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
