New Board Members

Heinrich Schuster and Oliver Holle Join Board of uma to Drive Move Into Digital Signage

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

VIENNA, AUSTRIA – uma, the industry leader in semantic web technology, today announced that it has closed a new round of funding that will help move the company more aggressively into the digital signage and display market. The 760,000 Euro round ($1.1 million USD) includes TheMerger.com, as well as private European investors

Separately, uma appointed new board members, including Heinrich Schuster, former founder and now retired chairman of EPAMEDIA, the largest European out-of-home advertising firm, and Oliver Holle, CEO of TheMerger.com.

uma recently introduced the industry’s first semantic display product, called uma SKIN™, for digital content producers, including corporations, retailers, and brands. The product integrates large-scale multitouch LCD displays with the uma semantic web content curation engine for information delivery. uma SKIN enables personalized content that tracks users with RFID and NFC technology and detects motion using 3D sensor cameras. Siemens is the first customer for the product, which is prominently installed in the company’s recently-opened Central European flagship headquarters in Vienna.

“I have looked at the future of display systems, and it is clearly based on semantic technology, which can feed information to users based on their preferences, or other external, relevant events. uma is taking the industry into new directions, and I am pleased to be part of its growth,” said Schuster. “The confluence of design and engineering is firmly represented in the uma mission, and it translates perfectly to where the semantic web is heading.”

uma developed one of the first semantic engines for the web – Melvil ® - in 1998, and the company’s founder, Christian Doegl, is a leader in the virtual and semantic web community.

“The explosion of opportunities in the retail and corporate sectors for public display in recent years has provided a paradigm shift in the way that semantic web technology can be applied, and our recent SKIN™ product launch reflects this,” said Doegl. “Our new board members are well-attuned to market trends in information display, and we are poised for greater growth and market visibility due to their wealth of shared experience.”

About uma - separating the signal from the noise

Since its founding in 1994, uma has been thinking about new forms of complex knowledge retrieval and spatial user experiences. Within this domain, uma has continuously built a reputation as an innovation leader, demonstrated through various awards and international recognitions during the last decade. uma provides end-to-end services for its customers, helping with creative planning as well as the implementation and integration on the basis of Melvil ®, a semantic service platform, the SKIN™ and VICO™ Multitouch Solutions and MelvilMediaMood ®, a semantic social and analog Media Monitoring Solution.

uma clients include the OTTO Group, Republic of Austria, Siemens, Intel, IBM , Intersport, Deutsche Telekom AG, 3, Verbund AG, Red Bull or L’Oréal. uma is headquartered in Vienna, Austria. 

Contact:

Chris Pfaff, +1-201-218-0262 or chris@chrispfafftechmedia.com

Katharina Meißner, katharina.meissner@uma.at