Innovation Hatchery

BTech graduate Nijil Y kept away from campus recruitment. His entrepreneurial self was constantly juggling ideas, one of which included an interactive book authoring tool. He needed a space to test his ideas but there were monetary constraints. Along with two classmates from the Cochin University of Science and Technology, he walked into Startup Village in Kochi.

A technology business incubator for entrepreneurs, Startup Village is a not-for-profit organisation, which has a technical lab set in a 5,000 square feet area. Its space is leased to entrepreneurs at Rs 2 a square feet. Sijo Kuruvilla George, CEO, Startup Village saw Nijil, Niraz Rashid and Sreekumar KR’s previous ideas and wanted them to showcase an innovation at Emerging Kerala 2012, a state government-sponsored investors meet in Kochi in September. With only three days in hand and Rs 12,000 as capital, the trio presented a multi-touch table at the incubator’s pavilion. This low-cost prototype is similar to Microsoft’s Surface tablet. Instead of plexiglass, they used an acrylic sheet with a webcam and projector in it. A virtual table, it works without a mouse or keyboard. The technology is armed to attend to multiple requests by different users at the same time. “For instance, one can look up beverages in a hotel of choice, another user can check flight timings, or children can play virtual games, all on the same sheet, at the same time,” says Nijil. The American

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