IIT Kanpur-backed firm to launch AI-powered Covid-19 disinfectant chamber

The chamber will record person's temperature before allowing entry, AI-powered camera will capture his face, while the chamber will sanitise him from top to bottom within seconds

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur-incubated start-up CuproHealthTech is in the final stage of launching an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered covid-19 disinfectant chamber for installation in the public places.

Disinfectant chambers are cabins where a solution is sprayed on to an individual to sanitise/ disinfect him completely. Although, many companies had zealously developed sanitisation tunnels in the initial days of covid-19 crisis in India, none of them was backed by research or followed basic safety norms, according to the IIT Kanpur.

"The Institute took the early lead in developing technologies to fight covid-19. In the past two months, our researchers and the start-ups incubated at IIT Kanpur have together developed personal protection equipment (PPE) kit, ventilator, reusable N95 mask, oxygen concentrator etc," Institute Director Prof Abhay Karandikar said.

“IIT Kanpur researchers have proactively took it upon themselves to find solutions for the problems India has been facing in dealing with the outbreak,” he noted.

“Our technology will be superior to any western technology. We want to fulfill the dream of Prime Minister Narendra Modi by developing the world-class health technologies in India,” CuproHealthTech founder Madhu Vasepalli said.

The chamber will determine the temperature of the person before allowing entry, and the AI-powered camera will record the face of the individual and moderate the entry, while the chamber will then completely sanitise the individual from top to bottom within seconds.

The whole process is automatic, without any human intervention. According to the Institute, the technology used by Cupro is completely safe for humans.

While, the coronavirus is potentially carried on the clothes, bags and other objects, hand sanitisers and face mask can only protect the face and hand, but cannot arrest the transmission of the virus from other objects including clothes/shoes.

“IIT Kanpur is now India’s pioneering centre for developing technologies for fighting covid-19. CuproHealthTech is launching the disinfectant chambers that would define the market in the whole new way,” company’s CEO Nikhil Agarwal said.

The chamber, which is a proprietary product, will not only completely disinfect the person, but also trace the data in case of asymptomatic patients.

CuproHealthTech is a health technology firm based out of Hyderabad. It is incubated at Foundation for Innovation & Research in Science & Technology (FIRST), a technology incubator of IIT Kanpur.

Last month, the IIT Kanpur had designed an ultra-low cost PPE kit, which could be mass produced at less than Rs 100 per unit.

Titled Polyethylene-based Improvised Protective Equipment under Scarcity (PIPES) kit, it has been designed by a team of IIT Kanpur researchers and industry partners. It is based on thin cylindrical rolls/pipes of polyethylene (polythene), which is non-porous and commonly used material for industrial packaging and making plastic-bags.