Web Summit ideas – from Uber for helicopters to air-purifying streetlamps

A platform to order helicopters, streetlamps that purify the air and a propeller to revolutionize the collection of renewable energy are just some of the ideas of entrepreneurs at the Lisbon Web Summit.

Marcelo Gracietti, manager of a company that wants to introduce the ‘Uber of helicopters’ in the European market said, “This app is similar to what Uber Copter is doing in New York. Just download the app and you can order a helicopter “to go from point A to point B” and consult “the prices of the different operators”.

In one of the other pavilions, Jonathan Aknin shows the curious two prototypes of solar-powered streetlamps that have interior filters to purify the surrounding air.

“Inside the structure, there’s a fan with three filters and when the engine [also powered by solar energy] sucks air through the holes along the lamppost, it goes through the three filters and comes out almost 100% purified”, he explained.

Participation in the Web Summit was considered “not only to raise people’s awareness and motivate them to be environmentally aware”, but also “to attract potential investors” who are interested in spreading these lamps on the streets of urban centres.

With her eyes set on possible interested parties passing through the stand, Siva Chennupati is pointing to her prototype of a propeller that can be used to capture solar, wind, tidal and wave energy.

“We can collect any type of renewable energy with the technology of this propeller,” she said, emphasizing “the versatility” of uses of this propeller, which can also “be used for boats.

To capture solar energy “just replace the blades of the propeller with solar panel blades”.

Lucas Navarro, director of a startup that created “the Tinder of places”, explained that the microenterprise wants to fill an existing gap in the search “for places to visit.

“There is no platform that centralizes the activities available for people to do outside the home [based on their interests]. We want to centralize the data so that it is as easy as finding a film on Netflix”.