IIT & AIIMS Alumni Invent A Device That Could Stop Coronavirus

IIT Kharagpur and AIIMS alumni Debayan Saha & Shashi Ranjan have developed a device “Airlens Minus Corona” that will travel on streets to sterilize the city. It will go to hospitals, bus stops, railway stations, shopping malls and other public places to sterilize the surfaces which may cause the spread of the coronavirus.

How Does it Work?
The power lies in electrifying water droplets to kill coronavirus. The duo invents a new way to kill coronavirus using charged/ionized water droplets. Water droplets can be ionized using Corona Discharge. Such ionized water droplets can help in the oxidation of viral proteins into non-harmful molecules. Oxidation is one of the most potent antimicrobial tools. This technique can potentially sterilize the entire city.

Its Benefit?
There are several ways by which Viruses can be inactivated – Alcohols (such as ethanol or IPA) is one of them and alcohol-based hand sanitizer are useful for individuals or for sanitizing surfaces at a smaller scale but insufficient in such an emergency to use them for sanitizing cities.

A new approach or technology is required for “Saving Sapiens” and therefore both came up with a solution naming this technology as Airlens Minus Corona (-Corona) as it clears up the Coronavirus using the electrical energy of Corona – Fighting Corona With Corona.

The device is a concept of Robo Sapien that will also inspire humanity to come together in this fight against coronavirus. Kindly share your thoughts on the above discovery and let me know if you’d be interested to connect with Founder for more information.

Express Computer’s Gairika Mitra gets into an elaborate conversation with the duo. Edited excerpts:

At a time when the entire globe is topsy turvy, how do you think would technology come to the rescue?

Science and technology have historically been instrumental in crises like these. Even the sanitizer, mask, medicines and diagnostic kits are all products of science and technology.

What’s the specialty of Airlens Minus Corona and how authentic are its disinfecting properties?

Airlens Minus Corona is special because it uses only water and electric water supply to sterilize against the germs.

What is your anticipation towards the success rate, as the pandemic has already been on the rise?

The fundamental science exploited here is called EWS( Electrowater Spraying) i.e. highly pressurized water passing through a high voltage electric field to ionize.

I think if we can do mass scale sterilization using this and also various other technologies invented worldwide, we may be largely able to restrict the spread of the pandemic.

Would Airlens help in flattening the curve, if so, then what numbers are we looking at?

We hope it will be instrumental in flattening the curve. Difficult to predict numbers but we are constantly innovating the technology and design so that it can be made like a DIY thing and can be democratized for large scale implementation worldwide.

Lastly, how do you think is technology the harbinger of handling such crisis situations?

As I said earlier medicine, tests, vaccines are all products of science and technology. But science alone can’t win the war. We need society to come together and put our act together to fight against this deadly pandemic.