DNA October 08, 2009

A ten-member team from the Human Centered Design and Computing Group at the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) Pune is working on a project to design touch screen kiosks for the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangraalaya (formerly the Prince of Wales Museum) in Mumbai.

The project, which started a month ago, is likely to be completed by the end of next year.

"This is one of the projects we are doing as part of developing applications which are targeted at specific target groups. There is an immense need to develop applications that can cater to customers as per their need instead of following the universal code," said group coordinator, Human Centred Design and Computing Group at C-DAC Dinesh Katre.

"We are designing ten touch screen kiosks wherein visitors will not only get relevant information on artifacts, but will also get a feel of the object on the monitors kept at the kiosks," he added.

The group has recently developed new keypad designs for cellphones which can support the Devnagri script and technologies through which uneducated people could also use smart phones.

A two-day international workshop of International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) started in the city on Wednesday. Katre is also a part of the international panel of IFIP.

IFIP is working towards understanding Usability in Social, Cultural and Organizational contexts being carried out with Copenhagen Business School and Aarbus University in Denmark along with Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati.

The theme of the conference is Cultural Usability and Human Work Interaction Design which is of prime importance in the context of growing investments by the Union government on e-governance, e-learning, e-health and applications of information system to empower rural and agricultural population of India.