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In India, we have these huge families.

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I bet a lot of you all
must have heard about it.

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Which means that there are
a lot of family events.

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So as a child, my parents
used to drag me to these family events.

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But the one thing
that I always looked forward to

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was playing around with my cousins.

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And there was always this one uncle

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who used to be there,

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always ready, jumping around with us,

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having games for us,

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making us kids have the time of our lives.

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This man was extremely successful:

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he was confident and powerful.

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But then I saw this hale and hearty person
deteriorate in health.

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He was diagnosed with Parkinson's.

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Parkinson's is a disease that causes
degeneration of the nervous system,

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which means that this person
who used to be independent

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suddenly finds tasks like drinking coffee,
because of tremors, much more difficult.

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My uncle started using a walker to walk,

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and to take a turn,

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he literally had to take
one step at a time, like this,

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and it took forever.

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So this person, who used to be
the center of attention

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in every family gathering,

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was suddenly hiding behind people.

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He was hiding from the pitiful look
in people's eyes.

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And he's not the only one in the world.

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Every year, 60,000 people
are newly diagnosed with Parkinson's,

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and this number is only rising.

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As designers, we dream that our designs
solve these multifaceted problems,

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one solution that solves it all,

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but it need not always be like that.

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You can also target simple problems

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and create small solutions for them
and eventually make a big impact.

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So my aim here was
to not cure Parkinson's,

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but to make their everyday tasks
much more simple,

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and then make an impact.

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Well, the first thing I targeted
was tremors, right?

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My uncle told me that he had stopped
drinking coffee or tea in public

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just out of embarrassment,

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so, well, I designed the no-spill cup.

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It works just purely on its form.

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The curve on top deflects the liquid
back inside every time they have tremors,

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and this keeps the liquid inside
compared to a normal cup.

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But the key here is that it is not tagged
as a Parkinson's patient product.

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It looks like a cup that could be used
by you, me, any clumsy person,

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and that makes it much more comforting
for them to use, to blend in.

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So, well, one problem solved,

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many more to go.

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All this while, I was interviewing him,

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questioning him,

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and then I realized that I was getting
very superficial information,

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or just answers to my questions.

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But I really needed to dig deeper
to get a new perspective.

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So I thought, well,
let's observe him in his daily tasks,

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while he's eating, while he's watching TV.

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And then, when I was actually
observing him walking to his dining table,

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it struck me, this man who finds it
so difficult to walk on flat land,

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how does he climb a staircase?

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Because in India we do not have
a fancy rail that takes you up a staircase

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like in the developed countries.

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One actually has to climb the stairs.

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So he told me,

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"Well, let me show you how I do it."

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Let's take a look at what I saw.

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So he took really long
to reach this position,

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and then all this while, I'm thinking,

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"Oh my God, is he really going to do it?

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Is he really, really going to do it
without his walker?"

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And then ...

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(Laughter)

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And the turns, he took them so easily.

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So -- shocked?

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Well, I was too.

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So this person who could not
walk on flat land

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was suddenly a pro at climbing stairs.

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On researching this, I realized that
it's because it's a continuous motion.

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There's this other man
who also suffers from the same symptoms

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and uses a walker,

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but the moment he's put on a cycle,

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all his symptoms vanish,

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because it is a continuous motion.

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So the key for me was to translate
this feeling of walking on a staircase

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back to flat land.

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And a lot of ideas
were tested and tried on him,

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but the one that finally worked
was this one. Let's take a look.

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(Laughter)

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(Applause)

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He walked faster, right?

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(Applause)

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I call this the staircase illusion,

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and actually when the staircase illusion
abruptly ended, he froze,

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and this is called freezing of gait.

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So it happens a lot,

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so why not have a staircase illusion
flowing through all their rooms,

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making them feel much more confident?

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You know, technology is not always it.

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What we need are human-centered solutions.

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I could have easily
made it into a projection,

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or a Google Glass, or something like that.

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But I stuck to simple print on the floor.

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This print could be taken into hospitals

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to make them feel much more welcome.

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What I wish to do
is make every Parkinson's patient

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feel like my uncle felt that day.

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He told me that I made him feel
like his old self again.

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"Smart" in today's world
has become synonymous to high tech,

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and the world is only getting
smarter and smarter day by day.

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But why can't smart be something
that's simple and yet effective?

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All we need is a little bit of empathy
and some curiosity,

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to go out there, observe.

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But let's not stop at that.

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Let's find these complex problems.
Don't be scared of them.

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Break them, boil them down
into much smaller problems,

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and then find simple solutions for them.

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Test these solutions, fail if needed,

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but with newer insights to make it better.

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Imagine what we all could do
if we all came up with simple solutions.

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What would the world be like
if we combined all our simple solutions?

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Let's make a smarter world,
but with simplicity.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)