STUDENTS of the Philippine Science High School-Central Visayas Campus (PSHS-CVisC) have unveiled four inventions, including a device that allows visually impaired people to be able to see their surroundings despite their disability.
The four inventions were featured during PSHS-CVIsC’s Tatak Pisay, Orihinal na Likha media presentation held in Mandaue City on Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2022.
The forum on Wednesday was the first time that the PSHS-CVIsC presented to the public the inventions of their students, said Lilia Habacon, PSHS System executive director.
Vision
One of the inventions featured during the forum was Vision or System for Assisting Visually-Impaired User, which allows its users to detect, feel and see the objects in their surroundings.
The system, an invention of student Vaughn Matthew Valle and teacher Dr. Benito Baje, comprises a user device that includes a camera that records and collects data in the surroundings and an audible output device that instructs the user of the current situation of his surroundings.
According to Valle and Baje, their invention can benefit visually impaired individuals.
Other inventions
Aside from Vision, other inventions presented during the forum were the Multi-Purpose Interconnected Transceiver Apparatus (Mits), Portable Water Quality Assessment Device (Imahe), and Aquaculture Monitoring Device (Bantay).
Bantay is prototype of a floating monitoring device that checks the water qualities of aquaculture and fish farms based on three parameters: water temperature, pH levels and dissolved oxygen.
The device, invented by students Samantha Faye Salva, Angel Karl Gordo, Merci Emmanuelle Ceniza and Arlo Chavez, aims to provide fish farmers real-time data that could help address problems in fisheries arising from contaminated water and avoid fish kills and loss of income.
Another invention featured during the forum is Mits or Multipurpose Interconnected Transceiver Apparatus. It is a device that gathers and transmits data such as weather conditions in a specific environment, and finds the location of other users from a different area without the use of the internet.
According to its inventors, Mits can capture real-time data for weather indicators such as temperature, humidity, heat index, pressure and altitude.
It can also triangulate the current latitude, longitude, course, speed and local web server for global positioning system.
Mits can also be used to assess the weather conditions of rural and remote areas that have limited access to the internet.
Mits is the invention of Melicor McSteven, Christian James Fantonial, Elram Espra and Dr. Benito Baje.
Another invention is Imahe, a portable water quality assessment device that identifies and assesses the size of microplastics within a provided sample.
The device, invented by students Josefino Niño Ligan, Chesyne Danielle Pepito, David Elijah Corsini Atup and Ro-ann Laude, utilizes an image processing system through a camera and a microscope inside a portable housing compartment.
Three of the four inventions have already gotten patents at the World Intellectual Property Organization (Wipo) and while the other secured a patent from the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL).
Ready for public use
Habacon told SunStar Cebu that the inventions made by their students can benefit the public and can be used for market research.
Habacon further said that they have been actively registering their students’ inventions since 2018, and it resulted in getting five patents, four for its Central Visayas campus and one for its Bicol region campus.
For the inventions to be commercially available for public purchase and use, Habacon said the devices must undergo improvement through technology transfer and other processes.
Dr. Rachel Luz Rica, PSHS-CVIsC campus director, said she is very proud that the work of their students has paid off.
“Finally, we were able to showcase the inventions of our students. Previously, we had the innovation of our scholars ug karon lang siya na-recognize sa (and are now recognized by) IPOPHIL and then Wipo. We are very proud because their hard work pays off,” she added.
The campus of PSHS-CVisC is located in Barangay Talaytay, Argao in southern Cebu. It has 540 scholars.