Date: 6th Aug 2010
IBM and IIT Bombay to research on new
mobile phone interfaces
The IT tech joint IBM has announced an Open Collaboration
Research (OCR) project with the Industrial Design Centre
(IDC) at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT
Bombay). The collaboration is aimed at developing mobile
phone interfaces for the people who can't read and write,
otherwise have difficulty in using present day phones and
computers.
This is nice idea and is also better for the members involved
in this project to get networked with the $35 tablet computer
development team in India as well as OLPC team in US to
work closely. The fact is, by using today's IT gadgets with
audio-visual interfaces, people need not know how to read
and write to access multimedia knowledge files, that's where
a new big-big market is emerging. This technology can enable
illiterates to get educated without learning text.
The mobile phone platform is more suitable for this purpose
than the computer due to its popularity in masses.
Here is a nice quote:
"Over the last few years, it has become clear that
the next generation innovations in the ICTs will be directed
towards solving the problems of developing countries like
India. Many of our design students and researchers enjoy
working on such problems. The collaboration between IIT
Bombay and IBM gives us the opportunity to explore and apply
some of the newest technologies for this purpose. It is
not only mutually beneficial but also intends to address
larger socio-economic challenges." said Prof. Anirudha
Joshi, Associate Professor, IIT Bombay.
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