Title block with shadow
Ron Sully, Director of Marketing


Welcome to OMNInews from Omnica Corporation, a full-service product design and engineering firm located in Irvine, California. Enjoy our selection of remarkable news, timely topics, and what's happening at Omnica.                         
Ron Sully - Director of Marketing                              
                                                               Click here to receive OMNInews  
 You can unsubscribe any time. We will not share your information.
 
August 2015                        
   
   Amazing Electronic Nose  Determining the presence food spoilage with a sniff test is not a new  idea. How often have you been asked to "Smell this and tell me what you think."? More recently the presence of certain volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are being used to detect type 1 diabetes, lactose intolerance, asthma, COPD, and a number of cancers.

 

Now, e-nose technology has entered the consumer market to help us decide if certain foods are safe to eat. Peres®, a Swiss company in Redwood City, California is selling "the world's first portable electronic nose", a device (left) to be used in conjunction with a mobile app. It detects more than 100 VOCs to determine the quality and freshness of pork, beef, chicken, and fish.
                                                                             
    

   Revolutionary hope for macular degeneration Second Sight Medical Products® manufactures a retinal  implant that can help blind patients with retinitis pigmentosa (RP) and aged related macular degeneration (AMD) regain functional vision. The next generation of the cortical prosthesis will bypass the retina and optic nerve to treat patients with nearly all forms of blindness. As inspirational are the details of how the company negotiated the US healthcare reimbursement process to make the $145,000 device more widely available.

   

  

   Bring dead batteries back to life  Attention, do not toss your dead alkaline batteries! Unlike zombies, spent alkaline batteries still have 80% of their original energy, but it's below the voltage threshold required to power your electronic devices.  The Batteriser® taps into that remaining power to give them a 5x to 9x longer life, and tests at San Jose State confirms the slim battery booster really works.

  

Novel battery chemistries are in the news every week, but they never seem to make it to  market. Alkaline battery manufacturers who make $3.4B per year won't be happy with this battery rejuvenating technology, which focuses on power management instead of chemistry. The Batteriser IP is owned by Batteroo®, in Sunnyvale, California. It is based on a unique form factor and proprietary miniature circuits. The thin and durable sleeve will snap on AAA, AA, C and D-cells, and still fit in most battery compartments.  Expect to see them on Amazon this fall for $10.00 per pack of 4.

 
   Untangle your life with a custom coil cord  On your desk do you have a USB cable that  has been looped and bound with twist ties? If it causes your OCD to act up, you might consider upgrading it with a more elegant coiled cable. You could order one online, but it's easy and cheaper to make one at home with a few household items and a toaster oven.   I subdued an unruly USB cord with a permanent coil.
       
 
OMNICA News and Announcements . . .  
  

   Discover how IVD development practice makes perfect  Omnica offers a wide range of services backed by decades of experience. Our staff has been involved in laboratory IVD instrumentation for much of their careers. They have worked with optics-based devices, immunoassay analyzers, liquid handling equipment and others. This commentary accounts  the range of IVD products we've completed, and challenges the Omnica team have solved.  

   

   Paul's exceptional talent  Activities outside of work are part of a rich life. Soccer, car restoration, woodworking, boating, and mountain biking are some Omnican hobbies. Rarely does one of us become proficient enough to win an award. An exception is our VP, Paul Gleason, whose late night photograph of a vintage gas station earned the Orange Coast College Mass Appeal 2015 grand prize.

  

Paul has been involved in photography for seven-plus years, but after he purchased a Deardorff 4 x 5 (right), he has been thoroughly committed. It's not surprising to hear stories of an early morning or late night photographic adventure. Scenes he finds intriguing are those that convey age, a back story, or the sense of another place and time. Paul does his own developing and printing of images photographed with the Deardorff, a Rolleiflex MX, and a Nikon M 1950- his father's camera from the Korean War.  

  

  
August Calendar Quiz   An easy challenge to get a free coffee card. What initials are carved into the piano in the August calendar image? You'll need a magnifying glass for this one. Contact me with the correct answer and I'll send you a Starbuck's coffee card. 
 


OMNInews archives  
Did you miss past articles?  You can read them here and collect them all:
 
April              Four Types of Clients to Avoid  
    
You can unsubscribe any time. We will not share your information.
 

  Video first frame    

               Please Call:  Ron Sully - 949-472-0275

 
            logo 104X76

   We are different than other product developers. Omnica is a  full service high-tech design and engineering firm in business for 32 years. We have 29 full-time employees (who have worked here for an average of 14 years), and perform all design and engineering services in house, at our Irvine facility. Our specialty is developing medical devices for both start-up companies, large firms like Abbott, Alcon, Quidel, Biosense Webster, Medtronic, and others.