IBM, IIT-Bombay tie up for user-friendly mobile interface design

IBM has tied up with Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-Bombay) to conduct research on development of new user-friendly mobile device interface designs.

The collaboration is aimed at developing simple, moderately priced interfaces that would help users interact with their phones easily regardless of their geography or education level, IBM said in a statement.

Close collaborative innovation with academic institutions such as IIT, Bombay, is the key to finally bridging the digital divide and putting the power of information sources and services in everyone's hands, said Manish Gupta, director, IBM Research-India and chief technologist, IBM India/South Asia said IBM.

IBM is into similar collaboration with National Institute of Design (NID) and Indian School of Business (ISB).
 
The IIT and NID projects form part of IBM's five-year $100 million investment to advance mobile services and capabilities for businesses and consumers globally.

Around 30 students of NID are already collecting information in rural areas in India regarding what features a mobile phone would need to be accessible to illiterate and people who speak languages other than English, according to a spokesman for IBM Research.

NID will analyse the device interface requirements from the user's perspective from the data gathered, while IIT Bombay would focus on the systems design of the interface, according to the spokesman.

Meanwhile, a KPMG study has found that the world would spend around $12 trillion on energy in the next 20 years, equal to the energy spend over the past 100 years. According to experts in the field, in computing environments, server efficiencies lag behind performance efficiencies, which escalate energy costs.