Who would have thought of getting emails and data over the radio? But now this is possible because of 22-year-old Indian boy Vinny Lohan who has developed a software that lets one do just that. Radios reach out to the millions in the country, and transistors are cheap and easily available. Lohan has come up with a software to send computer data over normal radio waves, reported Jaimon Joseph for CNN-IBN.
Vinny said “Computers are all about zeros and ones. Be it video or text or music, to a computer, it is all zeros and ones. Since that’s so, we asked ourselves, can we take a book or a video and convert it into music. And then send it over the airwaves. Turns out the answer was yes.”
‘OneBeep’ is the special software that Vinny and his friends created. In order to send a file, video or text, the broadcaster has to just select and drag it into the software. OneBeep converts that data into an audio file, which is then sent out over the airwaves.
Vinny was quoted saying to IBN Live “It’s a bit like bit-torrent. When you are downloading something, the software is intelligent enough to know when something is paused and when it is restarted. We break digital data into packets. The software is converting audio into packets of data on the computer. Say your signal is weak or your battery died. When it restarts, it starts from the place it left off.”
Vinny and his team had bagged the third prize in Microsoft’s Imagine Cup in 2010. It was a worldwide contest for tech innovators.
Listeners can plug in their radio to a laptop or a tablet computer, using a normal headphone jack, while the OneBeep software installed on their machines will automatically convert the audio files back into data. It’s like getting an email over the radio. However the idea does have a few drawbacks.
Firstly, it is slow and sending just 2 MB of data can take up to 40 minutes. Secondly, the idea itself isn’t new. HAM radio operators have used almost similar software since the 1970’s. And lastly, it could be misused by terrorists.
However Vinny said “Each radio frequency transmission needs a government licence. Most amateur transmitters have a range of 20-30 metres. Anything stronger than that can easily be traced. If any unauthorized frequency transmissions take place, the army will be privy to that,” as reported by IBN Live.
Vinny’s idea still has potential since it’s so simple and easily adaptable, and can help rural school kids to download assignments overnight. Further, community radio stations in villages can also use it to transfer files related to panchayats.
Though the technology is few years away, OneBeep already works and Vinny wants to offer it for free on the web. He wants give rural India a taste of the internet over the radio.
Source::::: silicon india net….
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