An ideas piece... M2M For the NextBillion

"Creating Innovative and Appropriate M2M Technologies With and For the NextBillion"

Telefonica-Arduino GSM/GPRS Shield Use-Case Scenarios for Emerging Markets
Telefonica I+D, Physical Internet Lab

Authors: Aisha Walcott Bryant (Telefonica I+D), Dr. Robbin Chapman (Wellesley College), Mr Eric Mibuari (Stanford University), Dr. Jakita Thomas (Spelman College), Mr. Francisco Javier Zorzano (Telefonica I+D)


Abstract

The Physical Internet Lab at Telefonica I+D in collaboration with developers at Arduino have created a new open-hardware device called the GSM/GPRS Shield (or GSM Shield) for the Arduino. The GSM shield combines the functionality of a cell phone with the input and output capabilities of a typical microcontroller board, such as the Arduino. The shield allows access to the Internet, sending SMS, making phone calls, and connecting sensors and actuators to interact with the physical world. Moreover, the GSM shield is a low-cost open-hardware device that enables developers around the globe to create innovative machine-to-machine (M2M) solutions. As a result, new M2M markets in emerging economies can be identified by and for the NextBillion- a term used to describe the next billion people to move into the middle class, and the potential for billions in profits for entrepreneurs and new business created for the next billion people. This document presents use-case scenarios where relevant and appropriate technologies that use the GSM shield may be developed. The use-cases cover education, healthcare, and entrepreneurship/new business.

Educational tools to support youth learning and development with the GSM Shield

Had another meeting with Dr. Robbin Chapman, this time with the focus on how to implement strategies to introduce the GSM shield into the educational system. Our focus is on educational institution for ages 13years and older in developing communities. In particular, in many countries there is a 1-2year gap in which a high school graduate must wait before entering college. During that time those students have trouble finding jobs, or maintaining their academics, and more.

The purpose of focusing on education with the GSM shield is to enable early adoption and learning of a new low-cost technology, on par with developed nations. This will ensure that developing communities and emerging markets can participate in the innovation and creation of new technologies, simultaneously with their peers in advance markets. Education allows access to the GSM shield in ways that are relevant and appropriate for the learning community.

There are some key methodologies to consider when building a curriculum to support learning and creating with the GSM shield, such as those listed below:

• Learning should be very visual at first in order to get past/minimize any language barriers
• Eg. videos can be used to show students what can be done with the shield
• Select 1 or 2 specific example that would directly be used for the community
• Use the examples to show the students specifically how to operate the technology.
• Determine what the needs of the community are in relationship with the children
• Address the barries, such as women/girls learning technology
• Determine what types of communication is important and what is the etiquette for it

During the implementation of the GSM shield educational framework, it is important to devise methods that include the community in the learning and sharing process. More specifically, the material being taught should be visible to the community, and tangible. This can be achieved through community technological fairs, parent teach meetings at the schools, and so forth.There should be a learning and sharing process that can be described by concentric circles. In the center is the students, then the next circle is the parents, the next circle include the teachers and NGO-type agencies. The final concentric circle is the community. There should be an extra layer of engagement between parents and students (their children), so that parents have the ability to learn about the GSM shield and its capabilities, with their children. 

One of the leading methods of teaching technology and creative sharing is a model called Pearls of Wisdom: technology for intentional reflection and learning in constructionist cooperatives (video description), developed by Dr. Robbin Chapman in the MIT Media Lab and EECS department. The Pearls of Wisdom (PoW) software has been successfully implemented world-wide as a part of the teaching and learning framework at the Intel Computer Clubhouses, and several other institutions. 

A large part of the PoW framework is that children use "pearls" to capture and share projects that they are working on in a way that enables other children to replicate the projects. A pearl is an integrated software with, video, comments, web pages, and more for a project. A pearl can be enhanced to be relevant and easy to use for a specific community. It can include analytics to show how the pearl is being used by community members. 

We propose using the PoW method for introducing the GSM shield to academic institutions in developing communities. There are also greater potential uses for the PoW as network to communicate with specific groups, including new mothers.

Meeting with Professor Jakita Thomas

To prepare my proposal and outline potential use-cases for the GSM shield in developing communities, I have been having working meeting with various researchers. I am specifically focusing on work that is currently underway, so that I/we do not have to start from scratch and there is current supporting field evidence. In this spirit, I met with Professor Jakita Thomas of Spelman College who is a researcher, teacher, innovator, singer/song writer and more! Professor Thomas and her team of student-researchers are working on mobile-technologies for health and wellness in developing and rural communities.

In the first suite of technologies, Thomas and her team are developing mobile apps for pre- and post-natal care in rural communities. Their aim is to decrease the likelihood of miscarriages and infant mortality. They have published their initial findings in the paper "Supporting greater access to pre- and post-natal information and services for women in rural Kenya."  

I will list some of the key examples that Prof. Thomas is developing. The first example is when a pregnant woman in a rural area is experiencing unusual urination and she can sense that something is wrong. What is actually happening is that the woman is going into pre-mature labor, but she does not know. In this scenario the technology solution is to grant the woman access to a low-cost portable ultrasound. There is even an ultrasound that connects to a cellphone as shown here. The technology was developed by scientists at Washington University in St Louis.

The community hospotal or medical center may have one (or more) machine, but may not have an OBGYN. So the data from the ultrasound can be communicated/transmitted to a knowledgeable practitioner or doctor likely residing in a large city. The practitioner can look at it to determine that the woman is in premature labor. And from there, there are ways to remedy premature labor.

Another example that is being researched by Professor Thomas is methods for mobile technologies and low-cost ultrasound to be used to determine if a baby is breached. More specifically, when a woman is in labor and while in labor an ultrasound of her womb can be taken. The image can be compared to a database or the can be persons who are expert deciphers and it can be possible to determine if the baby is breached. Then a verbal message, text message, or some form of communication can be done to walk the local medical center/hospital through methods to address the breached baby.

Professor Thomas is also researching ways in which traditional story telling and social networks can be integrated to create novel community-sharing methods between new mothers. This story telling method would be used to convey information about child rearing between mothers. For example, a new mother may have questions about what to expect at a check-up or the new mother have trouble breast feeding where the child is not latching. To get information about these issues, the new mother can use her mobile phone to connect with and see pictures of mothers in her community and get information from the local community  This helps in relating to other mothers as well as for the new mother to have access to information at any time which is important at night for safety and security. Voice recognition and kinnects are some technologies that could be leveraged.

Meeting with Technical Innovator Mr. Eric Mibuari of Kenya

I had an excellent introductory phone meeting with Mr. Eric Mibuari from Laare, Kenya. Eric was a phenomenal undergraduate at MIT and is now earning his MS at Stanford! He is the founder of LACOTEC, the Laare Community Technology Center and has been a part of development of the MIT-AITI program. Given his background and passion for developing technologies WITH communities that are in emerging markets, I thought it would be great to include him in the discussion of my project. 

As I spoke with Mr. Mibuari he discussed technological progress that Kenya has made over the past decade. In particular, Strathmore University students have been at the forefront of software development and cutting edge computing technology. Many of these students participated in the MIT-AITI program as well, and are also a part of exciting projects such as iHub. 

We laid out two potential use-cases of the GSM/GPRS Shield one in the field of transportation and the other in the field of agriculture, with a stronger emphasis on the former. This post details our discussion about the transportation scenario.

An example of matatus are shown at the beginning of this video.

In Kenya, as in many other developing communities, people use mini-buses, called Matatus, for public transportation. They are a low-cost solution to getting people around particularly in developing countries. There is this very cool low-tech ecosystem around these buses, where it may not be clear to the lay person how to find out the  mini-bus schedule in a so called traditional way.  Instead it is organized differently, but equally as effective as other public but transportation systems. First there is a person that owns one or a fleet of mini-buses. This person will hire a driver and conductor for each bus. The driver does just that, he is in charge of driving the routes, which may vary at time. The conductor collects the money from the passengers and rounds up passengers at each stop. Note that the matatus are visually quite different in Nairobi than in most parts of Kenya. In Nairobi the mini-buses are "high-tech" with gorgeous exterior designs and sound systems with TVs in the interior. Note that the cost for a ride varies based on the passengers (riders) destination.

Another example of high-tech sophisticated matatus are shown is this video.

One of the challenges that owners of matatus have with their conductors and drivers is honesty and the ability to clearly determine the daily revenue. More specifically, there is no clear system to know how many routes the driver of a matatu has taken per day, nor is there a system to know how many persons were on each route. As a result the owner has to trust the word of the driver and conductor as to how much revenue they earned during the day. This is problematic when some conductors and drivers are dishonest about their daily revenue, or just do not have an accurate account of their daily revenue.

We are proposing a solution using the GSM/GPRS Shield and Arduino that will aggregate route and occupancy data for the matatu owners. For example, we can use the shield to count/sense the number of trips between two mini-bus terminals

There are a number of intriguing research challenges. For example, often times these buses are filled beyond capacity where passengers may sit on laps of others. This way the driver and conductor earn more revenue, by  simply stating to the owner that the bus was full, but they do not s include the money they earned from the "overfull" additional passengers. Another challenge or concern, is tampering with  our final product/solution. 


In general there are a number of exciting ideas occurring in Kenya. A key example is Equity bank, that has changed the banking industry in Kenya by allowing those (the majority) with little funds to bank with them. Essentially "banking the unbanked". Equity bank now has millions of cusotmers and has risen to one of the top 3 banks in Kenya. They are an Africa focused bank and have a foundation that is making great strides with improving education in Kenya. There are a number of other innovative ideas emerging from Kenya.

Collaboration with Dr. Robbin Chapman

I had an excellent ideas meeting with Faculty member of Wellesley College faculty member Dr. Robbin Chapman, who received her PhD in learning technologies at MIT! We laid out a more clearer focus of the document that I will be preparing for a major Tel-Co with regards to apply their new technologies to Emerging Markets and Developing Communities. More specifically, this Tel-Co has partnered with the open hardware Maker community and has developed a low-cost GSM / GPRS Shield for the Arduino. Arduino will be selling these shields in early 2012.

Our goal is to create a document (with your help) that includes detailed use-case scenarios that can be "easily" implemented by interested companies. Ideally the company would partner with a research institution or NGOs and also create a grant to support the work.

Back to my meeting with Dr. Chapman...

We laid out the what are called the "5 most important global issues for the next 50 years" that was presented to the Wellesley College and academic community:

1. Economic
2. Social
3. Political
4. Environment
5. Education

We discussed a range of ideas and possibilities including the following.  The possibly of using the shield to aid in learning in public spaces (outside the classroom). Incorporating the important social structures and the themes discussed between peers in these social structures as a catalyst for technology development. An example is to ask a mother what are the three items/things they feel if they know more about they can make their children's lives better.

Ideally the document will have at least one use-case scenario for each of the 5 categories. Each scenario should be detailed and include the key steps to implement the creation of the technologies for each community/market. We want to develop scenarios that will include creating new markets, free and available idea sharing between markets/communities.

Finally Dr Chapman noted that she is one of the leaders of the widely successful international Computer Clubhouses. They would love to learn to use the GSM/GPRS shields and create solutions relevant their communities. This would be a great area to write a grant and potentially create a partnership between industry and the Computer Clubhouse.

Barcelona Fab Lab visit

We had a good visit to the Barcelona Fab Lab. We met with Tomas Diez the project manager of the Fab Lab. The Lab is a part of a technical school IAAC (Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia). It's located in a large industrial warehouse type of space which is great for creating things! They even built a solar house in the space. I think the partnership between the Fab Lab and IAAC really helps the sustainability and the creativity of the Fab Lab. It's great to have continuous students use and create the machines and share their projects. See a video of the machines below. They have a laser cutter, modela, 3d printer, 2 Makerbots, perhaps a plasma cutter, a large bed laser cutter, Fab at home machine, and other machines that are a part of the architecture program. They are also making machines from their machines! Which is great for expansion and sustainability.

Tomas provided us with an overview of the projects that they have created from a solar house to creating their own shields to make a create a device that senses pollution. Tomas and Zorzano talked a lot about development and Zorzano mentioned that we can definitely do a workshop and teach the student the GSM shield sometime in October, and see if there are some potential ideas from the students! Zorzano also mentioned that we may be able to assist them with some software as they create the Smart/Sensor City.

While the Fab Lab is a great place and has some very exciting and creative projects there are a few general concerns. First is funding and economic sustainability. It is not clear what the continual funding sources will be in order to financially maintain the lab. Presumably they are looking to partner and be sponsored by companies, etc. They have a grand and inspiring vision to create 10 Fab Labs and make Barcelona the first Fab City, however we are not sure how soon or how realistic this is. Though we strongly encourage and support the spirit! They will likely add 2 more Fab Labs in the next 2 to 3 years.