If breathe is the most essential element for living, then RespirON is the most essential tool in assisting this life support mechanism. What evoked as an emotion after a friend suffering from Asthma was left to die in the absence of an inhaler, gradually evolved as a combination app and hardware, which provides features to help manage asthma efficiently.
“One of our friends, who stays in the hostel, suffered an asthma attack and had forgotten her inhaler in the hostel mess. She was choking but could not call on anybody for help. However, the warden came to her rescue. When she narrated the whole incident to us, it struck us and with the help of our mentor Manasvi Sihag we decided to come up with an application to help Asthma patients effectively manage their lifestyle,” says, Ajay Kumar Saini, the product developer.
The prototype of this project, which was self-funded has won them the first prize of the Yahoo Accenture Innovation Jockey and now the team from Technoplanet Labs (Manav Rachna College of Engineering) is in talks with various investors who have shown interest in their product. Highlighting the importance and use of this project, Roshit Gopinath, the application developer adds, “ It is but human nature to forget to carry things, which might be dangerous in case of asthma so, we have provided an out of range alarm which gives an alert message in the smartphone application in case the user moves away from the device. In this way it always reminds user to carry his/her device.”
However, looking back the team did have their fair share of troubles in developing the device. The real challenge was to make this device pocket-able and power-efficient, reveals Shanu, Embedded Programmer. “One of the problems we faced while developing the project was in making the outer casing of the device. Our criteria was that the casing should be presentable and elegant, however, we could not afford a 3d printer. So, we chanced upon the idea of using the tubelight holder cover which is found at the sides of the regualar tubelight and surprisingly it did fit perfectly for our device. We kept laughing for long over this issue.”
The functions of the app are multi-dimensional . As soon as the app is started, it gets connected to the device. The home screen of the device displays the number of puffs remaining. The panic button can be used during an emergency situation to send alert to the nearest hospitals and relatives whose numbers are stored. The beneficiary can also update medical information such as the name of the medication and the daily-pattern of consumption. The app also boasts of the facility to mail the e-report to the doctor.
The team of five, which developed the prototype in Windows platform has ventured into the Ios and Android platform with apps working on similar lines including iPhone’s. AsthmaMD and breathe app featuring in the market. “We have gone through various asthma applications, which are available in the market while developing RespirON, but none of them have succeeded in providing the complete solution. but there is no such product is available in the market, which provide complete solution through hardware and software. RespirON is can’t be seen merely as an application but it is combination of both hardware as well as software which provides various features that help in managing asthma efficiently,” says Shubham Goel- Graphics Designer.
Going forward, the team plans to opt for crowd funding and co-branding with the pharmaceutical companies. “We are also getting investors who are interested in our product. So, we think very soon it will be in the market making the lives of asthmatics much easier,” added Ajay Kumar Saini.