INNOVATION CONVERSATION: What Some Xerox Researchers Do on their Lunch Hour …

Printer-friendly versionPDF version

The clock's ticking. It's almost noon. For most of us that means grabbing lunch, but these days a group of Xerox researchers are studying the human body instead of just feeding it. A short conversation:

Q: Physiology and anatomy at Xerox? What gives?

LK Mestha: Yes, I know - at first, it's difficult to imagine how these subjects relate to my job as a principal scientist  at Xerox, but at the Xerox Research Center Webster in New York where we work, there are plenty of opportunities to research and explore areas in healthcare, transportation, cloud computing, finance etc. Studying the human body helps us innovate and simplify the way work gets done in many of these areas.  Plus it's really interesting!

Bob Loce:  We don't need to become MDs or nurses to innovate in areas like healthcare, but it helps to understand the terminology and some of the science. Quite a few of us are working on technologies to reduce the cost of health care through video observation, electronic medical records, new instrumentation, and management of health information.  

LK Mestha: Yes, for example, we are in the early stages of a project that will enable continuous monitoring of vitals (e.g., heart rate, respiration rate, oxygen saturation, temperature, etc.,) of premature infants without making contact, eliminating the need to place electrodes on an infant's paper-think skin or attach sensors to a miniature earlobe! Combining our expertise in video cameras, analytics and image processing techniques with a basic understanding of physiology supported the idea of using non-obtrusive video cameras to obtain data such as accurate cardiac pulse measurements, detecting whether a patient is suffering from atrial fibrillation (uncoordinated contractions of the heart muscle), determining transit time for the cardiac pulse to move from one region to the other, finding which part of the autonomous nervous system is more dominant (i.e., parasympathetic or sympathetic), and much more.

Q: Are there personal benefits that come along with this brown bag effort?

Robert Loce:  Yes. One side benefit is that at the dinner table, my kids no longer have to hear about a halftone printer pattern that I designed.  Instead, I can explain how their large intestine will extract the water from the milk they are drinking.

LK Mestha:  Cramming all 11 systems of the human body into 32 lectures is not all about work and some may think I'm crazy when I say it's really fun.  I feel it's a great opportunity for personal growth for me and the team.  Understanding the science of how the body performs its complex functions can help us simplify how healthcare providers do their jobs. And, this is the type of information that lasts for a life time.

Q: How did the lunch sessions start?

Barry Mandel: LK had recently taken a university course in anatomy and physiology and I was impressed with his level of knowledge and how it benefitted his work. I got a sales flyer at home from a company called The Great Courses, and got permission from the publisher to show the lectures in small group settings here at Xerox. 

Note:  Xerox Principal Scientists LK Mestha and Bob Loce work with Principal Engineer Barry Mandel at the Xerox Research Center Webster in New York.

Suzette Norris, a communications consultant for Xerox, is a wordsmith who appreciates the ever-increasing need for clear, concise communication.  She serves as the corporate editor for Xerox's Global PR team, and works as an internal communications resource for Xerox Research Center Webster, New York.

News Source : INNOVATION CONVERSATION: What Some Xerox Researchers Do on their Lunch Hour …