HONG KONG, Oct. 18, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Hong Kong based Artificial Life, Inc. (OTCBB:ALIF), a provider of award-winning mobile 3G technology and applications, announced today the acquisition of and the rights to a mobile diabetes monitoring and patient coaching system (the mobile diab(r) system) from Infokom GmbH, a leading German telematics provider and pioneer.
The system consists of an interactive mobile phone client component for diabetes patients to monitor their levels of blood sugar, blood pressure, bread unit intake, weight and even physical activities. With this system the data from the patient's mobile device is automatically transferred via wireless networks to a central telematics platform and made available for analysis to doctors on the Internet. Doctors can set up automated alerts, advice messages and schedules to send to the patients' phones when certain data points are exceeded (for example when blood sugar levels are reaching a critical value). The system provides a scheduled and real time communication system between doctors and patients. The system also provides Internet portals for the participating doctors, hospitals and patients in addition to an educational site which teaches participants how to use the system. Doctors and hospitals can communicate with each other via the underlying telematics platform to share advice, medical opinions and diagnostics.
The system has been developed over several years by Infokom in Germany in close cooperation with leading specialists in the field of diabetes such as the Institute for Diabetes Karlsruhe, the Diagnostic Clinic of Houston and the Dubai Hospital. Infokom is currently launching the system in the countries of the Middle East where there is a high incidence of diabetes in the population, including the United Arab Emirates. An EU-wide patent is pending for this system and other patents are in preparation.
Artificial Life has acquired the rights for the system for Greater China (PRC, Taiwan and Hong Kong), South East Asia and Japan with an option for exclusivity and more territories. Artificial Life will sell and distribute the system and customize and localize it to the Asian culture and technical and procedural standards in local hospitals. In addition, Artificial Life will adapt the user interface to local languages and provide additional porting to a wide range of mobile phone handsets. The system is currently available for mobile phones running a Microsoft Windows CE-based operating system. Artificial Life will provide a Java version as well.
"This is an exciting new business opportunity for us. Diabetes is a global pandemic with frighteningly high growth rates all around the world, especially in China and Southeast Asia. We see the need and great opportunity to apply modern mobile technology to this field and to diversify our business into the field of modern telematics and telemedicine. By bringing together the cutting edge telematics platform from Infokom and our localizations, and technical improvements, and mobile know-how and technology, we create an optimal combination of technologies to expand our business. The mobile diab(r) system is a great extension of our current and strongly growing product portfolio of mobile games and entertainment. After SMS Galaxy, this marks the second successful product acquisition and business extension for us in 2007," said Eberhard Schoneburg, CEO of Artificial Life.
"We are glad to be able to partner with Artificial Life, a global mobile technology leader. Their expertise in artificial intelligence, Internet technology and especially mobile broadband technology makes them the best partner for us in Asia. In addition Artificial Life has a great network of business contacts and partners throughout Asia. We are therefore very confident that we can generate substantial business together in Asia," said Rolf-Dietrich Berndt, CEO of Infokom GmbH, Germany.
Artificial Life and Infokom are currently working on joint pilot projects in China and other Asian countries.
About Infokom GmbH
Infokom Gmbh was founded in Germany in 1991 by Rolf-Dietrich Berndt. The Company is a full service IT provider focusing on software development, networking and IT administration. Infokom was the main technical partner in the DISCO project (diabetes information and service center online). Infokom has also developed a special leading edge telematic platform and the mobile diab(r) system and other telemedical applications facilitating the communication between patients, physicians and medical service providers. See also: www.infokom.de
About Artificial Life
Artificial Life, Inc. (OTCBB:ALIF) is a public U.S. corporation headquartered in Hong Kong with offices in Berlin, Germany and Tokyo, Japan. Artificial Life is a leading global provider of award-winning mobile technology, content, games and applications (for more details see also our homepage www.artificial-life.com and our m-commerce website www.botme.com).
Forward-Looking Statements:
This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Such forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements regarding our future results of operations, financial condition and business prospects. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as "may," "will," "should," "expect," "intend," "plan," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "potential," "continue," or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. Although such statements are based on our own information and information from other sources we believe to be reliable, you should not place undue reliance on them. These statements involve risks and uncertainties, and actual market trends or our actual results of operations, financial condition or business prospects may differ materially from those expressed or implied in these forward-looking statements for a variety of reasons. Potential risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, our ability to obtain additional funding to operate and grow our business; the unproven potential of our mobile gaming business model; changing consumer preferences and uncertainty of market acceptance of our products; timely adoption and availability of 3G mobile technology; market acceptance for use of mobile handheld devices to play the interactive games; unpredictable mobile game development schedules; our reliance on a relatively small number of brands; our ability to license brands from others; our dependence upon resellers and telecommunication carriers and operators to distribute our products; our ability to successfully develop, introduce, and sell new or enhanced products in a timely manner; and the timing of new product announcements or introductions by us or by our competitors. For additional discussion of these risks and uncertainties and other factors, please see the documents we file from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Annual Report on Form 10-KSB filed on April 3, 2007. We assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, which apply only as of the date of this press release.