Kartik Tallapragada is a busy guy. As a Business Systems Architect at CSL Behring’s King of Prussia, Pennsylvania office, he designs technological systems that support the company’s SharePoint and Digital Workspace platforms. Having worked at CSL Behring for seven years, Tallapragada finds his job rewarding, as he admits that “no day is ever the same.”
“Kartik is among the many talented professionals who make up our exceptional Business Technology (BT) Team,” said Jesse Crew, Director, BT Applications. “His technology development and architecture skills are excellent and are helping CSL’s BT initiatives come to fruition.”
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Tallapragada’s passion for developing technology doesn’t stop when he goes home at the end of the day. As a father of a baby son, Tallapragada had an idea to develop a technology that could help parents everywhere, particularly those with low-birth-weight babies. These infants are at an increased risk of respiratory problems, including accidental suffocation and sudden infant death syndrome.
His own child was born with low weight and he and his wife were concerned about the related health risks. “It was crucial to ensure we kept a constant eye on our son’s sleeping posture, the room temperature, the humidity and the crib surroundings to ensure my baby’s safety,” said Tallapragada.
Tallapragada became inspired to combine his paternal instincts with his technological acumen. Wanting to alleviate the risks for his child, and those of others, Tallapragada got to work, after work. He designed a baby monitoring artificial intelligence solution that could potentially help save lives.
“I knew there was an immediate need to improve upon standard baby monitors in order to make them smart enough to adapt to various situations, to react to various risks and data points and to take appropriate corrective action,” said Tallapragada.
Most standard baby monitoring systems are simply an overhead camera or they are an intrusive device attached to the baby. Using these monitors, caregivers are required to keep a constant vigil on the video feed to ensure the infant’s safety.
“I called my technology Angel Eyes, and it is designed to ensure a safe and non-intrusive way of monitoring an infant 24/7 in a more comprehensive way than typical baby monitors.”
Using technologies and products, Angel Eyes consists of video, computer and smartphone technologies to continually watch over infants and their surrounding condition.
Angel Eyes uses facial recognition, deep learning and an ensemble of machine learning algorithms that can monitor room temperature, humidity and can also detect potential airway obstruction risks. It notifies caregivers via text of environmental changes that could place babies at risk for respiratory distress, even suffocation, such as high room temperature and increased humidity; objects close to the baby’s face, such as a pillow, bottle or stuffed animal; or that the baby has changed positions from sleeping on his or her back to the side, a risky position for low-birth-weight babies.
When Tallapragada learned of technology giant Microsoft’s first-ever global Artificial Intelligence (AI) Idea Challenge, he recognized that his invention may help others. Microsoft’s challenge is a competition for developers, students, professionals and data scientists seeking innovative, breakthrough artificial intelligence solutions. Tallapragada entered Microsoft’s contest and was ecstatic to learn that he won third place.
“It was a tough competition, but your idea captured the imagination, and ticked all the boxes to be the winner (third place) of the contest as per the ground rules and uniqueness,” said a Microsoft AI Senior Technical Product Manager in announcing Tallapragada’s award.
Tallapragada was flown to Microsoft’s headquarters to participate in a video highlighting the contest.
“It’s great to be recognized on such a scale for my work,” said Tallapragada. “It’s my hope that Angel Eyes gives peace of mind to parents and creates increased safety measures for babies.”
Learn more about Tallapragada’s achievement by clicking here.
