INDIA: Walking Stick With Brains, Wrist Watch To Remind Wearer To Take Medicines

New Delhi (The Telegraph), August 24: A walking stick that warns of a pothole ahead; a wrist-watch that reminds the wearer to take his medicine. The aged and the physically challenged may soon shed their dependence on others as they go about their daily lives. They’ll have an Indo-Japanese project on the development of new software and hardware to thank. The two countries have signed a memorandum of understanding to explore the possibility of joint-venture and stand-alone projects in “ubiquitous computing”. This is an approach where computing isn’t restricted to a desktop computer, laptop or mobile device but pervades every aspect of one’s life. For instance, a wheelchair might be able to give the rider directions, and a household gadget tell an aged man or woman what to eat and what to avoid, and which medicine to take when. The Union minister for communications and information technology, Dayanidhi Maran, sounded upbeat about the project. “India and Japan will work closely to promote research and development at Chennai Labs,” he said. “We wish to learn from Japan and replicate their success in the areas of broadband, mobile communications, e-governance, information security, research and development and ubiquitous computing.” He said both countries have decided to set up an information communication technology forum with working groups made up of representatives of industries and the government. The activities of the working groups and implementing agencies will be monitored through regular government-to-government, government-to-business and business-to-business interactions. A joint task force will be formed under the ICT Forum. “Managing the aged population is a major problem in Japan and the number of aged are growing,” Taro Aso, Japanese minister for internal affairs and communications, told a joint press conference. “In India, too, this is a critical issue. We are using ubiquitous computing techniques to help the aged and physically and mentally challenged persons,” he said.