Celebrating 10 years of Life-changing innovations · disease diagnosis and treatment challenges in developing countries by enabling clinical microscopy and wireless communication

Celebrating 10 years of Life-changing innovations

The Wireless Innovation Project™—promoting

innovation and increasing implementation of

wireless related technology for a better world.

The competition was designed to find the best

innovations using wireless related technology to

address critical social issues around the world.

The projects should have a multi-disciplinary

approach, and be at late stage research, advanced

prototype or market testing stage with a potential

for replication and large scale impact.

2009

10 Years of Life-changing Innovations | 1

enHANTsEnergy Harvesting Active Networked Tags for Disaster Recovery Applications (EnHANTs) focuses on the design of disaster recovery system that will enable locating people trapped by fires and survivors of structural collapse. The key components of the system are Active Networked Tags that will be embedded in the building structure and carried by the users (for example, attached to their clothing).

CelloPhoneThe CelloPhone Project aims to develop a transformative solution to global challenges by providing a revolutionary optical imaging platform that will be used to specifically analyze bodily fluids within a regular cell phone. Through wide-spread use of this innovative technology, the health care services in the developing countries will significantly be improved making a real impact in the life quality and life expectancy of millions.

CelloScopeThe CellScope project aims to address disease diagnosis and treatment challenges in developing countries by enabling clinical microscopy and wireless communication of healthcare information in the field. By clipping a compact optical microscope onto a camera-enabled cellular phone, we are creating a mobile microscopy system that increases the capabilities of healthcare workers as well as the speed and reach of healthcare delivery.

2 | Vodafone Americas Foundation

100 Million StovesApproximately 700 million households, including the poorest half of the world population rely on fire and simple stoves for cooking. Smoke and exposure from these stoves are responsible for causing premature deaths for 1.5 million women and children as well as contributing to climate change. 100 Million Stoves is a simple wireless stove use monitoring system (SUMS) that can be attached to the millions of new low-emission stoves being used in developing regions.

Frontline SMS: CreditAn open source software, FrontlineSMS:Credit has the potential to open up financial services and micro-financing to millions of people in the developing world. The application leverages mobile payment systems and core banking software to bring financial services – such as savings, credit, insurance and payroll – to the entrepreneurial poor, eliminating geographic and time barriers and turning mobile payment systems into platforms for mobile banking.

SanaSana is a multidisciplinary group based out of MIT with a mission to revolutionize healthcare delivery in rural and undeserved areas. Sana has developed an innovative open source platform that allows mobile phones to capture and send data for an electronic medical record and links community health workers with physicians for real-time decision support.

2010


EYENETRAEYENETRA is an inexpensive mobile visual testing tool, which is a clip-on eyepiece for mobile phones that can instantly screen for eye conditions and transmit data to an optometrist, allowing for early treatment of common refractive eye disorders and cataracts. The device exploits emerging high-resolution screens of mobile devices and a software that analyzes the patient interaction.

Smart DiaphragmThe SMART Diaphragm is a wireless monitoring and early warning system for high-risk pregnancies that can be cheaply and easily administered by a patient. Around the world, one in ten babies are born prematurely, leading to death and lifelong disabilities. Pre-term labor, however, is often preventable or can be delayed with early detection and treatment. The SMART Diaphragm detects decreasing levels of collagen in the cervix with results transmitted to a cloud database monitored by physicians.

CoolComplyCoolComply is a solar-powered wireless detection system that monitors the doses and the temperature of the medication, relaying readings via wireless to the local healthcare workers to track treatment and intervene when necessary. CoolComply provides patients undergoing treatment for Multiple Drug Resis-tant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and their caregivers with the proper monitoring to ensure they are meeting the standards for their treatment.

2011


Wireless Bug-SensorThe team at UC Riverside, in collaboration with ISCA Technologies, developed an important tool for farmers worldwide: tiny, inexpensive sensors that can automatically count and classify the insects in the field. This technology then translates the information and sends the farmer a once-a-day text message with instructions on the type of intervention necessary and a map of the isolated locations where action is needed.

OScanOScan is an affordable screening tool that brings standardized, multi-modal imaging of the oral cavity into the hands of rural health workers around the world, allowing individuals to conduct screening for oral lesions. This inexpensive device mounts on a conventional camera phone and allows for data to be instantly transmitted to dentists and oral surgeons for association of these lesions to diseases of the oral cavity, including oral cancer.

TalaTala is a money management tool that operates entirely over SMS. Micro-businesses and households report their daily financial metrics and have access to simple reports to track their spending and income. Additionally, through the data collected, Tala is creating a global credit rating platform that will deliver critical data to financing institutions in order to help with due diligence, distribution and risk mitigation.

2012


ColdTraceColdTrace is a remote temperature monitoring platform that protects vaccine potency at the last mile, by providing Ministries of Health and health workers at the facility level the alerts and analytics they need for responsive interventions.

MoboSensMoboSens is a smartphone-based water sensor which enables anyone to test the quality of water and utilizes social media to empower people to become active participants in their environmental communities. This low-cost and simple to use device currently detects nitrate concentrations accurately and looks to expand to measure heavy metal, carcinogens, and bacteria in water.

G-FresnelThis high performance optical spectrometer, integrated with a cellular phone, can make optical spectroscopy accessible to everyone whereas the traditional optical spectrometers, used to measure the spectra of light, are usually bulky and expensive. The G-Fresnel Cell-phone Spectrometer is compact and affordable. Optical spectrometers have broad ranges of applications, such as breast cancer detection, monitoring surgical wounds and color analysis for assisting people with color blindness.

2013


$6.1 millionFUNDED FOR PROJECTS

40+COUNTRIES

64 million +LIVES TOUCHED


62% OF OUR PROJECTS HAVE GONE TO MARKET

2.5x

40%FEMALE FUNDERS

THE EXPECTED MARKET RATE OF VENTURE CAPITALIST (25%)

4AREAS OF FUNDING

HEALTH

ENVIRONMENT

DISASTER RELIEF

FINANCE

VC WIP


MobileODTMobileODT, makes small, smart, Internet-connected medical devices that health care providers can use at the point-of-care for a variety of examinations. Our leading product is the Enhanced Visual Assessment (EVA) System for colposcopy, used for women’s health services around the world. EVA uses the phone’s native capabilities to create a telemedicine and analysis platform to enable any provider, anywhere, to conduct an examination that until now can only be conducted by an expert physician.

Soko EnterpriseSoko is an ethical lifestyle brand that is pioneering a revolution in manufacturing by leveraging technology to catalyze global supply chain innovation. Our distributed manufacturing model uses mobile technology to coordinate +2200 independent artisans into an efficient and powerful production force which we call our virtual factory.

eyeMITRAA mobile phone attachment for imaging of the retina, the nervous tissue in the back of the eye, to provide real-time health status assessment and potentially diagnosis. The tool is targeted towards detection and monitoring of retinal diseases as well as systemic illnesses that manifest in the retina (e.g. Diabetes).

2014


Seva Sustainable SanitationSeva Sustainable Sanitation has engineered an intelligent system that treats black water, providing a sustainable solution for the 4.5 billion people in the world without access to adequate sanitation. This highly scalable system eliminates the need for any existing infrastructure by employing unique mobile technologies for monitoring and maintenance.

MoMo Mobile Well MonitorWellDone builds a remote monitoring technology called MoMo that improves the reliability of rural infrastructure and the accountability of development projects. MoMo sends water flow rates over the cellular network to tell stakeholders how well rural water projects are working on a daily basis.

Mobile Stethoscope DiagnosticsThe world’s first USB-powered mobile stethoscope and decision-support mobile application providing critical diagnostic assistance to untrained health workers and non-specialist doctors in developing countries. This device has many markets, but the first application is diagnosis of pulmonary diseases, which is a top need in all countries.

2015


NeopendaNeopenda is innovating medical technologies for high-growth emerging markets. We believe that the most vulnerable patient populations in the world deserve access to high quality health care. Our first product is an affordable wireless vital signs monitor for neonates in overcrowded, understaffed health facilities that helps nurses save lives.

c-Airc-Air is a high-throughput sensor for rapid quantification of air-quality based on the integration of computational imaging and mobile-sensing techniques. The technology is light-weight and cost-effective, and permits on-the-ground and drone-based 3D mapping of toxic emissions from various pollution sources, such as highways, airports, factories.

EyeSeeHemianopia (impaired vision in half the visual field) is a major cause of disability, affecting millions of stroke patients each year. EyeSee is an end-to-end vision enhancement and tele-rehabilitation system combining a smartphone and a compact head-mounted display to maximize the residual vision and enable independent living in hemianopic patients.

2016


PathVisPathVis is a smartphone-based detection platform that is able to quantitatively measure the level of a disease pathogen in environmental and patient samples, providing health organizations with real-time and locational data on disease prevalence so that healthcare resources can be more efficiently targeted to areas of need.

WIPERIllegal wildlife trafficking is leading to the extirpation of numerous species. WIPER is a novel wireless, low-power, acoustic shot detector that can be integrated into existing location tracking collars commonly used with elephants and other mammals across Africa. WIPER can disrupt poaching by automatically notifying authorities when shots are fired.

DreamSaveDreamSave Innovation is a solution for the millions of unbanked people who are members of village savings groups to access digital financial services through scalable and sustainable mobile application.

2017


cerVIA cerVIA provides affordable, accurate, and accessible cervical cancer screening worldwide. CerVIA can improve cervical cancer screening through an imaging device coupled with a machine learning algorithm. The system allows for pictures to be taken before and after the screening procedure, through an algorithm, that is verified by gynecologists remotely. Health workers can more quickly and confidently advise patients.

EnvisionENVenture is building an open source mobile app productivity tool called ENVision for cash-based merchants in developing countries who primarily sell fast moving consumer goods; our application enables merchants to capture inventory, input sales, and forecast orders, with real-time data visualization, running offline and on 2G networks.

SMART SMART is the first electronic health record system to diagnose, track, and monitor sickle cell and malaria patients in Nigeria. Infrastructure to diagnose, track, and monitor individuals with these diseases are not developed in Africa, which directly contributes to high mortality rates.

2018

The Vodafone Americas Foundation fosters social change

in global and local communities through connected

solutions. Our mission is to connect an ecosystem of

partners that use wireless technology to spark innovation,

improve lives, transform the global development sector

and empower women and girls. We mobilize social good

by analyzing the needs of a community, collaborating

with expert partners, and creating vehicles of knowledge

sharing and learning.

Science is but a perversion of itself

unless it has as its ultimate goal

the betterment of humanity.

— Nikola Tesla

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Celebrating 10 years of Life-changing innovations · disease diagnosis and treatment challenges in developing countries by enabling clinical microscopy and wireless communication