MachineSense develops system to detect virus in air

EVEN as the pharma business community and the entire medical fraternity across the world are burning midnight oil to find a permanent solution to end the Covid-19 crisis, MachineSense, a Baltimore (US)-headquartered company with roots in Kolkata, has come up with an early warning signal system to detect the existence of virus and its spread in a particular space on the basis of viral load. Christened as Virawarn, the solution is the world's first commercial sensor which detects airborne viral loads as low as 50-100 per liter. The sensor technology exploits the S-protein electrochemistry present on the outmost shell of the corona or Covid-19 viral strain.

The technology has been verified and tested in the virology laboratories such as Rajiv Gandhi Center for Biotechnology (RGCB), Kerala and International Institute of Innovation and Technology (I3T), Kolkata with specific SARS CoV-2 pseudo virions. Beta tests have also been conducted in four Covid hospitals in Kolkata as well as with one hundred confirmed Covid patients who have been home-quarantined, said Dr Biplab Pal, co-founder, CTO and president, MachineSense. Pal, an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur, said that Virawarn is a compact and handy device designed to screen viral loads within 100 sq ft of area surrounding the device. The device consists of visual LED notification and an audio buzzer to alert the virus presence to the users in the shortest possible time. There is a separate device called alarm hub which can do both visual and audio alarming when wirelessly connected to multiple viralwarns with 100 ft range. The company has already obtained Indian and US patents for this product. The company had earlier come up with another Covid related product- FeverWarn.

This is a unique example of Indo-US collaboration where a team of bright, young Indian techies worked with senior techies and scientists in the US to come up with this product. Quite significantly, the entire R&D and product development mostly took place in Kolkata and that too during the lockdown period. In terms of order book position, it is already oversubscribed in the US market, the response from the Indian market has also been encouraging. The shipment will begin soon. We are also looking at other markets in different parts of the world, especially countries like Australia, New Zealand. Although there are other similar products available in the market, but our technology is different and is much cheaper and affordable," said Pal.

At present, ViraWarn is capable of detecting is someone in a room or in a particular space carries the virus. But the company is well set to come up with the next product which would pin point who carries the virus, said Pal, adding that the company is working on many more exciting products.