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Jhai PC

Jhai PC. Low cost, rugged computers for remote villages in Laos with no electricity or phones. Powered by manually operated foot cranks. Connected by radio. New York Times: The Pedal-Powered Intenet.

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Jhai PC

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  1. Jhai PC • Low cost, rugged computers for remote villages in Laos with no electricity or phones. • Powered by manually operated foot cranks. • Connected by radio.

  2. New York Times: The Pedal-Powered Intenet “A remote farmer in the dirt-poor country of Laos wants to check some e-mail. So he goes to the only computer in his village. (It's bolted to the floor of a public building, to prevent theft.) He brings a friend along -- not to Web-surf with him, but to pedal a bicycle-driven generator that powers the computer. When they've cranked out enough juice, they can log onto the Web, using a jury-rigged set of wireless antennae. It's a clunky system made out of spare parts, but when it goes live next year, it will become the newest way to hook up the developing world: the pedal-powered Internet.”

  3. Why Jhai PC? • Communication by e-mail in Lao language • Customers in Vientiane or elsewhere • Relatives overseas • Staff of Jhai foundation in US • Business Tools • Word processing • Spreadsheets • Education (computer skills) • Information • Prices for rice, vegetables, woven goods • Medical information

  4. What is Jhai PC? • Hardened equipment, designed to last 10 years. • No moving parts: 486 CPU, keyboard, roller ball, LCD screen, dot matrix printer, 96M disk-on-chip. • LINUX-based software and KDE graphical desktop, localized into Lao language. • Powered by bicycle pedals connected to a generator, connected to a small car battery. • Each village connects by radio to a single solar-powered repeater. Repeater connects to a microwave tower, which connects to Vientiane.

  5. Sustainability • Hardened for 10 years of service. • Jhai Foundation to provide computer training and business training to high school students in each village. • Students will run village computer as a business. • Jhai Foundation will be available for assistance for at least one year. Will also guarantee functioning of systems, and repair broken systems.

  6. Choices made by Jhai Foundation • Extra effort for reliable system rather than training local technicians to repair. • Human-powered rather than, e.g., a gas generator. • One computer per village rather than smaller, cheaper machines for each household.

  7. Russian Cybiko • $99 combination PDA/Game player (think Gameboy) with wireless connectivity • Currently marketed to teenagers in Europe and America - Games, organizer, optional MP3 player, etc… • Could this be adapted for use as a low-cost computing device in the developing world?

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