Personal Development

An artificial intelligence saves lives

With Swisscom Kickbox, Swisscom employees can start and grow their innovative ideas at any time and very easily. They receive a starting balance of CHF 1,000, 20% of their working time for two months and a personal coach. Today, Michael, Head of Swisscom Kickbox, talks to Samuel Scheidegger about his idea, hard landings and his collaboration with REGA to save lives.

By Michael Hunkeler, Head of Intrapreneurship Swisscom Kickbox

Michael:

Hey Samuel, good to see you! For once without a mattress and helmet!

Samuel:

(laughs) You know, it's not the falling that hurts, but the impact - you have to be prepared.

The Life Sensor Team collects fall data for the AI.

Michael:

Well said! But let's start from the beginning: What's LifeSensor all about and how did you come up with your Kickbox idea?

Samuel:

I have noticed that people fall unconscious relatively often, e.g. due to heart attacks, strokes or other accidents. That's okay as long as they are in a room with other people who can react. However, it quickly becomes life-threatening if a person is alone, e.g. at home or jogging in the woods. Who calls the ambulance when you're lying unconscious on the ground? Nobody. After my mum had an accident, I wanted to buy her something that would protect her in the event of further accidents. But apart from a few ugly wristbands and watches with fall detection, there was nothing on the market. Since everyone has a smartphone in their pocket anyway and it has all the acceleration sensors needed for fall detection, I decided to build such a product. The result was Life Sensor, a smartphone application that recognises when you fall on the floor and don't get up again. If you remain motionless for longer than 2 minutes, an emergency call with location transmission is triggered fully automatically. Life Sensor calls for help if you are no longer able to do so yourself. All you need for Life Sensor is a smartphone and no other hardware such as a smartwatch. This makes us the first on the market and directly usable for many people.

Michael:

Super exciting. You've already been through a few stages with the idea and will soon be going live with your first major customer. Tell us more about it?

Samuel:

I started Life Sensor during my apprenticeship at Swisscom and was selected to take part in the Kickstart Innovation Programme after I graduated. There I received very tough coaching on repeating the idea, which gave my vision a strong boost. In November 2021, this experience helped me to successfully pitch Life Sensor to the Swisscom B2B-PAP team. This gave me an employment contract and several team members to build the first PoC (proof of concept) for Rega. We successfully completed this and are now in the MVP (Minimum Viable Product) phase. We are planning the Rollout for a selected group of users by the end of the year.

The Life Sensor Team

Michael:

It really is an incredible benefit that you and your team have shown here. I am therefore delighted to be able to present you with the GoldBox today for a successfully scaled Kickbox idea! Congratulations!

Samuel:

Thank you for the award and the support throughout the journey. I will work hard every single day to move Life Sensor forward, let's see what the future holds.

About Swisscom Kickbox

Swisscom employees can easily start and grow their innovative idea at any time with Kickbox. The physical box contains 

a starting credit of CHF 1,000
20% of the working time for 2 months
a manual explaining the idea validation process and providing valuable tips 

In the multi-stage process, you will be accompanied by a coach to drive your idea forward, learn a lot and, in the best case, make your idea really big! 

You can find more information on the Kickbox Program here.

Michael Hunkeler

Michael Hunkeler

Head of Intrapreneurship Swisscom Kickbox

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