India - Innovation Central

India comes into its own as a hub for innovation as companies and organizations respond to problems with new innovations. The Economic Times and Wired Magazine report on new inventions coming out of India: a water-riding bicyle, electronic sticks for the blind, handwriting emails and more.Different problems require new innovations in India.

The Economic Times of India reports a number of "Bond-like" innovations:

• A bicycle that rides on both land and water.
• An electronic stick for the blind with sensors to detect water and the distance of objects.
• A long distance WiFi network to carry voice and internet access to rural villages (developed by Media Lab Asia.)
• An odor fighting ozone generating machine, to make bearable the burial traditions of one the world's oldest religions.
• A film projector costing 1/10th the price of traditional projectors.

In an article published in October, Wired Magazine reports on even more innovations from India:

• Hewlett Packard's Script Mail, an electronic pad for emailing in languages that are difficult to type in (you handwrite the messages, a dying art in the U.S.. )

"The motivation for developing this device was the recognition that English is not very widely used, and people want access [to e-mail] in their local languages, specifically those that are not [based] on the Roman script," said Gita Gopal, associate director of HP Labs India.

• K-Yan developed the Compact Media Center which incorporates a TV, PC, and projector for use in large group learning.
• The International Institute of Information Technology has developed Shakti, English translation software. Director Rajeev Sangal describes why India is likely to develop better translation technology:
  

  "Western nations that usually pioneer research have no real motivation to be involved in language translation because they are chiefly monolingual countries. That's why India is crucial here. Just about a billion people in this world speak English. The rest may need Shakti"