Six novel proejcts for Startup Village

Imagine a wheelchair that moves on your instructions or with movement of your eyes! Think of a situation when you are desperately looking for an autorickshaw That you cannot find; but you send an SMS and your problem is resolved.

And wouldn’t you like your home garden or lawn to look lush green and its plants and grass healthy, with an easy technology?

These are not some whimsical ideas of crazy minds. They are among the six innovative projects of some engineering students in Kerala for incubation at the the Startup Village in Kochi.

The projects were selected for further development after a unique, first ever talent hunt jointly held by Startup Village and the Kerala Chapter of IEEE Communication Society (ComSoc). “We selected these projects not only for their innovativeness but also for their usefulness to the masses,” said Sanjay Vijayakumar, chairman of the governing board of Startup Village.

 

Last year, ComSoc provided support to eight innovative projects. Conceived by five students, the ‘Intelligent Wheelchair’ can be operated with eye movements, voice or a lever so that even a physically challenged, dumb or blind person can operate it. Sensors to detect hazards, SMS alerts to get connected with the patient and a device to monitor physiological conditions and inform the doctor will be other smart options of the wheelchair.

‘Smartmotive’, developed by students of the Government Engineering College, Thrissur, is a standing wheelchair that helps a paralysed person stand up. Since every movement is controlled by retinal movements or facial commands or sound, it can be operated by even quadriplegics.

Another interesting project is the ‘SMS Vehicle Locating Solution’, which will save passengers the ordeal of endless wait for an autorickshaw. In many cases, a vacant auto might be roaming around unaware of a commuter’s presence. The solution by a team from The College of Engineering, Thiruvanantapuram, aims to eliminate the need to wait as commuters can send SMS alerts to auto drivers pinpointing their location in plain text as well as an identifiable landmark location code to the designated number. All drivers operating in the area will be notified with the fare details. While the present solutions require the use of expensive smart phones and Global Positioning Systems, the proposed system is designed to function on basic feature phones that support SMS.

Scientifically Trained Arm-Robotic Kinesis (STARK), proposed by a group of students is a battery-powered, lightweight exoskeletal framework of an arm to provide support, or to enhance the physical capabilities of the wearer. It promises applications to people whose work involve lifting heavy weights, people at potentially dangerous workspaces or those who have lost a limb.

Project Haritha (hybrid automated remote irrigation technique for agriculture), is a user-friendly automated solar powered irrigation system for home gardens.

Another shortlisted project is ‘Tarang’, which is a technique to convert mechanical effort of any sort into electrical energy. Developed by students of the SCMS School of Engineering and Technology, Ernakulam, it is a compact device which allows users to convert any ‘weird’ mechanical energy source into electrical energy without any modifications to the apparatus. The system is as compact as a water bottle and as light as a book.

Vijayakumar said the Startup Village would extend 50 per cent of the total project cost of Rs 254,000 to incubate these ideas.

It will also provide technical assistance to groups working on speech recognition by introducing them to Nuance, the world leader in Speech Recognition technologies, and powering solutions like Siri in iPone. Those groups working on sensor-based device will be introduced to Wi-finity, a Bangalore-based company.

Sijo Kuruvilla George, Startup Village CEO, said the Startup Village team covered all the 164 engineering colleges in the state in this drive to spot people that can be game changers tomorrow.

Besides partial funding, Startup Village will also provide a slew of perks like platform to incubate the idea and an opportunity to showcase the projects before Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan.