Sweden is racing to become the first developed country whose people regularly pay for things with their mobile phones. The country’s four leading mobile phone companies will soon launch a combined mobile wallet service, which will allow payments at shops, between users, and to vending and parking machines. The scheme uses “near field communications” to [...]
The average auto refractor–that clunky-looking device eye doctors use to pinpoint your prescription–weighs about 40 pounds, costs $10,000, and is virtually impossible to find in a rural village in the developing world. As a result, some half a billion people are living with vision problems, which make it tough to read and work. Ramesh Raskar [...]
Suman, a rural woman living in Gaura village, today uses mobile phone for twin purposes — for communication and enhancing learning skill. Not only Suman but many other rural women, like Jyoti and Sunita of Chiraigaon and Urmila of Prahaladpur, are also using mobile phones as a tool for learning alphabets and calculation. “I was [...]
Mobile health platforms are fast emerging in Kenya, where one startup’s newly launched mobile health platform is attracting nearly 1,000 downloads daily, and the dominant telecom, Safaricom, has forged a partnership that will give its 18 million subscribers access to doctors. A World Bank official sees significant promise from such efforts, pointing to the [...]
Global events in 2011 demonstrated the impact that technology plays in driving social change movements. A new Walden University survey of 11 countries shows that most adults in countries around the world (89%, on average) agree that technology can turn a cause into a movement faster than anything else can. These views were particularly prevalent in Spain (93%), Canada(91%), Brazil (91%), Great Britain (91%) [...]
Radiations emitted from cellphones may protect against and even reverse Alzheimer’s disease, a new study has revealed. Researchers at the University of South Florida conducted a study that exposed 96 mice, most of whom had been genetically altered to develop the Alzheimer’s disease as they aged, to electromagnetic waves generated by mobile phones. Read the [...]
In a society where girls often get married by the age of 17 and have four kids by the time they turn 21, women typically face violence in one form or another, be it physical or mental, says Preeti Soni from Kutch, Gujarat. Soni is the executive director of Kutch Mahila Vikas Samiti (KMVS), which [...]
NEXT time you’re tapping off a private text message or sensitive email in a public place, consider this: someone could be reading every letter you type from up to 60 metres away. “We can be in the second floor of a building and read a phone on the ground,” says computer vision researcher Jan-Michael Frahm, [...]
A new medical identification bracelet that came on the market Tuesday uses text messaging to convey detailed medical information to first responders. The TextID bracelets from the medical jewelry company Hope Paige are engraved with an identification number that, when sent via text, can access an individual’s emergency information, including an extensive medical history, current medications [...]
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has launched an electronic food voucher pilot project — the first of its kind in the world to use mobile phone technology — to aid 1,000 Iraqi refugee families in Syria. Iraqi refugees living in Damascus will receive a text message on their mobiles providing a code enabling [...]
