Date: Jan 02, 2013 Source: (
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The government funded iCorps program has successfully trained UW-Madison's second team, Thalchemy, to develop their sensory smart phone technology that has the potential to contact help for those in need. Now, with the help of the Wisconsin Entrepreneurs' Network (WEN), Thalchemy has just submitted their first SBIR grant proposal.
The iCorps program selects and teaches competitive groups how to expedite the process of bringing innovations out of the research lab and into the market. Thalchemy is comprised of Entrepreneurial Lead, Atif Hashmi, who has a background in computer engineering and develops hardware and software that mimics brain activity, Mentor, James Smith, and Principal Investigator, Mikko Lipasti. The team is currently developing sensory technology that will work in unison with a smart phone processor to monitor the environment.
"That's what the thalamus does, it's the part of the brain that is directly exposed to the sensory input. So we combined the thalamus with alchemy to describe our technology," said Hashmi.
An example of Thalchemy's technology is a smart phone application that continuously monitors the environment with sensors that detect if someone falls or there is an arrhythmic heart beat. In these instances the sensors would trigger the application to call for help from a physician or family member.
"The application doesn't exist in smart phones right now because it requires the processor to continuously monitor the sensors and by doing so the processor completely drains the battery," said Hashmi.
As a result, Thalchemy has designed a second processor that can off load the sensory work from the primary processor. The sensory processor is in a sleep mode and only wakes up when something of interest happens in order to complete a task, such as making a call for help.
After completing the iCorps program, Thalchemy looked to the Interim Director of WEN, Cheryl Vickroy, for help in submitting a SBIR phase one grant. "Cheryl was great in helping us find out about grant opportunities. We were able to refine our proposal and couldn't have done it without her help," said Hashmi.
With about 600 million smart phones sold each year in the U.S. alone, Thalchemy is excited about the potential for their technology. Right now the team is focusing on smart phones but will continue to look for other devices that could benefit from their sensory technology. Motivated by both the iCorps program and WEN, Thalchemy is seeking out potential investors and grant opportunities for the future.
