The Hindu Business Line : Intel outside!

The Intel Asia Academic Forum 2007 showcased, alongside various entrepreneurial projects, technology initiatiaves that have been in the news, and that seek to make life easier for the disabled.

eWorld chatted up the people behind two such initiatives.

Tarun Janardhan Siripurapu from the Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata, presented, at the Intel forum, “a computer platform that enables the visually challenged to use computers.”

There are three interface technologies that the product is based on — speech, touch and gestures. The platform is built around a user interface that utilises audio as well as haptic (sense of touch) feedback.

“With our product, users can now hear and feel their way around a computer. The Internet is a key part of our product offering,” Tarun told eWorld.

Feedback and response

The product’s standard hardware offering is a personal computer, a pair of speakers and a special computer mouse with tactile (vibrating) feedback. A display will be provided optionally.

The software is a Linux-based operating system with a core set of programs, such as an e-mail client, an instant messaging client, music player and an Internet browser — all designed ground-up.

The user interacts with the computer through a mouse and a keyboard. The keyboard is used like a normal keyboard, and the user can adapt to it with some practice, says Tarun.

The mouse is used in two ways to provide input. The first way is how one normally uses a computer mouse to navigate a two-dimensional screen.

The second method is through ‘gestures’ — the system recognises movements of the mouse while a key is pressed and the movements are thus used as commands. The system provides feedback to the user through audio via speakers as well as touch via the mouse. The audio feedback is used to provide audio cues to help the user navigate the interface in addition to reading out required information on the screen.

“One of our general design principles is to output maximum information in minimum speech and our interface will output speech only when necessary,” says Tarun.

“We will offer free as well as paid support and training to our users,” he adds.

Marketing the product is essential and Tarun says, “In India, our strategy will be a push through government and educational institutions in order to reach our end user.”

Special touch

Rohit Singhal and Soumyajit Dey with their offering.

Sparsha Systems has been much in the news. Developed by Rohit Singhal and Soumyajit Dey from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, it can help people with single or multiple disabilities, such as speech, visual, or hearing impairments.

It builds tools for improved communication in English and Indian regional languages. It is proposed to be a start-up business, headquartered at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur.

The product, Sanyog, comprises three interfaces: Iconic Communication, Pre-stored Message-based Communication, and a Soft Keyboard for Message Composition.

Singhal and Dey told eWorld that the interfaces are speech-enabled, with support for Indian regional languages. The system can be extended to incorporate new languages for output. Sanyog is being made available in both the desktop and hand-held platforms.

The product has been officially tested and endorsed by the Indian Institute of Cerebral Palsy (IICP), Kolkata.

A desktop-version of the system has already been implemented in the Java programming language.

Research and development are currently on to develop a hand-held-version of Sanyog on a low-cost PDA, such as the Simputer by Encore Software, Bangalore, they say.

The handheld-version Sparsha Systems: Business Plan, 2007 will soon be ready for use. Sparsha was judged the winner of India Innovation Pioneers Challenge (IIPC) 2006-07.

Teaming up with reputed hospitals for the disabled, such as NIMHANS, Bangalore and the National Institute for the Orthopaedically Handicapped (NIOH), Kolkata, will help.

A partnership agreement with NIMHANS is currently being worked out.

“It is proposed to sell at least 20 desktop versions and 20 hand-held-versions per year at the hospitals,”say Singhal and Dey.

paromita@thehindu.co.in

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