Archive for category: Technology

Information and stories about technology news.

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Biometric Identification in Refugee Camps

Biometric Identification in Refugee Camps
The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that more than 65 million people are displaced because of armed conflict and persecution. More than 21 million are classified as refugees, which means they are protected by international law and cannot be forced to return to places where their lives and freedom are at risk. The UNHCR is using biometric identification technology in an attempt to keep track of so many people.

The logic for protecting and helping refugees through global humanitarian networks seems simple. People who travel thousands of miles to escape dangerous conflicts should have a safe place to work, raise their children and live their lives in peace. Yet the global refugee crisis shows us that many nations continue to struggle to meet the needs of refugees at their borders and efficiently deliver social services.

For instance, consider the rapid increase of Syrian refugees in response to the country’s ongoing civil war. Amnesty International reports that, as of February 2016, more than half the nation’s population is displaced. Over 4.5 million refugees have poured into the neighboring countries of Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon, Iraq and Egypt. However, global resettlement efforts have only managed to successfully resettle 162,151 people, a mere 3.6% of the total refugee population.

While resettlement is the ultimate goal of refugee relief efforts, Syria’s neighbors lack the resources and capacity to do it all themselves. Until other nations agree to take in more refugees, one way to help refugees living in border camps is to register them with the UNHCR.

Once registered, refugees are eligible to receive social and medical assistance from various humanitarian organizations. Refugee status protects adults from refoulement (forced return to their war-torn place of origin) and protects children from military recruitment. Registration also helps keep families together and gives them opportunities to contact other friends and loved ones.

The UNHCR is working to deliver faster assistance to refugees by implementing a biometric identification registration system. Currently, refugee camps employ a combination of methods to register refugees, usually involving time-consuming paperwork and fingerprinting. Not only are paper records increasingly difficult to archive as the refugee population steadily climbs, but fingerprinting requires training. The UNHCR hopes biometric identification, designed in partnership with Accenture, will drastically expedite the registration process and help refugees receive faster care after making the life-threatening journey out of dangerous regions.

Biometrics refer to a set of measurements and analyses of physical characteristics to verify personal identity. In the context of refugee registration, biometrics refer to digitally stored fingerprints, iris data and facial images. Once collected, the data gets encoded into a personal ID, which refugees can use throughout UNHCR facilities. Many refugees are forced to leave home on a moment’s notice, without enough time to collect important personal documents. Biometric ID cards can provide them with a secure form of personal identification to use as they build a new life.

The Biometric Identity Management System (BIMS) is designed to endure rugged field conditions like extreme heat, dust, humidity, power and connectivity outages. It’s relatively easy to operate, which is necessary in refugee camps where workers come and go on a regular basis and have varying levels of technological experience.

Accenture’s BIMS has already seen incredible success. The UNHCR piloted the technology at the Dzaleka Refugee Camp in Malawi, where it rapidly enrolled and verified 17,000 of the camp’s refugees. Then, in Thailand, the BIMS added another 120,000 individuals to the international database of refugees.

The UNHCR has proved how an integrated database of biometric identification information can meet the growing demand for greater security and efficiency in the registration process. Once fully launched, the system can be used remotely or in high-risk areas to register refugees, verify their identity and improve the UNHCR’s ability to keep track of their needs.

– Jessica Levitan

Photo: Flickr

The World’s Advanced Saving Project: 3D Printing Solutions

3D Printing Solutions
It may be difficult to determine what the World’s Advanced Saving Project (WASP) does from looking at its name. One might assume the organization focuses on environmental issues or poverty reduction, which is essentially correct, but the way WASP operates makes it unique. WASP is a tech company that creates 3D printing solutions with a focus on sustainability.

Like many innovative tech companies, WASP specializes in building 3D printers. Taking things further, the organization produced a 3D printer capable of creating a house. The 40-foot tall printer, named “Big Delta” by its creators, is claimed to be one of the largest in the world. By simply putting a clay and straw mixture into the printer, Big Delta can create a shelter in a few days.

While this is exciting news, there are currently several other companies that are capable of building shelters, often in less than a day. Big Delta and WASP outshine other companies at their price point. WASP calculates that with the costs of clay, straw, water and energy, a shelter can be printed for around $55. Furthermore, if the clay and straw combination is manually mixed, it can reduce energy costs dramatically.

For many, the idea of living in a straw/clay hut may not seem very appealing, yet for many others, any form of structurally stable housing would be a dream come true. According to WHO, nearly 863 million people live in slum housing.

Slum housing is defined as housing that lacks certain characteristics that make it durable such as access to water, sanitation, adequate space or ventilation. Additionally, over 100 million people worldwide are thought to be homeless according to the most recent U.N. global survey.

Those who are considered homeless by the U.N., people displaced by natural disasters, political instability or a variety of other factors, could benefit tremendously from fast, cheap and stable housing. With the Big Delta, WASP is just one of many organizations working to provide reliable, yet affordable housing to those in need. A 3D printed shelter may not be the best form of housing for every situation; however, it could be a good option for those in developing countries who have extremely limited income.

As innovation advances and technology improves, it is good to see that some companies are shifting focus and addressing world issues like poverty and sustainability. Who knows, in the next decade, advanced technology may allow people to 3D print entire buildings or even hospitals for a relatively low cost.

– Weston Northrop

Photo: Flickr

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KOICA CTS: Challenges to Fund Global Development Research

KOICA CTS
The Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) is a Korean organization that promotes global development. In 2015, they launched an initiative known as Creative Technology Solutions (CTS). CTS awards grants to a select number of research projects that could potentially provide innovative breakthroughs in global development.

A rigorous application process is required to select recipients of the grant. First, written proposals are accepted. Among the initial candidates, few are chosen to give presentations on their proposals. Those who pass the presentation stage are then given interviews and tested on their problem-solving ability. Candidates who make it through all stages are promised a grant to fund their research.

In 2015, 10 teams were selected from the 99 that applied. One research project involved designing a portable autorefractor, which provides detailed imaging of the eye, allowing a quick diagnosis of vision problems. According to KOICA, 80 percent of cases of blindness could have been prevented with a routine checkup, so providing a method of quick and efficient diagnosis should be beneficial to combating visual impairment, especially in underdeveloped nations.

Another team has developed a solar energy system that can be cost-effectively installed in houses that do not otherwise have access to energy. This solar home system is being tested in Cambodia. With the help of this device, Cambodia hopes to increase the percentage of rural households with access to electricity from 57 percent to at least 70 percent.

In addition to creating effective technological solutions, KOICA CTS also aims for a widespread outreach. They are planning to be active in various countries throughout Africa, Asia, the Middle East, the Commonwealth of Independent States and Latin America. Second round searches for grant recipients have already launched on July 18 of this year.

The practice of awarding grants in this fashion is reminiscent of the Grand Challenges initiative, which the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation began in an effort to fund research going towards global development.

In fact, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation considered the launch of the second round of KOICA CTS as the beginning of Grand Challenges South Korea. This means that CTS will be working more closely with other groups involved in Grand Challenges. The likelihood of strengthening these efforts through the addition of CTS, and increasing research is starting to look very hopeful.

– Edmond Kim

Photo: Flickr

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Is xRapid a Breakthrough in Malaria Detection?

xRapid
As technology continues to become more accessible in poverty-stricken countries, one app hopes to improve the cost and accuracy of malaria detection. Recently developed by the London-based startup xRapid, the application is the world’s first commercially available mobile health solution that provides an automatic diagnosis of malaria. However, identifying malaria requires more than just an iPhone and the app.

In addition to the iPhone and free app, a special iPhone case with an attachable eyepiece and a microscope are also required to begin detecting malaria in blood samples. The user simply attaches the eyepiece onto the iPhone case and inserts it into the microscope’s eye tube, where it runs the test. A clinical laboratory report is then produced detailing the data collected during the examination.

Currently, there are three different methods used to diagnose malaria, each attempting to be the fastest, most accurate and cost-effective technique available. However, each process pales in comparison to xRapid in one aspect or another.

Rapid diagnostic testing (RDT), which detects specific malaria antigens in human blood, is significantly less accurate than xRapid, while polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is considerably slower and more technical and expensive to utilize.

Microscopy testing often referred to as the “gold standard” for laboratory malaria detection, is just as accurate as xRapid, but is much slower at conducting tests. This method requires an average of 30 minutes per assessment while xRapid can conduct an examination in under two minutes.

The availability and potential of this new, convenient technique and advanced technology for diagnosing malaria is vastly important as 3.2 billion people — 43 percent of the world’s population — continue to live in areas at risk of malaria transmission.

XRapid has already begun dispersing its product to impoverished countries such as Benin, where malaria is the cause of nine percent of total deaths. Additionally, in the near future, xRapid, with the assistance of Digicape, will expand the product to countries in Southern Africa that crucially need it, and presently rely on microscopy and RDT for malaria detection.

Recently, xRapid announced it is working on adapting the product to detect and diagnose tuberculosis, an equally life-threatening disease commonly found in poverty-stricken countries.

The malaria mortality rate has dropped 60 percent since 2000, and with the assistance of this mobile health solution, the numbers could continue to drop. Although the complexity and harshness of these lethal diseases cannot truly be grasped, the solution to them may be in the palm of our hands.

– Jordan J. Phelan

Photo: Flickr

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SCORE’s Electricity-Producing Cookstove: Improving Lives

SCORE's Electricity-Producing Cookstove
Around the world, close to three billion people cook on energy-inefficient open fires. These fires produce smoke that puts one’s respiratory health at risk. Four million people globally die each year due to air pollution. SCORE’s electricity-producing cookstove aims to address this issue.

A project created in 2007 known as SCORE has worked to create a stove that is both clean and can provide electricity to an entire home. This was done by conducting research in social understanding and technological development.

SCORE’s main goal is to reduce wood consumption and smoke inhalation in order to improve health, education, and wealth. Health-wise, by reducing the amount of smoke emitted into the air, the prevalence of respiratory illness like pneumonia and lung cancer decreases.

SCORE hopes the new cook stove’s production of electricity will improve education. Electricity will create light at night and improve access to lessons and knowledge by enabling access to cell phones, computers, radios and televisions.

The stove is able to produce electricity by converting excess heat into sound waves which generate electricity. Three hours of cooking should produce enough electricity to light a home for a night. Light at night allows children to continue to read and learn once the sun goes down.

The electricity produced will also provide better access to improved farming equipment and methods that will help improve the wealth of communities. Families within communities will also gain business opportunities such as selling the new stoves or electricity. Money and resources will also be saved, as the stove uses three times less fuel, like wood or dung, compared to other cook stoves.

SCORE looks to impact countries like Nepal where many people, especially women, suffer while they use wood-fire stoves inside their homes. Hopefully, a fair cost for the stove can be negotiated to make the stove more affordable for developing countries to buy.

– Casey Marx

Photo: Flickr

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10 Technological Innovations for Developing Countries

Technological Innovations for Developing CountriesNew technological innovations for developing countries make it possible for individuals to survive and thrive in a world that is constantly advancing. Technological innovations for developing countries can provide low-cost methods to keep people safe, connected and informed, all of which are important steps in the path out of poverty. Ahead are 10 technological innovations for developing countries.

  1. Kenya’s M-PESA app allows cellphone owners to easily and securely transfer money using their phones, and is mostly used for staff salaries and child support. Launched in 2007 by Safaricom, the country’s largest mobile-network operator, the app is now used by more than two-thirds of Kenya’s adult population.
  2. The LifeStraw is a technological innovation that could solve one of the biggest challenges that impoverished countries face – access to clean water. Originally introduced in 2005, LifeStraw is a series of water purification systems capable of killing up to 99.9% of bacteria. LifeStraw’s Follow the Liters program delivers water purification systems to schools in developing countries.
  3. The world’s cheapest tablet, Aakash, is priced at $35 for students with government subsidies, or $60 in stores. The device was launched with the idea that “[t]he rich have access to the digital world; the poor and ordinary have been excluded. Aakash will end that digital divide,” according to Kapil Sibal, India’s minister of communications and information technology. Affordable and effective, the device operated perfectly under a two-hour video test in 118-degree heat that replicated the harsh summer weather in northern India.
  4. One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) seeks to empower the world’s disadvantaged children with education, distributing rugged, low-cost and low-power laptops to kids across the developing world. The little blue device costs between $400 and $500 each to distribute and enables teachers to communicate with their students through web-based applications.
  5. The world’s cheapest cellphone, developed by British carrier Vodafone, sells for just under $15. While the phone is not feature-rich, it offers the basic operations necessary — voice calling, text messaging and mobile payments. The phone launched in 2010 in India, Turkey and eight African nations.
  6. Eden Full, a mechanical engineering undergraduate at Princeton University, developed solar panels that optimize energy collection by rotating to face the sun for as much time as possible each day. The technology, known as SunSaluter, is cheap and efficient. It costs just $10 for the system, which uses 40% fewer panels than typical solar energy. Its aim is to bring solar panels to places in the developing world that have never had access to electricity.
  7. India released the Tata Swach, a $21 water filter that uses nanotechnology, requires no electricity and meets sanitation standards set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Made of rice husk ash and silver nanoparticles, the device prevents the growth of bacteria and protects against waterborne illness and viruses.
  8. Text to Change (TTC) engaged thousands of young people in Africa in politics, economics and social issues through the Voice Africa’s Future project. The project’s goal was to mobilize 150,000 young people in Africa to text their thoughts and input on the future state and actions of their nations.
  9. Dell’s computer hardware and literacy program, Youth Learning, initially launched in India but now operates in 15 countries across the world to provide grant funding and the latest technology to address the lack of basic needs that may hinder a child’s ability to learn, such as food or security.
  10. Researchers have found that providing a safe, energy-efficient wood-burning cookstove to those in the developing world can directly improve health by reducing smoke inhalation, and alleviate poverty by reducing the amount of time needed to gather wood every day. The Berkeley-Darfur Stove accomplishes this with an enhanced design featuring a tapered wind collar, small fire box opening and nonaligned air vents and ridges. Potential Energy, a nonprofit organization that specializes in adapting technology for developing countries, has distributed more than 25,000 Berkeley-Darfur Stoves in Darfur and Ethiopia.

The use of technology in developing countries is becoming more widespread and has the potential to improve basic conditions of daily life in struggling regions. Technological innovations for developing countries can also promote intellectual growth by providing unique educational services.

– Mikaela Frigillana

Photo: Flickr

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The Appeal and Usefulness of Web-Based Health Programs

Web-Based Health Programs
Recent advancements in technology have transformed and improved countless aspects of peoples’ lives. Some of the word’s greatest health concerns are obesity and the abuse of alcohol and tobacco. Can web-based health programs make a dent in these problems?

Web-based health programs encourage setting concrete goals and can interact with users throughout the day. They have the added benefit of 24/7 accessibility.

One example is an online tool designed for the Obesity Prevention Tailored for Health II project. The tool locates and displays health food stores, parks and recreational programs near users. It also suggests health-and-eco-friendly transportation options such as biking, walking and using public transit.

Discussed below are two examples of studies examining the usefulness of web-based health programs.

University of Washington

At the University of Washington in Seattle, researchers have been reviewing studies about the effectiveness of mobile and web-based health programs in helping users curb unhealthy behaviors such as overeating and smoking.

The team of researchers found that web-based programs helped users increase their physical activity and lose weight. Eighty-eight percent of the tested programs helped people exercise more. In addition to this, 77% of tested programs designed to help users quit smoking proved effective.

Health Affairs Journal

Health Affairs published a study examining nearly 2,000 overweight adult participants whom researchers divided into groups. In some groups, participants were given access to a social-networking intervention program, and in other groups, they were not. The program featured motivational emails and phone calls, an online discussion forum and a tool for recording food intake. Participants who used the web-based health program experienced slightly greater body mass index (BMI) reduction on average than did participants who didn’t use the program.

Overall, web-based health programs offer a promising alternative to traditional health interventions. They are generally low in cost and widely accessible. Web-based health programs have the potential both to change the way we look at health and improve countless peoples’ quality of life.

– Nathaniel Siegel

Photo: Flickr

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OpenMRS: Open Source Health Database for sub-Saharan Africa

Health DatabaseIn Sub-Saharan Africa, nearly one in every 25 people lives with HIV. With a population of around 1 billion people, this number is astounding. In fact, according to the WHO, those living with HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa account for nearly 70 percent of the population of HIV carriers around the entire world. There is no question that a health database would be invaluable for tracking HIV and other diseases in this region.

HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa

Although the prevalence of HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa has been declining since 2000 due to prevention education and treatment programs, but it is a slow process. And where these programs are lacking, infection rates tend to rise.

Without the proper information regarding how to protect oneself, HIV can be spread easily throughout a population. Unfortunately, HIV prevalence can only currently be reduced through prevention education and treatment programs due to the nature of the virus.

HIV or Human Immunodeficiency Virus gradually attacks the body’s ability to fight infections and diseases. With this symptom comes a serious need for medical assistance. Regrettably, medical assistance in Sub-Saharan Africa is limited in terms of accessibility and effectiveness.

One doctor, Judy Gichoya, saw how difficult it was for medical personnel to treat patients in Sub-Saharan Africa, mostly due to a lack of proper patient information. When patients come for medical help, doctors had very little idea of what the patient had received in terms of previous medical assistance and what they currently needed.

Essentially, without an efficient system for storing patient information, doctors have to dedicate more time to diagnosis and learning clerical information about the patient rather than giving treatment.

OpenMRS

As a result, Gichoya joined a group of others who noticed the same issue and were working to fix it. From here, OpenMRS was born. OpenMRS is a software platform for an open source health database well as a reference application that allows users to create a system of medical records to fit the specific needs of a hospital or health center.

According to the OpenMRS website, no knowledge of programming is necessary to use the software successfully. It is secure, easy to use, summarizes information without difficulty and allows many computers to access a server at the same time. This accessibility allows an ease of adoption and hopefully a reduction in unnecessary effort, allowing more time to be focused on patient treatment.

Aiding a Variety of Groups

Currently, OpenMRS is being used in developing countries including South Africa, Kenya, Rwanda, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and others. The software is currently used by non-profits, government aid groups, for-profit groups and NGO’s. This is where OpenMRS’s open source origins shine. Its ability to be modified allows it to be changed for every specific need of each user and could even potentially allow it to be used in a variety of fields.

So far, the wide adoption of the health database created with OpenMRS shows that it is not only usable but also effective. Open source technology is becoming very prevalent and it seems to be the perfect format for technology destined to help those in poverty around the world. Hopefully, this trend continues and great minds keep working on technology, improving it and making it more accessible to those in need like those who struggle with HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa.

– Weston Northrop

Photo: Flickr

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Poverty Mapping with Help of Artificial Intelligence

Poverty Mapping with the Help of Artificial Intelligence
Poverty mapping has proven to be a difficult task in past years. Poor countries are often reluctant to account for poverty due to corruption or the inability to do so because of ongoing conflicts. The World Bank reports that only 20 African countries conducted two or more population surveys on poverty from 2000 to 2010.

A new study from Stanford University hopes to improve poverty mapping by combining high-resolution satellite imagery with artificial intelligence.

According to a feature article published by online tech magazine Motherboard, Neal Jean, a Ph.D. engineering student at Stanford, has designed a machine learning algorithm that can predict poverty in Malawi, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda.

Using satellite imagery to determine “nightlights” and levels of economic activity as a method of poverty mapping is nothing new. What’s different about the algorithm designed by Jean and his team is that it looks at daylight images of infrastructure, such as roads and metropolitan areas, which it then uses to identify nighttime patterns.

“Our basic approach involved a machine learning technique called ‘transfer learning,’ which is the idea that you can solve a hard problem – in our case, predicting poverty from satellite images – by trying to solve an easier one,” Jean said.

According to Motherboard, the algorithm may prove to be a very effective method of poverty mapping, especially given the cost of traditional household surveys and the lack of viable alternatives. Another advantage of the machine learning model is its transparency, as it doesn’t rely on private or protected information.

Jean told Motherboard that he hopes to make the technology open-source and cooperate with NGOs to put the algorithm to use. “If we could provide them with high-resolution poverty maps, they could overlay them on regions where operations already exist, and ultimately inform where they distribute funding,” he argued.

Jean’s machine learning algorithm is not the only artificial intelligence tool that is providing better data for poverty alleviation efforts. South African computer scientist Muthoni Masinde developed a solution that can forecast droughts with 98 percent accuracy, combining traditional knowledge with new technologies. In recognition of her achievements, she received a Distinguished Young Women Researcher award at the 2016 South African Women in Science Awards.

Technological advance has been the greatest impetus for poverty reduction throughout history, and artificial intelligence is the future of poverty mapping. It provides economists and scientists with better data in order to pinpoint and resolve problems that are holding developing countries back.

– Philip Katz

Photo: Flickr

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Call Records Can Predict Outbreaks of Deadly Dengue Fever

Dengue Fever
Dengue fever is a rapidly spreading viral disease in the developing world. Thankfully, though, a new method of analyzing cell phone call records to health clinics is proving successful at predicting the next outbreak locations of the disease.

This disease is mosquito-borne and results in flu-like symptoms that can persist until a fatality occurs, especially in children or others who do not have access to swift and proper medical care.

Dengue fever infects 390 million people worldwide every year, and many more are at risk. The illness is found mostly in tropical and sub-tropical climates and acts a leading cause of serious illness and death among children in Asian and Latin American countries.

In the United States, information on the spread of diseases is gathered by looking at road usage and other travel patterns. However, this kind of information proves often unavailable and unreliable in developing countries. Furthermore, dengue fever is the fastest-spreading mosquito-borne disease in the world, and many places are exposed to this disease for the first time and unprepared to effectively deal with such a health crisis.

According to a study published in Science Advances journal, researchers found that by studying cell phone call records in the Punjab region of Pakistan, they were able to pinpoint where dengue fever cases occurred and predict where they might occur next.

This new method looks at the patterns of calls to a local health hotline in conjunction with weather information. This combination provides real-time data of when and where the disease is likely to spread geographically.

The phone records are collected on a large-scale and anonymous basis to protect the personal privacy of the callers.

Dengue fever is often seen in areas of rapid urbanization, which commonly occurs in developing countries. This method of monitoring the disease is particularly useful in these developing countries because it is a low-cost method. Call pattern statistics provide an effective low-cost alternative in many nations that lack the resources to closely monitor the spread of disease.

Additionally, there is no specific globally-recognized treatment for dengue fever. Early detection has proven critical in helping those afflicted with the disease. Receiving medical care early on reduced mortality for this disease from more than 20 percent to less than one percent. Since call analysis can predict where outbreaks may occur in the future, it is an effective way to stop a disease that is particularly difficult to treat.

While the examination of call patterns does not currently account for international travel, which does play a role in the transmission of dengue fever, this transport avenue could certainly be in the future for statistical call analysis. Even the current iterations of this method provide important real-time data that can help reduce the spread of a dangerous disease, especially in developing countries.

– Nathaniel Siegel

Photo: Flickr