A third-year computer engineering student of Manav Rachna College of Engineering, Faridabad, Roopam Sharma (20) has designed a real-time tracking system for patients suffering from dementia. On May 27, Emancipator was adjudged a ‘Top 10 Global Innovation’ at the online Microsoft Youth Spark Challenge for Change 2015. The award includes prize money of $2,500 (Rs.1.58 lakh), a leadership-development trip to Nicaragua later this month (August), and a Windows phone.

Roopam also teamed up with fellow students Akshita Sachdeva, Neeraj Saini and Debajit Guha to develop Manovue — a first-of-its-kind assistance device for the blind — which has qualified for the Microsoft Imagine Cup global finals 2015 to be staged in Seattle, USA, from July 27-31. If the team wins, it will earn them a bumper $50,000 (Rs.31.7 lakh) as prize money.

“I started working on Emancipator in January after joining the MIT Media Lab India research initiative and submitted my entry for the Youth Spark Challenge in February. Using geofencing and wearable technologies, Android and Visual Studio 2013 Pro software, I developed an application which is compatible with Microsoft’s Android phones. To conceptualise and develop Manovue, the team used Open Source computer vision libraries software, Espeak — a speech synthesizer — and ultrasonic sensors,” explains Roopam.

Emancipator is a mobile app that sends alerts to a patient’s caregiver when the patient leaves a predefined geographical area set by the caregiver. The patient wears a band that starts vibrating as soon as the geo-fence is crossed. On the other hand, Manovue is a multi-utility wearable haptic (touch-based) device which enables users to read any printed text by moving their fingers over it. “Our team built Manovue with a coordinated Windows phone application which makes use of integrated Cortana intelligent personal assistant technology through voice commands,” says the young techie.

Encouraged and inspired by all the encomiums, Roopam’s career path is set on an upward trajectory of social entrepreneurship. “Winning the Imagine Cup programme will enable me to commercialise my innovations. In the meantime, I will tap government and other sources for financial support to develop digital products and processes which can make life easier for the huge number of neglected physically and mentally challenged people of India,” he vows.

Way to go, bro!

Autar Nehru (Delhi)