Video: 3D printed hip puts teenager back on her feet.

Fanny Fallesen is on the road to recovery. Just two years ago, the 16-year-old was looking at a life in a wheelchair, due to a rare degenerative condition called Recklinghausen's disease, which causes skeletal deformities. 

"I was very dependent on help from my parents and very dependent on my wheelchair and two crutches and I wasn't as free as I am now. I can do much more, I can cope more myself, be out with my friends and use my wheelchair less and less, walk longer distances."

The teenager's recovery is the result of a technological revolution. Traditional treatments for Fallesen's degraded hip just weren't adequate. So in 2012, her doctors recommended she be measured for customized 3D-printed hip implants, courtesy of Belgian company, Mobelife. 3D printing technology offers tailor-made body parts, ensuring an exact match with a patient's anatomy, unlike conventional implants says CEO Tim Clijmans.

"These cases are more and more common nowadays with revisions being more common, so there are more and more chances that implants have to be replaced, complex bone defects have to be resolved and complex tumour defects have to be resolved." The printed implant is created using a specialized tomography scan, following the patient's specific bone anatomy. Screw placement is also unique to each patient, based on bone quality. Fallesen's surgeon, professor Urban Rydholm says Mobelife provided detailed instructions for the implants and even though the surgery was challenging, he believes it was his patient's only hope for a life without a wheelchair. 

 "We can handle severe bone loss in the hip in most cases with standard implants and supporting rings and things like that but this was, we could see no solution for her until we heard about this possibility with custom-made acetabular (hip ball-and-socket joint) implants from Belgium." Currently 3D-printed implants are used only for very specialised cases but Clijmans thinks that will change in future. 

"I think there are a lot of cases out there which are not that exceptional and complex as this one, where we can provide a lot of added value with this technology." According to Rydholm, Fallesen's prognosis is positive but he says the disease will probably cause problems in her spine and lower left leg later on. But for now, Fallesen is optimistic. 

"I'm positive about a future when I can get rid of the crutches and walk without aid."

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Sweden: Ericsson buys Airvana’s EVDO (Enhanced Voice-Data Optimized)

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesùs.

Sweden: Ericsson buys Airvana’s EVDO (Enhanced Voice-Data Optimized) 

Swedish infrastructure vendor Ericsson has acquired the EV-DO (Enhanced Voice-Data Optimized) business of small cell specialist Airvana Network Solutions. The deal sees Massachusetts based Airvana, which has traditionally been a supplier of EV-DO software to Ericsson, transfer its 38 EV-DO specialist staff to the vendor.

As a result of the deal, Ericsson and Airvana have announced that they will jointly seek dismissal of the lawsuit filed by Airvana in February 2012. The US firm had begun a $330m intellectual property dispute against Ericsson in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, accusing the Swedish firm of developing software based on Airvana’s trade secrets and using it to operate wireless network equipment to avoid paying license fees.

Acccording to Paul Challoner, VP and head of CDMA Radio product at Ericsson, EVDO software is still an important part of the CDMA ecosystem.

“Ericsson is committed to CDMA and to its CDMA customers,” he said.

“We recognise that CDMA will continue to be an important technology in the operators’ networks. We continue our vertical integration strategy for key CDMA products and further strengthen our control over product portfolio, ensuring long-term support to our customers with the ability to better respond to their requirements.”

Sweden: Ericcson and Volvo team up on connected cars.

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesùs.        

Sweden: Ericcson and Volvo team up on connected cars.

Swedish car manufacturer Volvo has announced it will use local infrastructure vendor Ericsson’s Connected Vehicle Cloud solution in order to allow drivers, passengers and the car to connect to services available in the cloud.

Volvo drivers will be able to access in-car applications for information, navigation and entertainment. 

Content providers will have agreements with Volvo and the other members of the ecosystem, such as internet radio providers, road authorities, cities’ governments, and toll-road operators.

“We clearly see that cars in the near future will integrate the same level of digital services that consumers today are used to having in their homes or at work,” said Lex Kerssemakers, senior VP for product strategy and vehicle line management at Volvo. “This is a strategically important part of Volvo’s investments for the future where we intend to take a leading position.

“On top of this both companies share the same ambition to develop industry leading solutions in line with our shared vision of the future based on a networked society,” Kerssemakers added.

LTE: Sweden: ZTE and Hi3G Sign US$74 Million Deal.

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesùs.

LTE: Sweden: ZTE and Hi3G  Sign US$74 Million Deal.

ZTE has signed an agreement with Hi3G Sweden worth UD$74 million to deploy several UMTS/LTE TDD/LTE FDD base stations, as well as auxiliary microwave and data transmission equipment over the next three years.

"We are very glad to ink the deal with Hi3G in Sweden where the two companies launched the world’s first multi-mode LTE network,” said Mr. Huang Zheng, CEO of ZTE Sweden. "

According to the company, its Uni-Ran solutions have effectively helped Hi3G Sweden to now integrate three modes and five frequencies into one network which started into commercial operation of large-scale LTE TDD network at the end of 2011.

Sweden: Ericsson outlines growth plans.

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.

Mobile equipment vendor Ericsson this week laid out its plans to grow annual net sales by 4-10 percent through 2013 and operating income by 5-15 percent in the same period.

 At a management briefing in New York yesterday, president and CEO Hans Vestberg (pictured) said the world’s largest mobile network infrastructure vendor will focus on a number of major areas: expanding its presence in large and fast-growing markets (eg the US, South Korea and Thailand), increasing its share of operators’ capital and operating expenditure, entering into partnerships and M&A activity, moving further into new growth areas such as machine-to-machine (and outside the core telecoms sector to utilities, health and transport) and “portfolio momentum in mobile broadband, managed services and BSS/OSS transformation.” 

Vestberg added that opportunities in the company’s traditional mobile network business (where it has a 32 percent market share) remain strong, with roughly 5 billion mobile broadband subscriptions expected by 2016, with roughly 55 percent of total mobile subscriptions being broadband.

Ericsson’s need to diversify comes as the Swedish network-equipment giant faces mounting competition from rivals that are merging, as well as from up-start Chinese vendors willing to sell their products at a lower price. At its Business Innovation Forum in California earlier this week the vendor talked of its vision of a Networked Society,’ with chief strategist Douglas Gilstrap claiming the company believes that “anything that should be connected will be connected.” 


The concept made headlines last year when Ericsson predicted that the number of connected devices will surge to 50 billion over the next 10 years, via the widespread use of embedded modules.

World's first eye-controlled laptop unveiled

WorldWideTech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.

Swedish firm Tobii Technology has unveiled its new prototype, the world's first eye-controlled laptop. The device allows a user to operate the computer without having to drag, drop or click with a mouse.

LTE: Sweden: Tele2, Telenor launch LTE service

WorldWideTech. Francisco De Jesús

Tele2 and Telenor have become the latest operators in Sweden to launch LTE services. The next-generation mobile network developed by their joint venture Net4Mobility is initially available in Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmo and Karlskrona. Average speeds are estimated at 20-40Mbps, and the service can go as high as 80 Mbps.

 The operators aim to cover 99 percent of the population with LTE by the end of 2012. In the first quarter of 2011, the service will be expanded to Gotland, Helsingborg, Jonkoping, Knivsta, Lidingo, Linkoping, Norrkoping, Nykoping, Trelleborg, Uppsala and Vellinge.

 Tele2 offers a monthly contract for the service at SEK 499, with a Huawei modem at SEK 1,995. If customers sign a 18-month contract, the modem is free and service costs SEK 299 per month for the first 12 months.

 Telenor's service cost SEK 549 per month, with the first six months free on a 24-month contract. The Huawei E398 modem is inluced free on a 18- or 24-month contract.

Sweden: Discrete, inflatable bicycle helmet

WorldWideTech. Francisco De Jesús.

Swedish inventors have devised an invisible bicycle helmet for reluctant helmet users. Jim Drury reports.

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• Invisible Bike Helmet Inflates Before Impact (core77.com)

Sweden: TeliaSonera Opens LTE Network in Helsingborg

WorldWideTech. Francisco De Jesús.

Telia has launched LTE network in Helsingborg, Sweden. Helsingborg is the tenth city in Sweden with Telia's 4G network. LTE is already online in Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmo, Uppsala, Västerås, Lund, Linköping, Örebro and Visby.


At the end of 2010, the LTE network will be opened in 28 locations in Sweden. During the next year, all 228 places to be on the list.

Depending on the subscription, customers can choose from speeds with ranges 5-10 Mbps, 10-20 Mbps or 10-80 Mbps.

Link: http://www.teliasonera.com/4g/about-4g.html