirit her home to Kansas.

Now, an Indian high-tech start-up is promising to do the same in real life with a new, GPS-enabled smart sports shoe that vibrates to give the wearer directions.

The fiery red sneakers, which will also count the number of steps taken, distance travelled and calories burned, will go on sale in September under the name LeChal, which means "take me along" in Hindi.

Krispian Lawrence, CEO of Ducere

Technologies, holds the inner sole of a pair

of GPS-enabled smart sports shoes called

LeChal at his office in Hyderabad on

August 11, 2014 (AFP Photo/Noah Seelam)

The shoes come with a detachable Bluetooth transceiver that links to a smartphone app to direct the wearer using Google maps, sending a vibrating signal to indicate a left or right turn.

They are the brainchild of 30-year-old Krispian Lawrence and Anirudh Sharma, 28, two engineering graduates who founded their tech start-up Ducere in a small apartment in 2011 with backing from angel investors and now employ 50 people.

"We got this idea and realised that it would really help visually challenged people, it would work without any audio or physical distractions," said Lawrence in an interview with AFP.

"But then we were trying it out on ourselves and suddenly we were like, 'wait a minute, even I would want this,' because it felt so liberating not having to look down at your phone or being tied to anything."

"The footwear works instinctively. Imagine if someone taps your right shoulder, your body naturally reacts to turn right, and that's how LeChal works."

Growing sector

Smart shoes aimed at specific demographic markets -- such as dementia sufferers and children whose parents want to keep track of their movements -- are already commercially available.

But Lawrence and Sharma believe theirs will be the first to target mass-market consumers, and have focused on creating stylish rather than purely functional footwear.

As well as the red sneaker, they are marketing an insole to allow users to slip the technology into their own shoes.

"Earlier, wearable technology was always seen as machine-like, nerdy glasses or watches, but now that is changing," said Lawrence.

They say they have 25,000 advance orders for the shoes, which will retail at between $100 and $150.

Demand has so far mostly been through word of mouth and through the lechal.com website. But the company is in talks with retailers to stock the shoes ahead of the holiday season in India and the United States.

It forecasts it will sell more than 100,000 pairs of the shoes, which are manufactured in China, by next April.

Wearable technology is a growing global sector. Market tracker IDC forecast in April that sales would triple this year to 19 million units worldwide, growing to 111.9 million by 2018.

Krispian Lawrence,CEO of Ducere 

Technologies, holds a pair of GPS-enabled

 smart sports shoes called LeChal at his 

office in Hyderabad on August 11, 2014

(AFP Photo/Noah Seelam)

The industry's rapid growth has given rise to fears about privacy, although Ducere says it will record no data on users and maintains robust security.

The company still hopes its product will be useful for visually impaired people, and experts at the L.V. Prasad Eye Institute in the southern city of Hyderabad are testing its suitability.

"It's a perfect intuitive wearable item. You may forget to wear a belt or a helmet, but shoes you can never leave the house without," said Anthony Vipin Das, a doctor at the institute.

"LeChal solves orientation and direction problems, it's a good assistant to the cane."

Possible problems include battery failure or loss of Bluetooth connectivity, which Das says could be fixed by providing a live feed of a user's position to a friend or relative, with their consent.

The company says it could use a portion of any future profits to subsidise the shoes for disabled users.

For all the shoes' high-tech features, Lawrence's favourite thing is that he no longer loses his phone -- if the wearer moves too far from his or her phone, the shoes buzz to warn them.

"I'm a very forgetful person and the best part is that the shoes don't let you forget your phone," he said.

Dutch students win robot football World Cup

DutchNews.nl, Friday 25 July 2014

A shot at goal in the Robocup final

A team of robotics students from Eindhoven’s University of Technology have won gold in this year’s Robocup World Cup football for robots.

The Dutch team Tech United beat China’s team Water 3-2 in the final of the ‘middle-sized league’. Water beat Tech United in the same competition in Eindhoven last year.

Like the Fifa football World Cup, the competition, involving robots from all over the world, took place in Brazil.

Madurodam gets minature 3D printed royal family

DutchNews.nl, Wednesday 02 July 2014

The mini royal family is put in place. Photo: Madurodam

The miniature world theme park Madurodam has a new exhibit on show from today – miniature models of the royal family printed in 3D.

The minature versions of king Willem-Alexander, queen Máxima and their three daughters have been placed outside the miniature version of Huis ten Bosch palace.

Spokeswoman Caroline Riemslag told broadcaster Nos the family were scanned on their return from Brazil where they had watched a Dutch World Cup football match and were all enthusiastic about the project.

Another version of the royal family was made by hand, as were all the models up until now. ‘3D printing is the future,’ Riemslag said.

German company revels in World Cup controversy

Yahoo – AFP, Celine Le Prioux, 17 June 2014

A picture taken on June 11, 2014 in Sao Paulo shows a GoalControl camera

 at the Arena Corinthians Stadium, on the eve of the opening match of the 2014

FIFA World Cup in Brazil (AFP Photo/Francois Xavier Marit)

Berlin (AFP) - The company that created the hi-tech cameras which ruled on a World Cup goal for the first time on Sunday is happily anticipating involvement in a growing number of football controversies, but not in its German home market.

GoalControl, which aims 14 cameras at the two goals in each World Cup match and produces 500 computer generated 3-D images in a split second, was called into action for the first time in France's 3-0 Group E win over Honduras.

This is football and even the way the technology worked caused arguments. But GoalControl, only set up in 2012, is enjoying its moment in the spotlight.

"The World Cup is of course an international showcase which will significantly increase demand for goal-line technology in general and our system in particular," company chief Dirk Broichhausen told AFP.

In the match, Karim Benzema's shot cannoned off a post and then hit Honduras goalkeeper Noel Valladares and went over the line.

The computer gave two judgements which were flashed onto the stadium screen. The ball was not over the line when it rebounded off the post, it said. Some fans thought that was the end of the matter.

Then it said that there was a goal after the ball hit Valladares.

FIFA said Monday they will modify the way decisions are communicated to fans. Delia Fischer, a spokeswoman for football's governing body, said the "unique" nature of the incident -- the ball striking a post and rebounding into the Honduran goalkeeper -- had caused the confusion.

GoalControl which has 40 staff and is based in the small western town of Wuerselen wants to use the incident to play in the big league.

The system, under which referees receive a vibration and an optical signal on their watches in less than one second, was put in place for the Confederations Cup in Brazil last year. But there was no controversy to test.

The company surprisingly beat three rivals, Cairos GLT System and GoalRef, which works with a chip in the ball, and Sony's Hawk-Eye, a camera-based system now used by the English Premier League.

Goal-line technology was first used in the 2012 FIFA Club World Cup when the Hawk-Eye and GoalRef systems were tested. But again there was no contentious goal to rule on.

"We are convinced that goal-line technology will emerge in Europe's most important professional football leagues but also worldwide in coming years," predicted Broichhausen, a passionate football fan, in an email to AFP.

For now, however, Germany is resisting. Germany's 36 first and second division clubs voted in March to reject the precision technology.

The debate was revived two months later, however, in the German Cup final. The referee failed to grant a valid goal to Borussia Dortmund against arch-rivals Bayern Munich, who won in extra time.

Broichhausen said GoalControl costs about 200,000 euros ($270,000) for each stadium.

The company chief did not want to comment on the turnover generated by his business, but German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung recently put GoalControl sales at just less than 10 million euros.

Related Article:

Goal-line technology tweak after France-Honduras confusion

Paraplegic in 'Iron Man' bodysuit to open World Cup

Yahoo – AFP, Rosa Sulleiro, 9 June 2014

Undated handout picture showing a Brazuca football beside an exoskeleton

at Brazilian scientist Miguel Nicolelis' lab in Sao Paulo, Brazil

The first kick at the World Cup opening ceremony will be made by a paraplegic wearing an Iron Man-like robotic bodysuit controlled by signals from the brain.

Brazilian doctor Miguel Nicolelis led a team of 156 scientists from around the world to create the futuristic exoskeleton, which was designed to enable paralysis victims to walk.

At the World Cup opening ceremony Thursday in Sao Paulo, a paraplegic whose identity has been kept secret will leave behind his or her wheelchair to take to the pitch in the suit and give the tournament's first kick.

Undated handout picture showing scientists

 at work at Brazilian scientist Miguel Nicolelis'

lab in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Electronic circuits in the device's "feet" will send a return signal to the user via an artificial skin worn on the arm, conveying the sensation of movement and contact.

"It's the first time an exoskeleton has been controlled by brain activity and offered feedback to the patients," Nicolelis, a neuroscientist at Duke University, told AFP.

"Doing a demonstration in a stadium is something very much outside our routine in robotics. It's never been done before."

His voice contains a mix of exhaustion and excitement, the result of 30 years' work, more than 200 scientific papers and countless clinical tests that are nearing a spectacular summit.

Nicolelis started down this path in 1984 when he wrote his doctoral thesis on neural connections in muscular control.

He said the idea for the suit came to him in 2002, when scientists were just beginning to explore robotic exoskeletons.

"In 2009, after we learned Brazil was hosting the World Cup, they asked me for ideas to show Brazil in a different way than the world usually sees it. That's when I suggested doing a scientific demonstration to teach people that Brazil is investing and has human potential to do things beyond football," he said.

Undated handout picture showing

 Brazilian scientist Miguel Nicolelis at

his lab in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Nicolelis said he and a team of some 40 people have barely left the lab since March, when they arrived in Sao Paulo, Brazil's largest city and economic hub, to finalize preparations.

But it's been rewarding, too, he said, recalling the moment on April 24 when a paralyzed user first took steps in the exoskeleton.

They named the device the BRA-Santos Dumont, a combination of the three-letter sporting code for Brazil and Alberto Santos-Dumont, a Brazilian aviator, inventor and bon vivant who once demonstrated controllable flight was possible by flying his dirigible around the Eiffel Tower.

Scientific controversy

Some scientists have criticized Nicolelis for ditching academic publications in favor of mass media -- he posts research updates on Facebook -- and the anonymity of the lab for the lights of the World Cup stage.

Undated handout picture showing a 

paraplegic patient (L) wearing an interface

 helmet being prepared for a test at

Brazilian scientist Miguel Nicolelis' lab

in Sao Paulo,Brazil.

Critics have also questioned the practicality of his research and accused him of hogging an unfair share of the Brazilian government's research budget. Nicolelis rejects that criticism.

"The funding is the same with or without the World Cup. We've received $14 million from the Brazilian government over the last two years. That's approximately four or five times less than what the United States government invests in a mechanical arm," he said.

"I don't see anything wrong with demonstrating a technology for the whole world that has a humanitarian objective and was paid for by civil society," he added.

More than 65,000 people will be in Sao Paulo's Corinthians Arena to watch the BRA-Santos Dumont's first steps in public before Brazil play Croatia in the opening match. Around a billion are expected to watch on TV.