News

Israeli Engineers Create Gadget That Fights Panic Attacks

Published

6 years ago

March 5, 2021

israeli engineers create a gadget that fights panic attacks

CalmiGo

It’s estimated that between 1 and 2 percent of the general population experience panic attacks from time to time. Unfortunately, the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic has given us all a new source of anxiety, and the light at the end of the tunnel still seems far away. Some mental health experts even worry that the current pandemic could be followed by a mental health pandemic of yet unknown proportions.

The good news is that there are people like biomedical engineering Adi Wallach and her mother, Dr. Orna Levin, who understand that mental health issues can be just as debilitating as physical ones and are determined to do something about them.

After years of struggle with Wallach’s panic attacks, the mother-daughter duo decided to combine their expertise and use technology to help people around the world live their lives without panic attacks. Through their Israel-based company, Dendro Technologies, they released a product called CalmiGo, which looks like an asthma pump but functions completely differently.

“The idea came about as a result of my own personal struggles with anxiety attacks,” said Wallach. “Out of this unfortunate situation, CalmiGo was conceived. I was searching for something, anything, that I could take with me that would help me get through these moments of distress. When I was unable to find an adequate solution, I decided to create a device which people could take with them everywhere they go, one that would help them stop moments of anxiousness and distress regardless of age, location, or technical abilities.”

Also Read: UAE Is Ready To Test New Face ID Technology In Service Delivery

CalmiGo is essentially a smart deep breathing companion whose purpose is to calm your breathing in stressful situations to prevent the onset of a panic attack. To accelerate and deepen the relaxation, the device features a scented element (lavender, peppermint, or bergamot) as well as an optional function that vibrates the device to provide multi-sensory stimulation.

CalmiGo is compact enough to carry in a small pocket, and studies have shown that just a few minutes each day with the device can significantly reduce common symptoms of anxiety and stress. You can order CalmiGo right now on its official website by or via Amazon.

News

Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon

Foreign visitors will be the first users to benefit, but whether Syria’s own banks and cardholders follow is still an open question.

Published

2 weeks ago

August 27, 2026

Dana Saadeh

visa's return to syria starts with a test and a bank in lebanon

Visa is returning to Syria. Its first live international card transaction in the country was a test rather than a launch, and the milestone event ran through a Lebanese bank.

The acquirer (the bank on the merchant’s side of a card payment) was Fransabank Lebanon, with Paymera as the other named partner. Nadim Moujaes, who heads a Fransabank Group subsidiary, describes the test as both the culmination of “longstanding efforts to link Syria back to international payment networks” and “the first step in a larger path”.

Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa makes the first electronic payment in Syria using a @Visa card at a store in Damascus, following the lifting of US sanctions on Syria. pic.twitter.com/lpAN7nQ6Fc

— Tech Magazine (@TechMGZN) August 27, 2026

“We are excited to have successfully tested live transactions today as we plan to enable international visitors to use their Visa cards while in Syria,” says Leila Serhan, Visa’s senior vice president and group country manager for the North Africa, Levant and Pakistan region. Although a significant first step, that plan doesn’t come with a hard date for when a visitor’s card will work normally.

Mohammed Safwat Raslan, governor of the Central Bank of Syria, says the test paves the way for international card acceptance in Syria and that maintaining strong compliance, risk management and operational controls will remain essential. Serhan likewise stresses that Visa has worked within applicable legal, regulatory and compliance requirements. For a test transaction, it seems there was a great deal of attention paid to the rules, with the entire operation being carefully managed.

Also Read: Lebanon’s 5G Era Begins With 150 Stations And A $1M Budget

The test is the latest step in a sequence that began in December 2025, when Visa announced a strategic roadmap to support Syria’s integration into the global digital economy. In February 2026 it hosted its first industry gathering of banks, ecosystem partners and policymakers in Damascus and, the same month, signed an agreement with Syria’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in San Francisco.

Michel Kattouah, Paymera’s CEO, called the test “the return of international card acceptance,” but while that’s positive news, there’s no word yet on when a Syrian bank will issue a Visa card to a Syrian customer.