Now handheld devices are actually saving lives.
CNN carried a fascinating story of a handheld device developed by a team of Indians (the lead, Myshkin Ingawale, was educated at #IoT hotbed MIT. Watch his TED Talk.) that is quickly and cheaply diagnosing anemia, which kills as many as a million or more children and pregnant women if untreated.
The problem is that the traditional device to diagnose anemia is big and costs more than $10,000, making it impractical for use by village health workers in impoverished Indian villages.
They created a simple device, the ToucHb, that slips over a finger and emits three wavelengths of light. By reading how much of the light goes through the finger, how much scatters and how much is absorbed, the village health worker can determine how much hemoglobin is in the blood, and whether the person is anemic.
Neat!
