This year, Ajuma won the DLR (German Aerospace Center) Health Challenge of the European Space Program Copernicus with its UV Bodyguard. The UV Bodyguard is a small UV measuring assistant that, together with a smartphone, helps the user determine a healthy sun exposure and thus avoid sunburn.
The Copernicus Masters innovation competition recognizes applications and ideas that use satellite data from the European Earth observation program Copernicus to address relevant business and societal challenges.
The Munich-based startup also uses this data Ajuma His UV Bodyguard is a wearable computer system that records and processes data related to the user or their environment. The combination of wearable and app continuously measures, totals, and displays UV radiation in real time. The goal of the UV Bodyguard is to recommend a healthy sun exposure to the user, thereby minimizing the risk of sunburn and skin cancer.
Determine healthy UV dose
The application is simple: the user simply attaches the UV Bodyguard to their clothing, backpack or bicycle helmet, connects it to their smartphone via Bluetooth, and selects the appropriate profile based on their skin type and the sun protection factor of the sunscreen they use.
Outdoor athletes and families can thus determine their personal, skin-type-dependent and healthy UV dose as well as their remaining time in the sun, and receive timely warnings of sunburn. The UV Bodyguard will be available on the market from spring 2020.
Winner in the DLR Environment, Energy & Health Challenge category
With this approach, the two founders Annette Barth and Julian Meyer-Arnek were now able to convince the jury in the DLR Environment, Energy & Health Challenge category.
Gunter Schreier from the DLR Earth Observation Center (EOC) in Oberpfaffenhofen emphasizes:
"The DLR Earth Observation Center is making a significant contribution to ensuring that Sentinel-5P data and products are readily available. We are therefore particularly pleased that Ajuma is enabling personalized health care with these results from the Copernicus program."
The Copernicus Masters Earth observation competition has been organized since 2011 by Application Center Oberpfaffenhofen (AZO) Organized on behalf of the European Space Agency (ESA) and supported by partners such as the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the competition annually recognizes innovative and forward-looking ideas and business concepts that utilize Earth observation data for commercial purposes and socially relevant projects. The competition is primarily aimed at startups and other, primarily small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as researchers and students.
