India’s Aadhar Bhalinge is the winner of m2Work, a World Bank-sponsored online challenge seeking the best ideas for spurring the job-creation potential of mobile phones. The competition organized by Nokia and infoDev, a World Bank innovation and technology entrepreneurship program, drew a total of 939 ideas, 96% of which came from developing and emerging economies. [...]
AIDS related deaths account for close to 60% of all total deaths annually and mobile phone penetration has doubled over the last 10 years. It is for these reasons that the World Health Organisation (WHO) embarked on an investigation to determine whether mobile phone technology could be used to transform the delivery of health care [...]
Imagine a vaccine box that sends you an SMS everytime the temperature in it rises, threatening the quality of vaccines in it. Indian scientists are calling it “a thermometer with a SIMCARD in it” . In what will greatly reduce vaccines going bad due to temperature fluctuations – a phenomenon that could endanger the life [...]
The project would provide 150 MTN motorized custom tricycles worth GH¢ 468,882.00 to physically challenged persons in high traffic locations across the country. The tricycles, powered by solar-enabled devices, would serve as sales points for airtime, SIM cards, and SIM and mobile money registration among others. Mrs Cynthia Lumor, Corporate Services Executive-MTN, launching the project [...]
Chartered Health Plan, Inc., the oldest Medicaid managed care organization in the nation’s capital, is launching a new text-messaging program for its diabetic members that will disseminate diabetes-related information on their mobile phones to keep members involved in their own care. Chartered executives also said they plan to establish personal health records for their members. [...]
Some people quit smoking on the first try while others have to quit repeatedly. Using such mobile technology as hand-held computers and smartphones, a team of researchers from Penn State and the University of Pittsburgh is trying to find out why. “One thing that really stood out among the relapsers is how their urge to [...]
Intuit has set up a pilot program that allows farmers in India to find the best prices for their crops, simply by exchanging a few SMS messages on their cell phones. “We’re making a difference in farmers’ financial lives and saving them time too,” said Intuit Chief Technology Officer Tayloe Stansbury. Intuit demonstrated the service [...]
While there’s often discussion about the promise of mobiles for development, an important aspect of developing projects that focus on mobile tech is a deep uinderstanding of how individuals already use their mobile devices. “Anthropology, Development and ICTs: Slums, Youth and the Mobile Internet in Urban India” takes a close look at how young people [...]
A company called NantWorks launched the LookTel Recognizer app, enabling blind or visually impaired users to recognize an object instantly by simply pointing their iPhone camera at it and listening to the phone tell them what it is. Recognition happens in real time, with no need to hold the camera still or take a photo, [...]
Across many malaria-endemic areas in rural Africa, the communication gap between managers, health workers, and patients is a significant barrier to efficient malaria control. The rapid expansion of mobile network coverage and the widespread availability of basic handsets have the potential to substantively bridge the communication gap. Text messaging, as the least-expensive mobile phone function [...]
