Posts tagged IBM
Mobile Phone, Cloud Security Issues can Impact IT -says IBM
Apr 1st
- CIO.in
- News
- Mobile Phone, Cloud Security Issues can Impact IT -says IBM
Businesses should know that who figure out how to gain root access to mobile phones are causing trouble. While some phone owners want this type of access so the phones can support manufacturers didn’t intend them to, attackers benefit from jailbreaking toolkits. Attackers can modify the code into a tool to gain unauthorized root access, according to a new report from IBM’s security watchers, “IBM X-Force 2010 Trend and Risk Report.”
OTHER CONCERNS:
“We aren’t seeing a lot of widespread attack activity targeting these vulnerabilities today,” the report says, “because mobile devices likely do not represent the same kind of financial opportunity that desktop machines do for the sort of individuals who create large Internet botnets.”
Even so, individual phones may contain enough valuable information to warrant a targeted attack. “Malicious software on the devices can be used to spy on users, access sensitive information on the phones, and reach back into corporate networks. Therefore, enterprises should take the risk of targeted malware on phones seriously,” the report says.
IBM X-Force recommends a bare minimum of security measures including a firewall, anti-malware, strong passwords, lock-out and data removal after multiple failed logins, use of gateways between devices and the enterprise network, and configuring Bluetooth so devices link only to other safe devices.
Businesses should also consider encryption of sensitive data as it sits on mobile devices. Not all data need be encrypted, but valuable corporate data should, the report says.
A powerful potential source of smartphone malware is legitimate application stores. Without the resources to fully vet all submitted apps, these stores may sell applications that are actually malware. “It is likely that malicious behaviors in what appear to be trustworthy applications may provide an easy vector,” the report says.
Corporations seeking to secure could benefit from technology that allows encapsulating all business-related data and applications separate from personal data and applications within the same phone. Users prefer to carry just one device, and encapsulating business content would support personal use while protecting business data, IBM says.
The report also targets cloud services and notes that cloud security is the greatest hindrance to adopting them, but businesses are increasingly adopting them anyway for at least some of their data and applications. Security need not be foolproof if the risks associated with using the cloud are acceptable. “The question for organizations is not whether the cloud as a whole is secure, but whether the organization is comfortable placing their workload on the cloud,” IBM X-Force says.
Customers naturally need to trust the security offered by cloud providers, but equally understandably the providers are reluctant to give away a blueprint for attackers by revealing what measures are in place. Customers need to trust the providers, but there is no foolproof way to do so, IBM X-Force says.
It is feasible that cloud providers could offer better security than customers could provide themselves due to a lack of resources and expertise. And security services provided from the cloud could help protect corporate networks better than they do themselves, the report says.
At least in the short term, customers need to work out what tolerance they have for risk associated with cloud services and act appropriately, the report says.
Related News
- Security Will Rescue Cloud Computing
- HP Joins the Cloud, But Others Are Ahead
- Forrester: Cloud is Test Bed for Collaboration
- Symantec to Release End-to-End Cloud Management Software
- Google to Let Apps Admins Put the Brakes on Upgrades
Latest News
- 10 Lessons From Angry Birds That Can Make You a Better CIO
- Tighter Security Available to .com sites
- Phishing Attacks Down Dramatically in 2010, says IBM
- Google Adds New Access, Analysis to Web Performance Tool
- IEEE Approves Next WiMax Standard 802.16m
From www.cio.in
IBM: Mobile phone, cloud security issues can impact IT
Mar 31st
IBM says IT staff need to pay extra attention to use of mobile devices and cloud infrastructure on business networks because both technologies are still young, and security can be sketchy.
Businesses should know that jailbreakers who figure out how to gain root access to mobile phones are causing trouble. While some phone owners want this type of access so the phones can support applications manufacturers didn’t intend them to, attackers benefit from jailbreaking toolkits. Attackers can modify the code into a tool to gain unauthorized root access, according to a new report from IBM’s security watchers, “IBM X-Force 2010 Trend and Risk Report.”
OTHER CONCERNS: Social networking security threats taken too lightly
“We aren’t seeing a lot of widespread attack activity targeting these vulnerabilities today,” the report says, “because mobile devices likely do not represent the same kind of financial opportunity that desktop machines do for the sort of individuals who create large Internet botnets.”
Even so, individual phones may contain enough valuable information to warrant a targeted attack. “Malicious software on the devices can be used to spy on users, access sensitive information on the phones, and reach back into corporate networks. Therefore, enterprises should take the risk of targeted malware on phones seriously,” the report says.
IBM X-Force recommends a bare minimum of security measures including a firewall, anti-malware, strong passwords, lock-out and data removal after multiple failed logins, use of gateways between devices and the enterprise network, and configuring Bluetooth so devices link only to other safe devices.
Businesses should also consider encryption of sensitive data as it sits on mobile devices. Not all data need be encrypted, but valuable corporate data should, the report says.
A powerful potential source of smartphone malware is legitimate application stores. Without the resources to fully vet all submitted apps, these stores may sell applications that are actually malware. “It is likely that malicious behaviors in what appear to be trustworthy applications may provide an easy vector,” the report says.
Corporations seeking to secure smartphones could benefit from technology that allows encapsulating all business-related data and applications separate from personal data and applications within the same phone. Users prefer to carry just one device, and encapsulating business content would support personal use while protecting business data, IBM says.
The report also targets cloud services and notes that cloud security is the greatest hindrance to adopting them, but businesses are increasingly adopting them anyway for at least some of their data and applications. Security need not be foolproof if the risks associated with using the cloud are acceptable. “The question for organizations is not whether the cloud as a whole is secure, but whether the organization is comfortable placing their workload on the cloud,” IBM X-Force says.
Customers naturally need to trust the security offered by cloud providers, but equally understandably the providers are reluctant to give away a blueprint for attackers by revealing what measures are in place. Customers need to trust the providers, but there is no foolproof way to do so, IBM X-Force says.
It is feasible that cloud providers could offer better security than customers could provide themselves due to a lack of resources and expertise. And security services provided from the cloud could help protect corporate networks better than they do themselves, the report says.
At least in the short term, customers need to work out what tolerance they have for risk associated with cloud services and act appropriately, the report says.
Read more about wide area network in Network World’s Wide Area Network section.
From computerworld.co.nz
Karnataka Uses IBM’s Mobility Platform to Aid Illiterate Job-Hunters
Mar 7th
- CIO.in
- News
- Karnataka Uses IBM’s Mobility Platform to Aid Illiterate Job-Hunters
The “Smarter Employability Platform” that the company is developing with the Karnataka Vocational Training and Skill Development Corporation (KVTSDC), a government agency, aims to take advantage of the large-scale proliferation of mobile phones among poor and rural users, many of whom are illiterate and speak only local languages.
India has a large number of people who are available for work, but either do not have the appropriate skills or do not know of the jobs that are available, Gopal Pingali, program director at IBM Research-India, said on Friday.
IBM and KVTSDC are trying to build an ecosystem consisting of job providers, job seekers, trainers, and testing and certification firms, he added.
The platform will use IBM’s “Spoken Web” technology, a research project that aims to enable local communities to create and disseminate locally relevant content, and transact with e-commerce sites using the spoken word over the telephone instead of the written word.
Developed at IBM Research-India, Spoken Web mirrors the web in a telecom network where people can create and browse “VoiceSites” that have their own URL (uniform resource locator), traverse “VoiceLinks”, and make transactions.
VoiceSites can be thought of as websites accessible over voice, though they are situated on a telephony network rather than the Internet, IBM said. The Spoken Web uses technologies such as VoiceXML (Voice eXtensible Markup Language) and HSTP (hyper speech transfer protocol).
The Spoken Web is a critical component of the project in Karnataka as it allows voice-based interaction, and enables employers to create VoiceSites and disclose the job opportunities available, while also allowing job seekers to make their profiles available through their own VoiceSites, Pingali said.
Access to rural workers has been a key challenge for a number of industries in India, including manufacturing industries.
The focus of the project with Karnataka state is on workers in the unorganized sector, consisting of people like construction workers, plumbers, and carpenters, who are either illiterate or do not have access to the web on PCs, Pingali said. A key design objective was to ensure that users of entry-level mobile phones, without Internet connectivity, could use the technology, he added.
Educated users from the organized sector too are finding the technology useful because it offers anywhere, anytime access, Pingali said.
IBM researchers are adding new capabilities to the platform such as a mobile crowd sourcing platform that will enable people to offer opportunities to each other, provide referrals, and drive rapid dissemination of available opportunities, the company said. IBM is also adding analytics technology that will enable matching of skills with job opportunities available, and analysis to study employment trends, Pingali said.
he researchers are also planning a cloud-based deployment in Karnataka as this will enable the technology to be scaled to include users in many locations, Pingali said.
The platform is being rolled out in the first phase in two districts in Karnataka, with plans to expand to eight more districts in the state in the second phase. The Spoken Web is still a research project for IBM, Pingali said.
Related News
- IBM Fires Back at Oracle in Middleware Fray
- IBM Sees Huge Opportunity for Emerging Environmental Business
- IBM to Build Asia’s Largest Cloud Computing Center
- Holograms on cell phones coming in five years, IBM predicts
- IBM Licenses Infiniband, Ethernet Data Center Software
Latest News
- Need for ‘Big Data’ Analytics Drives Vendors Acquisitions
- Amazon Hooks into VMware’s Management Platform
- Tablets, Big Data Shape IT Economics
- Microsoft Resumes Windows Phone Update after Problems
- Need to Get off That Cloud? A Virtual Moving Van
From www.cio.in
IBM Reveals Five Innovations That Will Change Our Lives in the Next Five Years
Dec 29th
Download image
ARMONK, N.Y., Dec. 29, 2010 /PRNewswire/ — Today IBM (NYSE: IBM) formally unveiled the fifth annual “Next Five in Five” — a list of innovations that have the potential to change the way people work, live and play over the next five years:
- You’ll beam up your friends in 3-D
- Batteries will breathe air to power our devices
- You won’t need to be a scientist to save the planet
- Your commute will be personalized
- Computers will help energize your city
(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20090416/IBMLOGO )
The Next Five in Five is based on market and societal trends expected to transform our lives, as well as emerging technologies from IBM’s Labs around the world that can make these innovations possible.
In the next five years, technology innovations will change people’s lives in the following ways:
You’ll beam up your friends in 3-D
In the next five years, 3-D interfaces – like those in the movies – will let you interact with 3-D holograms of your friends in real time. Movies and TVs are already moving to 3-D, and as 3-D and holographic cameras get more sophisticated and miniaturized to fit into cell phones, you will be able to interact with photos, browse the Web and chat with your friends in entirely new ways.
Scientists are working to improve video chat to become holography chat – or “3-D telepresence.” The technique uses light beams scattered from objects and reconstructs a picture of that object, a similar technique to the one human eyes use to visualize our surroundings.
You’ll be able to see more than your friends in 3-D, too. Just as a flat map of the earth has distortion at the poles that makes flight patterns look indirect, there is also distortion of data – which is becoming greater as digital information becomes “smarter” – like your digital photo album. Photos are now geo-tagged, the Web is capable of synching information across devices and computer interfaces are becoming more natural.
Scientists at IBM Research are working on new ways to visualize 3-D data, working on technology that would allow engineers to step inside designs of everything from buildings to software programs, running simulations of how diseases spread across an interactive 3-D globe, and visualizing trends happening around the world on Twitter – all in real time and with little to no distortion.
Batteries will breathe air to power our devices
Ever wish you could make your laptop battery last all day without needing a charge? Or what about a cell phone that powers up by being carried in your pocket?
In the next five years, scientific advances in transistors and battery technology will allow your devices to last about 10 times longer than they do today. And better yet, in some cases, batteries may disappear altogether in smaller devices.
Instead of the heavy lithium-ion batteries used today, scientists are working on batteries that use the air we breath to react with energy-dense metal, eliminating a key inhibitor to longer lasting batteries. If successful, the result will be a lightweight, powerful and rechargeable battery capable of powering everything from electric cars to consumer devices.
But what if we could eliminate batteries altogether?
By rethinking the basic building block of electronic devices, the transistor, IBM is aiming to reduce the amount of energy per transistor to less than 0.5 volts. With energy demands this low, we might be able to lose the battery altogether in some devices like mobile phones or e-readers.
The result would be battery-free electronic devices that can be charged using a technique called energy scavenging. Some wrist watches use this today – they require no winding and charge based on the movement of your arm. The same concept could be used to charge mobile phones, for example – just shake and dial.
You won’t need to be a scientist to save the planet
While you may not be a physicist, you are a walking sensor. In five years, sensors in your phone, your car, your wallet and even your tweets will collect data that will give scientists a real-time picture of your environment. You’ll be able to contribute this data to fight global warming, save endangered species or track invasive plants or animals that threaten ecosystems around the world. In the next five years, a whole class of “citizen scientists” will emerge, using simple sensors that already exist to create massive data sets for research.
Simple observations such as when the first thaw occurs in your town, when the mosquitoes first appear, if there’s no water running where a stream should be – all this is valuable data that scientists don’t have in large sets today. Even your laptop can be used as a sensor to detect seismic activity. If properly employed and connected to a network of other computers, your laptop can help map out the aftermath of an earthquake quickly, speeding up the work of emergency responders and potentially saving lives.
IBM recently patented a technique that enables a system to accurately and precisely conduct post-event analysis of seismic events, such as earthquakes, as well as provide early warnings for tsunamis, which can follow earthquakes. The invention also provides the ability to rapidly measure and analyze the damage zone of an earthquake to help prioritize emergency response needed following an earthquake.
The company is also contributing mobile phone “apps” that allow typical citizens to contribute invaluable data to causes, like improving the quality of drinking water or reporting noise pollution. Already, an app called Creek Watch allows citizens to take a snapshot of a creek or stream, answer three simple questions about it and the data is automatically accessible by the local water authority.
Your commute will be personalized
Imagine your commute with no jam-packed highways, no crowded subways, no construction delays and not having to worry about being late for work. In the next five years, advanced analytics technologies will provide personalized recommendations that get commuters where they need to go in the fastest time. Adaptive traffic systems will intuitively learn traveler patterns and behavior to provide more dynamic travel safety and route information to travelers than is available today.
IBM researchers are developing new models that will predict the outcomes of varying transportation routes to provide information that goes well beyond traditional traffic reports, after-the fact devices that only indicate where you are already located in a traffic jam, and web-based applications that give estimated travel time in traffic.
Using new mathematical models and IBM’s predictive analytics technologies, the researchers will analyze and combine multiple possible scenarios that can affect commuters to deliver the best routes for daily travel, including many factors, such as traffic accidents, commuter’s location, current and planned road construction, most traveled days of the week, expected work start times, local events that may impact traffic, alternate options of transportation such as rail or ferries, parking availability and weather.
For example, by combining predictive analytics with real-time information about current travel congestion from sensors and other data, the system could recommend better ways to get to a destination, such as how to get to a nearby mass transit hub, whether the train is predicted to be on time, and whether parking is predicted to be available at the train station. New systems can learn from regular travel patterns where you are likely to go and then integrate all available data and prediction models to pinpoint the best route.
Computers will help energize your city
Innovations in computers and data centers are enabling the excessive heat and energy that they give off to do things like heat buildings in the winter and power air conditioning in the summer. Can you imagine if the energy poured into the world’s data centers could in turn be recycled for a city’s use?
Up to 50 percent of the energy consumed by a modern data center goes toward air cooling. Most of the heat is then wasted because it is just dumped into the atmosphere. With new technologies, such as novel on-chip water-cooling systems developed by IBM, the thermal energy from a cluster of computer processors can be efficiently recycled to provide hot water for an office or houses.
A pilot project in Switzerland involving a computer system fitted with the technology is expected to save up to 30 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year, the equivalent of an 85 percent carbon footprint reduction. A novel network of microfluidic capillaries inside a heat sink is attached to the surface of each chip in the computer cluster, which allows water to be piped to within microns of the semiconductor material itself. By having water flow so close to each chip, heat can be removed more efficiently. Water heated to 60 degrees C is then passed through a heat exchanger to provide heat that is delivered elsewhere.
For more information, please visit ibm.com/press/5in52010.
Note: Registered journalists and bloggers can download broadcast-quality b-roll and other “Next 5 in 5″ video from http://www.thenewsmarket.com/ibm [registration available online]
SOURCE IBM
Back to top
RELATED LINKS
http://www.ibm.com
IBM Predicts Holographic Phone Calls By 2015
Dec 27th
Print Recipient E-mail Sender E-mail
Please input the letters/numbers that appear in the image below. (not case-sensitive)
(Source: techinnovatorsja.com) 
And air-breathing batteries, the end of traffic jams, cities heated by computer servers
Every year IBM surveys 3,000 of its engineers to predict five technological advances they think will take off within the next five years. One thing we can look forward to by 2015, Bloomberg reports, is holographic phone calls via mobile phone (think: Princess Leia’s “Help me Obi-Wan” message projected by R2D2 in A New Hope).
Holographic phone calls lead the list which also includes air-breathing batteries, traffic jam-predicting computer programs, cities powered by computer servers’ heat byproducts, and environmental information generated by sensors in cars and phones.
“These are all stretch goals, and that’s good,” Paul Saffo, managing director of foresight at the investment-advisory firm Discern, told Bloomberg. “In an era when pessimism is the new black, a little dose of technological optimism is not a bad thing.”
Aside from its entertainment value, the survey is important for IBM’s own bottom line. IBM invested $5.8 billion in research and development last year, outspending its rivals. IBM’s R&D figure accounted for 6.1 percent of revenue, while Hewlett-Packard spent only 2.4 percent of its revenue last year on R&D.
Many of the ideas that make IBM’s yearly list reflect projects currently in development. Earlier this year, IBM teamed up with local and state agencies in California to crowdsource waterway monitoring. An app allows users to take a photo of rivers and streams and report back to the agencies, who don’t have the means or the funds to monitor the waterways themselves. The environmental information sensors are an expansion on this project.
“All this demonstrates a real culture of innovation at IBM and willingness to devote itself to solving some of the world’s biggest problems,” Josephine Cheng, vice president at IBM’s Almaden lab, told Bloomberg.
IBM predicts that batteries could last 10 times longer in 2015 compared to today, because lithium-ion technology will be replaced with batteries made of energy-dense metals that recharge by interacting with the air.
Traffic jams will be lessened thanks to computer programs based on complex algorithms that, with the addition of real-time traffic info, can predict where and when traffic will happen. This information will be made available to drivers who will be told how to avoid being a victim of a jam.
Finally, IBM says that almost half of a data center’s power is used to keep the computers from over-heating. IBM engineers say that it would be more efficient to harness the heat produced by the computers to warm residential and commercial buildings.
However, you shouldn’t put your money on all of IBM’s predictions. In its first annual survey, conducted in 2006, the engineers predicted that instant speech translation would be the norm by now. While some, like Google, have made strides in the field, speech translation’s ubiquity is limited, and the technology is still a work in progress.
Another IBM prediction, this time in 2007, said that smartphones would act as wallets, ticket brokers, banks, and shopping assistants. That, to an extent, has already come true. Smartphone apps for Android, iOS, Blackberry, and Windows Phone 7 allow users to conduct online banking activities, pay bills, track spending, compare product prices, and buy tickets, all with a few clicks.
“The nice thing about the list is that it provokes thought,” Saffo told Bloomberg. “If everything came true, they wouldn’t be doing their job.”
IBM predicts holographic calls, breathing batteries
Dec 24th
(Credit: Lucasfilm)
If you believe in tech fortune-telling, you’ll soon be able to reach out and (sort of) touch someone. By 2015, mobile phones will be projecting 3D images of callers and batteries will run on air alone, according to prognosticators at IBM.
Big Blue’s list of tech predictions for the next five years includes kinetically powered laptops and computers that predict traffic jams in real time, Bloomberg reports.
Batteries of 2015 could last 10 times longer than those of today, and could be based on “energy-dense metals that only need to interact with the air to recharge,” it said.
Homes of the near future, meanwhile, could be warmed by heat produced by data centers. The report did not go into detail about the predictions.
IBM polls its 3,000 researchers at sites like the Almaden Research Center for hot new ideas in the offing. Previous innovation predictions have included statements such as, “In the next five years, you will be able to surf the Internet, hands-free, by using your voice.”
Well, that was two years ago and I’m still typing and clicking. Four years ago, IBM predicted that cell phones will be reading our minds by 2012; I can’t even get a decent photo out of mine.
Nonetheless, I’ll be the first to rent a Darth Vader costume if the holographic phone prediction comes true. Because I predict that in five years, we’ll all be traveling in AT-AT Walkers.
Free BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express for IBM Lotus Domino
Nov 6th
Canadian mobile phone maker Research In Motion has just announced the availability of the free BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express for IBM Lotus Domino, a software solution aimed at enabling the syncing of email, calendar, contacts, notes and tasks between BlackBerry smartphones and IBM Lotus Domino.
According to the handset vendor, the software solution is based on the same security architecture that the BlackBerry Enterprise Server comes with, while also offering a number of 75 smartphone controls and IT security policies.
The company also announced that the premium version of BlackBerry Enterprise Server software comes with a number of 500 such controls and policies.
The free BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express offers support for BlackBerry smartphones on business data plans, but can also be used with personal data plans.
With the new solution, BlackBerry smartphone users can:
- Wirelessly synchronize email, calendar, contacts, notes and tasks
- Manage email folders and search email on the mail server from their smartphones
- Book meetings and appointments, accept meeting requests, check availability and forward calendar attachments
- Set an out-of-office reply
- Access files stored on the company network
- Use mobile applications to access business systems behind the firewall
According to RIM, the BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express for IBM Lotus Domino comes with a wide range of benefits for IT administrators too.
Among these, we can count the availability of a Web-based interface for remote administration, the aforementioned 75 IT controls and policies, including remote wiping of devices, or tools for securing a lost or stolen device.
BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express was designed to work with Domino Enterprise Server and Domino Messaging Server, the mobile phone maker announced.
It also comes with support for multiple Lotus Domino domain environments via a single administration interface, not to mention that it can be used at the same time with the premium BlackBerry Enterprise Server.
“BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express is a free download that is designed for businesses of all sizes,” said Jeff McDowell, Senior Vice President, Enterprise and Platform Marketing at Research In Motion.
“It provides an easy way for businesses to get started using BlackBerry smartphones with IBM Lotus Domino and it’s also an ideal no-cost software solution for businesses that want to allow their employees to connect their personal BlackBerry smartphones to their work email.”
BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express for Lotus Domino offers support for seven languages: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Japanese and Brazilian Portuguese. Additional details on it can be found here.
Follow the editor on Twitter @softpediamobile
Indian Need Drives Global Innovation For IBM
Oct 26th
Image by samantha celera via Flickr
In India, a lack of Internet access and an abundance of cell phone helped IBM realize that the next billion people would probably get a chance to access the world wide web if they could do it via a cell phone.
India has some 545 million cell phones and a measly 80 million Internet users. The high illiteracy rates in India means that a lot of people, including in urban areas, will not be able to use the Internet. IBM, in an experiment on cloud computing, developed a technology called the Spoken Web which allows people to create and navigate websites by voice, opening up a whole new world of opportunities for the vast number of illiterate people in India, and other developing countries. The technology creates VoiceSites that are analogous to Websites. So a URL is replaced by a phone number that users can dial, hyperlinks are replaced by voice options and the networking protocol–the Hyper Text Transfer Protocol–is replaced by the Hyper Speech Transfer Protocol.
This need was identified in India. Navi Radjou, executive director of the Centre for India & Global Business at Cambridge University, calls this Indovation. “In the next five years there will be a conversion in the market place as the western markets are going through austerity and recession, they will move away from want based consumption to need based consumption,” he predicts. This doesn’t mean you want cheap stuff but just better value out of it. And while the West may not have all the solutions, a lot of the “need” will be identified in the emerging markets, including India, and the product will then be developed globally. “A lot of innovation in India is demand driven,” he says.
Like the spoken web. Guruduth Banavar, chief technology officer at IBM’s Global Public Sector, launched the spoken web about 3.5 years ago as an exploratory research project. At the time he was based in India as the director of the research lab and he and his colleagues had been thinking about how to connect the next billion with the world wide web considering the fact that 80% of the world’s population doesn’t have a PC. But, they realized that nearly 4 billion people have mobile phones. This was also the time of the telecom revolution in India and other parts of the developing world, he recalls.
The idea is to let small entrepreneurs like plumbers and electricians, who wouldn’t typically have access to computers or know how to build websites, create voice sites. These are hosted on regular computer servers and can act as portals through which users can find out basic things like the price of a vegetable or how to get better yield from cows or if an electrician (whose voice site they have gone to) is available for a specific job on a specific day. But instead of typing in a web address, the user dials a phone number. Then, with a combination of voice commands and buttons on his cell phone, he navigates through a spoken list of options. In its most basic form a user can call up a plumber’s voice site, hear about the variety of jobs he can perform, his working hours and his current open slots and book what he needs, by following the recorded prompts.
The project was started in India but is now being piloted in Africa and some Asean countries as well, says Banavar.
IBM and IIT Bombay to Research Mobile Phone Interfaces
Aug 4th
IBM said on Wednesday that it has included the Industrial Design Centre (IDC) at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT Bombay) to participate in its ongoing research into mobile phone interfaces.
The research aims at developing mobile device interfaces that can be easily used by people who are semiliterate or illiterate, as well as individuals who have limited or no access to information technology, IBM said.
IIT Bombay is one of the top academic institutions in the country, and a number of technology companies, including Microsoft, do joint research with the institute.
IBM and IIT Bombay are researching mobile user interfaces as part of IBM’s Open Collaborative Research program, that aims to promote innovation through research collaboration between universities and industry.
IBM announced in March that it is doing research on mobile access for the aged and the illiterate with the National Institute of Design (NID) in India and the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology (RCAST) at the University of Tokyo.
The company decided to do the research in these two countries as Japan has a large aging population, which is not comfortable working with technology, while India has a large illiterate population. IBM has research labs in both countries.
About 30 students of NID have already spread out into villages in a number of states in India to collect information on what would be required for a mobile phone to be accessible to illiterate people, and to people speaking languages other than English, a spokesman for IBM Research India said on Wednesday.
NID will be working on analyzing the device interface requirement from the perspective of users’ requirement, as they have expertise in the area, while IIT Bombay will look into the systems design of the interface, the spokesman said.
The findings of the research and any applications or technology developed are to be released to the open source community, the spokesman said. Working with the open source community will help speed up the adoption of the technologies, and attract developers to build applications for the target populations, IBM said in March.
