Designing Novel Gesture-based Services for Under Served Indian Communities

Emerging technologies have largely neglected the communities who stand to benefit the most: Indian women who are functionally illiterate, children with special needs and underprivileged children. Gesture-based technologies have the potential to(a) help overcome the literacy barriers faced by functionally illiterate Indian women from urban slums and rural villages, (b) provide a means of self-expression to children with autism who face severe social challenges, and (c) inspire the imaginations of urban slum children who attend non-motivating and non-innovative government schools, only to drop out of before reaching high school. This paper presents three case studies outlining benefit for Indian women and children from the ongoing information revolution.