Hewlett-Packard Co (HP) showed off new products and research tailored to the market in India, including a writing tablet that makes it easier to enter characters from two of India's national languages into a computer.
HP is also aiming the technologies at China and Russia in an attempt to adapt its products to countries with languages, economies and cultures that differ from HP's strongholds in the US and Western Europe.
"If you're in the high technology business, you need to look ahead. The ball keeps moving," Dick Lampman, HP's senior vice president of research, said on Thursday.
He spoke at a demonstration at HP Labs headquarters that featured technologies designed at HP Labs India, which was established in 2002.
The square tablet, which HP dubbed the Gesture Keyboard, allows a computer user to use a penlike stylus to enter characters in Indic and Kannada -- two of India's 14 national languages. The 15cm-by-15cm device was introduced in India two weeks ago and costs about US$50. HP plans to offer updates so it will eventually serve speakers of additional languages.
The other research the company demonstrated included software that prints out charts, graphics and literature to accompany TV broadcasts. The product, which is still being tested, is aimed at serving schools and community centers in countries where Internet access still lags far behind the availability of TV broadcasts.
It also showcased a system that uses a barcode to electronically confirm the authenticity of printed documents. HP hopes government agencies will use it to deliver land records and other official documents to cyber cafes in remote areas so farmers do not have to travel to a central office.
In addition, it demonstrated an electronic tablet that electronically stores information entered into forms. It would allow census takers and people doing market surveys to fill out forms with pen and paper, and then digitally transmit the contents to a computer.
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