Rapid health diagnostics and 3D audio gaming amongst debut innovations at CES 2019
Tech entrepreneurs from the University of Southampton will reveal a number of ground-breaking research innovations at this 2019 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas from 8-11 January.
Once again, the University’s Future Worlds Accelerator will be the only UK university exhibitor at CES – the world’s largest consumer electronics show with an audience of more than 180,000 visitors and 4,400 exhibitors - for a fourth consecutive year
Rapid medical diagnostics
University spinout Highfield Diagnostics will promote a new technology that is set to revolutionise the concept of ‘instant’ medical diagnostics.
Researchers from the University’s Optoelectronics Research Centre have developed the world’s first disposable test that can simultaneously perform separate diagnoses, enabling the testing of diseases or conditions such as tuberculosis, sexually transmitted infections or leishmania, a parasitic disease similar to malaria, from a single sample.
These novel, cost-effective and user-friendly tests are made possible by a laser-based approach that controls the flow of liquid samples via multiple flow channels within the paper strip inside a typical diagnostic test.
“This simple and rapid testing represents a real breakthrough in universal healthcare monitoring and diagnosis in the home, the doctor’s surgery or even off-grid rural settings in developing countries,” co-founder Professor Robert Eason explains. “The rapid diagnostics market is truly global. If we just considered the example of tuberculosis, there are 10 million people who are currently displaying active symptoms in India and a further two billion people worldwide who currently harbour the disease in its latent form.”
Highfield Diagnostics can produce tests that show an increase of sensitivity of a factor of one hundred compared to current conventional tests, so patients can know much earlier if they are suffering from a particular condition.
The team are also capable of producing tests that give quantitative results such as the low, medium or high presence of a specified disease, which represents a step change to current pregnancy tests for example, that are only able to give a yes or no result.
3D stereo sound bar
A new laptop-friendly 3D stereo sound bar is set to make its global debut at CES 2019.
Associate Professor Filippo Fazi and Dr Marcos Simón from the University’s renowned Institute for Sound and Vibration Research have developed an immersive sound bar experience through their spinout, AudioScenic .
The sound bar’s technology uses destructive and constructive sound cancellation to deliver a perfect 3D experience. The AudioScenic system is connected to the laptop’s webcam and uses image processing to track and optimise audio performance based on the location of the listener’s head.
“This laptop-sized sound bar will give gamers a 3D experience that they have never heard before,” co-founder Marcos says. “The level of miniaturisation and integration with the laptop’s audio system creates an unprecedented gaming experience, delivering captivating 3D audio without the need for uncomfortable and anti-social headphones.”
AudioScenic is spinning out the innovation from S3A Future Spatial Audio research, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). The team will also be demonstrating other models from their range at CES 2019, optimised for the desktop gaming and home cinema markets.
The Future Worlds stand at CES 2019 will also include live demonstrations for startups founded by students from the University of Southampton, including the BOON gift discovery platform and the Intro contact sharing app.
Follow us at CES
The University’s technologies will be unveiled in Booths 51560 and 51562 of Eureka Park in the Sands Expo, from Tuesday 8th January to Friday 11th January.
You can follow all the action from the Future Worlds Accelerator stand in a daily blog and via Facebook , Twitter and Instagram . You can also join the Southampton team for Facebook Live sessions at 6.00pm (GMT) each day of the show.
Got a question for the Future Worlds team? Tweet #FutureWorldsCES2019 or email us to have your request answered live from Las Vegas each day.