TJay can predict an epileptic seizure, send alerts and save lives

This article is sponsored by Intel.

Proving a broader support to the government’s Digital India initiative, Intel has launched multiple initiatives like the Intel India Maker Lab that provides infrastructure to budding entrepreneurs and platforms such as the International Science & Engineering Fair (Intel ISEF) that stimulates a culture of innovation & technology-enabled transformation in youth and the Innovate for Digital India Challenge.

It was in April 2015 that Intel and DST launched the Innovate Digital India challenge. Aspiring or existing entrepreneurs and innovators were invited to develop intuitive and easy-to-use solutions to drive technology adoption or create applications that accelerate the delivery of e-governance services through eKranti/MyGov apps on mobile platforms.

The challenge saw a whopping 1,900 entries from all over India. And on November 20, the top 10 winning teams and their ideas were announced.

One of the top 10 finalists was TJay, a wearable ‘smartglove’ with applications to enable remote tracking, monitoring, diagnosis, treatment and support for people with epilepsy. It can transmit signals from the body with and without internet connectivity and has three components – checking bodily electrical current against a reference, accelerometer for seizure detections and temperature sensing. In all, TJay senses 11 types of signals from the body, such as temperature, respiration and blood pressure, compares them against preset threshold values and gives indication of occurrence of an epileptic attack.

The integration of the hardware and software allows for predicting the onset of an epileptic attack, so that patients can receive timely treatment that can save their life or prevent permanent damage. Equally importantly, it also helps doctors take decisions based on the data that TJay presents, as opposed to decisions based on assumptions when data is unavailable. And lastly, it allows hospitals and doctors to remotely monitor patients using TJay and provide proactive support that could go a long way in ensuring that epileptics are treated in a timely manner.

Founder Rajlakshmi Borthakur was driven to create the solution after her own son, diagnosed with epilepsy far too late for any treatment to be effective, decided that something had to be done to prevent others from a similar fate.