Nokia and X-Prize put medical sensors on the spot for next challenge
Nokia and X-Prize put medical sensors on the spot for next challenge
Sometimes the X-Prize foundation gets a little ahead of itself. We couldn't get a private mission to the moon off the ground and apparently we can't built a tricorder either. But, we can take baby steps. Presumably that's what the newest X Challenge is all about. The group has teamed up with a certain Finnish phone maker to introduce the Nokia Sensing X Challenge. Rather than dive head first into Star Trek tech, the two are offering $ 2.25 million to further the development of health sensors and their associated technology. Nokia's interest is clear: it's widely expected that those tricorders of our dreams will one day become a reality and take the form of our cellphones. The challenge will actually be broken up into three different events to be held over the next three years, with many of the same competitors expected to follow up by entering Qualcomm's competition. For more, check out the PR after the break.
Show full PR textNOKIA SENSING X CHALLENGE - SEARCHING THE WORLD FOR THE MOST POWERFUL DIGITAL HEALTH SENSORS TO TRANSFORM THE HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY
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X PRIZE Foundation and Nokia Introduce $ 2.25 Million Global Incentivized Competition to Bring About Entirely New Ways to Monitor, Access, and Improve Consumer Health
SAN DIEGO (MAY 24, 2012) - The X PRIZE Foundation and Nokia today announced the launch of the Nokia Sensing X CHALLENGE, a $ 2.25 million global competition to stimulate the development of a new generation of health sensors and sensing technologies that c an drastically improve the quality, accuracy and ease of monitoring a person's health. Improvements in these technologies will empower individuals to effortlessly monitor and collect their own real-time health data, providing both consumers and healthcare providers convenient access to critical information whenever and wherever they need it.
The announcement was made by X PRIZE Foundation Chairman and CEO Dr. Peter H. Diamandis and Nokia Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer Dr. Henry Tirri during their keynote address at the Wireless Health Convergence Summit in San Diego, Calif.
"Partnering with Nokia is a natural fit for this competition. Health sensing technologies enabled by artificial intelligence, lab-on-a-chip, and digital imaging are advancing exponentially and will ultimately integrate with your phone. We need to expand sensor and sensing technology beyond disease management to areas such as public health and fitness," said Dr. Diamandis. "The Nokia Sensing X CHALLENGE will bring about radical innovation in health sensors and sensing technologies, which paves the way for better choices in when, where, and how individuals receive care. Ultimately, healthcare will be more convenient, affordable, and accessible to consumers worldwide through these integrated digital health solutions."
The inefficiencies and total cost of the U.S. healthcare system (and healthcare systems around the globe) has been a pressing social and political issue for many years. In the U.S., the total spent annually on the healthcare system is more than $ 2 trillion[1], which accounts for more than 15 percent of the nation's gross domestic product. Health sensors have the capacity to stem this trend. Consumer use of sensors and sensing solutions has the potential to improve, extend and ease delivery of healthcare services, as well as reduce costs to the benefit of health providers and patients.
"Nokia enga ges in Open Innovation on many different levels; this type of 'grand challenge' is not only a unique method of driving significant progress in a short space of time, but one which can also help to create an entire ecosystem," said Dr. Tirri. "This competition will enable us to realize the full potential of mobile sensing devices, leading to advances in sensing technology which can play a major role in transforming the lives of billions of people around the world."
The Nokia Sensing X CHALLENGE will be a series of three competition events, held over the next three years. Each event will be comprised of three phases: Registration, Preliminary Judging and Final Phase Judging. The winners of each competition will be the teams that submit best in class technology as determined by a non-partisan judging panel of cross-functional industry experts.
It is anticipated that the solutions developed as part of the Nokia Sensing X CHALLENGE may also be utilized as pa rt of a team's effort to win the $ 10 million Qualcomm Tricorder X PRIZE, which was announced at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) during Qualcomm Incorporated Chairman and CEO and Qualcomm Foundation Chair Dr. Paul Jacobs' keynote address. The Qualcomm Tricorder X PRIZE is a global competition aiming to drive development of devices that allow consumers access to healthcare in the palm of their hands. The Nokia Sensing X CHALLENGE and Qualcomm Tricorder X PRIZE will help create an ecosystem of innovators and innovative technology that will help reinvent the healthcare industry and radically reduce the cost to consumers.
For more information about the Nokia Sensing X CHALLENGE, visit: nokiasensingxchallenge.org.
ABOUT X PRIZE FOUNDATION
Founded in 1995, the X PRIZE Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, is the leading organization solving the world's Grand Challenges by creating and managing large-scale, high-profile, incentivized prize compe titions that stimulate investment in research and development worth far more than the prize itself. The organization motivates and inspires brilliant innovators from all disciplines to leverage their intellectual and financial capital for the benefit of humanity. The X PRIZE Foundation conducts competitions in five Prize Groups: Education; Exploration; Energy & Environment; Global Development; and Life Sciences. Active prizes include the $ 30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE, the $ 10 million Archon Genomics X PRIZE presented by Express Scripts, the $ 10 million Qualcomm Tricorder X PRIZE, and the $ 2.25 million Nokia Sensing X CHALLENGE. For more information, go to www.xprize.org.
ABOUT NOKIA
Nokia is a global leader in mobile communications whose products have become an integral part of the lives of people around the world. Every day, more than 1.3 billion people use their Nokia to capture and share experiences, access information, find their way or simply to speak to one another. Nokia's technological and design innovations have made its brand one of the most recognized in the world. For more information, visit http://www.nokia.com/about-nokia.
