Some time ago, I had mentioned on this list that I am making an open source device for the hearing impaired. It's no serious high tech stuff, but something I think will make the quality of life of children with hearing disabilities a little better. Just a small summary of the device-
"The only way to get the attention of a bunch of kinds with hearing disability is by getting one of the child to get eye contact with you" A local paging system consisting of- - A 2.4GHz transmitter connected to a PC. This acts as the message transmitter. - A 2.4GHz receiver in a battery powered hand held unit with a 2 line LCD display to show the message. (Should be made very small eventually if mass produced) - Later - A small graphic LCD to display messages in local language. - Broadcast message to all units and Point message to single unit. - Range around 100 ft. (Can be increased by parallel transmitters placed around the campus) - Vibrator to get attention in the hand held unit. - Hardware is based on Arduino A prototype unit is ready and it works. The cost is less than Rs.800 even during prototyping. Cost was the major factor in my design. It is targeted at countries like ours. Mass production can make it easily affordable by even small schools. Even without mass production I believe corporate sponsorship can easily get it into schools. I hope by releasing the entire stuff (Hardware circuits, embedded software and PC side software) as open source, this can really grow and inspire a lot of other spin offs which an individual cannot think about. Also, I would like to get active participation (even if not technical) to brainstorm on ideas which could have been left off. OK, coming to my request - I have no time as I am stuck with my bread and butter work. I somehow squeezed my time to get the prototype off the ground. I don't know anything about open source standards or starting an open source project. I am sure this thing will take months to come into the open if I work on it. I need a small group to take this forward. I will provide technical support at whatever stage. I need this group to manage the open source side. Once we get this up, and get some ideas in if I have missed something, I can commit on the PCB design and even make a few distributable prototypes. The following is not related to anything with this list, so please excuse me and ignore if you feel so... I wanted to wait till I make my millions before I do my duties to society. The wait has taken too long and will take more! So I decided to give what I have. Technology. I call upon fellow techies to do the same... I recently heard about a friend's conversation with a blind person who was pissed with the fact that whenever he approached a technologist/company with an idea, they are immediately calculating the profits and sales figures and don't take it up. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it. I run my own business too. But I think collectively if we contribute simple small working ideas, I am sure they will add up to make a huge difference to a poor society like ours. Regards, Arun _______________________________________________ ILUGC Mailing List: http://www.ae.iitm.ac.in/mailman/listinfo/ilugc
