It is probably not too surprising that what we thought off to be a new and innovative space, has already gotten over-crowded. Wrist based monitors are so many in number, that the consumer is strung up for choice. It’s difficult to say the least, with huge companies like Nike, Fitbit and Jawbone, launching wrist based monitors one after another. All of them now vying to become the McDonalds of the monitoring markets.

But once in a while, we have to ask ourselves, are we willing to saturate a market, which has not even been established. If I was scared for my product when the MotoActv was announced, then after the new launch of the FitBit flex, I’m actually quite relieved. We at Avantari are no longer focusing on wrist monitors.

From design to usability to function, all these devices have gotten monotonous, and the few distinguishing features are merely clever rather than breath taking. Even if we were to come into the space and be new and innovative, our efforts will be sidelined, and what ensues is a brutal contest in a consumer ThunderDome.

When I decided we won’t be focussing so much on the wrist anymore, most people told me, ‘The wrist is the best area, Bhairav’ and I do agree with them… but is a wrist monitor the best device to make right now? Well, the jury is out on that…

The hardware for our first prototype consists of three equal-sized pieces. Here is one of them:

Shown adjacent is a Thai 1 baht coin – about the size of a US penny.

Electronics start out big, but we’re heading towards small – as light and sleek on your wrist as possible. Last time we posted some electronics it consisted of wires and components and knobs and leads, and the concoction made one of the desks in our office look like it was being used to build a bomb. The next several steps in prototype development consist of PCBs – printed circuit boards onto which we solder tiny components. That’s what’s shown above – this part contains the heart rate sensor, amplification circuit and some other bits.

Already our prototype is small enough that we can strap it onto the wrist and start testing and gathering data, which we’re all pretty excited about here. As we finalize and optimize the hardware, we can make it successively smaller until, in nearly unrecognizable form, we can squeeze it into a watch. And then you, too, can put it on your wrist.

So, we begin our Indian operations in Hyderabad. It has occurred to us that many people don’t know where Hyderabad is (it’s here) or what it is like. This video made by Tharun Bhascker, a local resident film-maker, sums the city up with a beautiful medley of moving images:

Hyderabad is known as a major IT and biotech hub. But the city is also one of the most unique places in India, as it combines the best of the north and south India, the Hindu and Muslim India, and the new and old India. Its unique identity is that it doesn’t have any one identity, but contains multitudes. There isn’t a better way to explain it; there is only one wonderful way to experience it, and that is by visiting this 500 year old city.

Let us know if you’re in town.

Everything wakes up in the spring. We are expanding our team, pushing ahead, and sharpening our vision. It seemed appropriate to take our signal processing outside amidst the sunlight and birds. It’s currently messy and oversized, but, as was said upon the testing of the first atom bomb: the thing does work.

A strike by junior doctors over (lack of) pay rises, among other things, is entering its fifth day today, causing chaos in over-worked state hospitals in Hyderabad. From an article in the Hindu on 15th February, 2012:

Medical services on Tuesday at government hospitals in the State Capital were on the verge of crumbling, thanks to the pressure of huge patient turnout even as senior doctors struggled to run outpatient, emergency and other vital hospital services. The temporary reinforcements appeared to be just not enough to manage the tertiary hospitals.

The senior doctors at Gandhi and OGH said that if boycott of emergency services by the medicos continue for a few more days at teaching hospitals, then temporary arrangements would not be able to prevent or stop the medical services from breaking down.

Superintendents of Gandhi and OGH have directed all the doctors to be present to handle the crisis. In fact, the Gandhi Hospital Superintendent has also served memos on a few doctors who were absent for duties on Monday and Tuesday.

The outpatient and emergency wards at Gandhi Hospital and OGH were manned by adequate number of doctors. However, the crucial recovery wings and ICU wards of nephrology, cardiology, orthopaedic and paediatrics came under immense pressure due to manpower shortage. The number of doctors was just not enough to handle the in-patient wards. The laboratory services at OGH and Gandhi were completely hit.

The officials at the Gandhi Hospital claimed that on Monday, 1,527 patients were given treatment at the hospital’s outpatient department.

According to Gandhi Hospital doctors, at present, the hospital has close to 1,200 patients admitted to its various inpatient wards.

This is not an isolated occurrence. Many hospitals in urban areas of India are overworked and underfunded, with 883 residents per government hospital bed. In rural areas there are often no hospitals at all: there are a staggering 5,583 residents per government hospital bed outside of cities. This forces many patients to head to private hospitals, which tend to be found in urban areas and out of the price range of most.

Sure, the government has neglected to invest in healthcare, spending only 1% of GDP on healthcare for years. But this is not a problem that the government – or anyone – can fix on its own. Not without better ways of dealing with the growing population and increase in lifestyle-related diseases such as diabetes. Not without drastic innovation in healthcare technology.

In India, it is usually the trend to keep the doctors as far away from you as possible. People still revert back to herbal Ayurvedic medicine at every opportunity that they get. It is not unreasonable too to request doctors to stay away: with more and more ‘super bugs‘ (pathogens which do not react to antibiotics) being discovered in India, it is becoming dangerous to visit a clinic.

What is staggering is that almost everyone, including the poor, do want to stay away from hospitals, and the government wants that as well. It’s a strange thing to most western countries and to most western readers, but I seem to have figured out their mentality. As an Indian, I would rather die on my own terms rather than live on yours. We’re a terribly holistic society, and in some ways it’s something to be proud of.

There is a strange thing in India, something I have often taken for granted that I appreciate now that I’m back here: people wake up early in the morning. They wake up at 5:30 AM, not to go to work, but to take a walk around. Old people, young people; it’s a wonderful way of socialising and also to keep fit.

That’s one of the reasons why I love what we’re doing. We’re giving the patient the option of going to the hospital only when he needs care – and making sure that when he really needs it he does go. We’re telling him, ‘Look, you’re in trouble now. Go visit the hospital, and you’ll feel much better!’ Ultimately this technology will allow patients to cross the divide and go to the hospital only when necessary.

This is not to say that medical professionals need to be cut out of the loop – their expertise will always be invaluable. Regular check-ups will be an important preventative measure for the foreseeable future. But we need to put more control and information into patients’ hands. An apple a day won’t be the only way to keep the doctor away.

I hope it’s not pretentious to quote Gandhi, but seeing as how we’re in India the man comes to mind. What he said was right:

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.

Accurately sums up the four stages of the successful start-up, no doubt. We’ll keep you posted.

We want to pay more attention to the masses of data our bodies constantly produce. We want it to be easy to not only know how our bodies are doing, but also to understand it, and know what we can do about it. And with all the fancy technology in our living rooms, in our pockets and backpacks and on our laps, why can’t we do that? Trick question. We can. So let’s.

Avantari met in the hallowed halls and comfy couches of Oxford, and some time over the summer of 2011 we realized that maybe we could play a part in getting healthcare to catch up with technology. We even took a photo.

Cap in hand and with degrees under our belt, our juices officially began flowing on Robert Noyce’s birthday on December 12th. And now, as a going-away present to 2011, we’d like to offer up a haiku:

Heart rate, how are you?
Let me know it’s all okay–
Prototypes beckon

35 Variations on a Theme from Shakespeare
Harry Mathews

00 Source text
To be or not to be: That is the question

01 Alphabetically
A BB EEEE HH II NN OOOOO Q SS TTTTTTT U

02 Anagram
Note at his behest: bet on toot or quit

03 Lipogram in c, d, f, g, j, k, l, m, p, v, w, x, y, z
To be or not to be: that is the question

04 Lipogram in a
To be or not to be: this is the question

05 Lipogram in i
To be or not to be: that`s the problem

06 Lipogram in e
Almost nothing, or nothing: but which?

07 Transposition (W+7)
To becon or not becon: that is the quinsy

08 Strict palindrome
No, it`s (eu) qeht sut. Ah! te botton roebot

09 Missing letter
To be or not to be: hat is the question

10 Two missing letters
To be or not to be: at is the question

11 One letter added
To bed or not to be: that is the question

12 Negation
To be or not to be: that is not the question

13 Emphasis
To be, if you see what I mean, to be, be alive, exist, not just keep hanging around; or (and that means one or the other, no getting away from it) not to be, not be alive, not exist, to – putting it bluntly – check out, cash in your chips, head west: that (do you read me ? not “maybe this” or “maybe something else”) that is, really is, irrevocably is, the one and only inescapable, overwhelming, and totally preoccupying ultimate question.

14 Curtailing
Not to be: that is the question

15 Curtailing (different)
To be or not to be: That is

16 Double Curtailing
Not to be: that is

17 Triple contradiction
You call this life? And everything’s happening all the time?
Who’s asking?

18 Another point of view
Hamlet, quit stalling!

19 Minimal wariations
To see or not to see
To flee or not to flee
to pee or not to pee

20 Antonymy
Nothing and something: this was an answer

21 Amplification
To live forever or never to have been born is a concern that has perplexed humanity from time immemorial and still does

22 Reductive
One or the other – who knows?

23 Permutation
That is the question: to be or not to be

24 Interference
a) Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow:
That is the question
b) To be or not to be
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
the way to dusty death

25 Isomorphisms
Speaking while singing: this defines recitativo
Getting and spending we lay waste our powers

26 Synonymous
Choosing between life and death confuses me

27 Subtle insight
Shakespeare knew the answer

28 Another interference
Put out the light, and then? That is the question

29 Homoconsonantism
At a bier, a nutty boy, too, heats the queasy tone

30 Homovocalism
Lode of gold ore affirms evening’s crown

31 Homophony
Two-beer naughty beat shatters equation

32 Snowball with an irregularity
I
am
all
mute
after
seeing
Hamlet’s
annoying
emergency
yours truly
Shakespeare

33 Heterosyntaxism
I ask myself: is it worth it, or isn`t it?

34 In another metre
So should I be, or should I not?
This question keeps me on the trot

35 Interrogative mode
Do I really care whether I exist or not?
(We leave the reader saddled with this painful question.)