Microsoft Research: How to Help Illiterate People Use Computers From: Associated Press - 03/01/2006 By: Allison Linn A Microsoft research and development lab in India is exploring ways to bring technology to that country's illiterate domestic workers. Microsoft is gearing the technology, presented at the company's Research Techfest, to illiterate women in search of work by connecting them with families in need of domestic help. Creating the system, which relies heavily on pictures, voice commands, and video, challenged Microsoft's development team to shed their preconceived notions of what technology should do and how it should operate. Test subjects helped the researchers refine the system, introducing a level of abstraction into images that the domestic workers had interpreted too literally, and adjusting interactive maps to rely more on landmarks than actual addresses. To convince the women that technology was a more efficient way to find work than word-of-mouth, the researchers created a video depicting a scene where a woman complains to her husband that she needs a new job, and then finds one by using a computer. Carnegie Mellon professor Raj Reddy, who is advising Microsoft in its work in India, notes that companies are often out of touch with the computing needs of people in rural areas with poor literacy skills, and that the most effective uses of technology will be in applications that have a familiar feel, such as videoconferencing with family members or watching videos on the PC. Microsoft is also considering a public kiosk in a community center as it struggles with the logistics of deploying technology in areas where most people do not own computers. Raj Reddy is co-recipient of ACM's 1994 A.M. Turing Award Read the entire article at: (Registration required) http://www.kgw.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D8G2VQF8B.html Links: AM Turing Award - Raj Reddy http://www.acm.org/awards/citations/reddy.html Software helps the illiterate find work http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/ptech/03/02/microsoft.illiterate.tech.ap/index.html http://edition.cnn.com/2006/TECH/ptech/03/02/microsoft.illiterate.tech.ap/index.html Microsoft researching ways to help illiterate use computers http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06065/663676.stm Microsoft seeking ways to help illiterate http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techinnovations/2006-03-01-illiteracy-microsoft_x.htm http://www.businessweek.com/ap/tech/D8G34N0O2.htm http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MICROSOFT_ILLITERACY?SITE=ORPOR&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT http://www.happynews.com/news/312006/microsoft-seeking-ways-to-help-illiterate.htm http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2006/03/01/114456-microsoft-seeking-ways-to-help-illiterate?pp=1