Comic book superpowers are not just fantasy anymore with a new technological innovation being developed by one group of local technologists. Kai Sensors, in association with the University of Hawaii’s Electrical Engineering Department, is bringing extraordinary powers to otherwise ordinary situations by creating the LifeReader, a revolutionary device capable of accurately detecting heart rate and breathing patterns safely and wirelessly through walls. Who needs Superman anymore?
Four years in the making, Kai Sensors has recently initiated and secured the first phase of funding from the U.S. Army. The goal is to develop sensor and communication technology on a single chip, thus compacting size and increasing mobility of the device. The project is estimated a net worth of $850,000.
The LifeReader has already received generous attention, recently snagging the Emerging Technology Award at the TechConnect Summit 2007 held in Santa Clara, California.

Simplicity is not a word you’d think to use when talking about technology — especially wireless phone service technology. But “simplicity” is a mantra that extends to every part of the business for “new kid on the block” Mobi PCS, the only locally operated wireless network in Hawaii.

When company president and CEO Bill Jarvis formed Mobi PCS four years ago (formerly known as Coral Wireless), he knew that they would never have as many resources as the competition. He knew that his competition — national in scope — had a head start of nearly two decades and outspent them by a huge margin.
Jarvis recalls the early days of Mobi PCS as being rather lonely.

“I remember sitting at my kitchen table (before we had an office), working on the project and wondering how I was going to build a wireless telephone company from the ground up in 12 months or less with several national carriers who wanted to kill me,” he says.