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Chitra Phadnis

The aim: Adapting technology to human beings rather than the other way round. And Xerox-PARC has done it by developing devices such as the e-Shiva egg and the e-rickshaw.

XEROX-PARC (Palo Alto Research Centre, where the world's first graphic user interface and the SmallTalk-80 object-oriented programming was developed) has an unusual project on in India. This technology company has been researching methods of making technology more human-friendly. The brief was simple: "Why should humans always adapt to tech? Why not make tech easy and natural for human beings to use?"

Feeling at home

The group came up with a variety of interface devices that were a lot more instinctive than the ordinary keyboard-mouse devices.

Devices with names such as e-Shiva egg, the e-rickshaw and the 360 degree Tilty screen, have been developed which can be used by just anyone. "No one needs to know anything about technology. You can get information instinctively," says Mustafa Siddiqui, a team member.

The research group's demo chose to base its projects on subjects that were very Indian, such as Benaras ("which is a microcosm of India") and Shiva. "We wanted to produce technology in India in an Indian way," explains Siddiqui.

The "Interactive Physical Icons", are real physical objects such as a wooden trishul, ring and so on which can be placed on the cursor. The system understands this as a command for more information on the trishul.

The e-rickshaw (a real rickshaw with a screen fitted on the seat) demonstrates best the kind of instinctive interaction built into the products. Someone who has never seen a keyboard and a mouse would be bewildered by a PC as we know it, but anyone looking at the e-rickshaw would instinctively turn the handle bars, the key to steering through a video on Benaras in the demo project. Ringing the rickshaw bell would bring more pictures and information on the screen.

The e-Shiva egg, an egg-shaped device that can be cradled in a palm with buttons on the side, works like any palmtop. The demo device has information on Shiva and so was shaped to feel like Shiva.

The 360-degree swivel display can be turned around a full circle and the screen shows various Benaras skylines as if through a handycam.

The Crossing Project, as it was called, was the brainchild of Ranjit Makkuni, a multimedia researcher at Xerox-PARC, who is also a designer and musician. Makkuni continues to explore the "non-button pushing, gesture-based interfaces" and tries to bridge the traditional and the contemporary.

It was begun purely as a research project and the team has exhibited 21 products in Mumbai at the National Gallery of Modern Art, says Siddiqui.

Three exhibitions later, the team has some commercial projects on hand. Some of the requests have come in from the tourism sector, a large media group, a GSM operator and even a large public sector unit.

chitphad@thehindu.co.in

Please e-mail us at eworld@thehindu.co.in if you have queries on computer usage or if you find an interesting way of using a computer.

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