"Advance warning on epilepsy attacks"

YOUNG ACHIEVER

Abhiram Chakraborty is all smiles. A final-year student of Sri Sai Ram Engineering College (near Chennai), his paper has been accepted for publication by the Ukranian Journal of Telemedicine and Medical Telematics.

Abhiram got into the list of the journal's author by sending his paper on e-cap that gives the theoretical base for designing a device that can help epilepsy patients just before a seizure or even in a helpless situation of seizure.

A topper right from his school days, Abhiram, as his principal Dr. Seetharaman notes, has in the past two years been extremely busy presenting technical papers in colleges and universities in the region and the prize money has already topped tens of thousands of rupees.

"The Smart cap is a new concept as till date there is no such device to serve as a life saver for millions of patients suffering form epilepsy worldwide. I succeeded in creating a design, which has been appreciated by scientists worldwide. I have received mails from experts worldwide. One such mail was from Frederic Lievens who wanted to arrange a meeting between me and scientists from Belgium to help them design a device for epilepsy patients after my paper was selected for publication in the Ukranian Journal Of Telemedicine And Medical Telematics,'' says Abhiram.

His design of the device has two parts: one a headgear that has three electrode-leads to the anterior temporal, frontal and centro-temporal lobes. It can pick up specific amount of changes in brain signals, amplify them and send them to a microcontroller circuit.

The other part, a GPS receiver, which through another set of electronics is connected to a Nokia mobile phone, carried by the person with the condition.

"Once a person is on the verge of a seizure, the brain signals are picked up, and transmitted through the phone to the tracker unit, without even the patient deliberately attempting to do so. It needs to be perfected, but I am convinced it will work," he adds.