Students of the Indian Institute of Technology's Industrial Design Centre here have designed a unique technology for self and quicker learning with an aim of helping adult learners.

The aim of the project was to design an interactive system which helps adult learners to read 'Devanagri' script and speed up their literacy learning process, Ruchika Mittal, who developed the technology, told PTI.

Based on the user observations, the design was required to be motivational, requiring less involvement of the teacher and self learning. "The design gives the users the flexibility to use the product anywhere, and at any time, thereby allowing them to adjust their learning time as per their convenience," she said.

The final design was a system which comprised of two modes, 'Learning and Practice'. Learning mode comprised an interactive table and Practice mode comprised a mobile memory game.

The test result showed that the system helps users to speed up their learning and encourage collaborative learning which enhances the learning experience. Mittal has also developed another technology on information and communication in adult literacy and its assessment. .

The new prototype allows the learners to use the product while sitting on the ground. This was essential in the context that most of the adult literacy classes are conducted, using minimal facilities, requiring the learners to sit on the ground for the classes.

The prototype was made by implementing Hindi OCR software which processes live image captured by the camera.

A 'Controlled Experiment' was undertaken to prove the hypothesis.

This experiment comprised of two sets of literacy classes - one taught by traditional method and the other by using both - the traditional method and the prototype, Mittal said.

The results showed that learners grasped faster with the traditional method using the prototype as compared to just traditional learning, she added.

Meanwhile, Saurab Srivastav of the IDC has developed a Speech Portal for Sugarcane farmers of North India.

Called Spoken Web technology, it is aimed at creating a better platform for the farmers cultivating sugarcane crop and cater to the problems they face during cultivation.

"This system is a voice driven ecosystem parallel and complementary to the existing Web meant for the under-served population in emerging markets," Srivastav said.

This application becomes a medium of connection among farmers, the mills and the service providers, he said.

Based on IBM's 'Spoken Web' Technology, the project proposed a voice operated portal for the sugarcane farming community of western Uttar Pradesh (India) and a website portal for easy operation of the speech portal from the mill.