Fear of needles prompts students to design software to test malaria

When Brian Giita, a 22-year-old first year student at Makerere University, got malaria at the close of last year, he had no idea that it would trigger his thinking into designing a mobile phone application that diagnoses malaria without drawing a blood sample.

His experience at a local clinic to have tests done was very painful since he hated needles, and injections all his life. And when the semester opened in February, he and his classmate Joshua Businge, both Computer Science students, were asked to develop a project as part of their academic requirements.

An application that could diagnose malaria without being pricked to draw blood, is the first idea that came to his mind. And that is how the idea, code named Code8, was born. It has since has won the group an award in the category of UN Women at the Microsoft Imagine Cup competitions in Russia.

“We wanted a mobile phone application that would diagnose malaria without having to draw a blood sample,” Giita, the brain behind the project, says.
“We have named it Matibabu, a Swahili word, meaning a medical centre. With this application, we want to bring medical centres to our homes through the mobile phone platform,” he adds. But the duo needed Simon Lubambo, a fourth year Electrical Engineering student and Josiah Kavuma, a third-year Information Technology student to join them since the former had software knowledge, while the latter was a mentor.

How the application works
The application uses a light sensor connected to a tablet that is passed over a finger to diagnose malaria. By connecting a custom piece of hardware (matiscope) to the windows phone, the user is able to diagnose and know their malaria status in the shortest time possible.

The results are sent to the user’s skydrive for medical record keeping and sharing with their personal doctors. “You just need to download the application on your phone, customise the hardware and all you have to do is connect the finger onto the hardware. Then it scans through your blood cells maximumly for one minute,” says one of the Code 8 members.

After diagnosis, it brings to your phone screen a results page showing whether you have malaria on not. Then you can either print or share the results with any doctors on your phone contacts or you can call the doctor and give him/her the results so that he prescribes medicine.

The team adds: “For now, we are using the windows phone and that means only those with that type of phone can access the application but since we are still in the development stages, we will bring it down to every mobile phone once we get approval from the relevant authorities.”

This is an inspiring story.

Google launches search tool to help firms retrieve data

An internet surfer views the Google home page. Google has launched a
tool that will help companies search for information
stored in their computers for a fee as the tech giant seeks to
diversify its revenues away from advertising

Google Wednesday launched a tool that will help companies search for information stored in their computers for a fee as the tech giant seeks to diversify its revenues away from advertising.

The Google Search Appliance (GSA) is a mounted device, providing document indexing service that enables firms retrieve information stored in different locations such as desktops, intranets or archive servers.

Users will pay between Sh4.3 million ($50,000) and Sh5.2 million ($60,000) for the device and a three-year subscription fees depending on the size of an organisation and the amount of data on its networks.

This is one of the few products that Google will be selling in Kenya where it has relied on advertising revenues from commercial items posted on its sites.

While it has been easy to search for information online through the Google search engine, corporates are finding it difficult to retrieve data and information stored in their internal systems and not in the web, a gap that Google intends to plug with GSA.

“The GSA is a scalable hardware solution that offers a Google-like search for your organisations internal file shares, databases, content management and ERP systems and other internal data as well as for your public website,” said Shai Morgan, Google’s regional manager for emerging markets at the Nairobi launch.

“Firms that wish to use our enterprise solutions such as the GSA will have to pay annual subscription fees.”

Google has been offering the service in the developed markets where it was launched in 2008 and in the Middle East. Kenya is the first market to have the device in Africa and Google plans to introduce to other markets.

Kenya has been the headquarters of Google’s sub-Saharan business covering operations in Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria and Uganda.

In Kenya, Google has partnered with e-momentum to integrate the solution to organisations’ networks and offer support maintenance service.

IN SUMMARY

• The Google Search Appliance (GSA) is a mounted device, providing document indexing service that enables firms retrieve information stored in different locations such as desktops, intranets or archive servers.
• Users will pay between Sh4.3 million ($50,000) and Sh5.2 million ($60,000) for the device and a three-year subscription fees depending on the size of an organisation and the amount of data on its networks.

http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Corporate-News/Google-launches-search-tool-to-help-firms-retrieve-data/-/539550/1925420/-/5kn5dnz/-/index.html