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- Incubation Cell of IIT Madras has bagged a million dollar order from a Singapore-based firm to share technology used in its first two products.
- IIT Madras' start-up Merkel Haptics was founded in the year 2011 with a purpose to convert lab work into products.
A start-up of Incubation Cell of Indian Institute of Technology, Madras has bagged a million dollar order from a Singapore-based firm to share technology used in its first two products. The key focus area of these technologies is clinical training. Through these technologies, actual treatment given to these becomes safer as they use virtual patients. The two products developed by this startup will bring a change in the way doctors are trained to make the patient safer. The initial two products developed by this start-up are: -
- In-Vitro Fertilisation Training Simulation (with Haptics Feedback)
- Laparoscopy Surgical Simulator (with Haptics Feedback)
Usually, the high-end simulators with Haptics Feedback have great demand in international market and come at a cost of around Rs. 2 crores. However, the new technologies that integrate virtual reality along with Haptics feedback developed in Touch Lab of IIT Madras will cost around Rs. 30 – 35 lakh.
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IIT Madras' start-up Merkel Haptics was founded in the year 2011 with a purpose to convert lab work into products. A Touch Lab at the Applied Mechanics Department of Indian Institute of Technology, Madras was also founded to research the sense of touch.
The Touch Lab of IIT Madras is first of its kind in India. M. Manivannan, Founder and Principal Investigator of Touch Lab revealed that he watched the laparoscopic surgery for the first time at CMC Vellore. Later, the idea of laparoscopic surgical simulator along with Haptics feedback was converted into the Ph.D. thesis. Based on the Ph.D. thesis, a prototype was developed in the Touch Lab for five years. Finally, it was taken to the company named ‘Merkel’ for developing into a product with an objective to make it commercially viable.
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The virtual technology developed by Touch Lab of IIT Madras was not available in India earlier through which foreign companies made a lot of money. However, it was the start-up of IIT Madras that developed unique virtual simulator.
