At the very head of the absurdities of modern computing is the ugly keyboard with letters and symbols arranged very strangely. While an English keyboard is daunting, keyboards in Indian languages are either sadistic or non-existent. It’s to eliminate this equipment, the enemy of the general public who do not want to type, that Hewlett Packard in Bangalore is devising a computer that will let people do what they used to do a long time ago when they wanted to send a mail—write.
A casual union of pad and small monitor, the Script Mail will make it possible to send a hurried scribble or a doodle across the internet. The user has to just write or draw with an electronic pen on any piece of paper positioned on the pad. The message is recreated on the monitor and stored. The receiver’s e-mail ID too can be written in a predetermined slot or just tapped out from a stored drop-down list. Needless to say, this simple device destroys the great language barrier. A mail can be sent in Tamil or Mandarin. "The English medium in the PCs and keyboards exclude a large chunk of people from the basic application of computers," says HP’s department director, Shekar Borgaonkar. "Script Mail is something just about anybody can use." That Indian brains must be chosen by HP to develop Script Mail is another pointer to the truth that this country is becoming a special innovation hub where unique Third World problems seek smart solutions.
In the near future, the Script Mail may become any of those annoying application forms that the government always asks people to fill. For example, the Script Mail could be placed outside a railway reservation window. People could fill up the reservation form in their mother tongues, the details of which will be read by the computer even as they write. And HP also understands that Script Mail in India has to be "tied securely to the reservation counter".
