Professor Raj Reddy, an Indian researcher in artificial intelligence and a professor at Carnegie Mellon University.Has designed a wirelessly networked personal computer worth just 250 US dollars intended for the four billion people around the world who live on less than 2,000 US dollars a year.
According to The New York Post, Professor Raj Reddy’s new project, called the PCtvt doubles as a TV set and a DVD player which he believes will act as a vehicle to take computing and communications to people who cannot read, because it can be controlled by a simple TV remote control and can function as a television, telephone and videophone.
The project is being backed by Microsoft and TriGem, the South Korean computer-maker, and is in partnership with the Indian Institute of Science, the Indian Institute of Information Technology and researchers at the University of California, Berkeley.
Reddy believes that even the world’s poorest communities can become a profitable market for computers.”I kept asking myself: ‘What would the device have to do for someone on the other side of the digital divide to be desirable?’ ‘the paper quoted him as saying.
News source: WebIndia123.com
