You see this picture?
That’s me, at the age of 5.
As you can guess, I had a happy childhood
growing up in Switzerland.
One of the things I liked most
and who fascinated me the most,
it was the food.
Oh, what I loved the food!
And to be sincere,
I still love it!
For years,
I was sure all the children on Earth
had enough to eat, like me.
But one day,
I saw on TV some pictures of children who were dying of hunger
in a country in Africa,
because of war or famine.
I was extremely shocked,
and surprised to learn
that there were always children who were dying of hunger,
on the same planet where I lived.
I thought, “But … how is it possible?
Why was I lucky enough to be born here
while others do not?
How can we allow some children to starve
in some countries,
while in our supermarkets, there is plenty to eat? “
My parents tried to console me.
They told me: “Before, it was much worse!
There are far fewer famines today than before. “
They told me that there are many organizations and people
who do their best to change that.
And luckily, it’s true!
But unfortunately,
despite all that,
there is still a lot of malnutrition in the world.
Indeed, it is estimated
that around the world, a person is dying of hunger
every 4 seconds …
One person every 4 seconds …
And it’s mostly children.
Faced with these facts,
and since I still loved food,
after my compulsory schooling,
I decided to study Food Science,
and specialize in nutrition and health.
Then, once my diplomas are in my pocket,
I started working for an NGO
in the humanitarian field.
My main task
was to help nutrition programs
in different developing countries
to be more effective.
In this context,
I conducted investigations
to determine the nutritional status of populations,
and more specifically children,
to better know their needs,
and so to be able to adapt nutrition programs accordingly.
At first, I was naive!
I thought it would be easy to apply what I had learned at university.
But in reality,
fight against malnutrition,
it was a lot more complicated than I thought.
There were many obstacles I had not thought of.
And I was often frustrated that I could not do more.
The health centers I saw,
were often packed.
There was not enough staff, and this one was not trained enough.
The material did not work,
or simply did not exist.
One of the really difficult things was
to take accurate and accurate data
on the nutritional status of children.
And one of the things I found most difficult,
it was to take the size and weight of the children.
There, you must think:
“But no, that’s easy! Just a scale and a meter. “
But in reality,
it’s a little more complicated!
First of all, you have to find the material.
And since he will not be there, he must be brought
and that, even in isolated places
which are not accessible by car.
So you have to wear it,
and it’s not easy when it’s hot and humid.
Then, the measures, in themselves, are quite another challenge.
To take the weight of a child, especially for the little ones,
we use a bag that hangs from the hook of a scale.
This is a pretty uncomfortable and stressful situation for children.
And we make sure they stay calm
for the needle does not jiggle in all directions.
Measure the size,
it’s very complicated !
You need a board against which the child is standing
straight, feet together.
Then you have to slide a small tray up to the top of your head,
and at the same time look at the number on the meter, to see the size.
Meanwhile, the child is fidgeting. he wants to look everywhere!
Once we have done these measurements,
we write the values on a sheet
or in a notebook.
Then, when we are back from the field,
we can enter them into our computer; and when we have access to the internet,
we can send the values further,
and they are assembled in a database
and then analyzed.
At every step of this process,
there may be errors,
measurement errors,
copy errors.
And most importantly, this whole process takes time.
And the time, precisely,
when there is a risk of malnutrition or famine,
it is one of the most precious things.
One day, I was talking about this problem with two friends.
We thought that nowadays
with all the technologies that exist,
there must be a better way.
There must be a way to make these measures so important,
easier to do and faster.
That’s where we got an idea.
And if we could estimate the weight and size of a child,
from a photo taken from a smartphone?
That would allow us:
to replace bulky hardware with just a smartphone,
to make measurements quick and automatic,
optimize the whole process,
to automatically update the databases,
and even, using the geolocation data of a phone,
to make accurate maps.
But here you will say to me: “It is very nice all that.
But there are two big problems with this idea.
The first big problem,
it is not possible to measure the weight of a person with a photo.
So, we looked for a way.
And fortunately, we found one.
Two researchers developed an equation
which allows to estimate the weight of a person
from seven key measurements, taken on a photo.
We tested it,
and we found that it is rather precise!
We manage to have just 5% error.
And we think we could improve it again.
The second problem, you’ll tell me,
is that, in these countries, there are no scales, meters,
neither measuring bags,
there will be, even less, mobile phones or smartphones.
But in the contrary,
you would be surprised!
There are many mobile phones in these countries.
You see, here in Sub-Saharan Africa,
there are more and more mobile phones.
There are many more than landlines.
And there are more than just proper toilets.
Now, I would like to propose to you
to take a few moments
to imagine with me.
Imagine
that you work in a humanitarian organization
and instead of having to weigh and measure children
using a scale, a bag and a measuring board,
you can just use your smartphone
and directly have the measurements.
And that only in a few seconds.
Imagine how many more children
you could measure through that, and weigh.
Imagine all the time you could win.
Imagine all the kids plus
that you could detect who have malnutrition
and how many children you could potentially save.
Imagine
how comfortable the child will feel
to be photographed rather than put in a bag
or against a board.
In addition, these children love being photographed!
Imagine …
that we could, thanks to that,
improve data all over the world,
and so get more and faster.
Imagine that thanks to that,
we could more easily identify changes in a population,
and thus launch the alert,
in case of risk of famine.
Imagine, that thanks to that,
you could identify famines even before they appear.
Thank you.
(Applause)
”
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