Amrita Center for Wireless Networks and Applications team has come up with a method of using smartphone cameras to remotely monitor the vitals of coronavirus-infected patients.

Faculty at Amrita are utilizing the national lockdown to innovate new products and hacks to help in the fight against COVID-19. The majority of Amrita’s innovations focus on protecting those on the front-lines of the war against coronavirus, specifically, for the doctors and nurses caring for COVID-19 patients. “When classes were suspended and the campus closed, we wanted to use our academic capabilities to help the international fight of the pandemic,” said Dr. Maneesha Ramesh, Dean, Faculty of Interdisciplinary Studies. “Amrita’s Chancellor, Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, Amma, has always stressed targeting research to humanitarian ends. So, we all turned our attention to the challenges faced by medical professionals and began innovating solutions.” Her team has come up with a method of using smartphone cameras to remotely monitor the vitals of coronavirus-infected patients.”

Dr. Maneesha Ramesh, who also serves as the director of the Amrita Center for Wireless & Application Networks, has developed a method of connecting smartphones with medical-server software to reduce the need for hospital personnel to unnecessarily directly interact with coronavirus-infected patients. Through her system, the vitals and patient-doctor communication is done remotely, with medical professionals entering the patient’s room only when alerted to a troubling spike in vitals.