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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