Windows Phone App Winners Detect Malaria & Show Sign Language

Microsoft has given prizes to enterprising student team developers who seek to help make a better world. The awards are part of the Imagine Cup at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Lifelens is malaria diagnosis augmented Windows Phone app. The project addresses the high child mortality rates caused by the lack of detection and availability of treatment of malarial diseases.

The team led by Wilson Lo wrote a custom malaria detector app using a lens they took from a CD Player. The lens mangnifies a drop of blood to show malaria cells. The app also connects to the cloud and GPS to create a data map of Malaria cases.  The app is designed send transmit real-time results to public health workers, helping them track malaria cases more effectively.

Team Lifelens is ready to develop their project for launch. They will use the award investment for distribution of their Windows Phone app, subsidizing the phones and field testing. Lifelens also plans to evolve their project by integrating Windows Azure.

Another team from Ecuador, Falcon Dev is working on making a Windows Phone translate speech into sign language for kids who are hearing impaired, which they already did on a Windows PC. The project is called SkillBox.

The Imagine Cup Grants are a three-year, $3 million competitive grant program to help Imagine Cup participants take their ideas and their innovative solutions to market as a next step to solving the world’s toughest problems.

Entries are being accepted for the 2012 Windows Phone Challenge, sponsored by Nokia. The team could win up to $8000 and a trip to the Imagine Cup 2012 finals in Sydney this summer.