April 29, 2012 | Read Time: 1 minute
The Vodafone Americas Foundation and the mHealth Alliance have announced the winners of awards honoring the creative use of wireless technology to help people in developing countries.
Taking first place and receiving $300,000 in the Wireless Innovation Project contest was the Wireless Bug Sensor, designed to reduce the amount of money farmers spend on pesticide spraying.
Insect infestation poses a big threat to crop production in the developing world because pesticides are scarce and costly. Researchers at the University of California at Riverside created a technology that senses the location, type, and number of harmful insects in a field and sends farmers a daily text message recommending steps they can take to get rid of the pests.
The second place award went to Oscan, a small device that health workers can attach to a conventional camera phone and use to scan for early signs of oral cancer, a problem that’s increasing in developing countries where tobacco use continues to grow. Oscan, developed by researchers at Stanford University, received $200,000 in the Wireless Innovation Project competition as well as the $50,000 mHealth Alliance Award.
Awarded the third prize and $100,000 was InVenture, which developed InSight, a financial-management tool that allows entrepreneurs to track business expenses, in their native languages, through the text-message function on their mobile phones.
For more information: Go to project.vodafone-us.com.
