Emerging Worlds

In July 2013, Professor Ramesh Raskar of the MIT Media Lab brought his first team to Hyderabad, India to run a week-long camp or "buildathon." Some of the solutions that have come out of the Hyderabad center, which is focused on eye health, include:

Meibomium Gland Imaging - A portable screening tool for abnormal meiboimium gland pathology

Pediatric Perimeter - Automatic peripheral vision testing for children and infants

Super Stereo: Cheiroscope - 3D printable cheiroscope for therapy

Pupillometry Device - a portable device to pick up conditions in the optic nerve

Super Stereo: NEuro Pupil - Eye tracking with a virtual reality system

OpenEyeCAD - open source repository to describe different parameters

Anterior Segment Imaging - wearable device to examine different segments of the eye

Prosthetic Eye Synthesis - Computational prosthetic design from 3D face scans

Hydro-Pro - a way to measure in order to improve fitting of eye prostheses

These are all inventions that can scale quickly and easily, and that are applicable to other environments.

In January 2014 Mumbai, India was the second city where the team ran a buildathon. Some of the solutions that have come out of the Mumbai center, which is focused on health diagnostics, include:

SenseCam - a webcam-based micro emotions analysis platform

SkinSPECT - a portable mobile-phone-linked skin cancer and disease screening module

LightEAR - a device to image conditions and infections of the middle ear using a mechanically stable form factor

StethoCG - a device that detects heart murmurs in patients using ECG and stethoscope

Cardio24 - a diagnostic tool for cardiovascular diseases on a web platform

ARAM - Apnea Rest Analysis Mask (ARAM) - a wearable device for home-monitoring of Obstructive Sleep Apnea

Caries - a diagnostic test to detect the presence of carie-causing bacteria in saliva

DAANT - a system to quantify your eating habits, including unilateral chewing (one-sided chewing), eating speed, and number of times you chew your food

In July 2014 the team ran its first Kumbhathon in Nashik, India, Professor Raskar's home town. The Kumbhathon has evolved to become a focal point of new technological ideas that have practical applications in Nashik.

By all accounts the 2015 Kumbh Mela was a resounding success. There were zero casualties, zero missing cases, and zero disputes. Now, Nashik is increasingly seen as an innovation hub with year-round innovation activities.

We have tested and proven the platform model in Nashik, India, the site of the 2015 Kumbh Mela. The Kumbh Mela pilgrimage presented an opportunity to access thousands of people for research and market testing, and to develop tools to empower smart citizens.

At the 2015 Kumbh Mela in Nashik, the team had a Health Pavilion. This station deployed portable instruments to test vital health statistics and oral and pulmonary diseases of visitors, and it mapped data sets to use predictive analytics and machine learning technologies to identify potential warning signs and diseases that have been undetected.