Slashdot Mirror
TiVo++ from India
charmer writes "According to a story in rediff, a company in India, Divinet Technologies, have developed a set top box that plays video cds, offers sms, email, chat, plays mp3s, acts as a game box, has a web cam, video on demand, and a digital VCR, and has a multilingual interface (a necessity in India.) And it looks pretty good too :-) No pricing given though."
Could they have jam-packed ONE more area of technology into this box? It seems that the only thing they forgot to include was a detachable PDA or perhaps an integrated Gameboy.
Don't get me wrong. I want one. Now.
Any plans to come to the US soon?
My little sad piece of the internet: www.mtndewd
A TV set that combines the Internet with a VCR, Web cam, Karaoke system and more. Possible? Yes
To begin at the beginning, a couple of questions: What costs less than a dial-up connection, but gives you broadband Internet access upto 10 MB per second? What uses your TV set to offer Real-Video-on-Demand, SMS, email, chat, unlimited MP3s, online gaming, video-conferencing, telephony, and interactive education? What doubles up as your VCD, Web cam, Karaoke system, jukebox and VCR?
The answer: The WICE box.
Developed by P R Eknath, Sanjay Wandhekar, and B P Narayan -- founder members of CDAC, the brains behind India's PARAM-supercomputer, and currently the management team at Divinet Access Technologies Ltd, Pune -- this little gizmo is no larger than an overhead projector. Called the WICE (Window for Information, Communication and Entertainment) Box, or WICEMAN, it is Eknath's brainchild; his dream of creating a generic platform that can run any application.
The best thing is, it is a boon to India's Net users.
"The actual implementation was done by Sanjay Wandhekar, ex-coordinator of hardware technology group at C-DAC," says Eknath. Wandhekar has more than a decade of experience in systems and ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuits) design and is an expert in converting scientific concepts into marketable products. "Name the application and we will make it happen on this network," he adds, confidently.
The technology, also known as RAMNet (Remote Access Metropolitan Network), runs on a Metropolitan Area Network (MAN). Eknath explains: "Being in a local loop, the speed is tremendous and a digital signal ensures the highest quality with zero distortion. It consists of a Distribution Module (DM) box installed in every building or multi-dwelling unit (MDU), with a WICE box in every user's house. Each DM supports 16 users. A single wire brings you all the services."
Plug your TV into the WICE box and a fluorescent green menu prompts you to select from live channels, Video-on-Demand (VOD), MP3 music, chat and learning, email and SMS. The joy comes from knowing that you pay only for the TV channels you watch!
"We are implementing a Conditional Access System (CAS)," says Eknath. "No more paying for 80 channels when all you want is Star Plus and BBC. Also, you can record your favourite TV programmes and view them at leisure, just like a VCR." You can also record remotely, using SMS!
VOD lets you watch your choice of movie at your convenience. You can fast-forward, rewind or pause, as if it's your own mini-movie theatre. "In fact, one client wants to build movie theatres with no regular movies running. You hire the theatre, select the movie and watch it with your own crowd," says Eknath. Stunned yet? There's more. Such as unlimited MP3 titles. You can also use the Karaoke function and re-record classics using your own voice.
The icing on this huge cake is the email and chat without an Internet connection. When Anupam, Divinet's multilingual software expert (and also the brain behind CDAC's GIST technology), actually sent me email on my cellular phone using the TV set I was staring at, I began looking at it as if it were the eighth wonder of the world.
The email can be in any Indian language, you can chat online (when you're not actually 'online'), and even see the person you're talking to if you choose video-conferencing. Your email address is Yourname.number@DivinetAccess.com, incorporating a unique identification number for every user.
If that's not enough, the RAMNet also allows you to SMS without a cellular phone. Type your message on the TV screen, enter the recipient's number and send. Since it runs on MAN, the services are within your city limits, but Eknath soon plans to provide inter-city access using content replication. "There is no need for movies and MP3 files to travel globally. They can be accessed from a l
You can watch a VCD that was recorded using your web cam of you playing video games while listening to MP3s.
Or you can read an SMS that tells you to check your e-mail that contains an chat log reminding you to record a show tonight.
Or you can chat with your web cam. Wait, that's not right. This device can do so many goddamned things I'm getting confused.
To begin at the beginning, a couple of questions: What costs less than a dial-up connection, but gives you broadband Internet access upto 10 MB per second? What uses your TV set to offer Real-Video-on-Demand, SMS, email, chat, unlimited MP3s, online gaming, video-conferencing, telephony, and interactive education? What doubles up as your VCD, Web cam, Karaoke system, jukebox and VCR?
Linux!
"I'd rather have a full bottle in front of me than a full frontal lobotomy"
the guys are from CDAC and they are a government funded agency. They do real good work on computing and super-computing. (I have a friend who writes network drivers for supercomputers... now that is a cool job) I do not agree that this product is because of people developing experience while getting work done for cheap.
Still no pricing though.
Check out their FAQ tho and it says one of the reasons PPL should prefer their services is:
"Future: Telephony @ affordable cost."
"this is one of the dreaded consequences of outsourcing jobs to India."
Oddly enough, American technology is to a large extent, devleoped by Indians. Consider this: about 30% of Microsoft employees are Indians. Similarly, NASA has more than 25% Inidans.Outside of Seattle, the only other development centers for MS is in Hyderabad, Inida and Israel.
Secondly, remember that American Corporate success depends on countries like India for their markets. Why'd you think Bill Gates spent 4 days in India? Philanthropy? AIDS aids? Think again.
"I mean, the development of these type of technology used to be the patrimony of the US."
See what this has led to... most of the innovation in the US suffers from this self-centred outlook. The Media-Center PC edition is an example. Sony, Toshiba, Panasonic etc. have now joined to put Linux onto their electronics. American tech focusses on 'lock-in' and 'lock-out' rather than 'features' and open-ness. Take GPS, Qualcomm, Microsoft and Adobe as examples.
Cellphones within the US are generally a few generations behind Europe, Japan and even India!!
" Is this the result of the US losing their position as main providers of R&D?"
On the contrary, it's the result of pampering a few US entities for actions which Americans wouldn't stand for, from other nations. I'd name Microsoft, Adobe, Qualcomm etc. in this list.
It's also a result of the American education system, though I'd need to write a lot to explain this.
"What will be left afterwards?"
The fruits of what's been sown. For starters, I'd suggest Americans need to be more understanding, tolerant and mature. There's no need to get angry at the French or paranoid about job-loss to third-world Indians. A little introspection will go a long way.
If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
I mean, if all the jobs are heading there anyway, why not! Learn a new language, eat new and exotic foods, and a fast Internet connection on-demand. Don't even think of asking AT&T or Comdex for that feature/convenience.
:D
Is the American tech industry slipping because of copyright battles? Will we be importing more devices from India than Japan in the future or will devices like WICE be banned in the US because they may be considered a violation of the DMCA?
AllI know is that I would love to have a box like that without having to know all sorts of software and hardware hacks/tricks just to make it work on Linux. And they put it in such a pretty (but bright!) box!
Maybe they'll offer skins
What would happen to these products if the television networks and electronics companies would get HDTV out of stagnation and into actual homes for a reasonable price? Could any current storage media hold a sufficient amount of HDTV broadcast at a reasonable quality or would Tivo and all of these devices like it be obsoleted until HDs could catch up to the massive amount of space required for the high resolution signal?
Nothing from nowhere I'm no one at all
Divinet Access Website here
More Information on the Technology here
Rapid Nirvana
Hmm - No. Not due to job outsourcing... but its certainly a result of technology that was born in the US.
I said "No" because the people behind this are (from the article) "founder members of CDAC, the brains behind India's PARAM-supercomputer". If I recall correctly, CDAC was setup by the Government of India in the late 80s as a direct consequence of the US *withholding* export of supercomputers to India for fear it would be used for defense research (more specifically, nuclear research). As a result, the CDAC people built massively parallel supercomputers from off-the-shelf CPUs (IIRC, they still used American CPUs - off-the-shelf 8086s (?) to begin with). They have some very cluey guys with a lot of experience born from research efforts like creating the complex electronics for interfacing supercomputers. Now it seems some of those people are moving to the private sector - kind of like with Govt. spending jumpstarting the computer revolution in the US.
A sign of what's to come? Is this the result of the US losing their position as main providers of R&D? What will be left afterwards? An economy of service?
I think every country needs a *balance* of free trade and protection of weaker industries. A "we can sell to you, but you can't sell to us" mentality is ultimately is bad for everyone concerned; from what I understand, 2/3rds of US income derives from exports.
At the end of the day, I'm sure your leaders have an eye on industry and employment figures. If not, you elect new ones.
Do you seriously think that US companies could not have invented a convergence box like the one above? Absolutely not. Afterall, US perfected the use of TiVos and other flavors of PVRs, which got hacked and modified initially. Then if you remember, TiVo bent under the Advertising Corporations' pressure and went from a hacker-friendly box preducer to an essentially a closed, DRM device producer with Series 2. You can't easily hack it anymore to fetch the data, modify software, etc.
So this move from lobbies and corporations who felt that TiVo was cutting into their advertising pie, seriously hampered the ability of producers to put out better, cheaper, open devices. No one is willing to give market something which would be designated to please both the population and the corporate entities who feel they're getting ripped off (For the record, I believe these allegations hold no ground). There are no companies dumb enough to go against already-established PVR makers, additionally opening second and third fronts with DVD and console producers in the competition department. MPAA, RIAA, DMCA and other 4-letter evils will rain down on this producer till they crack under pressure.
So yeah. You should first and formost blame the corporate forces for slowing down technology for the sake of few millions in advertising revenue.
That's my take on it.
Western capitalist markets are based on continuous long term growth. Yet it is plain obvious that the markets cannot grow forever. This means that system is fundamentally flawed and will have to be modified in the future towards conservation of resources, controlled markets and zero-growth economies.
How this will be achieved, however, is unclear since the public has been brainwashed to believe that (representative) democracy and capitalism are the same thing. Just try saying that there is something wrong about capitalism or the reckless consumption based societies and you are immediatelly labelled as a luddite and communist who is hell-bent on replacing democracy with a Soviet-like dictatoriship.
I have seen many cool product announcements in India, especially during the boom times. Most have fizzled, some are struggling. Slashdot has also carried some articles: Kaii, Simputer I have rarely seen any of these products being sold and used significantly. (I am from Bangalore, India). I would say India has not yet acquired the ability to develop and market complete embedded high technology products. But soon we may get there. Its a dream for many geeks in India that once a few products click. It would open the flood gates of Indian product innovations. Hope the Slashdot crowd will wish us good luck. :-)
Yes, for years the US has lead the world supplying useless acronyms (UA's) for anything vaguely technology or business related (VTBR). Judging from the article, it would seem that the Indians are catching up very strongly in this area (VSITA).
Maybe they've skipped actual innovation and gone straight for management and marketing.
What is the inverse of the Matrix?
From the article (you did, read it, didn't you?)
If you did buy one of these, you'd have to run that wire all the way back to India.yo.
Wow. High technology indeed. Apart from the high-speed Internet access and movie access (I'll believe it when it starts, companies have been claiming its just round the corner for near to a decade), its just a prototype red box with stuff crammed into it. Guess what, I can watch VCDs (and even DVDs), listen to mp3s, chat, read my email, watch TV and sends text messages from my $1000 PC. Putting together the components in a red box isn't a big deal for a competent engineer.
The internet and movie claims are the only interesting aspect. But I'll believe that when I see it.
They are evil
Ah finally Friday.
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