Pocket-sized healthcare advice for people of Africa

“Afridoctor” is a smart phone application developed by Blueworld Communities based in Cape Town, South Africa. The application is available for anyone with a smart phone capable of running the application.

Afridoctor has a feature called “SnapDiagnosis” which allows the user to take a picture of his or her injury or symptoms and then digitally send it to a team of doctors who will respond within 48 hours.

Other key features of the application include a distress button found in the application menu that stores the contact information of a family member. When the distress button is used, that family member is contacted and given the location of the mobile device, allowing the family to track down the injured of next of kin.

Also, Afridoctor has another function called “Find a Doctor” which uses Google maps and GPS technology to find the nearest physician in relation to the mobile device.

Automotive racing technology transplanted into British military vehicles

Cosworth is working with the British Ministry of Defense to incorporate sensors found in Formula One (F1) cars into armored vehicles.

F1 cars are littered with hundreds of sensors that send information back to the engineers in the team pit. These sensors provide information regarding need-to-know information such as tire temperature or the status of any major components that may have been damaged in a crash.

The British military is partnering up with Cosworth to use similar technology in their military vehicles.

In the instance that a vehicle encounters a roadside bomb or may have been damaged in some way, the occupants would be able to assess the extent of the damage, allowing them to decide if they should stop and fix the vehicle or continue moving.

This technology could save troops hours of diagnosing problems they may be having with their transport, enabling them to get back to work and stay safe.

Wimbledon isn’t stuck in the past

In last 20 years, the Wimbledon tennis tournament has been partnered with computing firm IBM. Alan Flack, IBM’s Wimbledon executive, explains that their partnership is geared towards data collection and management.

“What we do here is an enormous data management exercise — collecting data, presenting it, visualizing it in different ways for different audiences and making it available across all sorts of media platforms.”

Umpires in the tournament use special keypads to keep track of scores, strokes and how points are earned throughout the game. This information is then sent to the Wimbledon information center where players and coaches can have access to it once the information has been processed.

Fans of the Wimbledon tournaments are able to get more into the game with their smartphones (currently for iPhone and Android operating systems). They are able to access the same information that umpires record and can even use their mobile devices to navigate around the stadium to find washrooms and nearby food vendors.