IP: The Simputer

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

>
>Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2001 12:25:52 +0100
>To: farber@cis.upenn.edu
>From: Brian Randell <Brian.Randell@newcastle.ac.uk>
>
>Dave:
>
>In case you haven't seen similar stories about this project in the US, 
>here's a brief extract from an article in yesterday's (UK) Guardian newspaper:
>
>>Handheld PC bridges digital divide
>>
>>Indian scientists invent cheap device enabling poor and illiterate to 
>>surf internet
>>
>>Stuart Millar Technology correspondent Guardian
>>
>>Monday July 9, 2001
> From outside, the Simputer is nothing special: a grey box the size
>>of an electronic organiser, with a black and white screen and four chunky 
>>buttons.
>>... The device took a group of Indian scientists almost three years to 
>>develop. It will give online access for around £140, a fraction of the 
>>cost of a PC, when it becomes commercially available in India early next year.
>>
>>Unlike the PC, it does not need a mains electricity supply but runs on 
>>three AAA batteries.
>>
>>The Simputer's most revolutionary feature, however, is that it eliminates 
>>the biggest single barrier to computer use in the third world: illiteracy.
>>
>>Almost 50% of India's population is unable to read or write. To overcome 
>>this, engineers at the Indian Institute of Sciences in Bangalore, 
>>epicentre of the country's hi-tech activity, and a local software 
>>company, Encore, developed a remarkable piece of text-to-speech software....
>>Called Information Markup Language - or Illiterate Markup Language by the 
>>inventors - the software allows the Simputer to translate English text 
>>into a variety of Indian languages, then read the information aloud to 
>>the user.
>>....
>>Even a price of £140 is likely to be too much in cultures where single 
>>ownership is an alien concept. So the Simputer is designed to allow one 
>>device to be easily shared by a community. For about 70p, individual 
>>users can buy a smartcard on to which all their personal information is 
>>saved. Each time they plug it in, the computer is customised to their 
>>needs, exactly like a PC....
>
>The full article is at:
>
>http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4218095,00.html
>
>Cheers
>
>Brian
>
>
>--
>Dept. of Computing Science, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne,
>NE1 7RU, UK
>EMAIL = Brian.Randell@newcastle.ac.uk   PHONE = +44 191 222 7923
>FAX = +44 191 222 8232  URL = http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/~brian.randell/



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