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Cyber treat for Charminar fans

M. Somasekhar

HYDERABAD, Aug. 9

IF security and antiquity prove stumbling blocks in your eagerness to climb atop the Charminar for a glimpse of Hyderabad, and perhaps the emerging Cyberabad, just go into `virtual reality' mode.

Facilitating this `cyber treat' for lakhs of tourists who throng the 56-metre monument every year is an innovative system developed by the IT education and software major, NIIT. The Remote Presence System (RPS), installed by the Union Ministry of Tourism in the Qutub Minar in New Delhi, is proposed to be replicated in the 400-year-old Charminar.

A `suicide pact' by a family of four sisters and a brother more than a decade ago forced authorities to ban tourists from climbing the monument and enjoying the breathtaking view of a string of historic sites such as the Golconda Fort and Mecca Masjid.

The Andhra Pradesh Tourism Department proposes to restore the luxury of savouring the aerial view from atop the monument at least in cyberspace by operationalising the system on September 27, World Tourism Day.

The RPS is armed with 4-telerobotic or special purpose cameras, strategically set up on each of the four minarets to transmit `live' pictures to a viewing kiosk with camera control set up at the base of the monument. The kiosk will also house the control s for the telerobotic cameras.

A tourist can orient or zoom these cameras using a touch-screen based interface, provided at the kiosk. The opportunity to take colour digital pictures and get prints along with e-mails direct from Charminar has also been planned.

For those who do not wish to handle the cameras, the RPS would have a guided tour option which automatically orients the cameras towards important sites and will give the feeling of seeing from the top of the monument. A voice commentary synchronising wi th the display in Telugu, English and Urdu has also been incorporated.

The State Tourism Department proposes to install a slot machine in the Kiosk, into which the tourist has to drop a Rs 5 coin to activate the RPS for his `virtual' trip at a pre-determined time.

To ensure maintenance of the system, NIIT will install a specially designed remote monitoring system in the kiosk. This will allow NIIT, New Delhi, to monitor the status of the kiosk and take appropriate actions through the State Tourism Department or it s own regional offices in Hyderabad.

Pic.: Charminar, bird's view in cyberspace.

Picture by A. Roy Chowdhury