Simputer Available?

Anonymous Coward writes "The Simputer (marketed by PicoPeta, the inventors and manufactured by the Defence Electronics PSU - BEL) has a website now and is available for sale (including outside India). Some pics can be found at the picture gallery. This story has been discussed a few times before here at /. here, here and here. Of particular note are some of the features, notably the device goes beyond the typical handheld/PDA and has some brand new innovations. For instance, it uses accelerometers to sense motion and this is used to give commands to the computer (for instance, to zoom a picture, you just have to move the Simputer towards you and to turn a page, you flick it like you would turn a page for a book. Also has an integrated smart card reader plus writer, very useful for several business applications."

Comments

I hear

[Anonymous Coward]

Simputer is planning to outsource the tech support to America because it's cheaper. I bet people in India won't be happy about that.

Over-correction

[bigattichouse]

Although I don't have the problem yet, many old folks have problems focusing at certain distances.. this causes them to move paper or a PDA back and forth.. which would zoom/shrink. They aren't necessarily zooming, so much as finding a focal point... this might lead to some serious over-correction as you try and find a usable size and focal point. hope you can turn it off.

Re:Over-correction

[Monkelectric]

I was thinking the same thing, but I also had another concern ...how much did it cost to implement that feature? I have done some robot building in my day and pretty crappy accelerometer costs 25 - 40$.

Re:Over-correction

[JPriest]

Fsck the PDA, I like the teenager in the first pic.

Amida: "I know this is a bad neighborhood and you are not wearing much, but we need you to pretent like you are using the product and you would do this in your free time."

Re:Over-correction

[Curtman]

I think that gallery would be a hell of a lot more useful if it showed pictures of the device itself rather than grandpa in his pyjama's. Why not show what's happening on the screen instead of models posing with the thing in their hand?

Re:I'm sceptical about...

[Timesprout]

The accelerometers are not intended for the user. They are for the benifit of the Simputer so it realises when it has been dropped or flung in the direction of a wall by an irate user and has time to say its prayers

Seems like a dead end to me

[downix]

I tried to contact the simputer folk on 3 different occasions to license the design to no responce. For being an "open" platform, the docs and schematics are similarly locked-down making it impossible to even do a review.

Re:I don't get it

[InfiniteWisdom]

Perhaps the reason you don't get it is because you're just making wild guesses without bothering to try find out any facts? It currently costs Rs.17000 (~$377) and is expected to cost about Rs.9000 ($200) when mass-produced. Even at $377 it costs way less than high-end PDAs

Try guessing a little less, and obtaining a little more information next time.

Re:Hot Chick

[steveoc]

To quote from the simputer site :

http://www.amidasimputer.com/tour/stop4.php

"Along with a chikki, you can play hours and hours of CD-quality music "

So, Im not sure I read the advert correctly, but it sounds like you DO actually get a Chikki with each simputer.

Either that, or they are available for purchase direct from the site. (Chikki may be available for purchase online, pursuant to the governing laws of your State)

Re:Accelerometers @ ~$15 retail

[YetAnotherGeekGuy]

pretty crappy accelerometer costs 25 - 40$

You can get a 2-axis Analog Devices accelerometer kit for $19.50 for the Mark III mini-sumo robot at The Mark III Store (scroll down a page to the "Accelerometer Kit"). There's a handful of discrete components, and this is essentially a retail price, so figure $15.

The part is actually a MEMS device, so figure 1) a manufacturer can probably buy it at half that price in volume, and 2) there are cheaper non-MEMS devices available on the market.

Zoom-Zoom

[SEWilco]

I believe moving towards you to zoom in has already been implemented at the physical layer, but they can't claim the laws of Physics as a feature.

The feature may have some interesting effects, with the optical zoom interacting with the on-screen zoom.

But as someone mentioned, a jolt on a bus could appear to jiggle the view window over an unmoving "document" -- the same could be done with the Z-axis, so a jolt toward you could reduce the image so as to keep the apparent size the same. (not that the screen has enough resolution to make the reduction optically perfect)

However, motion sickness is caused when the visual movement does not match that of the inner ear. I wonder how an unmoving object would be interpreted; maybe those with head-worn displays have some experience. (The reaction apparently is because many poisons cause visual distortions, so the resulting nausea is intended to trigger vomiting and remove any poisonous material which is still in the stomach.)

Some notable features

[MaximusTheGreat]

For those who can't access the site because it is /.ed or do not want to read the site in the ususal /. tradition, here is a summary of major features
1. Runs Linux
2. Can connect to Internet though a regular phone line or CDMA cellphone
3. Has 2 USB ports built in
4. Has a inbuilt voice recorder
5. Aslo works as a MP3 and movie player(combine with the USB storage and ...you get the idea)
6. Has lots of inbuilt apps including internet browser, email, accounting and a panchanga ( Indian calender system used to figure out auspicious inauspicious days) etc.
7. Can wrie in multiple languages using a "bhasha" notebook software inbuilt and a special keyboard.
8. Gesture input using a inbuilt accelerometer

Other benefits
http://amidasimputer.com/benefits/
And you can buy it from here:
http://www.amidasimputer.com/buy