Post on 24-Jan-2016
590 UC Presentation – February 4th, 2003
Extreme UbiComp: Is UbiComp Relevant for the Rural Hinterlands of the Developing World?
Tapan S. Parikh
tapan@cs.washington.edu
Technical Problems for Rural Computing in India
Inconsistent Power
Inconsistent / Non-existent Connectivity
Low-Cost Devices
Appropriate Applications and Content
Value-centered Design
Localization - Local Language Support
Accessibility to Illiterate / Semi-literate Users
Technical Problems for Rural Computing in India
Inconsistent Power
Inconsistent / Non-existent Connectivity
Low-Cost Devices
Appropriate Applications and Content
Value-centered Design
Localization - Local Language Support
Accessibility to Illiterate / Semi-literate Users
At least the first five (if not all) are equally relevant for Ubiquitous Computing
Low-Cost Devices: Simputer
SIMPle compUTER (Simple, In-expensive Multi-lingual Peoples compUTER)
SGPL: Open Source Hardware License (has proved difficult in practice)
Low-Cost (also very difficult in practice, currently approx $200)
Accessible (TTS, working on Speech Recognition)
Multi-Lingual
Sturdy and Robust
Other Applications / Devices: VoIP
Connectivity Options in Rural India
WLL –Wireless in Local Loop (CDMA Radio) – • Approx 56 kbps shared amongst Local Village WAN / LAN• 25-40 km Radius
802.11 Wireless “Corridors”• Media Lab Asia and Govt. Ministry for ICT are implementing such a corridor between Kanpur and Lucknow• Spectrum recently opened by Telecom Regulatory Agencies
Satellite / VSAT
Cable / DSL – Reaching Tier I and II towns
Fiber-Optic Backbone – Being implemented by Reliance Infocom
Dial-up – Painfully slow due to bad copper wire, outdated exchanges, overloaded hubs, and fly-by-night ISPs
Accessibility: A Village Micro-Finance Application
Micro-finance means providing small credit and savings facilities for local communities who cannot access formal financial services
In India the most common form of micro-finance occurs through the actions of Self-Help-Groups (SHGS), which are small-village based groups that communally save and lend and operate on the basis of mutual liability
NGO
Federation
Cluster
Groups
Cluster
Rural BankOr External Funding Agency
Large Number of Transactions, each of small amount
Large cumulative money flows
Documentation and Reporting is manually very cumbersome
Non-literate and Semi-literate user domain
Joint work with Media Lab Asia and Govt. of India Ministry for ICT - to appear at SIGCHI 2003
Research Objectives and Design Process
Explore the interface design space for semi-literate, illiterate and uneducated users
Explore and leverage different kinds of literacy (numeric, symbolic, partial) to design appropriate interfaces
Explore the potential of software applications in aiding local economic development and financial management
Design Process: Contextual Study, Cognitive Literacy Tests, Participatory Design, Iterative Rapid Prototyping
Combination of Inductive and Deductive Processes
Timeframe April – December 2002
Design Observations
Icon Families – Creating of icon families to represent common screen elements
Iconic Legend – Creating associations between auditory and iconic representations to quickly assimilate icon families
Numeric Values can be used by numerically-literate to orient with rest of application
Importance of Physical Metaphors – tabular data formats carried over from existing notebooks and ledgers greatly reduced learning curve and user apprehension
Representational, Iconic forms superior to more abstract Symbolic Representations
Conclusion: Real is Real
These users have spent a lifetime working and living in very real physical spaces
We want to ensure a smooth, holistic transition to the digital world
Answer: Make the interface as real and physical as possible. Requisite buzzwords: tangible / graspable interfaces; augmented reality
Don’t we want this in ubicomp also – to allow the user to remain in real, physical cognitive spaces as much as possible?
Design Vision: Hybrid Paper / Digital Data Entry Device
Using many similar technologies to Ubicomp
More soon (hopefully)…
Final Thoughts: Ubicomp and “Extreme Ubicomp”
If Ubicomp works in India, then...
Most extreme physical conditions - Little to no infrastructure
Low purchasing power - each device has to prove bang for the buck
Completely technology-naive users - if they can understand and utilize the technology, anyone should be able to
Importance of real, direct, physical interaction versus unnecessary abstract higher order reasoning
Final Thoughts: Ubicomp and “Extreme Ubicomp”
If Ubicomp works in India, then...
Most extreme physical conditions - Little to no infrastructure
Low purchasing power - each device has to prove bang for the buck
Completely technology-naive users - if they can understand and utilize the technology, anyone should be able to
Importance of real, direct, physical interaction versus unnecessary and abstract higher order reasoning
…it can truly be called scalable to "ubiquitous"
Perfect laboratory environment for Ubicomp and HCI Research