Shevlin Sebastian By

As his name was called, Nitin Vasanth felt a shiver of excitement as he strode on stage at the Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi on March 17. The 23-year-old received The Gandhian Young Technological Innovation Award from Ramesh Mashelkar, former Director General of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. Vasanth’s prize-winning entry was called ‘NeuroBuds—Brain Wave Mapping Smart Earphones’. Apart from the award, Kozhikode-born Vasanth received a grant of Rs 15 lakh to do the research.

While doing his B.Tech in electronics from Cochin University of Science and Technology, Vasanth came up with the idea of tracking the mental state of people through an app.

With that in mind, he put electrodes inside an earphone. “These electrodes are similar to what we use to measure the heartbeat,” says Vasanth. But this machine is based on a different principle called the Electro-encephalography.”

In this case, the electrodes help in tracking the mental state. “For example, when you do meditation, the brain emits a particular frequency, which is different from when you are angry or sad,” he says. These messages appear on the app in a smartphone.

“When you find that your stress levels are too high, you can take steps to bring them down by taking deep breaths, going for a walk or listening to music,” says Bengaluru-based Vasanth.

Vasanth is targeting stressed-out working professionals between the age group of 25 and 45. “This device will make them realise that they need to ease up.”

But Vasanth is not ready for mass production, as he wants to fine-tune it. For that he is getting help from companies such as Bosch and Intel. In February, he was selected for a five-month ‘accelerator’ programme organised by Intel and the department of science and technology. So he and members of his firm Neuro Tech were able to access the Intel Lab in Bengaluru. But the turning point came when he was selected for the Rajeev Circle Fellowship to spend a month in Silicon Valley, California. “I met a lot of entrepreneurs and investors,” he says. “Our group of 11 was allowed access to the R&D labs of Google and Facebook. It was a huge learning experience. Failure is not seen as a disaster here.”