My fortnightly column, A Dose of IT that discusses the Bangalore India Bio and its outcomes Kapil Khandelwal QuoteUnquote with KK www.kapilkhandelwal.com

1. c m y k c m y k
Bengaluru ●● Monday ●● 7 June 2010
Facebook is
cracking down
on rogue apps
with a new
programme.
13
Technomics
Microsoft has
retired Bing
Cashback, which
gave shoppers a
2-10% cashback.
Dell shares surged
after its CEO said
he had considered
taking the
company private.
DDCC
JAD MOUAWAD
NEW YORK
June 6: Continental Airlines
has built this check-in kiosk
and luggage drop area to
speed passengers through
George Bush Intercontinen-
tal Airport in Houston.
The airlines are still catch-
ing up with the technology
many of their customers
already carry in their pock-
ets.
That’s a problem for an
industry whose core purpose
is customer service. Still,
there is some hope for
change.
The carriers are finally rec-
ognizing that many of their
antiquated systems con-
tribute to passenger frustra-
tions. They have begun
developing hand-held
devices, a little bigger than
cellphones, that have much
quicker access to airline data
and allow gate agents to
assist passengers throughout
the terminal.
In theory, gate agents with
these devices can anticipate
the need to rebook a flight
after a missed connection,
instead of waiting for pas-
sengers to ask.
In the future, new technol-
ogy may allow airlines to
know if travelers are stuck in
traffic on their way to the
airport, thanks to GPS-
enabled smartphones, or
offer an earlier flight if a
traveler shows up with time
to spare.
Passengers traveling this
summer will see only a
glimpse of the new technol-
ogy, though it will be intro-
duced at airports over the
next year or two. For now,
the airlines remain depend-
ent on computer systems
first built a half century ago
that have been layered with
updates upon updates — “a
spaghetti of networks,” as
one analyst described it —
that do not always commu-
nicate well with one another,
or with passengers.
So some airport screens
may say a flight is on time,
while the gate information
shows it has been moved to
another terminal and the air-
line employees standing
behind their monitors say
the flight has, in fact, been
delayed two hours.
And the experiences of
passengers are more like Dr.
Joan Bengtson’s. Dr. Bengt-
son, a gynecologist who
lives in Boston, said that she
was once str anded because
of a snowstorm, and it took
two days for the airline to
rebook her. Meanwhile the
phone number she was given
remained busy for hours.
“Once a problem comes
up, their ability to deal with
the consequences is woeful-
ly inadequate,” she said
while traveling through
O’Hare International Air-
port in Chicago last week.
That is why the airlines,
including American Airlines
and Continental Airlines,
have started updating their
systems.
At its major hubs, includ-
ing Dallas-Fort Worth,
American recently started
using a technology called
Yada — for “your assistance
delivered anywhere” — that
allows its agents to promptly
rebook passengers on a dif-
ferent flight, advise on a
gate change or track down a
lost bag.
Travelers do not have to
wait in line anymore. Yada
also prints boarding passes
using small printers that
agents strap to their belts.
Because the devices also
read credit cards, Ameri-
can’s agents can check over-
size carry-on bags and
charge a bag fee directly at
the boarding gate.
It seems simple enough.
But modernizing the tech-
nology has been complicat-
ed, said Monte E. Ford,
American’s chief informa-
tion officer.
“It’s like changing the
engine of a plane in flight,”
he said. The airline industry
was once a technology pio-
neer. It introduced comput-
erized reservations in the
1960s, for instance.
And airlines run complex
systems to schedule flights,
choreograph thousands of
simultaneous operations,
and carry millions of pas-
sengers every day. But the
technology was developed
to first serve the airlines, not
the passengers. And as other
industries continued to inno-
vate over the last decade, the
airlines, struggling with
losses, cut their technology
budgets. The carriers say
they know they need to sim-
plify their computer systems
and make them easier to use.
And they benefit, too, with
reduced operating costs and
increased consumer loyalty.
—NYT
G
eneral Motors said
Friday that it was
committing $100
million to form its own ven-
ture capital firm as it seeks
new technologies that can
provide an advantage over
competitors. The sub-
sidiary, known as General
Motors Ventures, plans to
invest in start-up companies
working in a variety of
fields, including renewable
fuels, information and
entertainment systems and
advanced materials. G.M.
already has identified some
potential targets and
expects to announce its first
investments soon, a spokes-
woman, Sherrie Childers-
Arb, said. General Motors
said Friday that it was com-
mitting $100 million to
form its own venture capital
firm as it seeks new tech-
nologies that can provide
an advantage over competi-
tors. The subsidiary, known
as General Motors Ven-
tures, plans to invest in
start-up companies work-
ing in a variety of fields,
including renewable fuels,
information and entertain-
ment systems and advanced
materials. G.M. already has
identified some potential
targets and expects to
announce its first invest-
ments soon, a spokes-
woman, Sherrie Childers-
Arb, said.
— NYT
SANGEETHA CHENGAPPA
DC | BENGALURU
June 6: Imagine a roadtrip
to the majestic mountain
ranges of Uttaranchal, you
stop by to take a better look
at the sheer variety of flow-
ers, ferns, creepers and trees
that you have never seen
before. Wouldn't your expe-
rience be magnified a thou-
sand-fold, if you could iden-
tify these breathtaking flow-
ers, plants and trees by their
actual names?
Google has made it possi-
ble to whip out your
Android Phone, and click a
picture of the flower, fern or
tree and within seconds of
processing the picture you
will see an exact match of
your search, without having
to type or say a single word.
"Until now, the only option
for web search has been typ-
ing or speaking but, now one
can also search by simply
taking a picture. For eg,
click a picture of the Qutub
Minar or some other monu-
ment that you cannot identi-
fy and receive search results
including Wikipedia entries,
reviews, articles, movies
where the monument is fea-
tured within a few seconds.
With Google Goggles, you
can be your own guide while
on a visit to a historical site"
said Alok Goel, Product
Manager, Google India.
The application can also
translate from one language
to another. For instance, if
you are in Mexico and want
to order food in a local
restaurant, all you need to do
is click a picture of the menu
and see the text being
instantly translated into
English. For example, if you
want to order food from a
menu and you dont know
that particular language, all
you need to do is take a pic-
ture of the menu and it
instantly translates the text
into English.
Many a times one sees eye-
catching logos in a new city
or town which one cannot
identify - here again, just
click a picture of the logo
and discover what company,
product or event it is all
about. Google Goggles is
ideal to search for things
that are not easy to describe
in words. All you have to do
is access Google Goggles
from Market, which is the
Google store for Android
apps, download the app for
free, snap a picture and wait
for your search results. Cur-
rently, Market has around
50,000 apps contributed by
users as well as Google.
"We have also introduced
two advanced apps on
Android Phones - Google
Gesture Search and Google
Sky Map. In Gesture Search,
you can find your phone
contacts instantly by using
your finger to write the first
alphabet of the person's
name on the phone's screen
and it will throw up the
entire list of names begin-
ning with that alphabet. Oth-
erwise you would require 4-
5 clicks of buttons to get the
contact you want. Similarly,
search for apps, sms', mails
and pictures with text
attached, in your phone with
simple gestures. You can
mute a call through a pre-
decided gesture (for eg, by
shaking it up and down
twice) or redirect calls with
another gesture - the sensors
in the phone will detect the
gesture and redirect your
calls” said Goel.
Discover and browse the
night sky just by pointing
your phone to space, with
Google Sky Map. The
Android Phone's orientation
sensors, can help you learn
the name and location of
bodies in space and aid you
in exploring planets, stars,
constellations, meteorites
and more. Currently around
8-10 models of Android
Phones are available in India
from HTC, Sony Ericsson,
Motorola, Samsung, LG
etc,in the price range of Rs
11,000 to Rs 40,000. “Just
three months ago 60,000
Android Phones were being
sold around the globe every
day and that number has
grown to 100,000 units at
present” said Goel.
bITs
GM to form
$100 million
tech firm
Oracle Corp (ORCL.O)
said it plans to fire
more workers mainly in
Europe and Asia as it inte-
grates Sun Microsystems,
resulting in post-acquisi-
tion restructuring costs that
will be more than triple
what it previously dis-
closed. The move under-
scores the challenges the
world's No. 2 business soft-
ware maker faces in turn-
ing around Sun, a money-
losing hardware maker that
it took over in January.
Oracle said on Friday in a
filing with the U.S. Securi-
ties and Exchange Com-
mission that it expected
$675 million to $825 mil-
lion in restructuring costs -
- on top of the $325 million
it previously disclosed. It
said the bulk of the job cuts
and new costs associated
with the restructuring
would occur in Europe and
Asia. —Reuters
Oracle to fire
workers in
Europe, Asia
Google new search dictum: A
picture is worth a 1000 words
New York, June 6: Google
is bowing to the demands of
three European govern-
ments and says it will begin
surrendering the data it
improperly collected over
unsecured wireless net-
works.
Eric E. Schmidt, Google’s
chief executive, told The
Financial Times in an inter-
view in London that within
the next two days, the com-
pany would share the data
with regulators in Germany,
Spain and France. The data
is thought to include frag-
ments of personal informa-
tion like e-mail and bank
account numbers.
Google had previously
resisted requests from Euro-
pean officials and privacy
advocates to hand over the
data, saying it needed time
to review legal issues.
Last month, Google
revealed it had been inad-
vertently collecting 600
gigabytes of personal data,
saying that the roving, cam-
era-mounted cars in its
Street View program had
collected not only photo-
graphs of neighborhoods but
snippets of private informa-
tion from people whose per-
sonal Wi-Fi networks were
left unencrypted.
In Thursday’s interview,
Mr. Schmidt said that the
software code responsible
for the data collection was in
“clear violation” of
Google’s rules.
Mr. Schmidt also said that
Google would make public
the results of internal and
external audits of its Wi-Fi
data collection practices.
Regulators in the United
States have not expressed
the same level of outrage
over the incident as Euro-
pean officials have.
The Federal Trade Com-
mission has said it will take
a close look at the practice,
and several lawmakers have
written letters to Google
asking for more informa-
tion. Lawsuits against
Google over Wi-Fi data col-
lection have also been filed
in at least three states.
—NYT
Search giant to ‘surrender’ map data
Airlines work hard to catch up with the digital age
Where is
the vision?
Kapil Khandelwal
O
ver the last few
months, Banga-
lore has been
host to number of events
in healthsciences and
ICT sectors to deliberate
various issues around
the implementation of
healthcare ICT. Last
week, Bangalore was
the host to the Global
Investors’ Meet and the
Bangalore Bio. All the
leaders are of the con-
sensus and agree that the
healthsciences ICT is a
big opportunity missed.
At all the events, the
leaders from health-
sciences and ICT indus-
try all agree that with
the 3G roll out soon
becoming a reality,
these technologies will
empower the consumer
and ‘aam admi’ in health
consumerism and roll
out healthsciences ICT
technology at a faster
pace. Bangalore boasts
of some of the best
biotech, healthcare and
ICT talent pool that has
been delivering solu-
tions and services to the
world’s biggest and the
best. Yet last week’s
meet there was some-
thing missing – partner-
ing on very big opportu-
nities in healthsciences
ICT for the State and the
country. It’s time we sit
back and reassess the
business models and put
our vision right on what
we want to achieve and
then put out scorecards
and banners. There are a
few factors that serve as
an advantage to us.
Firstly, the size of Indi-
an population and
mobile phone sub-
scribers provides a scale
that can be managed
along the state and
regional consolidation
of ICT infrastructure.
Secondly, the industry is
yet to mature and create
structural issues that
would make the roll out
of such initiatives a
major hurdle as we have
witnessed in major
health industry in the
US and Europe. Thirdly,
with the National UID
roll out, we would now
be in a position to roll
out unique patient iden-
tifiers at the national
level. Lastly, from the
last week’s meet, it
seems that the state gov-
ernment does have a
positive intent to spur
incentives and proactive
policies in engaging dif-
ferent stakeholders and
the health departments
into action. For any suc-
cessful business model
for healthsciences ICT
to emerge, let us look as
some of the lessons
learnt from the success
stories around the
world. Firstly, a strong
leadership is critical to
drive policies, spur
investments into creat-
ing viable business
models. The global lead-
ers—Denmark, Finland,
and Sweden—have all
implemented national-
level strategies to drive
and coordinate health IT
adoption. In contrast,
the strategy in the Unit-
ed States has focused on
building the network
from the bottom up by
establishing regional
health information
organizations (RHIOs)
or health information
exchanges (HIEs). The
U.S. approach, has
failed to produce a
nationwide system of
interoperable EHR sys-
tems. Secondly, a num-
ber of factors, including
the level of technologi-
cal sophistication of the
population, peer influ-
ences, and cultural
norms, have a signifi-
cant impact on health-
sciences ICT adoption.
With a billion mobile
phone subscriber base,
the doctors would have
to adopt newer 3G tech-
nologies to their advan-
tage. Thirdly, privacy
regulations need to be
enacted that are most
effective when they
strike a balance by reas-
suring citizens that their
privacy is being protect-
ed while not implement-
ing restrictive measures
that reduce data sharing
and result in lower qual-
ity care. Lastly, the ulti-
mate objective of such
ICT initiatives is to dra-
matically improve the
quality of biomedical
research as more and
more medical data is
electronic. Let us work
towards a strong leader-
ship that can work in
getting all the stakehold-
ers in the State to lever-
age the positive factors
and work on the experi-
ences and lessons leant
from the leaders global-
ly to bring the right part-
ners for healthcare ICT
roll out.
A dose
of IT
A dose
of IT
Google has introduced an option by which one can click a picture of a particular object and access information on
it from the internet on a phone. —DC Photo