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World's first smartphone for the blind, made in India
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| SmartPhone For Blinds |
"We have created the world's first Braille smartphone," says its innovator, Sumit Dagar, whose company is being incubated at the Centre for Innovation Incubation andEntrepreneurship, located in IIM Ahmedabad campus. "This product is based on an innovative 'touch screen' which is capable of elevating and depressing the contents it receives to transform them into 'touchable' patterns," he says.
Dagar, who is a post-graduate from the NationalInstitute of Design (NID), says he was motivated to develop the device when he realised that so far, technology was only serving the mainstream and ignoring the marginalised. He is collaborating with IIT Delhi on making the prototype, which is currently being tested at L V Prasad Eye Institute in Hyderabad.
"The response during the test has been immense. It comes out as a companion more than a phone to the user. We plan to do more advanced versions of the phone in the future," Dagar adds.
Dagar started the project three years ago while studying interaction designing at NID. After working with a couple of companies, he gave up his job to concentrate on his technology, formed a team of six people and started his venture, Kriyate Design Solutions. Currently, the venture is being funded by Rolex Awards under its Young Laureates Programme, in which they select five people from across the world every two years and fund their projects.
How it works
· The smartphone uses Shape Memory Alloy technology, based on the concept that metals remember their original shapes, i.e. expand and contract to its original shape after use.
· The phone's 'screen' has a grid of pins, which move up and down as per requirement. The grid has a Braille display, where pins come up to represent a character or letter.
· This screen will be capable of elevating and depressing the contents to form patterns in Braille.
· All other elements are like any other smartphone.
Apple shying from 'Samsung didn't copy iPad design' ads
Tech giant Apple has launched a bid to
overturn a court ruling that orders it to run
an embarrassing national newspaper
advertisement admitting that Samsung did
not unlawfully copy its iPad design.
LONDON: Tech giant Apple has launched a
bid to overturn a court ruling that orders it
to run an embarrassing national newspaper
advertisement admitting that Samsung did
not unlawfully copy its iPad design.
A British High Court judge had ordered
Apple "to put advertisements in the
relevant newspapers and to put a
statement on their United Kingdom
website", admitting its Korean rival had not
infringed the iPad design.
Apple, however, argued that, in finding
Samsung had not infringed its design, the
trial judge had place too much emphasis
on differences between the design of the
back of Galaxy Tab range and the back of
the iPad, the Telegraph reports.
Michael Silverleaf, representing Apple, said
that the differences highlighted in the
ruling amounted only to "decoration" that
should not carry significant weight in
judging whether Samsung copied.
Whereas the back of the iPad is almost
featureless, Galaxy Tabs have a separate,
different coloured section along one edge
that contains the camera and flash. T
"I say he was wrong to take these aspects
[of colour] into account at all. This [the
iPad] is a design about shape. You don't
make a non-infringing design by making
the same shape and decorating it," the
paper quoted Silverleaf, as saying.
He said that more weight should have been
given to the similarities between the front
of the iPad and the front of Galaxy Tabs.
Silverleaf pointed out that both designs
have a thick black border around their
rectangular touch screens.
"Too much weight was given to the features
of the back and far too little weight to the
features of the front," Silverleaf said.
Apple iPhone 5 launching on Oct 26 in India
Apple seems set to launch the iPhone 5 in
India on October 26, industry sources say.
However, Apple spokesperson refused to
comment on the matter.
NEW DELHI: After the initial round of global
iPhone 5 launches, Apple seems set to
launch the latest version of its iconic
smartphone in India on October 26,
industry sources say. However, Apple
spokesperson refused to comment on the
matter.
iPhone 5 is eagerly awaited in the country
and is already available in the grey market
at sky-high prices, touching over Rs 1 lac. It
is the fastest selling smartphone of all time,
with 5 million units sold over the first
weekend itself. With this device, Apple
broke its mould of 3.5-inch screens and
ventured into the 4-inch screen size
domain and introduced the all-new
Lightning dock connector and EarPods.
In India, iPhones have commanded top
dollar and are out of reach of the masses,
one of the main reasons for the meager
market share of Apple's phone in India as
compared to Android phones. Last year,
the base variant of iPhone 4S was launched
at Rs 44,500 in the country and currently
costs Rs 41,500 after the recent price
revision. In contrast, no Android
smartphone in India currently costs above
Rs 40,000, though it must be remembered
that Samsung Galaxy S III was priced
around Rs 43,000 at the time of launch.
However, the company soon brought the
official price of the device down to Rs
38,900 and currently the phone costs Rs
35,500 on the company's e-store.
Recently, when Apple slashed prices of its
phones in India, the iPhone 4 was given a
price tag of Rs 28,300, which is quite high
considering that it is two years old.
Apple has been making efforts to penetrate
the Chinese market, but seems to largely
ignore India's potential. On the other hand,
Samsung, the arch rival of Apple in the
smartphone domain,has already made
inroads into India and is perched right at
the top of the smartphone market in the
country. India has become one of the
biggest markets for the South Korean
company's mobile division.
Nevertheless, things seem to be changing
for India, as Apple looks set to bring its
latest offering to the country within a short
span of its worldwide launch, especially
considering that the first iPhone was never
launched here.
Apple iPhone 5
While the others are preparing for
Christmas to introduce their products,
Apple has already made a decision to
introduce a sleeker version of the iPhone;
the iPhone5. Although, that could just as
well mean that one must start saving hard
earned dough for it from September, to
buy it in December.
Anyway, Apple is known for coming up with
some of the best pick-up lines for
journalists, and so was the invite for the
iPhone 5 which will be released today on
the 12th of September. The invite consisted
of the number 12 throwing a shadow of the
number 5.
The Apple iPhone 5 will follow their model
introduced a year before; the iPhone 4S.
Which obviously means that it will be
thinner and better equipped with the latest
technology. According to the information
leaks, the iPhone 5 will have a 4.2 inch
screen but that won’t be bigger than the
screen on the Samsung Galaxy S3 which is
4.8 inches. Another change would be in
replacing the existing thirty pin charge
input with a nine pin. Rumours also reveal
that the headphone jack will be at the
bottom of the phone this time; as for
features everyone is clueless and the ones
who know have been asked to keep shut.
Few are doubtful of this product being a
better comeback after the iPhone 4S
because last year the company gathered
negative vibes from their customers
regarding the marginal improvements made
in the iPhone 4S from its earlier model.
Above all this, the iPhone will come
equipped with 4G LTE but there are two
major complications to this add-on feature.
Firstly, the Samsung Galaxy, introduced
much earlier, already has 4G capabilities;
secondly, HTC is planning to sue Apple for
infringing on an LTE patent owned by them.
Certainly, for a while we thought that the
ongoing rivalry with Samsung should have
infused some discipline in their approach
to android products; however, with HTC
tightening the noose, one can rest assured
that the iPhone 5 will be launched amidst
much controversy. Still, this is a major step
taken by the company after the demise of
Steve Jobs; and they shall go ahead with the
official launch in San Francisco today, with
a promise to introduce the product in the
market in the weeks to follow.
