An example of trying to engage with the dominant device, the Humane Reader is a new project that helps bring online content to homes with no internet connection, with a unit that could be produced for $20.

Only approximately 20% of the developing world are internet users. The remaining 80% do not have access to online reference sources such as Wikipedia, online libraries of books and information to improve literacy, nor access to a computer to develop technological skills.

The Humane Reader device addresses this gap by providing the equivalent of a 5,000 book library in content at very low cost to households, libraries, and schools. No internet connection is required – the Humane Reader requires only a television set.

Books and text are stored on a simple SD memory Card – the type used by digital cameras – which are relatively low cost (~$4 for 2GB in bulk) and can hold the equivalent of thousands of books. The Humane Reader allows a user to access the contents of the SD Card for display on a common TV set.

Given that the focus is on offering materials to help maintain or improve literacy while showing an awareness of local conditions, it may offer an interesting alternative to the more ambitious but problematic One Laptop Per Child Program.

Hoppala, a partner of  the Dutch company Layar, have just launched their new product Augmentation. Augmentation is a tool that allows someone with no technical expertise to create augmented reality experiences using images, audio, video and 3D multimedia content, as explained in the interview with Marc Rene Gardeya, Hoppala’s CEO and founder.

Why should non-technical people use your tools, next to the fact that it’s easy?
With HOPPALA! Augmentation non-technical people can concentrate on their strengths and just be creative. That’s why HOPPALA! Augmentation provides all the multimedia features supported by Layar, e.g. audio, video and 3D. Finally there is no more technical hurdle in the way. Everybody can create an account and start experimenting immediately. And it’s free!

What do you expect of augmentation in terms of layers created by non-technical people?
HOPPALA! Augmentation opens up the augmented reality community to a much wider audience and encourages engagement of creatives from different industries. I’m very excited to see creatives contributing a very new spin. Opening doors for non-techs will certainly enrich and speed up the overall content creation progress. HOPPALA! Augmentation is the incubator for a whole lot of new ideas in Augmented Reality.

Hoppala provides a valuable entry point for libraries to begin experimenting with the technology in a meaningful way, so lets see what we can do!

As librarians begin to think about purchasing ereaders and tablets like the iPad for their libraries, it might be a good idea to tape the Maker’s Bill of Rights on your wall and see if the new hardware you are thinking of buying can meet all, or any, of its requirements. As budgets are cut the more we can take care of our own hardware, the better. Remember Mister Jalopy’s mantra, “If you can’t open it, you don’t own it”.

After posting yesterday about the issues surrounding mobile phones and smartphones, I saw the following story on ReadWriteWeb.

HP Labs India have developed a method, called SiteonMobile, that allows any mobile phone user to surf the Web using either SMS text message or voice commands.

The cloud-based technology is designed to broaden access [to] the Worldwide Web to those whose only “connected” device is a mobile phone without a built-in Web browser – as is the case in most of the developing world.

SiteonMobile requires a website publisher to Web-enable their site’s content using something called “tasklets.” These widget-like tools encompass the steps one would perform on a website to complete a particular task. For example, a publisher could create a “tasklet” for booking airline tickets or getting a daily horoscope. (The Web via SMS can be fun, too, right?) Designing these tasklets requires “little or no programming experience,” says Sudhir Dixit, director of HP Labs India.

Once the tasklets have been created, users can send a text message to a particular number to get the information they desire returned to their mobile phone, thanks to these tasklets which reside in HP’s cloud. Or they can dial another number to receive voice-based information via an interactive voice response (IVR) service.

Currently the service is invitation only, but appears to be an excellent response to some of the issues caused by the move to mobile.

Last month during my thunder talk at Digital Odyssey I mentioned an iPhone app called StreetMuseum, created for the Museum of London by the creative agency Brothers and Sisters, that overlays images from the museum’s collection of photos onto the user’s view of the street.

Historypin, a new project by We Are What We Do and Google, comes very close to allowing anyone to recreate this. Unfortunately there is, as yet, no mention of a mobile app. However, the reason for the project, “to get generations talking more, sharing more and coming together more often” is a worthwhile undertaking and places a much needed emphases on the important social role that technology can play. Continue Reading »