ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Vinay Venkatraman - Designer
Vinay Venkatraman aims to design technological devices for the "bottom of the pyramid" rather than simply for the affluent.

Why you should listen

Designer Vinay Venkatraman is committed to creating a digitally inclusive world. A founding partner at the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design, Vinay aims to design for the populations of the world who don't have access to the latest tech gadget. He calls his outlook "Frugal Digital."

Vinay’s background is in industrial design, and he began his career fashioning bicycles and kitchen appliances. He was soon enticed by filmmaking and worked as visual effects designer for a leading post production house, Prime Focus Ltd, on various advertisements and movies. He later shifted his focus to software products, working as a product designer at Microsoft for emerging technologies.

Vinay’s work has been written about in leading design magazines and popular blogs. He has also taught courses at Aarhus University, IUAV University in Venice and the IT University of Copenhagen.

More profile about the speaker
Vinay Venkatraman | Speaker | TED.com
TEDxSummit

Vinay Venkatraman: Technology crafts for the digitally underserved

Filmed:
624,179 views

Two-thirds of the world may not have access to the latest smartphone, but local electronic shops are adept at fixing older tech using low-cost parts. Vinay Venkatraman explains his work in "technology crafts," through which a mobile phone, a lunchbox and a flashlight can become a digital projector for a village school, or an alarm clock and a mouse can be melded into a medical device for local triage.
- Designer
Vinay Venkatraman aims to design technological devices for the "bottom of the pyramid" rather than simply for the affluent. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:12
Frugal Digital is essentially a small research group at C.I.D.
0
502
5285
00:17
where we are looking to find
1
5787
2143
00:19
alternate visions of how to create a digitally inclusive society.
2
7930
4540
00:24
That's what we're after.
3
12470
1808
00:26
And we do this because we actually believe
4
14278
2180
00:28
that silicon technology today is mostly about
5
16458
3274
00:31
a culture of excess.
6
19732
1752
00:33
It's about the fastest and the most efficient
7
21484
2173
00:35
and the most dazzling gadget you can have,
8
23657
2430
00:38
while about two-thirds of the world
9
26087
2898
00:40
can hardly reach the most basic of this technology
10
28985
3684
00:44
to even address fundamental needs in life,
11
32669
3583
00:48
including health care, education
12
36252
2168
00:50
and all these kinds of very fundamental issues.
13
38420
4079
00:54
So before I start, I want to talk about a little anecdote,
14
42499
3245
00:57
a little story about a man I met once in Mumbai.
15
45744
4023
01:01
So this man, his name is Sathi Shri.
16
49767
2187
01:03
He is an outstanding person,
17
51954
2106
01:06
because he's a small entrepreneur.
18
54060
2142
01:08
He runs a little shop
19
56202
1742
01:09
in one of the back streets of Mumbai.
20
57944
2003
01:11
He has this little 10-square-meter store,
21
59947
3048
01:14
where so much is being done.
22
62995
2150
01:17
It's incredible, because I couldn't believe my eyes
23
65145
1905
01:19
when I once just happened to bump into him.
24
67050
2483
01:21
Basically, what he does is, he has all these services
25
69533
2125
01:23
for micro-payments and booking tickets
26
71658
2753
01:26
and all kinds of basic things that you would go online for,
27
74411
3333
01:29
but he does it for people offline
28
77744
2189
01:31
and connects to the digital world.
29
79933
1997
01:33
More importantly, he makes his money
30
81930
1505
01:35
by selling these mobile recharge coupons, you know,
31
83435
2593
01:38
for the prepaid subscriptions.
32
86028
2275
01:40
But then, in the backside, he's got this little nook
33
88303
3241
01:43
with a few of his employees
34
91544
2573
01:46
where they can fix almost anything.
35
94117
2584
01:48
Any cell phone, any gadget you can bring them, they can fix it.
36
96701
3258
01:51
And it's pretty incredible because I took my iPhone there,
37
99959
3118
01:55
and he was like, "Yeah, do you want an upgrade?"
38
103077
2169
01:57
"Yes." (Laughter)
39
105246
2318
01:59
I was a bit skeptical, but then, I decided
40
107564
1940
02:01
to give him a Nokia instead. (Laughter)
41
109504
4633
02:06
But what I was amazed about is this reverse engineering
42
114137
5215
02:11
and know-how that's built into this little two meters of space.
43
119352
4952
02:16
They have figured out everything that's required
44
124304
2591
02:18
to dismantle, take things apart,
45
126895
2026
02:20
rewrite the circuitry, re-flash the firmware,
46
128921
2959
02:23
do whatever you want to with the phone,
47
131880
1967
02:25
and they can fix anything so quickly.
48
133847
2569
02:28
You can hand over a phone this morning
49
136416
2000
02:30
and you can go pick it up after lunch,
50
138416
1920
02:32
and it was quite incredible.
51
140336
1920
02:34
But then we were wondering whether this is
52
142256
1571
02:35
a local phenomenon, or is truly global?
53
143827
2542
02:38
And, over time, we started understanding
54
146369
2250
02:40
and systematically researching
55
148619
1719
02:42
what this tinkering ecosystem is about,
56
150338
2116
02:44
because that is something that's happening
57
152454
1605
02:46
not just in one street corner in Mumbai.
58
154059
2032
02:48
It's actually happening in all parts of the country.
59
156091
3114
02:51
It's even happening in Africa, like, for example,
60
159205
2261
02:53
in Cape Town we did extensive research on this.
61
161466
2047
02:55
Even here in Doha I found this little nook
62
163513
3195
02:58
where you can get alarm clocks and watches fixed,
63
166708
2887
03:01
and it's a lot of tiny little parts. It's not easy.
64
169595
3201
03:04
You've got to try it on your own to believe it.
65
172796
2113
03:06
But what fuels this?
66
174909
1554
03:08
It's this entire ecosystem of low-cost parts
67
176463
3508
03:11
and supplies that are produced all over the world, literally,
68
179971
3306
03:15
and then redistributed to basically service this industry,
69
183277
3766
03:19
and you can even buy salvaged parts.
70
187043
2171
03:21
Basically, you don't have to necessarily buy
71
189214
2156
03:23
brand new things. You have condemned computers
72
191370
2463
03:25
that are stripped apart,
73
193833
1307
03:27
and you can buy salvaged components
74
195140
1570
03:28
and things that you can reassemble in a new configuration.
75
196710
3821
03:32
But what does this new, sort of, approach give us?
76
200531
3481
03:36
That's the real question, because this is something
77
204012
1920
03:37
that's been there, part of every society
78
205932
2225
03:40
that's deprived of enough resources.
79
208157
2366
03:42
But there's an interesting paradigm.
80
210523
1897
03:44
There's the traditional crafts,
81
212420
1492
03:45
and then there's the technology crafts.
82
213912
2003
03:47
We call it the technology crafts because these are emerging.
83
215915
2208
03:50
They're not something that's been established.
84
218123
2072
03:52
It's not something that's institutionalized.
85
220195
2667
03:54
It's not taught in universities.
86
222862
1771
03:56
It's taught [by] word of mouth,
87
224633
1723
03:58
and it's an informal education system around this.
88
226356
1909
04:00
So we said, "What can we get out of this?
89
228265
2802
04:03
You know, like, what are the key values that we can get out of this?"
90
231067
2734
04:05
The main thing is a fix-it-locally culture,
91
233801
2345
04:08
which is fantastic because it means that your product
92
236146
2340
04:10
or your service doesn't have to go through
93
238486
2045
04:12
a huge bureaucratic system to get it fixed.
94
240531
2608
04:15
It also affords us cheap fabrication, which is fantastic,
95
243139
3079
04:18
so it means that you can do a lot more with it.
96
246218
2032
04:20
And then, the most important thing is,
97
248250
2314
04:22
it gives us large math for low cost.
98
250564
2376
04:24
So it means that you can actually embed
99
252940
2329
04:27
pretty clever algorithms and lots of other kinds
100
255269
3525
04:30
of extendable ideas into really simple devices.
101
258794
3658
04:34
So, what we call this is a silicon cottage industry.
102
262452
4808
04:39
It's basically what was the system or the paradigm
103
267260
2946
04:42
before the industrial revolution is now re-happening
104
270206
2464
04:44
in a whole new way in small digital shops
105
272670
3008
04:47
across the planet in most developing countries.
106
275678
3081
04:50
So, we kind of toyed around with this idea,
107
278759
4134
04:54
and we said, "What can we do with this?
108
282893
1678
04:56
Can we make a little product or a service out of it?"
109
284571
2528
04:59
So one of the first things we did is this thing called
110
287099
2420
05:01
a multimedia platform. We call it a lunch box.
111
289519
2396
05:03
Basically one of the contexts that we studied was
112
291915
2751
05:06
schools in very remote parts of India.
113
294666
3487
05:10
So there is this amazing concept called the one-teacher school,
114
298153
3259
05:13
which is basically a single teacher who is a multitasker
115
301412
2702
05:16
who teaches this amazing little social setting.
116
304114
2477
05:18
It's an informal school,
117
306591
1537
05:20
but it's really about holistic education.
118
308128
2159
05:22
The only thing that they don't have
119
310287
1238
05:23
is access to resources. They don't even have a textbook
120
311525
2394
05:25
sometimes, and they don't even have a proper curriculum.
121
313919
2827
05:28
So we said, "What can we do to empower this teacher
122
316746
3504
05:32
to do more?" How to access the digital world?
123
320250
2812
05:35
Instead of being the sole guardian of information,
124
323062
2562
05:37
be a facilitator to all this information.
125
325624
2404
05:40
So we said, "What are the steps required to empower the teacher?"
126
328028
3384
05:43
How do you make this teacher into a digital gateway,
127
331412
2655
05:46
and how do you design an inexpensive multimedia platform
128
334067
2532
05:48
that can be constructed locally and serviced locally?"
129
336599
2992
05:51
So we walked around.
130
339591
2343
05:53
We went and scavenged the nearby markets,
131
341934
2290
05:56
and we tried to understand, "What can we pick up that will make this happen?"
132
344224
4021
06:00
So the thing that we got
133
348245
2527
06:02
was a little mobile phone with a little pico projector
134
350772
3207
06:05
that comes for about 60 dollars.
135
353979
2337
06:08
We went a bought a flashlight with a very big battery,
136
356316
2456
06:10
and a bunch of small speakers.
137
358772
1790
06:12
So essentially, the mobile phone gives us
138
360562
2298
06:14
a connected multimedia platform.
139
362860
1924
06:16
It allows us to get online and allows us to load up files
140
364784
3485
06:20
of different formats and play them.
141
368269
2351
06:22
The flashlight gives us this really intense, bright L.E.D.,
142
370620
3026
06:25
and six hours worth of rechargeable battery pack,
143
373646
2991
06:28
and the lunch box is a nice little package
144
376637
2216
06:30
in which you can put everything inside,
145
378853
2047
06:32
and a bunch of mini speakers to sort of
146
380900
1563
06:34
amplify the sound large enough.
147
382463
1418
06:35
Believe me, those little classrooms are really noisy.
148
383881
3539
06:39
They are kids who scream at the top of their voices,
149
387420
2593
06:42
and you really have to get above that.
150
390013
1660
06:43
And we took it back to this little tinkering setup
151
391673
2721
06:46
of a mobile phone repair shop,
152
394394
2090
06:48
and then the magic happens.
153
396484
1428
06:49
We dismantle the whole thing,
154
397912
1381
06:51
we reassemble it in a new configuration,
155
399293
2357
06:53
and we do this hardware mashup,
156
401650
2178
06:55
systematically training the guy how to do this.
157
403828
2609
06:58
Out comes this, a little lunch box -- form factor.
158
406437
3455
07:01
(Applause)
159
409892
6826
07:08
And we systematically field tested,
160
416718
3018
07:11
because in the field testing we learned some
161
419736
2368
07:14
important lessons, and we went through many iterations.
162
422104
2517
07:16
One of the key issues was battery consumption and charging.
163
424621
2695
07:19
Luminosity was an issue, when you have too much bright sunlight outside.
164
427316
3978
07:23
Often the roofs are broken, so you don't have enough
165
431294
2552
07:25
darkness in the classroom to do these things.
166
433846
3128
07:28
We extended this idea. We tested it many times over,
167
436974
2842
07:31
and the next version we came up with was a box
168
439816
2578
07:34
that kind of could trickle charge on solar energy,
169
442394
2380
07:36
but most importantly connect to a car battery,
170
444774
2799
07:39
because a car battery is a ubiquitous source of power
171
447573
2994
07:42
in places where there's not enough electricity
172
450567
2207
07:44
or erratic electricity.
173
452774
1960
07:46
And the other key thing that we did was
174
454734
1969
07:48
make this box run off a USB key, because we realized
175
456703
2462
07:51
that even though there was GPRS and all that on paper,
176
459165
3354
07:54
at least, in theory, it was much more efficient
177
462519
2575
07:57
to send the data on a little USB key by surface mail.
178
465094
3890
08:00
It might take a few days to get there,
179
468984
1840
08:02
but at least it gets there in high definition
180
470824
2374
08:05
and in a reliable quality.
181
473198
2215
08:07
So we made this box, and we tested it again
182
475413
2282
08:09
and again and again, and we're going through
183
477695
1535
08:11
multiple iterations to do these things.
184
479230
1549
08:12
But it's not limited to just education.
185
480779
2969
08:15
This kind of a technique or metrology
186
483748
1866
08:17
can actually be applied to other kinds of areas,
187
485614
2012
08:19
and I'm going to tell you one more little story.
188
487626
1908
08:21
It's about this little device called a medi-meter.
189
489534
2455
08:23
It's basically a little health care screening tool that we developed.
190
491989
3367
08:27
In India, there is a context of these amazing people,
191
495356
3327
08:30
the health care workers called ASHA workers.
192
498683
2279
08:32
They are essentially foot soldiers for the health care system
193
500962
2417
08:35
who live in the local community and are trained
194
503379
2384
08:37
with basic tools and basic concepts of health care,
195
505763
2568
08:40
and the main purpose is basically to inform people
196
508331
3762
08:44
to basically, how to lead a better life, but also
197
512093
3533
08:47
to divert or sort of make recommendations
198
515626
3228
08:50
of what kind of health care should they approach?
199
518854
2674
08:53
They are basically referral services, essentially.
200
521528
2712
08:56
But the problem with that is that we realized
201
524240
2308
08:58
after a bunch of research that they are amazing
202
526548
4190
09:02
at referring people to the nearest clinic
203
530738
2480
09:05
or the public health care system, but what happens at the
204
533218
2873
09:08
public health care system is this: these incredibly long lines
205
536091
4078
09:12
and too many people who overload the system
206
540169
2810
09:14
simply because there's not enough doctors and facilities
207
542979
2566
09:17
for the population that's being referred.
208
545545
2202
09:19
So everything from a common cold
209
547747
2119
09:21
to a serious case of malaria gets almost the same
210
549866
2660
09:24
level of attention, and there's no priorities.
211
552526
3044
09:27
So we said, "Come on, there's got to be a better way
212
555570
2071
09:29
of doing this for sure."
213
557641
1801
09:31
So we said, "What can we do with the ASHA worker
214
559442
2577
09:34
that'll allow this ASHA worker to become an interesting filter,
215
562019
3931
09:37
but not just a filter, a really well thought through referral
216
565950
2515
09:40
system that allows load balancing of the network,
217
568465
3481
09:43
and directs patients to different sources of health care
218
571946
3939
09:47
based on the severity or the criticalness of those situations?"
219
575885
3880
09:51
So the real key question was,
220
579765
1981
09:53
how do we empower this woman?
221
581746
1668
09:55
How do we empower her with simple tools
222
583414
1927
09:57
that's not diagnostic but more screening in nature
223
585341
2951
10:00
so she at least knows how to advise the patients better?
224
588292
3780
10:04
And that'll make such a huge difference on the system,
225
592072
2028
10:06
because the amount of waiting time and the amount of
226
594100
4918
10:11
distances that people need to travel, often sometimes
227
599018
1920
10:12
seven to 15 kilometers, sometimes by foot,
228
600938
2673
10:15
to get a simple health check done, is very, very detrimental
229
603611
5463
10:21
in the sense that it really dissuades people
230
609074
2454
10:23
from getting access to health care.
231
611528
2009
10:25
So if there was something that she could do,
232
613537
2035
10:27
that would be amazing.
233
615572
1109
10:28
So what we did was that we converted this device
234
616681
3061
10:31
into a medical device.
235
619742
1817
10:33
I want to demo this actually,
236
621559
1276
10:34
because it's a very simple process.
237
622835
2673
10:37
Bruno, do you want to join us? (Cheers)
238
625508
2409
10:39
Come along. (Applause)
239
627917
6202
10:46
So, what we're going to do is that
240
634119
2925
10:49
we're going to measure a few basic parameters on you,
241
637044
2972
10:52
including your pulse rate and the amount of oxygen
242
640016
2855
10:54
that's there in your blood.
243
642871
1873
10:56
So you're going to put your thumb on top of this.
244
644744
3291
11:00
Bruno Giussani: Like this, works?
245
648035
1774
11:01
Vinay Venkatraman: Yeah. That's right. BG: Okay.
246
649809
1666
11:03
VV: So I'm going to start it up. I hope it works.
247
651475
4008
11:07
(Beeps) It even beeps, because it's an alarm clock, after all.
248
655483
4350
11:11
So ... (Laughter)
249
659833
2012
11:13
So I take it into the start position, and then
250
661845
4391
11:18
I press the read button. (Beeps)
251
666236
3612
11:21
So it's taking a little reading from you. (Beeps)
252
669848
5481
11:27
And then the pointer goes and points to three different options.
253
675329
2778
11:30
Let's see what happens here.
254
678107
3275
11:33
(Beeps) Oh Bruno, you can go home, actually.
255
681382
2083
11:35
BG: Great. Good news. (Applause)
256
683465
3836
11:39
VV: So ... (Applause)
257
687301
2345
11:41
So the thing about this is that
258
689646
3217
11:44
if the pointer, unfortunately, had pointed to the red spot,
259
692863
4105
11:48
we would have to rush you to a hospital.
260
696968
1846
11:50
Luckily, not today. And if it had pointed to the orange
261
698814
4120
11:54
or the amber, it basically meant you had to have,
262
702934
2829
11:57
sort of, more continuous care from the health care worker.
263
705763
3044
12:00
So that was a very simple three-step screening process
264
708807
2351
12:03
that could basically change the equation
265
711158
2115
12:05
of how public health care works in so many different ways.
266
713273
2740
12:08
BG: Thank you for the good news. VV: Yeah.
267
716013
1897
12:09
(Applause)
268
717910
4393
12:14
So, very briefly, I'll just explain to you how this is done,
269
722303
3440
12:17
because that's the more interesting part.
270
725743
2290
12:20
So essentially, the three things that are required
271
728033
2694
12:22
to make this conversion from this guy to this guy
272
730727
4528
12:27
is a cheap remote control for a television
273
735255
4129
12:31
that you can almost find in every home today,
274
739384
2911
12:34
some parts from a computer mouse, basically,
275
742295
3714
12:38
something that you can scavenge for very low cost,
276
746009
3863
12:41
and a few parts that have to be pre-programmed.
277
749872
2911
12:44
Basically this is a micro-controller with a few
278
752783
2401
12:47
extra components that can be shipped for very little cost
279
755184
2795
12:49
across the world, and that's what is all required
280
757979
2993
12:52
with a little bit of local tinkering talent
281
760972
2391
12:55
to convert the device into something else.
282
763363
2787
12:58
So we are right now doing some systematic field tests
283
766150
3396
13:01
to basically ascertain whether something like this actually
284
769546
3050
13:04
makes sense to the ASHA worker.
285
772596
1567
13:06
We are going through some reference tests to compare it
286
774163
3544
13:09
against professional equipment to see if there's a degree
287
777707
3458
13:13
of change in efficacy and if it actually makes an impact
288
781165
2322
13:15
in people's lives. But most importantly,
289
783487
2608
13:18
what we are trying to do right now
290
786095
1795
13:19
is we are trying to scale this up, because there
291
787890
2254
13:22
are over 250,000 ASHA workers on the ground
292
790144
2687
13:24
who are these amazing foot soldiers, and if we can
293
792831
2737
13:27
give at least a fraction of them the access to these things,
294
795568
3560
13:31
it just changes the way the economics of public health care
295
799128
2958
13:34
works, and it changes the way systems actually function,
296
802086
3011
13:37
not just on a systematic planning level,
297
805097
4266
13:41
but also in a very grassroots, bottom-up level.
298
809363
3185
13:44
So that's it, and we hope to do this in a big way.
299
812548
2801
13:47
Thank you. (Applause)
300
815349
3158
13:50
(Applause)
301
818507
8646
Translated by Joseph Geni
Reviewed by Morton Bast

▲Back to top

ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Vinay Venkatraman - Designer
Vinay Venkatraman aims to design technological devices for the "bottom of the pyramid" rather than simply for the affluent.

Why you should listen

Designer Vinay Venkatraman is committed to creating a digitally inclusive world. A founding partner at the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design, Vinay aims to design for the populations of the world who don't have access to the latest tech gadget. He calls his outlook "Frugal Digital."

Vinay’s background is in industrial design, and he began his career fashioning bicycles and kitchen appliances. He was soon enticed by filmmaking and worked as visual effects designer for a leading post production house, Prime Focus Ltd, on various advertisements and movies. He later shifted his focus to software products, working as a product designer at Microsoft for emerging technologies.

Vinay’s work has been written about in leading design magazines and popular blogs. He has also taught courses at Aarhus University, IUAV University in Venice and the IT University of Copenhagen.

More profile about the speaker
Vinay Venkatraman | Speaker | TED.com