Ever needed blood during an emergency? There may be an easy way to find it...

How many times have you come across people faced with a situation where they need a few blood units of a particular blood group for an emergency medical procedure and they are left with no option but to call up all their relatives and check for availability?

There were probably days when someone in the joint family would rise to the occasion, but today's nuclear families stay far away from their hometown in pursuit of career or any other reason. Friends and neighbors would often come to the rescue but how often do we know their blood groups? Much time would be wasted in brute force method of contacting as many acquaintances as possible. 

Social media has come to the rescue and there are many Facebook and Google Groups (and several others) dedicated to the cause. These work on the principle of broadcasting the message for emergency requirement of blood with the specifics like blood group and contact information provided. Further the receivers of this information are likely to propagate the information to a larger crowd by sharing the posts or forwarding the emails. Manual intervention is a must for this to work. Also, with Facebook and Gmail flooded with other posts and emails, it is very likely that a prospective donor might not see the message in time. This channel is also not capable of selectively sending out the information to the relevant population, i.e. people with the required blood group only.

In an era of smartphones and connected devices, a more disruptive way of solving the problem would be to design a simple App. With a plethora of Aggregator Apps being launched in the last few years for booking cabs, delivering groceries and other applications, the problem at hand also resembles one that can be addressed with a similar App. The acceptance of such Apps by smartphone users at large, at least in metropolitan cities of India where such aggregators majorly operate, promises success of such an App. 

Phase I

The App would need to have the following features:

1. It would allow the interested blood donors to create their profile and store their contact information, blood group and last date of donation. Using the analogy of Cab aggregators, the blood donor would function similar to a Cab driver.
2. The App would also allow requests for specific blood group to be placed by either blood banks or hospitals or individuals, who would need to register their contact information on the App too. Using the analogy of Cab aggregators, the requester would function similar to a passenger. 
3. A list of all authorized hospitals and blood banks for blood collection in the vicinity along with address would be stored in the App and in case the requester is an individual, he/she would have to choose one amongst them. This would mean that blood collection can happen only at approved and safe collection centers and it would prevent illegal blood business, which thrives in some pockets in India. 
4. Just like in the case of Cab aggregators, geographic location using Google Map would be used to broadcast the requirement only to active blood donors of the required blood group who are within close proximity of the requester. Donors who have donated within past 90 days would be inactive and would not receive the request, as criteria for donation is at least a gap of 90 days from the date of last donation. 
5. By default, a notification would pop up even when the App is not running. Based on the number of units requested (buffer can be considered by the requester to be safe), the App would allow those many Blood donors to confirm their acceptance to donate. Once a blood donor accepts the request, the contact information would be exchanged by the App similar to contact information of cab driver provided to the passenger and vice versa by the App. 
6. Before the prospective donor accepts a request, he/she would be asked to confirm other requirements for a successful donation, e.g. that he/she has not consumed alcohol in the last 24 hours, not suffering from any disease, etc. 
7. Further a tie-up with cab aggregators could be possible wherein they could act as sponsors and provide a free ride to the hospital to the blood donor. This could act as CSR activity of cab aggregators like Ola thus creating a positive brand image, or it could be funded by the blood unit requester. 
8. The App could also be used for informing about Blood Donation camps and events in the city. 

 

Phase II

Such an App could be the initial step towards sourcing blood during an emergency. In Phase II, the functionality of the App could be improved if all the blood banks could share information in real-time with it. In such cases, when the blood of a particular group falls below safety stock level, automatic requests would be sent to the prospective blood donors in the vicinity. Further if Government regulation would allow this information to be shared publicly, regular voluntary blood donors could check the stock of remaining blood units in various blood banks and choose to donate at one that has minimum stock, thus increasing the chances that it would be used for a patient immediately. Other advantages would be possibility to plan better and reduce wastage of blood units.

 

Phase III

All this could be taken to the next level in years to come with the advent of Internet of Things (IoT). Wearable devices like like fitness trackers, wearable cameras, smart watches, heart rate monitors, and GPS tracking devices are slowly penetrating the market. With a huge boom of such devices expected in future, the App could be triggered by the wearable device and by tracing which hospital the victim is being taken to, it could connect with the blood bank of the hospital and check the possibility of blood shortage. It could even send alerts based on an emergency situation automatically requesting for blood. This could save precious time in emergency situation as the blood donor might reach the hospital much earlier. Until wearable devices gain popularity, a substitute feature in the App could be a one-push emergency button to perform the same function of automatically tracing which hospital the victim is being taken to and further steps explained above.

 

Countering fake requests

Needless to say, if the App is free to use, it could lead to a lot of fake requests. Cab aggregators avoid this situation by charging a minimal cancellation fee. In the case of the blood donation App, this situation can be countered in the following way:
1) For authorized hospitals and blood banks, which are the more trusted partners, there would be no charges.
2) For individuals placing requests, a nominal fee would be charged, not with the primary intent of revenue generation but for the sake of avoiding fake requests.
3) Just like Cab aggregators allow feedback collection by passengers for cab drivers, blacklisting profiles that were created for fake requests by collecting feedback from blood donors would be another feature that the App can provide in its base version itself.

The success of such an App would require joint efforts from all healthcare players and promotion from the Government as it is most likely to be successful as a non-profit based App. However, in case of private parties interested to work on such an App, large-scale revenue generation can be thought of at a later stage through other means not interfering with the Govt. regulations pertaining to free and voluntary blood donation. This may include nominal and fixed yearly contract fees from registered hospitals or blood banks or even crowd sourcing to raise funds like Wikipedia. 

Making of virtual tour of IIM Shillong

Hi... Before you read forward, it would be nice if you could visit the Virtual Tour of IIM Shillong to comprehend what I am talking about. This tour took me about a month to prepare as it was the first virtual tour I worked on from end-to-end, so I had to learn the process myself, and also because I had to find time for other activities at college. 

In this post I will be discussing briefly what goes into the making of such virtual tours. Firstly, you will need the following: -

1. A camera with good lens. Image resolution is not very important. Even 3 MP would do. I used Nikon COOLPIX P500. Normal cameras can be used for making cylindrical panoramas, whereas special Fish-eye lens are available for spherical panoramas. 
2. A good, stable tripod. If you want to purchase these gadgets, you can find some latest deals by clicking this advt below. 
3. A software for stitching (or weaving) the individual images of panorama. I used Panorama Maker 6, which has a 15 day trial period. 
4. A website for hosting the panoramas. I tried a free website initially called Panogio. Individual panoramas can be easily uploaded on it. Then I shifted to another paid website called Virtual Tour Architect which provides much better features. 

Okay, here's how you start about. 

1. Decide the location where you would like to take the panorama shots. The location should be chosen with care. Avoid small rooms or places where certain objects are located close by as they are difficult to stitch into a panorama. Also spots where one side is exposed to bright sun and another side is in the dark are difficult (though not impossible) to stitch. (Check Tip # 1)

2. Fix the tripod and the camera on it: Most good cameras come with inbuilt threading on the base, which enables it to be screwed on to the tripod. In case it is absent, use the tripod only for support. Also, it is better to click portrait pics rather than landscape pics, in order to cover wider vertical angle.  

3. Shooting: Shoot the first pic and rotate the camera by a small angle of say 30 deg. horizontally to take the second pic. A considerable amount of the first pic should overlap with the next pic in order to stitch the panorama. Do so continuously until you complete a whole circle such that a part of the last pic overlaps with the first pic. It is not always necessary to rotate by the same angle but maintaining an approximate angle of 30 deg. leads to 12-13 pics. Setting up the tripod and taking the pics at one location takes about 5-10 mins based on your expertise. 

4. Stitching using a Panorama weaving software: Transfer the images from the camera to your PC and use a Panorama stitching software (I used Panorama Maker 6) to weave the panoramic image. Initially stitch the image using Auto-stitch option and in case of finer adjustments use the manual stitch option to adjust the nodal points and blending. Also try out other options like Align points and Preview the panorama before saving it as a .jpeg file.

5. Hosting the panorama: Hosting individual panoramas on free websites is easy. Check this out. In case you want to make an integrated tour like the one you saw at the start of this blog, then you would have to use a paid site like Virtual Tour Architect. Watch this video to understand few basic features. 

Based on my experience, here are some more tips for making good panoramas:

1. Dealing with bright and dark shots in the same panorama: Choose a starting location that is directly opposite to the direction of sun. It helps to stitch the images later. Also, use manual settings. 
2. Good start: A job well begun is half done. So if the photos are taken properly, i.e. they blend well with one-another, then photo-stitching is easy. Most of the time auto-stitching suffices. 
3. Avoid moving objects: Try to avoid moving objects, especially people because this can lead to distortion of some of their body parts. Check this out. 

Thank you for reading this post. Do leave your feedback in the comments below or mail me. 

Marketing strategy

A couple of days back, one of our faculty instructors was explaining the concept of cost-quality-time triangle. According to this concept, if a company increases say the quality of a product, then the cost as well as time-to-market increases. On the other hand, in order to reduce the cost and time-to-market, the company will have to reduce the quality. 

It might be surprising for some, but companies in fact follow the second strategy and that too very shrewdly. Assume, for example, that a particular consumer measures the quality of a hand-wash pack in terms of its cleansing ability and the amount of liquid available per unit price. A company may not change the liquid fill, but may reduce the amount of liquid filled per pack and also reduce the price slightly. Initially if a company sells 250ml for INR 49/- and subsequently reduces the price to INR 28/- for 135ml fill, then the % decrease in price is just 42.8% whereas size reduces by 46% and consumers are more attracted by the reduced price, so the sales increase.

I inquisitively happened to open the cap and realized that though the bottle looked big, it was only about 2/3rd filled. (See the picture below carefully). The net volume was indicated as 135ml whereas it could accommodate even a 185ml pack that is sold as a refill pack for INR 34/- (The company also sells a 250ml bottle for which the same 185ml refill pack can be used). 

In order to compliment this strategy, the company sells the liquid wash in an opaque white bottle, so that the level of liquid is not visible even when held against a bright source of light.

This marketing strategy is used by almost all FMCG companies and is a very successful and proven strategy, so in future whenever you see a reduction in price, don't forget to check the reduction in size! :)

Six months in Shillong

It is hard to believe that I have already spent six months at Shillong. Time passes so fast. These six months have been so much fun. Thought I would share a few good pics here.

Before I do so, I should say that not just Shillong, but the entire North-east is filled with so much natural beauty that it is worth buying at least a basic SLR camera (if you don't already have one). Flipkart always comes up with some exclusive deals. (Click below to see what is on offer currently).

Anyways here go the select few pics.

On the way to Cherrapunji

On the way to Cherrapunji

On the way to Cherrapunji

At Cherrapunji

Cherrapunji Waterfall

At sacred forest, Mawphlang

Elephanta Falls, Shillong

Shillong Peak

On the way from Shillong to Guwahati

At Kamakhya Temple, Guwahati

The glass is one-third empty, but there is still two-third left. And these remaining days at Shillong are going to be legen-wait-for-it-dary! Looking forward to it!

Maths Questions for 10th Std

Just came across some Maths questions I had framed for teaching my sister in her 10th class and magnanimously sharing it here :)
P.S. Click on the question to enlarge it .








For any doubts, feel free to drop a mail to bhatchimu@gmail.com
Search for some really good books on Flipkart if you are interested in solving some really good puzzles.
Here is a link where you can get some good offers:

SPICE MOBILE QT-55

This is a pretty old blog post. If you are searching for some new phones, then I would recommend Flipkart as they always come up with some awesome offers.

I checked out this cellphone of SPICE three days back.

Model No: QT-55
Came home and googled for customer feedback and surprisingly found no mention of this model, not even on the SPICE mobile website. The features were however appealing, considering that one can get it for only 3.5k (MRP is 3699/- but can be negotiated to 3.5k or more if you are good at it).


I fell in love with it at first sight, not when I first saw the model but when I first saw the MRP! :P
Finally I bought it and have been using it for past two days and it feels great to possess it, especially when people who know, that you have been using an old fashioned nokia 6020 model for past 3.5 years suddenly start staring at you! It looks great, at least to my eyes. And buying the cellphone out of my own 'hard-earned' stipend, makes it even more special :)

As far as features are concerned, I would say, they might slightly fall short of NOKIA (E63 costs 11.4k) or SAMSUNG (Corby costs 6.7k) but considering that the cost is just 3.5k, features provided are cool... Point is this difference in price I would attribute more to the fact that NOKIA has better brand name than SAMSUNG and it in turn has better brand name than SPICE.

Salient Features:
1) Qwerty keyboard \m/
2) Dual simcard (now onwards both my simcards are active); well this was my primary motivation to buy this phone
3) Mobile tracking if cellphone is lost (recent high end models have this feature wherein if your cellphone is stolen and the thief inserts his simcard, then his simcard sends sms to 5 numbers you had stored before, which makes tracking it easier)
4) Inbuilt FM antenna (means you don't have to carry your headphones everywhere), plus FM recording (scheduled FM recording also), which is also great quality to a non-critic's ears
5) Awesome speakers (loud and clear)
6) Motion games (rolling dice on shaking)
7) Ebook reader (But only .txt format)
8) Torch: quite powerful
9) Long battery life (1200 mAh, 5 hr talktime or 12 days on standby mode, normally lasts for 5-6 days as I use music player often)
10) Two slots for expandable memory (I am using a 2 GB card that cost me extra 300 bucks).
11) 1 year warranty
12) Bluetooth
13) Screen display is cool :)
14) Camera (well can't zoom while clicking photos and it's not high resolution, about this feature I would say "just fine")
15) Videoplayer (plays only few formats, I am yet to figure out which all formats work). In audio files, most common formats like mp3, wav are supported.
16) Screen display is cool :)
17) Melody composer, which used to be provided with only low end cellphones is present. We also have some stuff which is of not much use to me: Ibibo, Nimbuzz, mGurujee, email2sms, rueters, spice gang, job search, weather, cricket updates and mms.

18) What is lacking is USB file transfer, you have only bluetooth to transfer your files. But I already had a card reader, so I thought I could manage the limitation of USB. I had heard from my friend, that USB connectivity is bad for most SPICE cellphones, so I guess they removed this feature completely in this model
19) Also no Wi-fi connectivity, but I hardly use my cellphone for browsing, as I can use my lappy when I am at home. It's GPRS enabled though!
20) If you are looking for GPS or touchscreen, then these features are absent. Finally few minor features like keypad password protection, when you unlock your keypad, are absent. Also I am unable to figure out how to insert smileys in smses yet!
21) Speed is not as good as nokia phones, but still manageable.
(Obviously you can't expect everything in 3.5k)

So overall, based on my needs, I would say this phone \m/

But I can't comment about the reliability/ durability until I have used it for a few months. Also this is not an advertisement for selling this model, they are just my personal opinions. I don't take the responsibility for any kind of dis-satisfaction caused to you if you purchase this mobile. Please check the features yourself before buying. And also don't comment saying "bakwaas phone hai!" Rather suggest a cellphone with better features for same price :P

Animal lover, am I?

Ten days of PS2 in Bengaluru were over; work in Mercedes Benz had not started in full swing yet and just when we felt that we were well settled in our rented apartment, the army of bed bugs marched out from their hide-out one night, and killed our night's sleep. Bed bugs, bad bugs!

We had made up our minds to dispose the old mattresses and buy new ones, but I was in mood of a treasure hunt. Bed bugs usually hide in the dirtiest corners of the mattress and are about 5-6 mm in length. So in 45 mins, I managed to find and kill 10 bugs, from my bed and sprayed Baygon too. Later that night I had a good sleep without a single bite and sweet dreams about hmmm...

On Thursday, we went to Ulsoor lake and did a bit of paddle boating. The lake is beautiful. Though we reached after the closing time, I was able to convince that guy to allow us boating for 10 mins, which we later extended till 30 mins :P

On Saturday, we planned a trip to Bannerghatta National Park. The Grand Safari ride of about an hour, was fun. Though the rightside window seat was claimed by Pintoo, luckily for me most animals were on the left side of the bus, Left-side rocks! Teasing me backfired for Pintoo! The bisons, deers, bears, lions and tigers awakened the animal lover inside me. And later we checked out the beautiful butterlies too.





The zoo was legen-(wait for it)-dary. I borrowed Pratik's mp3 player and finally succeeded in convincing Vidyadhar to give me his mobile camera and took some awesome pics. Earlier that morning I had not taken a single pic as I had left my DIGICAM at home. I loved the birdies so much that I ignored the chicks for a moment! :P The golden pheasants, the hornbill, peacocks, grey partridge, heron, pelican grey, eagle owl, pigeons and the russel viper, python, zebra, iguana, emu, porcupines, hippopotamus were just few of the beautiful creatures about which I had until yesterday only read in textbooks. The lion tailed macaque started jumping when we reached there; understandable why it got excited!













Pratik, Anand, Antony and Sandeep went on the Elephant Ride. I saw tears rolling down the elephant's eyes and could feel how much he was troubled, so I decided not to trouble it more. Anyway I have been on an elephant ride before, so I only took pics and yeah, we touched the elephant's trunk! :P