• ¨  IIT Guwahati developed “E-Eye”, a low-cost portable optical sensing device for rapid detection of toxicants and cancer-causing heavy metals in water and biological samples.

    ¨     The device was announced on 6 August 2026.

    ¨  E-Eye is based on the Beer-Lambert Law, which relates light absorption to the concentration of a substance in a sample.

    ¨ The device converts chemical colour intensity into digital readings and enables wireless data transmission.

    ¨     It was developed at an approximate cost of ₹3,500.

    ¨     The per-sample testing cost is around ₹2.

    ¨     Laboratory validation was conducted on more than 2,700 samples.

    ¨     E-Eye can detect arsenic, lead, iron, chromium, fluoride, and Escherichia coli (E. coli).

    ¨     Arsenic and lead are toxic heavy metals, while E. coli is an indicator of faecal contamination in water.

    ¨     The project was led by Prof. Tapas K. Mandal and Prof. Harshal B. Nemade of IIT Guwahati.

    ¨  Researchers from KIIT Bhubaneswar and Ramakrishna Mission Residential College, Kolkata also participated in the research.

    ¨     The research on E-Eye was published in the IEEE Sensors Journal.

    ¨     The project received funding from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).

    ¨     The project was supported in connection with the Government of India’s Jal Jeevan Mission.

    ¨     The main objective of E-Eye is to enable low-cost, portable, rapid, and on-site testing of water quality, particularly in areas where conventional laboratory testing is difficult.