Technology contest aims to make life easier

Disabled from a car accident in 1992, Richard Hanbury was told he had only five years to live. Instead of being depressed, he was inspired to invent an electronic "painkiller" to stay alive.

His goggle-based technology reduces nerve pain by reading a user's electroencephalogram signals and converting them to a light-and-sound stimulation unit.

"The device can reduce severe and chronic pain that was traditionally treated with prescription opioids. It helps insomniacs and chronic nerve pain patients fall asleep with a press of a button," said Hanbury, founder and CEO of Sana Health, a company with offices in the United States and the United Kingdom.

His team has tested 14 prototypes with more than 700 users. Team members are in the process of getting approval from the US Food and Drug Administration.

"The first prototype was two desktop computers," said Hanbury. "Now anybody can use the Sana Mask anywhere, particularly those with severe sleep problems caused by high anxiety or pain."

Hanbury is one of the three winners of the North American semifinal of an entrepreneurial contest held by a Chinese real estate company Seedland Group in San Francisco.

He will join nine other finalists from Europe and Asia to compete for the first prize of $145,000 in October.

The aim of the Seed Award contest is to encourage inventors and entrepreneurs to build a better life for global communities using advanced technologies, said Wu Qiong, CMO of Seedland Group.

Since the call for applications started in May, the organizer has received more than 1,000 applications from around the world, covering the areas of mobility, biotech, astronautics and others.

The requirement is addressing a certain aspect of life or improving it in general, and the selection criteria include originality, technology capacity, market outlook and social significance, said Wu.

With the rise of artificial intelligence, big data and internet of things, the power of technology is enhancing and transforming people's lives in areas such as clothing, food, housing and transportation, said Wu.

"We believe that technology will offer people more freedom and a better life," she said. "The contest also provides a platform for overseas inventors to exchange with their Chinese counterparts."

Together with Hanbury winning the semifinalist round on Thursday in San Francisco, other winners were Ampaire, a Los Angeles-based electric aerospace company producing electric aircrafts, and Nodle, a company which builds a Bluetooth low energy-powered network to help companies and cities connect and collect data from their devices.

Gregory Renard, an artificial intelligence expert at NASA Frontier Development Lab and a juror for the Seed Award, sees the contest as a bridge between Silicon Valley and China.

"It's very important to have such a bridge. We don't have to compete with each other. We should work together," he said.