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To better serve
poor it has
> A Touch Screen - Locally recognized symbols and pictures may be used to guide inputs by non-sophisticated people
> Text-to-Audio Synthesizer - No need for user to be able to read. The text is converted to sound and messages are spoken out loud
> Smart Card - Since $200 is too expensive for many, smart card has been added to enable several people to share one Simputer
Here are 2 examples of how Simputer can empower poor:
> Farmers - It enables them to check on current market prices for their produce, thus placing them in a better bargaining position
> Health Care Workers - Those at remote locations can easily look up medical information
The Simputer technology is available for licensing to individuals and organizations in other poor countries, in addition to India. For more information, see http://www.simputer.org.
Future Needs
The Simputer is a good beginning. However, there are 2 main problems with it:
1 - Requires Telephone Line - In many poor countries this is a big obstacle because of an unavailable, flawed, or expensive telephone system. We need a way to use wireless to connect to Internet
2 - Too Expensive - At $200 it is too expensive. The smart card helps. But we need a much cheaper device. I think a device as good as Simputer, but with wireless access could be sold for less than $50.
We need not confine ourselves to computers. Helping increase Internet access may be a good philosophy to follow for other products and services.
Let's use our imagination, not to build toys for rich, but to enable world's poor to live a better life. This will bring both political and economic dividends to us all.
