Openwater

Openwater works with opto-electronic and holographic systems that use red and benign near-infrared light, which passes through human body tissues, for healthcare applications that are non-invasive . Openwater aims to create wearable technology using opto-electronics that function like an MRI for monitoring human health for detection and treatment of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, internal bleeding, mental diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, and technology that in the future could be used for detecting communication and thought. Their technology uses LCDs and detectors, lining the inside of a ski hat or bandage. Tiny pixels in the LCDs create reconstructive holographic images of the brain or tissue and use that to neutralize light scattering to allow scanning at high resolution . Both an fMRI and their system detect the differential effects of color changes of blood where oxygen is being used . Neither MRI or fMRI can directly look at neurons but Openwater believe they can adapt their system to do so.

Founder Dr. Mary Lou Jepsen was previously an MIT professor, an engineering executive at Facebook, Oculus, Google[x], and Intel . She has also founded startups including One laptop per Child, which brought a $100 laptop to mass production.