The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Back-to-back computer will boost interactive conferencing

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Sep 27, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Back-to-back computer will boost interactive conferencing

M. Dinesh Varma

"The model has restored the eye contact in doctor-patient dialogue"

INNOVATION Back-to-back computer developed on X View technology

CHENNAI: Early this year, a fault-free laptop was taken apart in a Chennai laboratory as part of an effort to configure a prototype that would enable two-way interaction between presenter and participant.

By April, the first crude model of a back-to-back monitor-enabled computer had been put together for use in a clinical setting where the doctor could now discuss an angiogram result on the computer with the patient who could view the image on an LCD TFT monitor from across the table. The technology is now ready for commercialisation.

Called the X View technology--which has been submitted for an Indian patent--the innovation could find use across diverse settings such as small business conferences, parent-child and teacher-student interfaces or even gaming and entertainment sharing, the technology developers said. "Having patients looking over your shoulder while you explain is certainly not the ideal way to communicate," said Dr. D. Janardhana Reddy, Head, Cardiothoracic surgical unit, Vijaya Hospital, who conceptualised the X View. "The model we have developed has restored the eye contact in doctor-patient dialogue," Dr. Reddy said.

The surgeon has already begun using X View for consultation, pre-surgery briefings and medical training at the Vijaya Heart Foundation. The electronic circuitry of the laptop was redesigned by L. Narayan, biomedical engineer and managing director, Silicon Labs, Chennai, to allow the secondary monitor to feed off the same port that lights up the primary screen. "One of the challenges was to ensure that electromagnetic radiation did not bring down the pixel sharpness on the second screen," said Mr. Narayan. "We took existing TFT screens, put them back-to-back and figured a way to replicate content on both the screens. The heart of the innovation is a pair of display devices with necessary drivers for the TFT screens," he said. The second slave display makes it possible to simultaneously view, share and interact with the screen content with a remote-operated mouse. However, the first generation X View could only signal the beginning of a series of add-ons involving redesigning the motherboard for diverse applications, ranging from simultaneous interactive controls for users on either side of the monitor to partial masking of content on the secondary screen.

"The first batch of these back-to-back computers should be ready by December after the tooling process currently under way in Taiwan is over," said K. Sadagopan, Director, Kriativ Planet, which overseeing the commercialisation of the technology. According to him, the technical simplicity of the innovation makes its cost only relatively more than a conventional single-side computer. An LCD TFT X View back-to-back monitor will approximately cost Rs. 17,000-20,000.

Technology developers expect that the innovation could even prove useful in rail/air booking terminals and shopping malls by helping customers evaluate the billing procedure real-time. It could even be used as a tablet PC if supply to the secondary screen is switched off.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Tamil Nadu