By the way, you see how peoples come out with the research ideas that helping the social.
Energy Harvesting Active Networked Tags for Disaster Recovery Applications (EnHANTs) focuses on the design of disaster recovery system that will enable locating people trapped by fires and survivors of structural collapse. The key components of the system are Active Networked Tags that will be embedded in the building structure and carried by the users (for example, attached to their clothing). Other components will include cell phones and wireless mobile devices.
The active tags will be small and flexible device that will harvest energy from the environment (for example from light or movement) and will have ultra-low power communications capabilities. They will be attached to objects that are traditionally not networked and adapt their communications and networking mechanisms to satisfy their energy constraints.
In case of emergency, they will move to a special mode in which they form a network and transmit information (for example, last known location) to receivers which will be deployed by the rescue forces around the disaster site. In a long term emergency (a structural collapse), the tags will optimize the energy consumption for continuous and efficient operation.
Project Site: http://enhants.ee.columbia.edu
CelloPhone
Electrical Engineering Department, UCLA;
Dr. Aydogan Ozcan, Dr. Neven Karlovac, Dr. Yvonne Bryson
In resource limited settings, such as in the villages of Africa, there is no infrastructure to conduct even very simple medical tests such as blood counts. To combat various infectious diseases such as malaria and HIV there is an urgent need to be able to analyze bodily fluids such as whole blood samples in a cost-effective and simple way that can even be conducted by minimally trained personnel. For such blood tests to be performed in the field, we need wireless technologies that can capture the micro-scale signatures of various blood cells even at resource poor settings. And cell phones offer a great match for this purpose since: (1) they are already widely used almost everywhere; and (2) they are equipped with advanced technologies that could be tailored towards the needs of such medical tests. Such a wireless health monitoring technology that runs on a regular cell-phone would significantly impact the global fight against infectious diseases in resource poor settings such as in Africa, parts of India, South-East Asia and South America.
The CelloPhone Project aims to develop a transformative solution to these global challenges by providing a revolutionary optical imaging platform that will be used to specifically analyze bodily fluids within a regular cell phone. Through wide-spread use of this innovative technology, the health care services in the developing countries will significantly be improved making a real impact in the life quality and life expectancy of millions.
The core technology of the CelloPhone Project relies on an innovative on-chip platform, developed by Prof. Aydogan Ozcan’s Group at UCLA, which we term LUCAS—Lensfree Ultra-wide field Cell monitoring Array platform that is based on Shadow Imaging. For most bio-medical imaging applications, directly seeing the structure of the object is of paramount importance. This conventional way of thinking has been the driving motivation for the last few decades to build better microscopes with more powerful lenses or other advanced imaging apparatus. However, for imaging and monitoring of discrete particles such as cells or bacteria, there is a much better way of imaging that relies on detection of their shadow signatures. Technically, the shadow of a micro-object can be thought as a hologram that is based on interference of diffracted beams interacting with each cell. Quite contrary to the dark shadows that we are used to seeing in the macro-world (such as our own shadow on the wall), micro-scale shadows (or transmission holograms) contain an extremely rich source of quantified information regarding the spatial features of the micro-object of interest.
By making use of this new way of thinking, unlike conventional lens based imaging approaches, LUCAS does not utilize any lenses, microscope-objectives or other bulk optical components, and it can immediately monitor an ultra-large field of view by detecting the holographic shadow of cells or bacteria of interest on a chip. The holographic diffraction pattern of each cell, when imaged under special conditions, is extremely rich in terms of spatial information related to the state of the cell or bacteria. Through advanced signal processing tools that are running at a central computer station, the unique texture of these cell/bacteria holograms will enable highly specific and accurate medical diagnostics to be performed even in resource poor settings by utilizing the existing wireless networks.
Project Site: http://innovate.ee.ucla.edu
CellScope
Bioengineering Department, University of California at Berkeley;
Dr. Daniel Fletcher, Dr. Erik Douglas, Dr. Wilbur Lam, Neil Switz, Robi Maamari, David Breslauer
The CellScope project aims to address disease diagnosis and treatment challenges in developing countries by enabling clinical microscopy and wireless communication of healthcare information in the field. By clipping a compact optical microscope onto a camera-enabled cellular phone, we are creating a mobile microscopy system that increases the capabilities of healthcare workers as well as the speed and reach of healthcare delivery.
Much of the developing world is ravaged by infectious disease, and local infrastructure is often absent or crumbling. Optical microscopy is the diagnostic gold standard for many of these diseases, but the necessary equipment and trained personnel are often not available in a resource-limited setting. However, the presence of reliable cellular communication in these places presents a tremendous opportunity for healthcare delivery and can serve as the platform for an affordable and reliable method to diagnose patients in remote areas.
We are developing a system for cell phone microscopy, called the CellScope, capable of on-site disease diagnosis and wireless transmission of patient data to clinical centers for further evaluation, treatment recommendations, patient management, and epidemiological studies. Our device extends the concept of telemedicine to diagnostic microscopy using commercially-available camera-enabled cellular phones. The CellScope takes advantage of the robust cellular network in the developing world and the well-established and trusted technology of optical imaging to meet the tremendous demand for portable infectious disease diagnosis. Carried by local health workers, this mobile and inexpensive technology will make high-quality microscopy widely accessible, improving patient care and relieving the burden on under-resourced regional clinics. Vodafone Americas Foundation™ support will enable development and deployment of field-ready prototypes for use in evaluating device effectiveness for malaria and tuberculosis diagnosis and monitoring.
Project Sites: http://fletchlab.berkeley.edu/research_cellscope.htm
http://blumcenter.berkeley.edu/telemicroscopy-disease-diagnosis
