Simputer Technology

By Rohit shinde 2mm08ec033

1.

Introduction

Simputer is a multilingual mass access low cost hand held device currently being developed. The information mark up language is the primary format of the content accessed by the Simputer. The information mark up language (IML) has been created to provide a uniform experience to users and to allow rapid development of solution on any platform. The Simputer proves that illiteracy is no longer a barrier in handling a computer. The Simputer through its smart card feature allows for personal information management at the individual level for a unlimited number of users. Applications in diverse sectors can be made possible at an affordable price A rapid growth of knowledge can only happen in an environment which admits free exchange of thought of information. Indeed, nothing else can explain the astounding progress of science in the last three hundred years. Technology has unfortunately not seen this freedom two often. The common mistake of treating to-operation as a synonym of charity poses its own challenges.

2. What Is Simputer?
A Simputer is a multilingual, mass access, low cost, portable alternative to PC's by which the benefits of IT can reach the common man. It has a special role in the third world because it is ensures that illiteracy is no longer barrier in handling a computer. The key to bridging the digital divide is to have shared devices that permit truly simple and natural users interfaces based on sight, touch and studio. The Simputer meets these demands through a browser for the Information Markup Language (IML). IML has been created to provide a uniform experience to users to allow rapid development of solutions on any platform

3.Features
It is portable A (320 X 240) LCD Panel which is touch enabled A speaker, microphone and a few keys A soft keyboard A stylus is a pointing device Smart card reader in Simputer The use of extensive audio in the form of text to speech and audio snippets

4.Kinds of Usages Available

Information access Computation Transaction processing Internet access

5.What Makes Simputer Different From Regular PCs?

Simputer is not a personal computer. It could however be a pocket computer. It is much more powerful than a Palm, with screen size 320 x 240 and memory capability (32MB RAM).

The Wintel (Windows + Intel) architecture of the de facto standard PC is quite unsuitable for deployment on the low cost mass market. The entry barrier due to software licensing is just too high. While the Wintel PC provides a de facto level f standardization, it is not an open architecture.

 The Simputer mean while is centered around Linux which is freely available, open and modular

6.Block Diagram Of Simputer

7.Specifications of Simputer HARDWARE

CPU 32 bit 32MB of DRAM 24MB flash for permanent storage

INTERFACES
Touch panel overlay on LCD Display used with a plastic stylus (pen) Speaker, Microphone, MIC jacks, Smart card connector RJ-II telephone jack

 USB connector

DIMENSIONS Approximately 8cm x 13cm x 2cm Power supply 3AAA sized batteries SYSTEM SOFTWARE
Operating system : Linux Software modem Perl/TK scripting environment

APPLICATION SOFTWARE
IML Browser Tap-a-Tap: input method Internet access Dhvani: Text to speech software MP3 player

8.Requirements for Simputer Markup

The requirement of the Markup Language is to serve as the information content vehicle for the simputer Simplicity Open standard Accessible to devices of all kinds on the internet Ability to interoperate with HTML and WML

9.Special Features
Uniformity across diverse applications Easy of used Support for multilingual text and speech output Support for Smartcard usage Transparent access to remote/local resources

10.Applications
Simputer acts as an ideal mobile platform for secure micro banking. Several small co-operative banks in Maharashtra are already providing services to rural clients at their doorsteps by using a small portable device with a transaction printer. These devices have several shortcomings which can be overcome by suing a simputer instead Simputer will have a major use in data collection. Organizations that collect large volumes of data such as the National sample survey organization, etc will find use for the system. The simputer will collect various forms of data and then pass it on to a central repository for further processing. Internet access is the other obvious application.

11.Conclusion
Simputer holds promise for bringing low cost computing to poor countries. Given the high illiteracy rates in developing countries, the devices uses image and sound as primary outputs and touch as its primary input. It employs Unicode and so it support multilingual text along with text to speech capabilities.

 Developers said the simputer is somewhere between a personal digital assistant and a PC given its power, storage capacity, display size and smart card based connectivity. The production began in March 2001 the final product is available on the market on the end of 2002

12.References
http://www.simputer.org http://www.econimictimes.com http://www.siliconindia.com http://www.seminarsonly.com The Hindustan Times 12th December 2000 The Hindu 22nd July, 2001