MIT’s ‘Technology Review India’ identified 20 young innovators for 2011. We profile three of them
Leslie D’Monte
Article link: http://www.livemint.com/2012/05/11193453/Research–Homegrown-technolo.html
Inspired by insects and lizards that can scale rocks and walls with ease, 33-year-old Abhijit Majumder from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur, created an adhesive that can stick to any surface as snugly as a lizard on a wall.
Somnath Ray, 35, designed a tricycle from off-the-shelf bicycle parts that gives the disabled mobility as well as a mobile commerce platform.
V.S.K. Murthy Balijepalli, 26, from IIT Bombay, developed a method to forecast electricity price, grid frequency and load that can assist in making power grids smarter, while Priyanka Sharma, 28, from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research’s (CSIR’s) Institute of Microbial Technology in Chandigarh, developed a plastic chip that uses simple assay (analytical procedure) techniques to quickly and cost-effectively detect toxic materials in the environment.
All these people are listed as under-35 technology innovators, identified by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Technology Review India. They provide evidence that innovation in the technology sector is no longer restricted to Western countries or India-born Americans.
Technology Review India received over 250 nominations for 2011. A panel of 23 judges identified 20 individuals who, in their opinion, had developed technologies that are likely to benefit society. The India TR (Technology Review) 35 programme started in 2010 and in the last two years, Technology Review India—published by CyberMedia, a New Delhi-based speciality media house—has identified 37 young innovators.
In the 2011 list, released in March, IIT Bombay emerged as the country’s hottest technology innovation centre, with three of its researchers making the grade. Six innovators were from IITs and CSIR-funded labs. Nine of the 20 winners dabbled in computing and Web applications, while the remaining winners spanned fields such as biomedicine, communications, energy, materials and transportation.
We chose three of the 20 scientists mentioned in the list:
Haptic shoe for the visually impaired
A former research consultant to Hewlett-Packard, or HP Labs (the central research lab for Hewlett-Packard) in India, 24-year-old Anirudh Sharma has a passion for product design. Based in Bangalore over the past two years, he has been surrounded by schools for the visually impaired in the vicinity of Koramangala.
Shoe sense: Anirudh Sharma’s creation takes directions from mobile maps and transmits them to the user’s shoes.(©2011 Techaw)
Shoe sense: Anirudh Sharma’s creation takes directions from mobile maps and transmits them to the user’s shoes.(©2011 Techaw)
Most visually impaired people typically have canes or trained dogs to guide them. Sharma noticed, however, that they generally did not like using technology aids that use voice-feedback-based devices since these block their inherent sense of hearing, which is critical in avoiding traffic, crowds and obstacles.
“My job at HP Labs was to develop new interfaces. Whenever I looked at the global positioning system (GPS) screen in my car, I felt it would be better to replace the visual feel with a haptic (which refers to the sense of touch) one. My exposure to the visually impaired strengthened this idea, which gave rise to the Le Chal technology,” says Sharma.
Le Chal, put simply, is a shoe that provides haptic feedback, guiding the user towards his destination by vibrating in the front, back, or on either side. A vibration in the front indicates the user should keep going straight; a vibration on the left means she/he should turn left, and so on.
The user begins by announcing his destination on Mobile Maps, using the Le Chal app running on an Android smartphone. That phone then communicates—using Bluetooth (a wireless technology)—with a circuit board located in the heel of the shoe.
Following the cloud-supplied (cloud is a metaphor for the Internet) turn-by-turn directions, along with locational data from its own GPS unit, the phone gets the control board to activate each of the shoe’s four vibrators as needed. The vibrations start out low but build in intensity as the user comes closer to the point where s/he has to take a turn. A proximity sensor in the front of the shoe also alerts the user to obstacles, which can be detected from up to 10ft away.
After quitting HP Labs, Sharma filed for a patent on Le Chal about two months ago and started his own company, Ducere Technologies. He is now on a mission to fabricate at least 20-30 sub-$20 (around Rs 1,000) Le Chal kits and distribute them to the visually impaired.
“We are in the product development phase for Le Chal. We hope to launch it commercially by September-October this year,” says Sharma. “I’m not a maker of shoes. Our wearable technology augments the shoes.”
Incidentally, in 2005, two researchers from the University of Sydney, Xiaoyan Fu and Dahai Li, published a paper, Haptic Shoes: Representing Information By Vibration, in the medical journal The Lancet, which referred to a haptic shoes system that could obtain haptic stock market data and also be applied in a wide range of computer technologies, including data analysis, network connection, embedded system and wireless communication.
Virtual trial room
Apparel shopping in cyberspace is catching the fancy of users but getting the right fit online, which fashion-conscious youngsters insist on, has proved a challenge. Even as physical space in retail outlets is getting more expensive, store managers are being faced with an increasing need to provide more trial rooms.
Innovators: Hemanth Satyanarayana visualizes what a new outfit will look like (Kumar/Mint)
Innovators: Hemanth Satyanarayana visualizes what a new outfit will look like (Kumar/Mint)
Hyderabad-based Hemanth Kumar Satyanarayana, who was familiar with augmented reality (a technology that superimposes content over images) during his stay in the US around 2005, made it to the list for developing Trialar, a digital interactive platform that helps shoppers try out clothes and accessories instantaneously, virtually and seamlessly.
It is an augmented-reality-enabled digital trial room, which can be installed in brick and mortar apparel stores. While its integrated analytics platform helps retailers understand customer preferences better, its digital catalogue and analytics engine for guidance help the shopper mix and match apparel, accessories and compare multiple items simultaneously.
“I have used a combination of computer vision and computer graphics that helps get data from users. The technology was patented in 2011—a couple of retailers in Hyderabad and one in Bangalore are using Trialar as a pilot,” says Satyanarayana, who co-founded Imaginate Software Labs with Pavan Kosaraju in 2011.
While Satyanarayana did not disclose names of retailers, the 29-year-old says the cost of hardware was around Rs 1 lakh. “We will try our best to keep the cost of the digital trial room as low as possible. However, there are software, licensing and maintenance costs. The service contract is the biggest challenge,” he notes.
Globally, there have been similar attempts. In November, UK-based Mail Online reported that Debenhams had become the first UK brand to pilot a new augmented reality technology which allows shoppers to try on potential purchases without getting undressed or battling through crowded shops. In October, American retailer Macy’s launched virtual-sizing technology in the US. It had partnered with software provider True Fit.
Non-invasive chemotherapy
When he was doing his BTech in biochemical engineering, there were a few subjects that covered drug-delivery systems too. Nitin Joshi, 28, did not forget these lessons. When he returned to IIT Bombay as an MTech student, he came across a project that dealt with the non-invasive delivery of a single drug.
Nitin Joshi (Leslie D’Monte/Mint)
Nitin Joshi (Leslie D’Monte/Mint)
“In advanced lung cancer cases, doctors typically advise combination chemotherapy (which uses medicine to weaken and destroy cancer cells) rather than a single-drug treatment. But when drugs are given intravenously (directly into the vein), patient compliance is a big problem. I wanted to solve this issue and work with a combination of drugs,” says Joshi, who completed his MTech in 2008 in biomedical engineering.
He developed dual-compartment nanostructures (a nanometre is one billionth of a metre) which contain two anti-cancer drugs—paclitaxel (a known anti-cancer drug) and curcumin (a part of turmeric which has anti-cancer properties)—and deliver them jointly to lung cancer patients using the aerosol (a dispensing system) delivery method that is non-invasive.
In normal chemotherapy, Joshi explains, the patient gets multiple doses of injections. “These are released into the bloodstream, but a huge amount gets wasted and the toxins released by the drugs even affect the surrounding healthy tissues. If there is localized and regional delivery instead, like aerosol, it has minimal chances of destroying adjoining healthy tissues since the drugs concentrate themselves mostly around the tumour,” he adds.
“During animal trials, we got good results in the treatment of lung cancer (which still claims many victims), the metastasis (spread of the disease to other organs) itself, and the synergistic effect of both the drugs,” says Joshi, who patented the product in 2011. His guide was Prof. Rinti Banerjee, who has MBBS and PhD degrees, but doesn’t practise medicine.
Other scientists, according to Joshi, have tried the aerosol method with single drugs. ”But not much research has been done on the surfactant (the material that lowers the surface tension of a liquid) properties of the drug so that it does not collapse the airways when delivered in the body,” he adds.
“We have done animal trials so far. There are regulatory guidelines that we have to follow now before it goes for FDA (the US’ food and drug administration) approval or reaches patients. We are now looking for funding and partners,” says Joshi.
The usual chemotherapy would cost around Rs 5,000 for a single vial. Joshi hopes his solution will reduce the dosage and the overall cost, besides increasing the efficacy of the drug.
