Research & Development @ IIT Bombay Prof. Krithi Ramamritham Dean R&D November, 2006.
Developmental Informatics Lab Krithi Ramamritham IIT Bombay ICT for empowering Emerging Regions.
-
Upload
milton-cross -
Category
Documents
-
view
223 -
download
1
Transcript of Developmental Informatics Lab Krithi Ramamritham IIT Bombay ICT for empowering Emerging Regions.
Developmental Informatics Lab
The Big Question
How do we give the rural populationthe same access to Information that you and I take for granted?
"How to face the challenges in serving under-served segments of the population through science & technology based solutions”
Developmental Informatics Lab
Knowledge Revolution
Limited to less than 15% population of the world.– Most research and products are for people in highly developed countries.
Touches less than 2% of population in developing countries.
Developmental Informatics Lab
ICT for Socio-Economic Development-- has come of age
Research in Indian academia/industry labs IITs - Madras, KGP, Kanpur,…. IIITs – Hyderabad, Bangalore,…MSRI, Intel, Nokia, Motorola, TCS,….
Publication avenues ICTD, WWW DR track, CHI, (VLDB),… journals
Lots of challenging issues….
Developmental Informatics Lab
Internet service provider
Cable TV provider
Basic telephony (VoIP)
E-governance
Land records
Price info (mandi bhav)
Digital photography
Astrology (jyotish kendra)
Village kiosk services
Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
Developmental Informatics Lab
Internet –a repository of knowledge?
Perhaps, but divides exist…
The Connectivity Divide– No connectivity– Low bandwidth
connectivity– Intermittent
connectivity
Developmental Informatics Lab
Communication Technologies
DialUP VSATs Wired Wireless 802.11 Cable Modem DSL Cell Phones WiMaX
Developmental Informatics Lab
corDECT
corDect is a wireless access system developed by IIT,Madras , Midas Communication Technologies, and Analog Communications , USA.
It provides voice telephony services and 35/70 kbps internet services with a wireless interface that supports a 10km line of sight connectivity.
Developmental Informatics Lab
DakNet
ad hoc network that uses wireless technology and existing communications and transportation infrastructure to distribute digital connectivity.
Developmental Informatics Lab
Internet –a repository of knowledge?
Perhaps, but divides exist…
The Connectivity Divide– No connectivity– Low bandwidth
connectivity– Intermittent
connectivity
The Content Divide– No relevant content– Not accessible/useful
to the semi/illiterate population
Language divideInterface divideUsability divide
Developmental Informatics Lab
How does Web Content come into being?
Individuals / institutions / governments place content on the Web
– Web pages– Blogs
Collaborative content creation– Wiki– Discussion (Q&A) fora
Relevant? Topical? Localized?Personalized?
Developmental Informatics Lab
AQUA Ecosystem
Initially, kiosks operated by
Vigyan Ashram, Pabal village
Initially, Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Baramati
(an agri-extension center)
Developmental Informatics Lab
Village kiosk services
Developmental Informatics Lab (DIL)Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
Field Observations and Studies are fed back into
AQUA research & development
AQUA --> aAQUA
Developmental Informatics Lab
Users of aAQUA
questions from half the districts in India
questions on farming, animal husbandry, employment (BPO), vocational education,…
Developmental Informatics Lab
Challenges…
How can we scale, if each question needs to be answered by an expert?
How can we make aAQUA usable for naïve users?
How can we ensure availability in spite of resource constraints (e.g., connectivity problems)?
Developmental Informatics Lab
How to improve…
Scalability– After several seasons, questions repeat => archive previous Q&A => search archive for answer– Data integration & consolidation– Multilingual semantics-driven search
“insurers cheating farmers” vs. “farmers cheating insurers”
Usability
Availability
Developmental Informatics Lab
Consolidating Content: e-Library
collection of edited aAQUA Q&A in English, Hindi and Marathi
Photos of crop pests and diseases lead to solutions
-- without going to experts
recommendations from Agri-Universities and KVKs
Developmental Informatics Lab
Multi Lingual Search over archive
Query in Hindi
English Document
Result in Hindi
searchEnglish
Document
Marathi Document
E-library
Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
Developmental Informatics Lab
How to improve…
Scalability– Exploit repetition of questions => consolidate, archive previous Q&A => Support Multilingual semantics-based search
of archive
Usability– Better interfaces, better I/O devices => iconic, easy to visualize, easy to use
Availability
Developmental Informatics Lab
Enhancing Usability
Keyboard: easy input in Devanagari
Use of local language Organizing content by
category and keywords
Multimedia support, image zoom
Developmental Informatics Lab
Bhav Puchiye – Ask for the price
Interface for Bhav Puchiye
Most such interfaces are text-based
Developmental Informatics Lab
User Interest needs to be sustained
If a farmer comes to a kiosk to ask a question and is told
“network is down, come back later”
HE WILL NEVER COME BACK
Developmental Informatics Lab
How to improve…
Scalability
Usability
Availability – Exploit the “read-mostly” situation– Exploit the “delay-tolerance” aspect of Q&As => Make off-line access the default
– Exploit spread of Cell phones
Developmental Informatics Lab
Dealing with connectivity constraints
Lighter pages deliveredMirror sites that synchronize Web Caching and query cachingPrefetching
– through prediction of future needs and update times
Developmental Informatics Lab
Improving Availability: Offline Access
Standalone application employing
store-and-forward protocols– Offline Search and Posting, Authentication. – Complete aAQUA can be navigated and searched in
disconnected mode. – Offline post also possible.
Fast searching and browsing experienceDelta of updates transferred between
client and serverHeterogeneous database synchronization
Developmental Informatics Lab
Offline aAQUA
aAQUA on internet
aAQUA on internet
Light Db
Client Application
RepositoryIndexing engine
Browser
Light Web Server (lighttpd)Update database
for new threads
Store threads
Post messages and fetch new or updated threads
Read threads
Build index
Search
Read
Write
Query optimization for handhelds
with varying memory sizes
"Best Poster" at WWW 2007: International Conference on the World Wide Web, Banff, Canada.
Developmental Informatics Lab
Popular SMS based apps
Weather (push or pull) Sports/Entertainment services Transportation services News Innovative personal services: e.g., Market Price information for agricultural goods Personal services: e.g., Using SMS to inform
customers in a quasi-real time when the money is transferred to their families, booking movie tickets etc.
GIS based content delivery services Weather / temperature sensing capabilities (some high-end phones do have temp sensors)
Developmental Informatics Lab
aAQUA
aAqua Server
Crop Doctor
Crop Recommendation
KeywordBrowser
BhavPuchiye
aAqua
Internet
Internet
HTTP
aAquaOffline
Mobilenetwor
k
Mobilenetwor
kaAquaMobile
Gateway
SMS
Enabling technologies1. Internet crawling, searching, browsing,
indexing of multilingual data on the Internet.
2. Data exploration on Heterogenous Data Sources.
3. Improving the performance of information extraction/caching/dissemination algorithms for resource constrained environments.
4. Support for building Databases on handhelds (e.g., Simputer, a low cost hand held developed in India).
Developmental Informatics Lab
Status and Plans
Questions from half the districts of India KVK Baramati – primary expert group
Scale-up ICAR via NAIP
– Agri Universities Pant NagarDharwad
– KVKs Maharashtra ArgiNet
Spin-off Agrocom – operating the Akashdoot weather station network
Developmental Informatics Lab
Preventive Agri-Medicine:Climate sensors for crop disease forecasts
wind speed
wind direction
air temperature
relative humidity
solar radiation
evaporation rate
leaf wetness
Developmental Informatics Lab
Summary
aAQUA takes Agri-extension services to people wherever they are
– New ways of providing expert help to redress
farmer problems in a timely fashion Users formulate questions in a natural manner Internet + Mobile phones – prices, aAQUA posts & feeds – push + pull
Incorporating innovations from research
– Query processing and caching
– Seamless offline access
– Cross-lingual archive and retrieval
– Human-computer Interactions
– Heterogeneous Data Integration
+ semantics driven multilingual search
Developmental Informatics Lab
ICT for Socio-Economic Development-- has come of age
Research in Indian academia/industry labs IITs - Madras, KGP, Kanpur,…. IIITs – Hyderabad, Bangalore,…MSRI, Intel, Nokia, Motorola, TCS,….
Publication avenues ICTD, WWW DR track, CHI, (VLDB),… journals
Lots of challenging issues….