A SOFTWARE CAN READ OUR MIND
NEW DELHI: Imagine a software which can read your emotions and help you overcome stress, depression, anxiety or a small handheld device which can do a CT-scan, keep record of your heartbeat etc just at the click of a button. In the nascent stages, these are some technologies which may change the course of medical treatment in the years to come. Presenting these and many such innovations were scientists from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and from India at a seminar — EmTech India 2009 — held in the city recently. The seminar was organized by Technology Review, a 109-year-old blue chip magazine of MIT. Indian edition of the magazine was launched in the presence of renowned scientist and policy maker Prof M G K Menon. The two-day long seminar saw innovators from India and MIT present path-breaking research in the field of technology that will be used in the near future. "We have noted a recent trend where Indian technologists and innovators who built successful careers abroad are now returning to India to start new enterprises back at home," said Jason Pontin, editor-in-chief and publisher, Technology Review. Working on the software called, Meta Therapy, that can help people overcome depression , anxiety or stress Vinay Gidwaney, a research affiliate, MIT Media Lab, said, ‘‘ The project is in the last stages. It has been found that patients undergoing painful procedures required less amount of drugs to ease the pain if a person was talking to him or her. Based on this we have developed a software in the MIT lab which first screens the patient by asking him or her a few questions about them and then plays an appropriate audio tape which helps them disassociate themselves from the pain, anxiety, stress, etc. The tapes and its content are designed after conducting psychological analysis on different patients.’’ Similarly, researchers have made a prototype of a small device which can perform a CT-scan of the hand. ‘‘ We are in the nascent stages, but the idea is to develop a device which is smaller than a mobile phone and can keep a record of the changes happening in your body and can also store images of various scans performed on the body,’’ said Ramesh Raskar, associate professor, MIT Media Lab. The seminar saw a lot of Indian technologists present their innovative work in various fields. Among them was a group of experts who are working on a software, which can help intelligence agencies gather information from various quarters in an effective manner. ‘‘ During probe into terror attack, information comes from various sources and the investigating body doesn’t have the time to go through all the information. This advance algorithm will help investigators integrate all the data and use it as per their convenience. Through this we can trace peculiar patterns in conversations, telephone calls and all communications between the terror groups and track location of terror cells. It also helps in finding relevant text material from various information sources that can be vital in solving the case,’’ said Srikanth Sampara, CEO, Tuple Technologies. Another group of students from Jagan Institute of Management Studies (JIMS) presented a prototype for tamperproof fare-meter in autorickshaws . In this, the fare is calculated using a global positioning system (GPS). ‘‘ At present , the electronic fare-meters can be tampered, as it has mechanical parts to measure the wheel rotation. But with this technology, the distance is calculated on the basis of distance covered as per longitude and latitude. So there is no way an auto driver can fleece a passenger ,’’ said Rahul Gupta, a student of JIMS.
