BITS Pilani, IIT Bombay and IIT Varanasi win Ericsson Innovation Awards

BITS Pilani, IIT Bombay and IIT Varanasi will be supported by Ericsson India financially to the extent of Rs. 13 lacs each towards incubating the winning projects at any IIT approved technology business incubators

Three premier engineering institutes – BITS Pilani, IIT Bombay, IIT Varnasi have won the ‘Ericsson Innovation Awards India’.

The three winning teams will be supported by Ericsson India financially to the extent of Rs. 13 lacs each towards incubating the winning projects at any IIT approved technology business incubators, said a statement from Ericsson India.

Ericsson Innovation Awards India were launched in partnership with FITT  in 2014 to promote the innovation within engineering students at select IITs.

Last year, Paras Batra, a student from IIT Delhi, who won the award launched his own start-up and smart jewellery app called ‘Safer’.

In its second year, the Awards have been rolled out to IITs across Delhi, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Mumbai, Roorkee, Guwahati, Bhubaneswar, Mandi, Hyderabad as well as IISc Bangalore, BITS Pilani, IIIT Gwalior, IIIT Delhi, Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in Varanasi.

The projects were submitted by students in areas such as web design, cloud computing, storage and networking, human-machine interface, embedded and hardware system design, MIMO (multiple-input, multiple-output), machine-to-machine/Internet of Things, software-defined networking, open source, signal processing, graphics and visualization, as well as research.

From the proposals received, seven were short-listed in the month of February 2016 on criteria such as degree of innovation, feasibility, scalability and the overall impact on masses. Each short-listed proposal was given an incentive by Ericsson to complete the initial prototype within two months. The winning projects were selected by the Jury in front of an audience comprising of students, Faculty, Innovators and industry leaders.

Synopsis of the winning projects:

Human recognition using GAIT analysis and other body features based on Microsoft Kinect sensor

Institute – BITS Pilani
Project Leader – Chandradeo Arya
Team members – Anuj Bansal & Deeptanu Choudhary
Technology Domain – Computer Science

The project introduces an innovative way for human recognition using GAIT and other body features which is an unobtrusive, robust, reliable way of human recognition which provides and alternative way to the currently established system based on face, fingerprint and iris.

It is unique and innovative because this system can be used in major security prone areas like defense area, research labs, government offices, reserve banks which have predefined people using the system. This will be an addition to the currently used systems based on fingerprint. It will act as an additional alternative to the currently used systems based on fingerprint and facial recognition due to its non-intrusive, reliable nature and will enable better bio-matric data privacy.

The final product will be a complete software solution which will require kinect and one small computing device, a computer system and embedded system in coming time which can recognize people from distance without requiring them to stop and follow the checkpoint. This will be a system which cannot be spoofed and even if the system is hacked, it cannot be used for unauthenticated entry.

LED Beacon and Receiver Module

Institute – IIT Bombay
Project Leader – Dheeraj Kotagiri
Team members – Rishabh Gupta, Sambhav Jain & Nithin Murali
Technology Domain –Visible Light Communication (VLC) Technology (Lifi Technology)

Ever thought of sharing data at light’s speed? In a first of its kind innovation, a group of students have come up with an idea which uses a LED Beacon to broadcast data in a particular area and illuminating it at the same time.
A team of IIT Bombay students are developing the next generation beacons using Li-Fi technology. So, from a laymen’s perspective, the product would be a LED light source which would be connected to a receiver which would transmit data in real time.

The Idea is to develop a compact receiver for the beacons which could be integrated with smartphones to push location based information and data. This can be achieved by using a one-of-its-kind modulation technique, which will enable it to be more accurate and faster – a beacon running on the LiFi technology.

In today’s world, LEDs are one of the most electricity efficient illumination devices and are fast replacing CFLs and incandescent bulbs across the globe. Since the proposed beacon will use visible light to transmit data, it will not only serve the purpose of a beacon but also double up as an illuminating device.

The possibilities with these beacons are endless. LED beacons could revolutionize how we do conventional business. With location based messages delivered to our smartphone via an integration with day to day mobile applications, it surely is the future of connectivity.

Advanced Breathalyzer Helmet

Institute – IIT Varanasi
Project Leader – Naman Singhal
Team members – Shubham Jaiswal, Rishabh Babeley, Devendra Gupta and Jagjeet Shyamkunwar
Technology Domain – Human Machine Interface

The vision of the team from IIT Varanasi is to make Indian roads safer for both riders as well as pedestrians. The team is working on a smart helmet which is integrated with a two wheeler which – will keeps both the driver as well as the vehicle safe and secure by making it mandatory for the driver to put on the helmet and have a permissible alcohol breath level so as to be able to start the vehicle.

The uniqueness of the solution being that a particular two-wheeler can only be switched on with a particular helmet and without which the two-wheeler cannot be started hence making it safe from theft also. In case of an accident the helmet sends the location of the victim to the ambulance and family members to provide immediate help. This is enabled through a cloud server which will process the data and provide immediate medical help to the victim.

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