Hi Friends,

Even as I launch this today ( my 80th Birthday ), I realize that there is yet so much to say and do. There is just no time to look back, no time to wonder,"Will anyone read these pages?"

With regards,
Hemen Parekh
27 June 2013

Now as I approach my 90th birthday ( 27 June 2023 ) , I invite you to visit my Digital Avatar ( www.hemenparekh.ai ) – and continue chatting with me , even when I am no more here physically

Saturday 30 May 2015

RE: Have you signed up for your Digital Locker yet ?


Digital    Locker    Project



Dear Shri Ravishankar Prasadji :


Business Standard ( 23 May 2015 ) writes about an initiative of Department of Electronics and Information Technology , to create " Digital Lockers "for Indian Citizens , where they can store their important documents on internet

This crowd-sourcing project is supposed to work as follows :

*   Citizens scan their documents on a scanner and then upload those
     images in personal Digital Locker ( User ID / Secure Password ? )

*   Special S/W will break-up each document image into hundreds of mini
     images ( of a few characters each )

*   Each mini-image will be SMSed to 2 persons ( having Smart phones ? ),
     who will type out the characters in TEXT (  WORD format ?  )

*   These typed TEXTs will get uploaded into document-owner's Digital
     Locker

*   If both these " typed texts " match perfectly ( like CAPTCHA ), it will
     replace that mini-image in the document

Apparently , the idea is to crowd-source the Smart Phones / human resources of millions of Indian Citizens - much like the 30 year old SETI project

But before taking a final decision to go ahead , I feel following questions need to be answered :

*  How much will it cost to develop / deploy the required software ?

*  Let us assume that there are only 10 documents per citizen ( on an
    average ) , taking the total to 12.5 BILLION documents to be scanned

    If each document-image has to be broken-up ( again , on an average ),
    into just 10 mini-images , that would mean 125 BILLION mini-images !

*  Now , if each mini-image has to be sent to 2 smart-phones , that
    would require , 250 BILLION smart phones  !

    Now , of course , there are no more than 250 million smart phones
    That would require Govt to send to each smart phone owner , 1,000
    mini-images  !

    And let us assume that each mini-image contains , just 10 characters,
    ( most likely , it will contain 50 characters )

    That would require each smart phone owner to type out 10,000
    characters  !

*  Why would ordinary Indian smart phone owner take time and trouble to
    type out 10,000 CAPTCHA-like characters ?

*  How will you motivate them ?  By paying  ?  How much  ?  Total cost ?

*  How many years will it take to implement entire project  ?

*  Do our 1.25  Billion ( document-owning ) citizens have easy access to
    scanners ( to scan their own documents ) and equally easy access to
    broadband ( to upload into personal Digital Locker )  ?

   
*   On the other hand , is it not far easier for these citizens to use the built-in camera of their smart phones to take photos ( essentially , " images " ) of their documents and directly upload to their Digital Lockers  ?

 After all , with built-in mega-pixel camera , every smart phone has become a " Personal Scanner "  !
   


*   Why not take help from Global Software Companies to automatically
     convert those scanned document images into WORD texts , using OCR
     technology ?

     Latest OCR soft ware have better than 95 % accuracy

     Then let the document-owner access OCRed documents in his personal
     Digital Locker and EDIT the documents thru his mobile / PC / Tablet  ?

     Let the onus for accuracy be with the document owner

     I am sure , you are aware of the GOOGLE-BOOK project , under which ,
     Google has scanned and OCRed and converted to text , billions of pages !

*   Or , why not get Indian Software Giants to develop a Mobile App ( to
     be called , DigiDoc  ?  ) to enable a document-owner to simply read 
     out aloud , each of his document , into the smart phone , to convert it
     into a TEXT , using " Speech-to-Text " technology ?

    Let the document be in any official Indian Language

    And ask the Software Company to make the " Speech-to-Text " software ,
   " Self Learning " as millions of document owners " correct " online thru   
    " Editing " , all those words , mis-spelled by the software  !
   
    I believe , the " Bye-Product " of this " Self Learning " software could well
    re-define concepts such as >  E Governance  > National Integration  !

  

     The document owner will speak out , his :

    >    Digital Locker Number

    >    Aadhar Card Number

    >    User ID

    >    Password

    >    Document Name

    >    Meta-tags / Keywords


   When Mobile App acknowledges these details and connects him with his Digital Locker , he will be prompted to " read out " his document

Later on , he will be enabled to " View " his document online and EDIT it , wherever " Speech-to-Text " software has made any mistakes


I urge you to evaluate the alternatives suggested by me , before taking a final decision



with  regards,

hemen  parekh


Mumbai / (M) 0 - 98,67,55,08,08


  

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