...

Now tell me Philip, if you have used a handheld computer, is it easier/faster to type or scribble? Mind you, scribbling is not the same as writing. And the hand writing recoqnition technology can never be perfected,

Did you read about the stuff called "tapatap" that they describe on

their

website? From what I gather, they have devised a very rudimentary

input

mechanism for very simple interaction when requird. Keep in mind

that the

device is intended for _illiterate_ villagers, and nobody expects

them to

enter any data in it. That is mentioned explicitly in the wired.com

article.

Now now Sameer, there you go again... Have you ever worked on a handheld? I too probably wouldn't have except for a rich friend of mine.

What do you think would it mean by a rudimentary input system? Do you think just by placing a few taps you can access any data? For accessing data, you need to place queries, and queries need explicit search parameters, how do you suppose that can be achieved?

...

the best of technology companies like Apple, Palm and a few Russian (who pioneered it) companies have tried and failed miserably.

So WHAT? Even the GNU people were unable to create a kernel for

their

system until a University student from Finland came along ...

Again, Sameer, have you ever thought about how handwritting recognition works? Have you thought or tried to code a handwriting recognition interface? Do you know how difficult it is? Or rather do you know a simple character like "A" can be written in more styles than one by multiple people with different personality types? That "A" is just from the Roman script, have you thought the complexity of deciphering any of the Indian scripts (I would consider Devnagari to be the simplest).

...

Have you figured out the BOM of the Simputer?

I have to confess absolute ignorance in this regard!

Thats OK...

...

Once you are through with the above, tell me if its possible to

create

...

a "Simputer" (as the creators have envisaged)

People from the original Simputer team at IISc have established a commercial venture just to do that - called Picopeta something ...

Hmnn...

...

One of the best projects in India??

Reminds me of the fact that India was the first country in the world

to use

satellite communication for mass rural education, that too when

India

didn't even have a single communcitation satellite of her own ...

I think that what the IISc people are trying to do is to turn the

concept

of a "computer" on its head. They are trying to use technology to

help

people in a way comfortable to them - this is a place where we have

to keep

back all our presumptions about human-computer interaction based on

the PC.

Think of it as an interactive TV set if you want, designed to

disperse

informatin rather than handle complex computing tasks.

Now what do _you_ think is the concept of a "computer"?

As you mentioned that "They are trying to use technology to help people in a way comfortable to them", that is exactly what _Human Computer Interaction_ is all about... So we cannot keep back all our presumptions about Human Computer Interaction...

I had always hoped to get close to the Simputer project if I had

been able

to get into the IISc for my post-graduation; but I guess that won't

be

happening now!

If you hoped to get to IISc, well thats good, thats a neat place with lot of facilities... But if you hoped to get close to the Simputer project, forget it, its not worth it... Just a bunch of techies don't make great computing devices, for that you need to have experts on HCI and somebody with a clear vision about what is to be done.

Warm Regards,

~Mayuresh