A necklace that stores two years of immunization records and a soap pen that encourages better hygiene among three to six year olds have been revealed as winners in a new ‘Wearables for Good’ challenge.
Unicef, Arm Holdings and frog joined forces to host the event, which attracted 2,000 registrants from 65 countries that resulted in 250 design submissions.
Khushi Baby and SoaPen, the two winners both left with a $15,000 prize and now hope to commercialise their ideas.
‘Unicef scans the near-future horizon focusing on areas undergoing rapid changes that could have a significant impact on children,’ Erica Kochi, co-lead and co-founder of Unicef Innovation said.
‘By showing how wearables and sensors can be re-imagined for low-tech and unconnected environments, our winners were able to demonstrate the potential life-saving benefits these innovations can offer.’
Not only did both teams receive prize money to assist with the production of their devices, they will also be mentored by the event partners.
Khushi Baby uses a mobile app for community health workers that interfaces with a digital necklace worn by patients via Near Field Communication (NFC).
Healthcare workers scan the chip and can read, act upon and update health records, without the need of connectivity to a central database.
‘Khushi Baby wants to ensure that all infants have access to informed and timely health care by owning a copy of their medical history’, Ruchit Nagar, co-founder of Khushi Baby, said.
‘The Khushi Baby system enables access to culturally appropriate wearable digital medical records, even in the most remote and isolated areas.’
With the prize money, the team plans to expand from monitoring the vaccination progress of 1,000 children in 100 villages to a larger beneficiary base in areas beyond India where its digital system can streamline access and delivery to health care.
Khushi Baby also has hopes of buildings its systems server to broader populations and medical applications.
SoaPen is a crayon-like soap that combines engagement with hygiene.
The personal tool encourages children from ages three to six years old to wash their hands regularly.
Teachers and parents can use the hygiene tool to draw or write on a child’s skin, which makes the act of hand washing more fun, while reducing the spread of disease.
‘We believe that a serious problem can be solved through a simple and fun solution,’said Shubham Issar, a creator of SoaPen.
‘Our focus is to reduce infant mortality rates and the spread of disease by promoting the habit of hand washing with soap among children.’
‘SoaPen taps into the power of the two directional awareness flow between adults and children all over the world, with the aim to reach as many hands as fast as possible.’
Winners were announced at SLUSH, a 15,000+ person start-up and technology event in Helsinki, Finland, and at ARM TechCon, a high-tech event for software and hardware developers in Santa Clara, California.
Simon Segars, CEO of ARM said: ‘By using readily available technologies, all of the finalists showed us how incredibly simple ideas can have the potential to be transformative.’
Denise Gershbein, Executive Creative Director of frog said: ‘We wanted to elevate wearable and sensor technology in a way that moves beyond fitness trackers on the wrist and towards improving the lives of mothers and children across the world.
‘ We are extremely pleased with the dialogue that has resulted from this effort, and truly humbled and impressed by the solutions generated by the winners.
‘We look forward to seeing real impact in the world from these ideas.’
source: bbc