CLEVERTEXTING: A PRO PROPOSAL FOR ENHANCED CELL PHONE REUSABILITY

ITU GREEN APPLICATIO CHALLENGE APPLICATION

BY: CHRISTIAAN WIEBOLS LUNA ERGONOMICS TUESDAY, JULY 12, 2011 DELHI, INDIA
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
With 50 million tones of e-waste generated each year, the impact it is having on the environment is now considerable and sustainable solutions are in dire need. The contamination which is being caused by cell phones is not to be underestimated. Even though they are among the smallest pieces of electronic equipment used by people, they are owned by a large numbers of people and have an average lifetime of only 18 months. Fast-changing trends and other psychological/social factors encourage the quick replacement of these handsets. With less than ten percent of cell phones being recycled, the great majority of these end up in landfills causing irreparable damage to the ground and the people around who depend on it. A close look into the cell phone lifecycle gives important clues as to which are the phases and processes which lead to the greatest ecological burden. Extending the life cycle of cell phones can have a considerable positive impact on the environment. Extending the lifetime of the product implies less phones being manufactured, as either the user will be utilizing his handset for a longer period of time or the handset will be transferred to another person who will not have to buy a new phone. Efforts for extending the life time of cell phones are existent but still limited. Organizations such as Recellular buy and sell used cell phones in massive amounts. Reallocating these cell phones to other countries is very complicated issue as many of them use different keypads which correspond to their specific languages script, therefore rendering these cell phones almost futile in these countries. Organizations which would be willing to sell their phones to other countries for profit will have a hard time allocating these used cell phones because of this issue. CleverTexting is a cell phone application which has been developed to allow the user to type in whichever language he or she pleases without having to rely on the printed characters on the keypad. By providing this utility, the process of reallocating reusable cell phones will become more seamless, especially for cell phones which are being exported countries with dissimilar languages and scripts. By doing so, CleverTexting will be contributing to the increment of the lifespan of cell phones and by going so, encourage cell phone recycling and decrease the amount of cell phones being produced.

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CONTENTS
Executive Summary .............................................................................................. ii Introduction: ICTs, sustainability and the CleverTexting solution ....................... 1 Cell phones and society ....................................................................................... 2 Cell phones and their environmental impact....................................................... 3 A look into the cell phone lifecycle ...................................................................... 5 Materials extraction and processing ................................................................ 5 Cell phone manufacturing, packaging and transportation .......................... 5 Useful life ..................................................................................................... 6 End of Life: what happens next? .................................................................. 6 The CleverTexting solution................................................................................... 7 What is CleverTexting?..................................................................................... 7 The advantages of CleverTexting ..................................................................... 8 What can CleverTexting do for the environment?........................................... 9 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 9 Works Cited ........................................................................................................ 10 Platforms ............................................................................................................ 14 Versatility ........................................................................................................... 14 Products ............................................................................................................. 15 Functionalities .................................................................................................... 15 Accessibility ........................................................................................................ 16

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INTRODUCTION: ICTS, SUSTAINABILITY AND THE CLEVERTEXTING SOLUTION

Over the past century, electronic devices and appliances have revolutionized our lifestyles, shaping individual habits as much as collective trends. Institutions such as communications, religion, and education have acquired new and more efficient means of fulfilling their purposes. Mobile phones, in particular, have allowed for a relatively affordable means of telecommunications. Since the inception of the first cell phone in 1978, the number of cell phone users reached 4.1 billion users in 2009, up from 1 billion in 2002. Africa alone has witnessed a dramatic increase in cell phone users from 2% in the year 2000 to 28% in 2009. Fixed telephones have been by far surpassed by the boom in mobile telephones. (Tryhorn, 2009). Our dependency for these so called ICT (Information and Communications Technology) has enlightened society in many aspects. However, deregulated overproduction of certain electronics devices has begun to take a toll on the environment. Massive efforts are already taking place in to tackle problems regarding eco-friendliness and sustainability. A report by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) suggests that a more efficient and effective use of ICTs could help reduce the total global greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 15% by 2020 (Eclac, 2011). As the ICTs cover many different types of technologies which require resources from all over the world, the amount of organization and regulation which will be required to fight this battle is very large. A prominent percentage of the pollution and toxics which are being released by ICTs come directly from the inappropriate manufacture, use, and disposal of cell phones. With an estimated 8000 tones of cell phone waste on Earth by 2012, the need for a more efficient waste management system is become more important. The problem is not the mobile phones themselves, but the effect the materials and

processes which are used to create these have on nature. A portion of the problem lies in the short lifetime of cell phones. A study done by the International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment suggests that an extension of the lifetime of cell phones from one to four years would decrease the all round environmental impact by 40%. (Emmenegger, 2006). Part of extending the lifetime of cell phones is making used cell phones from developed countries more accessible and easily introducible to developing countries. One of the main problems with this is the keypads on cell phones do not support the regional languages of the countries they have been exported to. Users are thus inhibited from storing contacts on their cell phones and sending SMS which is something that is disadvantageous for both the telephone operators and their users. Forcing people to have to transliterate their messages (i.e. write Hindi, for example, in English characters) is detrimental for peoples communication as they are forced to express themselves in scripts that do not correspond to their language. Luna Ergonomics, a company based in Delhi, India, has developed a technology which allows for typing in many languages of the world. It provides the user with a virtual keypad on the screen of the cell phone, allowing the user to type in his/her own languages script. The predictive technology embedded within this application changes the order of the letters provided on the screen to reduce the users efforts of finding his or her desired character. It is easily installable in a wide variety of cell phones from different brands and platforms. This application can have a positive impact on the reusability of cell phones, allowing for example, a cell phone with a Russian keypad to be used in Somalia. In this report, the main environmental problems regarding ICTs and cell phones will be discussed, followed by an in depth look into the cell phone life cycle and a discussion of how this is affecting the environment. After, mobile phones and their impact on society will be discussed and then the 1|P a g e

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CleverTexting app and its potential of providing an improvement into the recycling and reusing phases of the cell phones.

CELL PHONES AND SOCIETY

The frenzy for mobile phones and their additional services does not seem to be settling down any time soon. With the number of cell phones hitting almost 5 billion (The Associated Press, 2010), many people are experienced instant and cheap telecommunication for the first time in their lives, 30 years after the inception of this technology. The benign effects cell phones have had on society are numerous. A publication done by the Pew Research Center Publications, measured that 74% of mobile phone users have gained help in emergency situations. Most cell phones being built nowadays are equipped with GPS technology have internet connection which allows them to obtain information in a more efficient manner. Modern cell phones allow for social networking and for other features such as emailing and internet surfing in a single handset. Cell phones, nevertheless, are also having detrimental impacts on society. Further studies by the same company concluded that about 28% of cell phone users talk on their cell phones while they are driving. Additionally, around 50% of the people have been vexed one way or another by people using their cell phones in a loud or inappropriate manner. A study by Sahlgren's Academy in Gothenburg, Sweden, showed that teens with excessive cell phone habits, exhibit chronic restlessness, a reliance on stimulating drinks, difficulty falling asleep at night, disrupted sleep and an inclination towards fatigue and sleep. (Write, 2010) Even in a psychological level, cell phones have an influence on the way people interact. Research done by Dr. Sadie Plant, commissioned by On the Mobile, showed that cell phones were much more than just a means of telecommunication. The research determined that a cell phone serves to empower people to do much more, including business and

social-related activities. Research gave evidence that suggested that males are becoming far more chatty and communicative as a result of cell phone use. (cellular-news, 2001). The study suggested that cell phones served men exercise their status symbol, using it to exert their dominance over other men and impress women. The study even suggested teenagers who have been exposed to texting their wholes lives, tended to use their thumbs more often such as for ringing doorbells. (cellular-news, 2001). Irrefutably, cell phones have had and will continue having a massive impact on our lives, whether we like it or not. Whether serving to reflect natural status symbols, to express personalities, or change simple habits, these pieces of technology have revolutionized the way we live our lives. One aspect of cell phone usage is of particular interest in this report; that is messaging. An SMS (Short Message System) is an inexpensive means of sending a message instantly from one cell phone to another. It is usually preferred over calls when the user is not allowed to speak or when written communication is preferred over oral communication. Current technology such as BlackBerry messenger and PING, allows for unlimited chatting with people from any part of the world for the monthly internet connection fee. As most phones are equipped with Wi-Fi technologies and can connect to wireless networks, chatting is virtually unlimited and can be done from almost everywhere in developed countries. In 2010, it was estimated that a total of 7 trillion text messages were going to be sent. Assuming that each cell phone costs a conservative 0.05 USD, the total revenues due to SMS use would be around 350 billion USD. (DhTech.com, 2011) SMS are being used for subscriptions, for voting in TV shows, and even for governmental purposes. A particular setback which has proliferated due to chatting is the damage on languages and the way people spell certain words. SMS users have created new words from abbreviations to keep their messages short and simple. This so called Txtspk, according to The Guardian, has been blamed for 2|P a g e

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damaging the English language and even affecting literacy levels. (Roberts, 2010) It is true however, that texting itself does contribute to greater language development for children and teenagers. Even more importantly, standardized (international) keypads and keyboards on cell phones do not allow the user to write in special characters if he comes from a different language; let alone type in the users native languages script. The person texting will tend omit special characters such as letters with umlauts and dieresis just to accommodate himself to the cell phone. Naturally, the user will get accustomed to writing these words as he writes them on his keypad or keyboard. When the user texting language uses a different script than the one printed on the keypad or keyboard, the user has to resort to transliteration. This entails writing phonetic representations of your language with the keyboard characters. This form of writing has been widely adopted in many countries, including developed regions such as Israel or in countries where European colonies had a strong presence such as India. Arab countries have adapted this method too. In India, for example, there are 600 million cell phone users and only 90 million know English. The balance of 510 million people is hence unable to send SMS, let alone use other value adding services such as app stores. Growing up in a technology oriented world, a young teen will get used to typing in transliterated Russian, for instance. After years of use, this young man will probably not forget how to write in Russian characters, but not feel as comfortable as his parents were when they were his age. Naturally, he will say that it is not a problem, that he doesnt need the script. The teen has been forced not only to learn a new way of writing, but also has been deprived of a proper inculcation of his own language, and all due to the inexistence of a keyboard which supports his own script. It is important to note that the loss of the language is a heavy loss not only for the peoples cultural heritage, but also from a linguistic perspective.

Language is not only a means of expression of ideas, it contains a plethora of information about the history of language creation and how languages evolve and are developed. Certain languages contain particular manners in which they express themselves which are far more efficient than the most widely used languages nowadays. A lot of software has already been developed which allows people to type or text in their own languages, but the international keyboard and ASCII characters have already been institutionalized, the damage has already been done. A young adult will have a hard time getting used to texting and typing in his own script after a decade of writing in transliteration. In later sections, CleverTextings potential solution for this problem will be discussed.

CELL PHONES AND THEIR ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT

Globalization has lead to a greater demand for telecommunication devices such as broadcast media, network based controls and all types of audio and video processing. These so called ICTs have become a crucial medium for the development of other institutions such as education and the preservation of people culture. However, these technologies have begun to take a toll on the environment. An article by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency analyzed that there were around 235 million units of desktop computers, computer monitors, laptops, televisions, and hard copy peripheral had been accumulated in storage as of 2007. The same article stated that only 18% of the television, cell phones and computer products ready for End-of-Life Management had been recycled. The numbers for these recycling rates do not seem to be increasing as they have remained the same for the upcoming years. Cell phone waste, which is the subject of greater interest for this report, has had a recycling rate of a measly 10% over the past decades, meaning that 90% of the cell phones which are disposed of end up in landfills and become toxic for

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Source: The Secret Life Series

the soil or surroundings on which they have been left or buried. By analyzing the leachate which result from cell phones in landfills, it can be measured which elements are present and how hazardous these are for the environment. A study showed that lead in the leachate was high enough to make cell phones classify as hazardous waste under Federal regulations. (Science Daily, 2007). The same study claimed that even lead-free cell phones are considered hazardous because of the high amount of other toxic elements found in the leachate including arsenic, copper, nickel, antimony and zinc. Assuming that there are around 500 million cell phones in landfills, around 300,000 pounds of lead will be released to the soil. Furthermore, Cadmium, one of the major components of batteries, is a human carcinogen and can cause live and lung damage. Other battery components such as lithium and toxic lead are potentially explosive. (Earth911) As depicted in the figure above, the materials required to manufacture a cell phone have to be obtained from places located all over the world. Although it is heart-warming to think that creating a mobile phone is global effort, the reality is that all these places are being negatively impacted by the production of cell phones. Packaging and transportation of the raw resources, components

and the final product may require crude oil (plastics), trees (paper), and ore (aluminum), all of which result in waste. When analyzing the impact cell phones are having on the environment, it is important to take into account all the energy which is also required to extract these metals from Earth and to produce the final product. For instance, the manufacturing of circuit boards requires crude oil as well as raw materials such as gold, copper, nickel, zinc, beryllium, tantalum, and coltan, most of which are hazardous for the environment if they are left in landfills. In addition to this, one has to look at the impact the production of circuit boards has during the manufacturing face. An estimate done with data from the United States Geological Survey approximates that about 220 pounds of waste are need for the production of a single cell phone circuit. (Mooallem, 2008) Also, it is estimated that in order to produce one ton of gold, 300,000 tones of ore are required to be extracted and processed for it to be suitable for commercial use. (Brown, 2001). Similarly, it is important to look at the hazardous emissions which take place during the transportation phase of the cell phone as well as all the energy which is required to power the cell phone during its lifecycle. All the processes of extracting, processing, manufacturing and transporting cell phones mostly 4|P a g e

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powered by coal, which not only also has to be mined from Earth, but it releases heavy amounts of carbon dioxide once it is consumed.

A LOOK INTO THE CELL PHONE LIFECYCLE

Now that the magnitude of the environmental impact cell phone dumping is having on Earth, i is ne it important to understand the cell phone lifecycle in order to get a grasp on what multidisciplinary and international efforts are required to design, manufacture, and transport, use and d dispose of a cell phone. By acquiring this understanding, it will be easier to comprehend where the inefficiencies are present and ultimately, how CleverTexting can contribute to the recycling and reusing of cell phones. The figure below shows the cell pon pone lifecycle which will be described subsequently.

beryllium, tantalum and coltan. A typical cell phone consists of 40% metals, 40% plastics and 20% ceramics and trace metals. Nickel-metal hydride (NiNickel MH) and nickel-cadmium (Ni-Ca) batteries contain Ca) nickel, cobalt, zinc, cadmium and copper while Li-Ion t, Li batteries use lithium metallic oxide and carbonthium carbon based materials. (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) To excavate these minerals from the Earths crust, heavy machinery has to dig deep holes, extract these inery minerals, and then send them to their respective th smeltering facilities, from where they can be further processed. This is where they enter the Materials Processing phase. The purpose of Materials Processing phase is to change the chemical or physical composition of these substances to make them ready to be used e directly for the manufacturing of the final product. For example, before copper can be used for the circuit boards, it has to be heated and treated with chemicals and electricity to make the pure metal (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) For gold, a process known as cyanide heap leaching is used to remove the pieces of gold from the rest of the ore.

MATERIALS EXTRACTION AND PROCESSING

The Materials Extraction phase encompasses all processes to acquire the materials needed to build a cell phone, including copper, gold, lead, n nickel, zinc

CELL PHONE MANUFACTURING, RING, PACKAGING AND TRANSPORTATION ORTATION

During the Manufacturing Phase, the materials Phase which were extracted in earlier phases are combined to create individual components of the cell phones like circuit boards, LCD screens and keypads. The materials used to create these components can either be directly inserted in their raw state or they can be utilized after being processed. For the circuit board, for instance, fiberglass and plastics are used in a refined state to create the circuit board (fiberglass which is already produced by crude oil and limestone). Raw materials such as copper and gold are used to create the wiring and the coating of the circuit board respectively. To create the LCDs, liquid crystals are used. After the individual components have been manufactured, they are assembled together. 5|P a g e

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Somewhere before the manufacturing phase, there is a stage of design and research & development. The general philosophy of mobile design still remains planned obsolescence. This holds that cell phone manufacturers design their mobile phones in such a way that they become obsolete over a predetermined period of time so that the user is encouraged to purchase the newer version of the phone. The average lifespan of a cell phone is therefore somewhere between 18 and 24 months. (Choney, 2009) This philosophy does not only apply for the cell phone itself, but also for other essential components such as the battery, chargers, headphones and any other accessory. Another particular aspect of interest about the design of cell phones is the fact they are rarely fully redesigned; they are mostly tweaked. These tweaks are small changes in the cell phones software or hardware which are not necessarily very significant. Redesigning a new cell phone from scratch can take up to two years, while tweaking the cell phone can take up to four months. By tweaking rather than redesigning, the cell phone manufacturers are allowed to save on costs whilst giving their product a fresh look and model number which in turn entices the market to buy their product. This ideal combined with planned obsolescence keeps the replacement rate of cell phones high. During the Packaging and Transportation phase, the cell phones are packaged to be protected and they are sent to their final destinations to be sold. The primary forms of transport include trucks, trains and airplanes.

developed regions such as India and Middle East, it is more common to purchase a cell phone separately and have a prepaid account in which they pay for their call credit before using it. Operators play an important role in determining how the Useful Life of the mobile phone will play out. Depending on the type of contract between the operator and the user, the user will be incentivized to get rid of the handheld at the end of the contract term and purchase a new phone with one of the many attractive (and sometimes deceiving) cell phone deals and offers. In certain cases, the mobile phone operator will sign deals with cell phone manufacturers which give the operator exclusive rights over selling the handset, such as AT&T and the iPhone. Other members which play a role in this phase are phone and repair shops. Phone shops might provide incentives to the market of buying different (perhaps greener) cell phones and lower prices or provide the community with refurbished second hand products. Repair shops play a role in extending the useful lifetime of cell phones as well.

END OF LIFE: WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

The End of Life Phase is the period which will determine where the cell phone will end up and what impact it will have on the environment. For clarity purposes, the End of Life of a cell phone occurs when the user has decided to stop using his cell phone. The cell phone can be reused and reach End of Life many times. There are three main things which can happen to a cell phone once it has reached its End of Life: the phone is recycled, disposed of, or reused.

USEFUL LIFE
The Useful Life phase encompasses the roll of the operator, as well as the user and any middlemen such as repairers and cell phone shops. In the United States and Western European countries, it is common for people to sign a contract with the mobile phone operator in which the user promises to pay a certain monthly sum in return for some perks such as the free handset. In less

RECYCLED
When the phone is recycled, it can either be taken apart to a component level such as circuit board, antenna, and battery and or it can be decomposed to a material level, where copper and plastic for example are extracted and processed once again so

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they can be reused to build other products. Stainless steel products, for example, can be built from recycled reusable batteries. (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) Recycling cell phones eases the impact of cell phones on the environment. By allowing the raw materials to be reused and reprocessed in a contained and controlled environment, toxics can be prevented from contaminating the ground. This results in a lower contamination rate per unit of raw material.

phone, Recellular is preventing that cell phone from ending up in the landfill and preventing the customer from buying another phone which will require many ecologically hazardous processes to be manufactured. Reusability also includes selling cell phones to third world countries. In Africa, for instance, 75% of all cell phones are second-hand. The Chinese, for instance, sell phones to India, Mongolia and Thailand; then Thailand sells these to other countries such as Vietnam, Malaysia and Laos. As many sell phones end up in developing countries with poor waste management system, even cell phones which were initially reused may end up in land fills polluting the ground.

DISPOSED
Cell phones which are trashed end up in landfills or incinerators, in both occasions it results in toxic waste and an opportunity cost of all the recycling and resources which could be extracted from these cell phones. Legislation has taken an important role in reducing the amount of inappropriate cell phone disposal. In February 2003, the WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) and RoHS Directive became a law which required all electronic and electric equipment manufactures to collect, treat and recycle their products. In the United States, the Cell Phone Recycling Act, which requires the retailer to take back the phone at no cost for the customer, was passed in several states.

THE CLEVERTEXTING SOLUTION

In 2007, Abhijit Bhattacharjee, a former telecommunications engineer from the Indian Army, founded Luna Ergonomics, the company which would be responsible for the development of CleverTexting technology. Having lived his entire life in India and having witnessed the desperate need of suitable software to allow people to write in their regional languages in India, he seized the opportunity to provide the Indian populace with a true value-adding utility.

WHAT IS CLEVERTEXTING? REUSED

By reusing the cell phone, it is implied that the handset will not be taken apart. Reusability encompasses many possible actions by third parties, including selling these phones to third world countries for a profit, providing fund-raising opportunities, or having the user give his old cell phone to a family member. As cell phones are the most valuable source of ewaste, numerous organizations have already set up shop, selling used cell phones to developing countries or needy people. Recellular, the worlds leader in cell phone reusing, buys and sells used cell phones. By providing a customer with a used cell CleverTexting is a mobile phone technology developed with the purpose of aiding people in texting in their regional languages without having to resort to transliteration, thus being independent from the characters printed on the keypad of the cell phone. This app provides the user with a virtual keypad on the screen, where each letter on the virtual keypad corresponds to a key on the physical keypad. The virtual keypads characters are arranged in such a way that the most commonly used characters are placed as comfortably as possible for the users thumb. Every time a letter is pressed, the predictive

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technology called Statistical Prediction will predict which letters are most likely to come after and will rearrange the letters on the virtual screen so that the most likely letter to come after is placed as closely as ed possible to your thumb. Statistical Prediction, as the name suggests, is prediction based on the statistical nature of languages and not on the dictionary. It is based on linguistic nuances which such as the common suffix -tion which appears in the ending of many words ppears in the English language. This technology has already gained popular recognition both internationally and in India Luna India. Ergonomics won TiEcon 50 under the category of mobile technologies; this is the largest Entrepreneurial conference in the world and it takes ial place every year in Silicon Valley. (TieCON) Further accomplishments include reaching the 15 finalists in the Microsoft BizSpark startup competition in India and winner of Economic Times- Power of Ideas 2009. The Ergonomist Society from the UK called it the first ergonomic keypad in the world. (Hutson)

correctly and in their proper script. This app supports and predicts special characters such as in Spanish or the in Portuguese, hence promoting the usage of this characters and therefore racters contributing to the language development of the user. In fact, all languages which use the Latin alphabet and African Reference Alphabet (except English) make use of accents. More importantly even is the fact that CleverTexting allows the user to write in his languages script. This has monumental consequences on the development of the users language abilities, especially when the person is young. This permits the user to avoid transliteration, which is basically entails having to learn a completely lea foreign script and method of writing. gn From a business perspective, this app is advantageous since it allows the user to make use of certain cell phone features that would not be available otherwise. A simple SMS would not be possible for an average cell phone user with printed characters on the keyboard. As a matter of fact, 3 out of 5 people in India have never sent an SMS before. (International Telecommunications Union, 2011) In addition to this, even storing a simple number on the address book would be a daunting task for a person who has not learned to transliterate. Without being able to send SMS and without being able to call people, the regional operators will consequently suffer. CleverTexting is a product which is based on linguistics which is analyzed through large sizes of text of that particular language called corpora. Since corpora all languages have a certain statistical phenomenon to them which is accurately captured by linguistics, linguistics CleverTexting can be developed for all languages of the world. This can definitely have a profound effect in the conservation of microlanguages allow over the world. The product has already been released for the following international languages: English, Spanish, English Arabic, Portuguese, French, Swahili, Hebrew, Finnish, Thai, Russian, and the following Indian languages: Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Gujarati, and Punjabi.

THE ADVANTAGES OF CLEVERTEXTING EVERTEXTING

An important advantage of this app is its accessibility. A one week trial version is available and rsion the full version can be purchased for only 3 USD for lifetime use. It can be obtained from all large app retail stores, including Apple Store, Nokia Ovi Store, GetJar, the companys website, and many more. This app can be easily installed in any cell phone which alled supports Java and in any smartphone of any operating system including Android, Windows OS, and iPhone. The app is therefore available for most . cell phones in the world, both smartphones and simple phones. Another substantial advantage of this technology is that it encourages people to write their language 8|P a g e

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The last noteworthy advantage CleverTexting has to offer is its usability. As this software changes the order of the letters in the keyboard in order to place the most likely upcoming letter as closely as possible to the users thumb, it allows for faster and more seamless typing for people from all ages, size, and backgrounds. The user no longer has to have years of experience in multitapping in order to get a single letter down nor is the user required to be proficient in QWERTY keyboards. The large, illuminated keyboard is easy to read and understand and the multiple modes satisfy the needs and taste of any user.

CleverTexting will resolve any issue between the users language and the language printed on the cell phones keyboard. CleverTexting will satisfy the needs of the end user by allowing him to send messages or emails with his or her own language and without having to resort to transliterating to get a simple message across. This satisfaction will then lead to longer use of the cell phone and of course, less impact on the environment.

CONCLUSION
CleverTexting offers a simple, accessible, and easily implementable solution to the problem of keyboard incompatibility for developing countries which receive second hand phones from developed countries. This application tackles this issue by incrementing both the demand for recycled phones and by increasing the supply of phones which are being reused and therefore extending the lifetime of a cell phone. The application is easy to use for people from all sizes, backgrounds and more importantly, languages, which is the main issue when dealing with cell phone keyboard compatibility. It is evident that cell phones have had a profound impact on our lifestyles, from the way society stays connected or attending to emergencies and also even to providing means of self-empowering. Messaging, in particular, has become of increasing importance to society as evidenced by the 7 trillion SMS sent in 2010, which amounts to more than a 1000 messages sent per person, per year. It is important to realize however, that cell phones and messaging are having negative implications in society, one of them which includes the necessity of having to transliterate ones language in order for messages to be compatible with the cell phones keypad or keyboard. Overproduction and improper administration of cell phones waste has lead to new worries about the impact cell phone are having on the environment. At the present time, only 10% of cell phones are 9|P a g e

WHAT CAN CLEVERTEXTING DO FOR THE ENVIRONMENT?

The most important topic of this report is how CleverTexting can contribute to the diminishing of global warming. The answer is twofold. First, it will help increase the amount of phones which are being recycled and reused. This is based on the premise that CleverTexting will make the process of reusing phones more efficient and less bureaucratic. This, in turn, will increase the demand for phones which are at their End of Life and will lead to the promotion and greater incentives for people to hand in their used cell phones to the appropriate institution once they are done with it. As a result, the demand for cell phones will decrease as well as the contamination caused by the manufacturing of these. The second contribution is related to the lifetime of the cell phone. As stated in the Introduction, an extension of the lifetime of a cell phone from one year to four years could reduce the environmental impact by 40%. CleverTexting, by making the process of reusability more efficient, will increase the supply of used cell phones to developing countries and will thus extend the lifetime of more cell phones. The process of recycling cell phones will become more efficient due to CleverTexting because the processing of allocating cell phones to international developing countries more seamless, as

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CleverTexting: a proposal for enhanced cell phone reusability

properly recycled after their end-of life, the rest end up in landfill where their toxic elements pollute both the ground in which they are buried and the air when they are incinerated. With around 8000 tones of cell phones are expected to be found on Earth by 2012, immediate measures are required to restrain this equipment from continuing to harm our fragile ecosystem. It is of upmost importance to analyze the cell phone lifecycle to be able to comprehend how the production, use and disposal of the handset can affect the environment. Collecting the resources, as well as manufacturing the product is very resource and energy-intensive, leaving scars on the Earths ecosystem. At the End of Life of the cell phones, the handset can be discarded, reused, or recycled. It is in the reused and recycled phases where CleverTexting can come into play, as the software can be easily implemented into the cell phone during the manufacturing and useful life phase. CleverTexting is an app which can be easily applied to all cell phones of the world. It accessibility knows no physical or linguistic boundaries since the software can be installed into any cell phone of any platform and the underlying technology can be easily molded to adapt new languages, even from the most remote places on Earth. By reducing the allocation complexity of used cell phones during the reuse phase, CleverTexting will allow this process to become more seamless and therefore expedite and increase the number of recycled phones.

msnbc.com: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29258026/ns/techn ology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/t/plannedobsolescence-cell-phone-models/ DhTech.com. (2011, January 7). How many text messages were sent in 2010? Retrieved July 8, 2011, from DhTech.com: http://www.dhtech.com/howmany-text-messages-were-sent-in-2010/ Earth911. (n.d.). E-waste: Harmful Materials. Retrieved July 5, 2011, from Earth911: http://earth911.com/recycling/electronics/e-wasteharmful-materials/ Eclac. (2011). ICT and environment. Newsletter , 12. Emmenegger, M. F. (2006). Life Cycle Assessment of the Mobile Communication System UMTS: Towards Eco-Efficient Systems. International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment , 265-276. Hutson, S. (n.d.). Thumbs up to a new way of texting? Retrieved July 12, 2011, from Panini Keypad: http://www.paninikeypad.com/download/A1.pdf International Telecommunications Union. (2011, March). Thumbs of for clever texting. Retrieved July 12, 2011, from ITU News: http://www.itu.int/net/itunews/issues/2011/02/45. aspx Mooallem, J. (2008, January 8). The Afterlife of Cellphones. The New York Times , p. 6. Roberts, N. (2010, January 1). Mobile phones changed society, not just communication. Retrieved July 7, 2011, from guardian.co.uk: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/jan/01/ mobile-phones-changed-society Science Daily. (2007, April 6). Cell Phones Qualify as Hazardous Waste. Retrieved July 7, 2011, from Science Daily: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070 416092940.htm Science Daily. (n.d.). Science Daily. 10 | P a g e

WORKS CITED
Brown, L. R. (2001). Eco-Economy: Building an Economy for the Earth. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. cellular-news. (2001, October 16). Cell Phones Change Society. Retrieved July 7, 2011, from cellularnews: http://www.cellularnews.com/story/4845.php Choney, S. (2009, February 2). Planned obsolescence: cell phone models. Retrieved July 6, 2011, from

ITU Green ICT Application Challenge

CleverTexting: a proposal for enhanced cell phone reusability

Secret-Life. (n.d.). Environment. Retrieved July 5, 2011, from The Secret Life Series: http://www.secretlife.org/cell_environment.php#note1 The Associated Press. (2010, February 18). Number of Cell Phones Worldwide Hits 4.6B. Retrieved July 7, 2011, from CBS News: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/02/15/busin ess/main6209772.shtml TieCON. (n.d.). 2011 TiE50 Wireless/Mobile Winners. Retrieved July 8, 2011, from TiE50 Awards Program: http://www.tie50.net/TiE50Awards/2011_View_Win ners.asp?Vert=Mobile Tryhorn, C. (2009, March 3). Nice talking to you ... mobile phone use passes milestone. Retrieved July 4, 2011, from Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/mar/0 3/mobile-phones1 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (n.d.). The Life Cycle of a Cell Phone. Retrieved July 5, 2011, from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: http://www.epa.gov/osw/education/pdfs/lifecell.pdf U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (n.d.). Wastes - Resource Conservation - Common Wastes & Materials - eCycling . Retrieved July 5, 2011, from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/conserve/materials/ ecycling/manage.htm Write, H. (2010, September 28). Negative Effects of Cell Phones on Education. Retrieved July 7, 2011, from eHow: http://www.ehow.com/list_7176253_negativeeffects-cell-phones-education.html

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CLEVERTEXTING IMPLEMENTATION PLAN FOR SUSTAINABILITY

Completing and releasing a product is only a fraction of the effort which has to be made to have an impact on society, or in this case, the environment. It is important for the product to have a strong implementation plan, a scheme in which the most efficient way of introducing this product to the community and popularizing it has been analyzed. It is therefore crucial to look at the product from various points of view, including the lifecycle of cell phones and psychological and economical factors involved, to get a better understanding of how this technology can be introduced to society. Since this is a mobile phone application, the infrastructure required to install it on a cell phone is not too convoluted. All that is required is either a computer or cell phone with internet connection. There is no need for legal procedures; it only requires a single download which will last for the lifetime of the cell phone. Updates can be done automatically through internet connection free of charge. CleverTexting is a cell phones application which could be implemented in a number of ways. Of course, the user could download the app individually but it might very well be the case that the user who just bought a used phone in Laos will not have a proper internet connection nor the knowledge to be able to download this app himself. Therefore, there has to be a more structured way of making this application more available to the new user and not having to depend on his own resources to be able to make use of this utility. Taking a look at the Cell Phone lifecycle diagram, there are three viable points in which CleverTexting can be introduced. During the Manufacturing phase, CleverTexting could come preinstalled on the cell phone, meaning that it would be available for any person who buys the phone. This would be advantageous as no further transaction hassles or internet connection would be required for acquiring the application. Luna Ergonomics is already in contact with all major cell phone manufacturers of the world including Nokia, Apple, Samsung and more and they have all shown interest for the technology. Further efforts will be made to concretize the incorporation of this technology into their handsets. CleverTexting could also be implemented into cell phones during the Useful Life phase. This requires the user to individually purchase and download the app from any of the app stores. This is less than optimal for third world conditions as not everyone has direct access to internet or means of payment such as credit or debit card. However, it is crucial to allow this for the user as he will be able to choose whether he requires the product (as opposed to coming already installed in the cell phone) and allow him to choose which product to language and in what date. 12 | P a g e

ITU Green ICT Application Challenge

CleverTexting implementation plan for sustainability

During the Reuse phase, organizations or companies which collect phones and sell them or transport them to other countries of the world could install the applications at this point. For a low cost for the application, CleverTexting will allow for less bureaucracy as the allocation of cell phones based on their keypad language will no longer be an issue and it will make the whole process of transporting phones to developing countries more seamless. There are many websites such as recellular.com, flipswap.com, recycle.net, and recyclingforcharities.com, among many others, which provide these services. It is part of the implementation plan to get in contact with these institutions and propose to them to introduce this application into the cell phones they recycle. An important aspect about the implementation plan is the ease with which applications for new languages can be developed. As CleverTexting does not make use of dictionary words and only on linguistics, all which is required is to obtain text corpus in that specific language. Once this is done, the computers will analyze the linguistics within this specific language and will release a high quality product. It is therefore very easy to implement this technology to microlanguages, meaning that it well help people communicate in their regional languages without having to resort to transliteration with a foreign languages keyboard. As a positive side effect, CleverTexting will allow for the preservation of the language and cultural heritage of this specific region. Luna Ergonomics will make the appropriate business analysis and market research to determine which languages are in most need of a means for texting in their own script and will developed the software for. Dutch and Afrikaans are already in the agenda, as well as Korean and Thai has very recently been released. Furthermore, CleverTexting can prove to be a positive utility for other electronic equipment which is not cell phones. The software can be easily introduced into IPTV, STB, ATM, Touchscreen kiosks, gaming consoles and others. Luna Ergonomics will get in touch with the manufacturers of this electronic equipment and propose the incorporation of this technology into their products. For a minute cost, a touchscreen kiosk can have increased usability by allowing the user to insert text in his or her script obviating the need for transliteration. By having this software already installed in these apparatus, they can be easily sold to countries as the software can be easily changed to support other languages. Using the same logic as with cell phones, extending the lifetime of this machinery will reduce the ecological footprint considerably. Marketing is at the top of the priority list at the moment. As the software has already been developed and released to the public, it is important to target the people who need this the most. Public awareness campaigns such as showcasing this technology is international technology conferences, YouTube videos, forums, television and Facebook pages have been implemented and are still in effect. Other marketing strategies such as trial version products and magazine advertisements have been implemented but yield limited results. As the reach CleverTexting has to achieve is worldwide and resources are still scarce, a new marketing campaign to efficiently track potential users through smarter advertisement. Luna Ergonomics will focus it resources on more efficient means of marketing such as Facebook ads and Admob, which are better at linking the potential users through internet cache and history, in the case of Facebook, and app or mobile phone usage, in the case of Admob. CleverTexting popularity will facilitate and promote the reusability of cell phones and hence, decrease their ecological footprint.

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CLEVERTEXTING PICTURES AND SCREENSHOTS PICTURES SCREENSHO

PLATFORMS
These pictures and screenshots are intended to show the versatility and usability of CleverTexting. CleverTexting has already been released in all major platforms: including iPhone, Android, Windows Phone and any phone which supports Java.

(1) iPhone

(2) Android

(3) Windows Phone

(4) Java Phone

VERSATILITY
The true added value of CleverTexting is that any keypad can be used to write in whichever language the user pleases. The pic pictures on the bottom show how various input language keypad combination can be made avoiding hassles such as forcing the user to language-keypad transliterate or force the manufacturer to squeeze in the languages characters into the existent keypad. It also works on QWERT nsliterate QWERTY keypads.

(5) Gujarati with English Keypad

(6) Hindi with English QWERTY keyboard

(7) Hindi with Arabic Keypad

(8) Hebrew with Russian Keypad

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ITU Green ICT Application Challenge

CleverTexting pictures and screenshots

PRODUCTS
CleverTexting has been released in 19 languages; with Dutch, Afrikaans, Japanese and Chinese Mandarin being currently under development. The international languages are called the CleverTexting products (blue logo) while the Indian languages and Thai are CleverTexting called Panini Keypad products (green logo).

(9) Spanish

(10 French (10)

(11) Portuguese

(12) Russian

(13) Arabic

(14) Finnish

(15) Hebrew

(16) English

(17) Swahili

(18) Telugu

(19) Tamil

(20) Punjabi

(21) Marathi

(22) Malayalam

(23) Kannada

(24) Hindi

(25) Bengali

(26) Gujarati

(27) Thai

FUNCTIONALITIES
A series of CleverTexting functionalities have been implemented to suit the needs and tastes of users from all backgrounds an and preferences regarding keypads.

(28) Options Menu

(29) Different Keypad Modes

(30) Hand Modes )

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ITU Green ICT Application Challenge

CleverTexting pictures and screenshots

(28) shows the SMS and email functionality which can both be accessed very easily. The text can also be written on the textbo and textbox, then copy-pasted onto other applications such as social networking sites. (29) shows the different Modes which are intended to pasted fulfill the needs of any user. Each of them provide a different method of texting but with the same objective of aiding the u user type as fast and easily as possible in his or her languages original script. (30) shows how CleverTexting allows the user t write with his to right or left hand. (31) displays the landscape functionality of this application.

(31) Landscape Mode

ACCESSIBILITY
CleverTexting has already been released in all major app stores in the internet and is easily available for anyone to downloa All download. apps are also easily downloadable from www.clevertexting.com and www.paninikeypad.com, which is the official website of the product. The large number of app stores which have decided to sell CleverTexting suggests this software is being taken serio seriously by many retailers.

(32) iTunes

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ITU Green ICT Application Challenge

CleverTexting pictures and screenshots

(33) Opera

(34) Nokia Ovi Store

(35) Android Market

(37) Appia (36) Mobile 9

(38) GetJar

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