IIITB presents innovations to improve accessibility and help the differently-abled, at the Bengaluru Tech Summit 2021
Bengaluru: International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore (IIITB) participated in the Bengaluru Tech Summit (BTS) 2021, organized by the Department of Electronics, Information Technology, Biotechnology, and Science & Technology, Government of Karnataka, and Co-Hosted by STPI. IIITB faculty and students presented 10 innovative projects around assistive technology to improve accessibility for the differently-abled, online learning, AI-based surveillance assistance, and CryptoWill, from November 17 to November 19, 2021.
The Bionic Yantra is a breakthrough innovation from IIITB’s MINRO center that supports the rehabilitation of individuals with spinal cord injury resulting in total or partial paralysis. The technology supports physiotherapy using an EAW (Exoskeleton Assisted Walking). This project has been funded by the ITBT Department of the Government of Karnataka, and a prototype of this device is currently undergoing clinical trials at NIMHANS.
The Multimodal Perception Lab guided by Professor Dinesh Jayagopi focuses on addressing problems involving multiple forms of input including vision and speech. The lab has developed an automated interview coach for preparing Karnataka students for the administrative services interviews following their entrance exam. The lab also works with a start-up, Deep Vision Tech, on the Indian Sign Language interpretation by converting speech inputs from an individual into animated signs, and also converting sign language into text.
Professor Jaya Sreevalsan Nair and Professor Madhav Rao are guiding projects that focus on helping the visually impaired and making STEM education more accessible for this group by extracting data from diagrams and creating tactile diagrams respectively.
Speaking of the projects presented at BTS this year, Professor (Dr.) Debabrata Das, Director, IIITB, said, “Continuous innovation is important to the advancement of society. It is a vision of societal betterment, that drives our faculty and students to research and design innovative contributions that impact society and the world of entrepreneurship.”
Five student-led projects were also exhibited at BTS.
· Canvas Board, an interactive platform that unifies multiple online tools for teaching, presenting, managing, or explaining ideas, has been adopted by over 22 educational institutions to date and saw over 16 registered users within a year of inception.
· CircuitVerse is a free open-source platform that allows users to design logic circuits online. The platform has been used by more than a lakh users, who have created over 450,000 circuits on CircuitVerse.
· Sahasraaksha is an AI-based CCTV surveillance assistant, that uses deep learning approaches to detect persons, faces, vehicles, and objects of interest as defined by the user. The features available help better understand and manage surveillance information, improving the quality of security services.
· CryptoWill provides a completely decentralized, smart, contract-based solution to eliminate middlemen and trust factors, allowing users to create, modify and claim wills, without third-party involvement.
· The GoLearn App features an AI chatbot to help track a user’s progress, and craft questions based on the level of understanding the bot detects through AI assessment. The app can also fetch appropriate articles based on the user’s search queries.