The Sirius Handheld Computing Platform

The primary application that motivated us to create Sirius was e-learning. In talking to other people and companies about Sirius it has become clear that there are many other applications in supply chain management, retail, security, warehousing, point of sales and delivery management. These are all applications that we may eventually pursue, however our initial goal is to develop educational applications for this device. The kinds of applications we are talking about initially include:

1. Note taking tools
2. Searchable databases of courseware (syllabus material)
3. Multilingual (Urdu, English, etc.) e-Book reader and associated library of e-Books
4. Automated "Quiz" applications to prepare students for exams such as Matric, O'Levels, A'Levels, etc.
5. Communication device (with the in-development wireless modem) for voice and text communication applications
6. Internet access software
7. Email

You can see how applications such as these, delivered to millions of children in the developing world will not only make a difference to computer literacy levels, but will also make up for the shortage of other resources. For instance, there are no libraries in many third-world public schools. They are very costly to build, purchase books for and maintain. Issues like theft, loss of books & damage are all real problems. A viable alternative is to provide children with Sirius, with hundreds of e-Books already installed. This would represent a revolution in terms of the resources available to our children.

In addition, just exposure to the educational content on the Internet alone will open up students' eyes and mind to what is going on in the rest of the world. Nothing will achieve the goal of imparting the enlightened moderation more than landscape altering technologies such as Sirius.

To give you a final example of why a device like Sirius greatly impacts our educational environment. Consider that a large percentage of parents of public-school going children in the developing world cannot read, write or help their children prepare for school. A device like Sirius - which could automate quizzes, provide guided instruction supported by excellent content and reinforce concepts taught in class even while the student is at home - would clearly have a monumental positive impact on the lives of the young students all over the world.