He’s just 16. While others his age are busy with their regular school work and coaching, he’s trying to land the Google Science Fair Prize. Shriyank K, a class 12 student from National Public School, Bengaluru has designed a wearable device named KeepTab, which uses a cloud-based deep-learning framework to aid human memory, recall the location of their day-to-day objects. The project made him one among the 16 finalists at the Sixth Annual Google Science Fair 2016 which will be held in California from September 24 to 27. Shriyank is currently working on version 2.0 of his device to make it smarter and is all set to ace the fair. Excerpts from his conversation.
Tell us a little about it.
The aim of the project is to help people remember things and to fight forgetfulness. This is achieved by a cloud connected wearable device. What the wearable does is that it continuously records the user’s surroundings using a camera. As it does that, it basically characterises motion and data which gets stored in the database. It can be called later using Google Now.
How does it turn on?
The camera in the wearable is connected to a micro controller. It continuously captures the user’s surroundings as a video stream. It is uploaded to a server on a cloud which recognises and characterises the objects and store them in the database. All you have to do to find an object is to say “Okay Google, locate my object.”
How long did it take?
I worked on the idea for 6 months and the entire work took another six months. Work is still going on actually. I have a working model and I’m trying to improve it for the finals.
How’d the Google Fair hapen?
I was working on this and then I realised that the Google Science Fair is coming up and I can submit it. I put it up there and I was lucky that it made it to the finals.
How did you develop an interest in tech at such a young age?
For that, I’d like to give all the credit to my dad. He played a crucial role in inculcating this interest in me. He is someone who enjoys coding and developing something new. He’s very much into robotics too. Because of him, I’ve attended many hackathons
What do your friends and faculty say?
Until the final results were announced, I worked on this as a secret. I think secrecy is one way to avoid pressure and you have your own time. The results attracted lots of attention. Many people were excited by the idea. They were really happy.