0:00:00.502,0:00:05.787
Frugal Digital is essentially a small research group at C.I.D.

0:00:05.787,0:00:07.930
where we are looking to find

0:00:07.930,0:00:12.470
alternate visions of how to create a digitally inclusive society.

0:00:12.470,0:00:14.278
That's what we're after.

0:00:14.278,0:00:16.458
And we do this because we actually believe

0:00:16.458,0:00:19.732
that silicon technology today is mostly about

0:00:19.732,0:00:21.484
a culture of excess.

0:00:21.484,0:00:23.657
It's about the fastest and the most efficient

0:00:23.657,0:00:26.087
and the most dazzling gadget you can have,

0:00:26.087,0:00:28.985
while about two-thirds of the world

0:00:28.985,0:00:32.669
can hardly reach the most basic of this technology

0:00:32.669,0:00:36.252
to even address fundamental needs in life,

0:00:36.252,0:00:38.420
including health care, education

0:00:38.420,0:00:42.499
and all these kinds of very fundamental issues.

0:00:42.499,0:00:45.744
So before I start, I want to talk about a little anecdote,

0:00:45.744,0:00:49.767
a little story about a man I met once in Mumbai.

0:00:49.767,0:00:51.954
So this man, his name is Sathi Shri.

0:00:51.954,0:00:54.060
He is an outstanding person,

0:00:54.060,0:00:56.202
because he's a small entrepreneur.

0:00:56.202,0:00:57.944
He runs a little shop

0:00:57.944,0:00:59.947
in one of the back streets of Mumbai.

0:00:59.947,0:01:02.995
He has this little 10-square-meter store,

0:01:02.995,0:01:05.145
where so much is being done.

0:01:05.145,0:01:07.050
It's incredible, because I couldn't believe my eyes

0:01:07.050,0:01:09.533
when I once just happened to bump into him.

0:01:09.533,0:01:11.658
Basically, what he does is, he has all these services

0:01:11.658,0:01:14.411
for micro-payments and booking tickets

0:01:14.411,0:01:17.744
and all kinds of basic things that you would go online for,

0:01:17.744,0:01:19.933
but he does it for people offline

0:01:19.933,0:01:21.930
and connects to the digital world.

0:01:21.930,0:01:23.435
More importantly, he makes his money

0:01:23.435,0:01:26.028
by selling these mobile recharge coupons, you know,

0:01:26.028,0:01:28.303
for the prepaid subscriptions.

0:01:28.303,0:01:31.544
But then, in the backside, he's got this little nook

0:01:31.544,0:01:34.117
with a few of his employees

0:01:34.117,0:01:36.701
where they can fix almost anything.

0:01:36.701,0:01:39.959
Any cell phone, any gadget you can bring them, they can fix it.

0:01:39.959,0:01:43.077
And it's pretty incredible because I took my iPhone there,

0:01:43.077,0:01:45.246
and he was like, "Yeah, do you want an upgrade?"

0:01:45.246,0:01:47.564
"Yes." (Laughter)

0:01:47.564,0:01:49.504
I was a bit skeptical, but then, I decided

0:01:49.504,0:01:54.137
to give him a Nokia instead. (Laughter)

0:01:54.137,0:01:59.352
But what I was amazed about is this reverse engineering

0:01:59.352,0:02:04.304
and know-how that's built into this little two meters of space.

0:02:04.304,0:02:06.895
They have figured out everything that's required

0:02:06.895,0:02:08.921
to dismantle, take things apart,

0:02:08.921,0:02:11.880
rewrite the circuitry, re-flash the firmware,

0:02:11.880,0:02:13.847
do whatever you want to with the phone,

0:02:13.847,0:02:16.416
and they can fix anything so quickly.

0:02:16.416,0:02:18.416
You can hand over a phone this morning

0:02:18.416,0:02:20.336
and you can go pick it up after lunch,

0:02:20.336,0:02:22.256
and it was quite incredible.

0:02:22.256,0:02:23.827
But then we were wondering whether this is

0:02:23.827,0:02:26.369
a local phenomenon, or is truly global?

0:02:26.369,0:02:28.619
And, over time, we started understanding

0:02:28.619,0:02:30.338
and systematically researching

0:02:30.338,0:02:32.454
what this tinkering ecosystem is about,

0:02:32.454,0:02:34.059
because that is something that's happening

0:02:34.059,0:02:36.091
not just in one street corner in Mumbai.

0:02:36.091,0:02:39.205
It's actually happening in all parts of the country.

0:02:39.205,0:02:41.466
It's even happening in Africa, like, for example,

0:02:41.466,0:02:43.513
in Cape Town we did extensive research on this.

0:02:43.513,0:02:46.708
Even here in Doha I found this little nook

0:02:46.708,0:02:49.595
where you can get alarm clocks and watches fixed,

0:02:49.595,0:02:52.796
and it's a lot of tiny little parts. It's not easy.

0:02:52.796,0:02:54.909
You've got to try it on your own to believe it.

0:02:54.909,0:02:56.463
But what fuels this?

0:02:56.463,0:02:59.971
It's this entire ecosystem of low-cost parts

0:02:59.971,0:03:03.277
and supplies that are produced all over the world, literally,

0:03:03.277,0:03:07.043
and then redistributed to basically service this industry,

0:03:07.043,0:03:09.214
and you can even buy salvaged parts.

0:03:09.214,0:03:11.370
Basically, you don't have to necessarily buy

0:03:11.370,0:03:13.833
brand new things. You have condemned computers

0:03:13.833,0:03:15.140
that are stripped apart,

0:03:15.140,0:03:16.710
and you can buy salvaged components

0:03:16.710,0:03:20.531
and things that you can reassemble in a new configuration.

0:03:20.531,0:03:24.012
But what does this new, sort of, approach give us?

0:03:24.012,0:03:25.932
That's the real question, because this is something

0:03:25.932,0:03:28.157
that's been there, part of every society

0:03:28.157,0:03:30.523
that's deprived of enough resources.

0:03:30.523,0:03:32.420
But there's an interesting paradigm.

0:03:32.420,0:03:33.912
There's the traditional crafts,

0:03:33.912,0:03:35.915
and then there's the technology crafts.

0:03:35.915,0:03:38.123
We call it the technology crafts because these are emerging.

0:03:38.123,0:03:40.195
They're not something that's been established.

0:03:40.195,0:03:42.862
It's not something that's institutionalized.

0:03:42.862,0:03:44.633
It's not taught in universities.

0:03:44.633,0:03:46.356
It's taught [by] word of mouth,

0:03:46.356,0:03:48.265
and it's an informal education system around this.

0:03:48.265,0:03:51.067
So we said, "What can we get out of this?

0:03:51.067,0:03:53.801
You know, like, what are the key values that we can get out of this?"

0:03:53.801,0:03:56.146
The main thing is a fix-it-locally culture,

0:03:56.146,0:03:58.486
which is fantastic because it means that your product

0:03:58.486,0:04:00.531
or your service doesn't have to go through

0:04:00.531,0:04:03.139
a huge bureaucratic system to get it fixed.

0:04:03.139,0:04:06.218
It also affords us cheap fabrication, which is fantastic,

0:04:06.218,0:04:08.250
so it means that you can do a lot more with it.

0:04:08.250,0:04:10.564
And then, the most important thing is,

0:04:10.564,0:04:12.940
it gives us large math for low cost.

0:04:12.940,0:04:15.269
So it means that you can actually embed

0:04:15.269,0:04:18.794
pretty clever algorithms and lots of other kinds

0:04:18.794,0:04:22.452
of extendable ideas into really simple devices.

0:04:22.452,0:04:27.260
So, what we call this is a silicon cottage industry.

0:04:27.260,0:04:30.206
It's basically what was the system or the paradigm

0:04:30.206,0:04:32.670
before the industrial revolution is now re-happening

0:04:32.670,0:04:35.678
in a whole new way in small digital shops

0:04:35.678,0:04:38.759
across the planet in most developing countries.

0:04:38.759,0:04:42.893
So, we kind of toyed around with this idea,

0:04:42.893,0:04:44.571
and we said, "What can we do with this?

0:04:44.571,0:04:47.099
Can we make a little product or a service out of it?"

0:04:47.099,0:04:49.519
So one of the first things we did is this thing called

0:04:49.519,0:04:51.915
a multimedia platform. We call it a lunch box.

0:04:51.915,0:04:54.666
Basically one of the contexts that we studied was

0:04:54.666,0:04:58.153
schools in very remote parts of India.

0:04:58.153,0:05:01.412
So there is this amazing concept called the one-teacher school,

0:05:01.412,0:05:04.114
which is basically a single teacher who is a multitasker

0:05:04.114,0:05:06.591
who teaches this amazing little social setting.

0:05:06.591,0:05:08.128
It's an informal school,

0:05:08.128,0:05:10.287
but it's really about holistic education.

0:05:10.287,0:05:11.525
The only thing that they don't have

0:05:11.525,0:05:13.919
is access to resources. They don't even have a textbook

0:05:13.919,0:05:16.746
sometimes, and they don't even have a proper curriculum.

0:05:16.746,0:05:20.250
So we said, "What can we do to empower this teacher

0:05:20.250,0:05:23.062
to do more?" How to access the digital world?

0:05:23.062,0:05:25.624
Instead of being the sole guardian of information,

0:05:25.624,0:05:28.028
be a facilitator to all this information.

0:05:28.028,0:05:31.412
So we said, "What are the steps required to empower the teacher?"

0:05:31.412,0:05:34.067
How do you make this teacher into a digital gateway,

0:05:34.067,0:05:36.599
and how do you design an inexpensive multimedia platform

0:05:36.599,0:05:39.591
that can be constructed locally and serviced locally?"

0:05:39.591,0:05:41.934
So we walked around.

0:05:41.934,0:05:44.224
We went and scavenged the nearby markets,

0:05:44.224,0:05:48.245
and we tried to understand, "What can we pick up that will make this happen?"

0:05:48.245,0:05:50.772
So the thing that we got

0:05:50.772,0:05:53.979
was a little mobile phone with a little pico projector

0:05:53.979,0:05:56.316
that comes for about 60 dollars.

0:05:56.316,0:05:58.772
We went a bought a flashlight with a very big battery,

0:05:58.772,0:06:00.562
and a bunch of small speakers.

0:06:00.562,0:06:02.860
So essentially, the mobile phone gives us

0:06:02.860,0:06:04.784
a connected multimedia platform.

0:06:04.784,0:06:08.269
It allows us to get online and allows us to load up files

0:06:08.269,0:06:10.620
of different formats and play them.

0:06:10.620,0:06:13.646
The flashlight gives us this really intense, bright L.E.D.,

0:06:13.646,0:06:16.637
and six hours worth of rechargeable battery pack,

0:06:16.637,0:06:18.853
and the lunch box is a nice little package

0:06:18.853,0:06:20.900
in which you can put everything inside,

0:06:20.900,0:06:22.463
and a bunch of mini speakers to sort of

0:06:22.463,0:06:23.881
amplify the sound large enough.

0:06:23.881,0:06:27.420
Believe me, those little classrooms are really noisy.

0:06:27.420,0:06:30.013
They are kids who scream at the top of their voices,

0:06:30.013,0:06:31.673
and you really have to get above that.

0:06:31.673,0:06:34.394
And we took it back to this little tinkering setup

0:06:34.394,0:06:36.484
of a mobile phone repair shop,

0:06:36.484,0:06:37.912
and then the magic happens.

0:06:37.912,0:06:39.293
We dismantle the whole thing,

0:06:39.293,0:06:41.650
we reassemble it in a new configuration,

0:06:41.650,0:06:43.828
and we do this hardware mashup,

0:06:43.828,0:06:46.437
systematically training the guy how to do this.

0:06:46.437,0:06:49.892
Out comes this, a little lunch box -- form factor.

0:06:49.892,0:06:56.718
(Applause)

0:06:56.718,0:06:59.736
And we systematically field tested,

0:06:59.736,0:07:02.104
because in the field testing we learned some

0:07:02.104,0:07:04.621
important lessons, and we went through many iterations.

0:07:04.621,0:07:07.316
One of the key issues was battery consumption and charging.

0:07:07.316,0:07:11.294
Luminosity was an issue, when you have too much bright sunlight outside.

0:07:11.294,0:07:13.846
Often the roofs are broken, so you don't have enough

0:07:13.846,0:07:16.974
darkness in the classroom to do these things.

0:07:16.974,0:07:19.816
We extended this idea. We tested it many times over,

0:07:19.816,0:07:22.394
and the next version we came up with was a box

0:07:22.394,0:07:24.774
that kind of could trickle charge on solar energy,

0:07:24.774,0:07:27.573
but most importantly connect to a car battery,

0:07:27.573,0:07:30.567
because a car battery is a ubiquitous source of power

0:07:30.567,0:07:32.774
in places where there's not enough electricity

0:07:32.774,0:07:34.734
or erratic electricity.

0:07:34.734,0:07:36.703
And the other key thing that we did was

0:07:36.703,0:07:39.165
make this box run off a USB key, because we realized

0:07:39.165,0:07:42.519
that even though there was GPRS and all that on paper,

0:07:42.519,0:07:45.094
at least, in theory, it was much more efficient

0:07:45.094,0:07:48.984
to send the data on a little USB key by surface mail.

0:07:48.984,0:07:50.824
It might take a few days to get there,

0:07:50.824,0:07:53.198
but at least it gets there in high definition

0:07:53.198,0:07:55.413
and in a reliable quality.

0:07:55.413,0:07:57.695
So we made this box, and we tested it again

0:07:57.695,0:07:59.230
and again and again, and we're going through

0:07:59.230,0:08:00.779
multiple iterations to do these things.

0:08:00.779,0:08:03.748
But it's not limited to just education.

0:08:03.748,0:08:05.614
This kind of a technique or metrology

0:08:05.614,0:08:07.626
can actually be applied to other kinds of areas,

0:08:07.626,0:08:09.534
and I'm going to tell you one more little story.

0:08:09.534,0:08:11.989
It's about this little device called a medi-meter.

0:08:11.989,0:08:15.356
It's basically a little health care screening tool that we developed.

0:08:15.356,0:08:18.683
In India, there is a context of these amazing people,

0:08:18.683,0:08:20.962
the health care workers called ASHA workers.

0:08:20.962,0:08:23.379
They are essentially foot soldiers for the health care system

0:08:23.379,0:08:25.763
who live in the local community and are trained

0:08:25.763,0:08:28.331
with basic tools and basic concepts of health care,

0:08:28.331,0:08:32.093
and the main purpose is basically to inform people

0:08:32.093,0:08:35.626
to basically, how to lead a better life, but also

0:08:35.626,0:08:38.854
to divert or sort of make recommendations

0:08:38.854,0:08:41.528
of what kind of health care should they approach?

0:08:41.528,0:08:44.240
They are basically referral services, essentially.

0:08:44.240,0:08:46.548
But the problem with that is that we realized

0:08:46.548,0:08:50.738
after a bunch of research that they are amazing

0:08:50.738,0:08:53.218
at referring people to the nearest clinic

0:08:53.218,0:08:56.091
or the public health care system, but what happens at the

0:08:56.091,0:09:00.169
public health care system is this: these incredibly long lines

0:09:00.169,0:09:02.979
and too many people who overload the system

0:09:02.979,0:09:05.545
simply because there's not enough doctors and facilities

0:09:05.545,0:09:07.747
for the population that's being referred.

0:09:07.747,0:09:09.866
So everything from a common cold

0:09:09.866,0:09:12.526
to a serious case of malaria gets almost the same

0:09:12.526,0:09:15.570
level of attention, and there's no priorities.

0:09:15.570,0:09:17.641
So we said, "Come on, there's got to be a better way

0:09:17.641,0:09:19.442
of doing this for sure."

0:09:19.442,0:09:22.019
So we said, "What can we do with the ASHA worker

0:09:22.019,0:09:25.950
that'll allow this ASHA worker to become an interesting filter,

0:09:25.950,0:09:28.465
but not just a filter, a really well thought through referral

0:09:28.465,0:09:31.946
system that allows load balancing of the network,

0:09:31.946,0:09:35.885
and directs patients to different sources of health care

0:09:35.885,0:09:39.765
based on the severity or the criticalness of those situations?"

0:09:39.765,0:09:41.746
So the real key question was,

0:09:41.746,0:09:43.414
how do we empower this woman?

0:09:43.414,0:09:45.341
How do we empower her with simple tools

0:09:45.341,0:09:48.292
that's not diagnostic but more screening in nature

0:09:48.292,0:09:52.072
so she at least knows how to advise the patients better?

0:09:52.072,0:09:54.100
And that'll make such a huge difference on the system,

0:09:54.100,0:09:59.018
because the amount of waiting time and the amount of

0:09:59.018,0:10:00.938
distances that people need to travel, often sometimes

0:10:00.938,0:10:03.611
seven to 15 kilometers, sometimes by foot,

0:10:03.611,0:10:09.074
to get a simple health check done, is very, very detrimental

0:10:09.074,0:10:11.528
in the sense that it really dissuades people

0:10:11.528,0:10:13.537
from getting access to health care.

0:10:13.537,0:10:15.572
So if there was something that she could do,

0:10:15.572,0:10:16.681
that would be amazing.

0:10:16.681,0:10:19.742
So what we did was that we converted this device

0:10:19.742,0:10:21.559
into a medical device.

0:10:21.559,0:10:22.835
I want to demo this actually,

0:10:22.835,0:10:25.508
because it's a very simple process.

0:10:25.508,0:10:27.917
Bruno, do you want to join us? (Cheers)

0:10:27.917,0:10:34.119
Come along. (Applause)

0:10:34.119,0:10:37.044
So, what we're going to do is that

0:10:37.044,0:10:40.016
we're going to measure a few basic parameters on you,

0:10:40.016,0:10:42.871
including your pulse rate and the amount of oxygen

0:10:42.871,0:10:44.744
that's there in your blood.

0:10:44.744,0:10:48.035
So you're going to put your thumb on top of this.

0:10:48.035,0:10:49.809
Bruno Giussani: Like this, works?

0:10:49.809,0:10:51.475
Vinay Venkatraman: Yeah. That's right. BG: Okay.

0:10:51.475,0:10:55.483
VV: So I'm going to start it up. I hope it works.

0:10:55.483,0:10:59.833
(Beeps) It even beeps, because it's an alarm clock, after all.

0:10:59.833,0:11:01.845
So ... (Laughter)

0:11:01.845,0:11:06.236
So I take it into the start position, and then

0:11:06.236,0:11:09.848
I press the read button. (Beeps)

0:11:09.848,0:11:15.329
So it's taking a little reading from you. (Beeps)

0:11:15.329,0:11:18.107
And then the pointer goes and points to three different options.

0:11:18.107,0:11:21.382
Let's see what happens here.

0:11:21.382,0:11:23.465
(Beeps) Oh Bruno, you can go home, actually.

0:11:23.465,0:11:27.301
BG: Great. Good news. (Applause)

0:11:27.301,0:11:29.646
VV: So ... (Applause)

0:11:29.646,0:11:32.863
So the thing about this is that

0:11:32.863,0:11:36.968
if the pointer, unfortunately, had pointed to the red spot,

0:11:36.968,0:11:38.814
we would have to rush you to a hospital.

0:11:38.814,0:11:42.934
Luckily, not today. And if it had pointed to the orange

0:11:42.934,0:11:45.763
or the amber, it basically meant you had to have,

0:11:45.763,0:11:48.807
sort of, more continuous care from the health care worker.

0:11:48.807,0:11:51.158
So that was a very simple three-step screening process

0:11:51.158,0:11:53.273
that could basically change the equation

0:11:53.273,0:11:56.013
of how public health care works in so many different ways.

0:11:56.013,0:11:57.910
BG: Thank you for the good news. VV: Yeah.

0:11:57.910,0:12:02.303
(Applause)

0:12:02.303,0:12:05.743
So, very briefly, I'll just explain to you how this is done,

0:12:05.743,0:12:08.033
because that's the more interesting part.

0:12:08.033,0:12:10.727
So essentially, the three things that are required

0:12:10.727,0:12:15.255
to make this conversion from this guy to this guy

0:12:15.255,0:12:19.384
is a cheap remote control for a television

0:12:19.384,0:12:22.295
that you can almost find in every home today,

0:12:22.295,0:12:26.009
some parts from a computer mouse, basically,

0:12:26.009,0:12:29.872
something that you can scavenge for very low cost,

0:12:29.872,0:12:32.783
and a few parts that have to be pre-programmed.

0:12:32.783,0:12:35.184
Basically this is a micro-controller with a few

0:12:35.184,0:12:37.979
extra components that can be shipped for very little cost

0:12:37.979,0:12:40.972
across the world, and that's what is all required

0:12:40.972,0:12:43.363
with a little bit of local tinkering talent

0:12:43.363,0:12:46.150
to convert the device into something else.

0:12:46.150,0:12:49.546
So we are right now doing some systematic field tests

0:12:49.546,0:12:52.596
to basically ascertain whether something like this actually

0:12:52.596,0:12:54.163
makes sense to the ASHA worker.

0:12:54.163,0:12:57.707
We are going through some reference tests to compare it

0:12:57.707,0:13:01.165
against professional equipment to see if there's a degree

0:13:01.165,0:13:03.487
of change in efficacy and if it actually makes an impact

0:13:03.487,0:13:06.095
in people's lives. But most importantly,

0:13:06.095,0:13:07.890
what we are trying to do right now

0:13:07.890,0:13:10.144
is we are trying to scale this up, because there

0:13:10.144,0:13:12.831
are over 250,000 ASHA workers on the ground

0:13:12.831,0:13:15.568
who are these amazing foot soldiers, and if we can

0:13:15.568,0:13:19.128
give at least a fraction of them the access to these things,

0:13:19.128,0:13:22.086
it just changes the way the economics of public health care

0:13:22.086,0:13:25.097
works, and it changes the way systems actually function,

0:13:25.097,0:13:29.363
not just on a systematic planning level,

0:13:29.363,0:13:32.548
but also in a very grassroots, bottom-up level.

0:13:32.548,0:13:35.349
So that's it, and we hope to do this in a big way.

0:13:35.349,0:13:38.507
Thank you. (Applause)

0:13:38.507,0:13:47.153
(Applause)