("AT")
RESOURCE DIRECTORY
(COVERING LOW-TECH, OFF-GRID,
ALTERNATIVE/RENEWABLE ENERGY,
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND
APPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGY)
-
HIGH-TECH/ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY RESOURCES
-
Member, Friends of African Outlet
VISION
As the
companion Resource Directories
ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY RESOURCES
GENERAL
Resource:
Production Mini-Plants In Mobile Containers
SCINET WORLD TRADE SYSTEM is producing numerous Portable Production Systems, as noted on their website:
"
Production Units in Mobile Containers of 40-foot (12.00 x 2.50 x 2.50 Mts.)
Mini-plants in mobile containers, made especially to be supplied to developing countries.
The mini-plant system is designed in such a way that all the production machinery is fixed on the platform of the
container, with all wiring, piping, and installation parts; that is to say, they are fully equipped.
They may include as an option, air-conditioning and/or heating equipment, a production or power generating unit (diesel, gasoil, etc.), a photovoltaic cell panel to harness solar energy, communication ports to connect with other units in a parallel network, cellular telephone equipment and a communications terminal to link with the operations center for marketing purposes as well as to order raw materials and spare parts through the SCiNet System.
Once it reaches its final destination, the mini-plant is installed at the location provided, the electric power, water, etc., intakes are set up and the mini-plant is ready for production.
MORE THAN 700 PORTABLE PRODUCTION SYSTEMS
Bakeries, Steel Nails, Welding Electrodes, Tire Retreading, Reinforcement Bar Bending for Construction Framework, Sheeting for Roofing, Ceilings and Façades, Plated Drums, Aluminum Buckets, Injected Polypropylene Housewares, Pressed Melamine Items (Glasses, Cups, Plates, Mugs, etc.), Mufflers, Construction Electrically Welded Mesh, Plastic Bags and Packaging, Mobile units of medical assistance, Sanitary Material (Hypodermic Syringes, Hemostatic Clamps, etc).
"
A Tech News Press Release offers further information:
"
The Tech News, March 2003...Production Mini-plants in mobile containers. Co-investment Program...Science Network has started a Co-investment program for the installation of small Assembly plants to manufacture in series the Mini-plants of portable production on site, region or country where required. One of the most relevant features is the fact that these plants will be connected to the World Trade System (WTS) with access to more than 50 million raw materials, products and services and automatic transactions for world trade...Due to financial reasons, involving cost and social impact, the best solution is setting up assembly plants on the same countries and regions, using local resources (labor, some equipment, etc.)...Science Network participates at 50% (fifty percent) for investment of each Assembly plant.
"
SCINET WORLD TRADE SYSTEM Mini-plants
Resource:
High-Tech Nomadic Computerized Recumbent Bicycle
Nomadic Research Labs
"Behemoth" bike is described on it's website website as a
"…computerized recumbent bicycle...autonomous mobile information and
communication platform... powered and propelled by human and solar power, linked
via satellite with global information networks". Its creator, Stephen
Roberts, some years ago peddled across the USA, wirelessly transmitting trip
reports typed out on specially designed, handlebar-mounted keyboards, while he
was simultaneously receiving GPS and e-mail information viewed on a bicycle
helmet-mounted wearable computer heads-up display.
Nomadic
Research Labs
Behemoth:
website
on
display in Silicon Valley at NASA Ames Computer
History Museum
Update Note: Robust GPS systems with GPS receivers now run on PDA's like the
Pocket
PC. For a look at such a system in action, see
Friends Of African Outlet Member Cliff Thompson's article for the Nor Cal Mobile
Computing SIG, "Pharos GPS for Pocket PC".
Resource:
Powered Paragliding
(PPG)
Powered Paragliding (PPG) is
a form of personal flying without an airplane. The system utilizes a
parachute and a small aircraft engine that straps to a backpack on your
back. Both the engine and parachute fit easily within a duffle bag that
can be stored in the trunk of a car. As noted on the popular "Fly
Above All" PPG website, the system "allows you to fly from level ground, without the need for hills, mountains, wind, thermals or a tow rope. Foot-launching and landing also allows you to operate on virtually any type of terrain, such as wet sand, tall grassy fields, bumpy and rocky slopes, or anywhere else that using a wheeled aircraft would be impossible."
Tandem flying is possible by buckling a passenger onto the pilots lap, and very
popular.
PPG offers numerous
business development opportunities including such applications as Exploration in
Science (locating natural resources), Business (locating desirable Real Estate),
Tourism (Adventure Travel experiences) and Emergency Medical Relief.
Tandem
photo
Fly Above All
PoweredParaglider.com
(offers photo/video)
Mojosgear (supplies)
WIRELESS, MOBILE PDA (POCKET PC)
Resource: Mobile Video Conferencing
A Pocket Pocket loaded with a Pocket PC camera can be used for mobile video conferencing across a spectrum of low-to-broadband, using software from Microsoft Research called Microsoft Portrait. As noted on their website, "Microsoft Portrait is a research prototype for mobile video communication. It supports .NET Messenger Service, Session Initiation Protocol and Internet Locator Service on PCs, Pocket PCs and Handheld PCs. It runs on local area networks, dialup networks and even wireless networks with bandwidths as low as 9.6 kilobits/second. Microsoft Portrait delivers portrait-like video if users are in low bandwidths and displays full-color video if users are in broadband.
Microsoft Portrait
Resource: Pocket PC Full-Screen Wearable Display
Interactive Imaging Systems "Second Sight" is a Pocket Pocket head-worn display for viewing documents (such as Microsoft Word, Excel, etc) in full-size mode (640 X 480)
Second Sight
SPECIAL
Wired Magazine (04/03)
Department "Start: Technology. Business. People" story "India's
new mobile carrier: camels" reports:
"
Stuck in Bhiwadi and need to make a call? You'll have to scout out a camel. Few remote regions in India are wired for phones, and it's not for a lack of customers: The country's rural communities are home to 500 to 3,000 people each. As in other developing nations, the cost of laying a landline network is prohibitively high, and cell phones don't work outside urban areas. Fortunately, local outfit Shyam Telelink is setting up more than 200 public mobile phones throughout the state of Rajasthan. In villages, these tellies are mounted on camels, and in cities, they're tethered to bikes. They work like long-range cordless phones, good for meandering roughly 3 square kilometers. Not bad for 2 cents a call.
- Ashutosh Sinha, Wired, 04/03
"
C-Mobile
Update Note: The phone call placed could be from a cell phone, acting as a
modem, connected to a digital phone card, installed on a Pocket PC, establishing
a Wireless Web Connection. For a look at such a system in action, see
Friends Of African Outlet Member Cliff Thompson's article for the Nor Cal Mobile
Computing SIG, "Strong Arm Wrist-top Platform".
Resource: World Computer Project
ARCHITECTURE
The World Computer System is a small wireless network of computers, consisting of a Server computer located in a central "Village Tech Hut" and several Client computers, one each located in each villager's home hut. The computers are powered by solar power panels that power and charge the computer batteries.
The Server computer is wirelessly connected to the Internet, typically via a satellite dish connection. The Server computer contains and "hosts" all the software applications a village might need: word processors, spreadsheets, databases for personal productivity and village business; Internet software for handling e-mail, Websites, Newsgroups and e-Commerce; Videoconferencing software to conduct community meetings, and enable personal communication between relatives, across remote locations; Educational software to conduct home schooling and provide electronic textbooks; Business software to promote individual enterprise and enhance the village's overall economic development.
Each Client computer, in each villager's home hut, is roughly the shape of a standard writing tablet, similar to a laptop and typically called a Remote Display Terminal or Tablet PC. Besides using a keyboard, one can write and draw on the computer screen and the handwriting will be converted to text. One can also talk into a wireless headset and the speech will be converted to text. Each Client computer can connect to the Server computer using a wireless local area network (LAN) to access and run all the software available from the Server. Additionally, using a pair of features typically called Remote Desktop (or Terminal Server) and Virtual Private Network (VPN), multiple users can connect to the server simultaneously, creating a kind of "Virtual Reality" environment consisting of multiple Virtual Users and Virtual Computers. This would enable and support scenarios like the following, all of which can be conducted simultaneously and at any time:
A
student named Ewegbemi's Client computer in "Hut A" logs onto the
server to "go to school" and study algebra from the Server's
electronic textbook.
A
businessman named Olakuotu's Client computer in "Hut B" logs onto
the server to "do some accounting" and "perform spreadsheet
analysis".
An
artist named Aderonke's Client computer in "Hut C" logs onto the
server to search a database of geometric patterns for fabric the artist is
preparing to weave.
An village elder named Kehinde's Client computer in "Hut D" logs onto the server to establish a videoconference with two other chiefs in villages hundreds of miles away to arrange an exchange of cassava roots for a quantity of rice and beans.
APPLICATIONS
The World Computer System
makes it possible to perform many tasks, especially the following:
Education
The World Computer utilizes study-at-home, self-paced training kits, which include online electronic textbooks (eBooks) with supplemental video clips and lab/exam/certification materials, all on CD ROM or DVD, in conjunction with a live, interactive student-teacher "videoconferencing" feature and a "remote access" feature, all running on a wireless mobile portable student computer.
The World Computer System does not require that the student have pencils, paper, or the latest edition of textbooks - these materials are all delivered in electronic form, and include an automatic update feature which continually checks for, and automatically downloads, updated versions of textbooks and other study materials.
The student can direct and conduct their own education - they can study at home or from any location, when and where they have the time, using the electronic textbooks on the computer as well as access to the Internet. When they need help from the teacher, they can use the computer's live, interactive student-teacher "videoconferencing" feature to place a two-way videophone call to a teacher online and ask for help. Using the computer's "remote access" feature, the student and teacher can see each other's computer screen or desktop running in a window on each other's computer, and they can also remotely takeover and operate each other's computer - for example the teacher can "take over the reins" and operate a software program on the student's computer that the student may be having difficult with, to guide them through how a procedure actually works.
The student can conduct their education from any starting point, any grade and continue their studies all the way through college, trade school, University and beyond. For example, in America, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, (MIT), publishes all of its courses in electronic form, online, to the Internet. Other universities offer degree programs over the Internet. Many skills and trades training programs, which include Certification, are also available on the Web.
Work Skills and Business
The World Computer System offers many work-for-pay opportunities.
Contracting
opportunities abound.
Students who have completed educations, receive Degrees and/or
Certifications for various skills and trades training programs, using the
World Computer System, can then offer Consulting and Contracting Services
over the Web. A classic example is offshore contract computer programming -
a self-taught Nigerian Visual Basic programmer writes a piece of software
for a company in Silicon Valley, billing at an hourly rate. The company pays
for the service by a credit card "CyberCash" online financial
transaction, which is deposited by Electronic Funds Transfer to the
programmer's bank account - all done via online banking.
Business
opportunities are great.
The village can setup e-commerce Web sites and create Online Businesses and
Catalogs Stores to do business over the Web, marketing, selling, arranging
for shipment and payment for various village products, all from online
- Craftspeople and Artisans could display and vend their various creations,
while the village itself could sell its various village-level agricultural
specialties, such a certain types of grains it grows, to other buyers.
Community Meeting
and Planning
The World Computer System's
"videoconferencing" feature offers a two-way videophone call facility
that would enable village leaders to setup live, interactive conferencing and
communication meetings with other village personnel in remote locations, even
other "Chiefs" in other villages, towns and countries. For
example, community leaders may need to meet to discuss and workout annual
agricultural plans and sharing of resources. Additionally, a number of special
applications are listed below:
Emergency
Preparedness
Village leaders may videoconference to resolve emergency or crisis issues -
for instance, one village's crop and store of grains is destroyed by flood
or insects, resulting in a severe shortage, possibly leading to starvation,
but this situation is avoided because another chief in the videoconference
announces his village has a surplus of grain this year and so can send it to
the rescue - perhaps in trade for some other available resource.
Remote
Medical Diagnostic Aid
In a medical emergency, when a doctor is not present, videoconferencing can
be used to reach a doctor in a remote location, show them the patient's
condition via the videoconference camera, perform some remote medical
diagnostic testing using special medical computer peripheral devices, (for
example a thermometer/heartbeat device that attaches to patient and
computer, takes the readings and transmits them to the doctor), so the
doctor can recommend a course of action, ideally working with a local
village para-medic, until full medical aid can be provided.
Self-directed Peace Corps work
Villagers can train
themselves to become their own village Peace Corps Volunteers, using the World
Computer System, because the Peace Corps publishes all the Peace Corps Volunteer
Training Manuals on their website. Villagers can download the Training Manuals,
take the courses, learn how to determine problems, find answers, and then create
projects to implement Low-Tech Appropriate Technology ("AT")
solutions. All of the "AT" solutions that the Peace Corps
has developed over the years have also been published on CD ROMs and are thus
available on the computer - a villager can look up a Low-Tech "AT"
solution, for example a Windmill, and download assembly instructions using
commonly available materials.
Tablet PC
Self-Paced Training
Kits
(Sample from Microsoft; see "Editorial Reviews" for info on eBook and Testing/Certification)
MCSE Self-Paced Training Kit: Microsoft Windows 2000
(for "Network Administrator")
MCAD/MCSD Self-Paced Training Kit: Microsoft Visual Basic.NET
(for "'Programmer")
Scientific American
The
Amateur Scientist Column (70 years on CD)
Science
Fair Edition (1000+ Projects)
Project Index
(1, 2,
3)
Amazon
Online
Degrees
eLearners
Videoconferencing
and Remote Access
QuickCam
VC
Netmeeting
CUseeMe
Remote
Desktop and VPN
Terminal
Server
Peace
Corps Online
Community Development
section:
Training Manuals:
Peace Corps Homepage > About
the Peace Corps > Online
Library > Community
Development
Appropriate
Technology Library
Complete
list of books in the AT Library
