The start of our project began with lots of research into what technology in the developing world is needed and what has been successful. The types of places we are interested in working in are very rural un-electrified villages which can be found in many countries from Nepal to Uganda. Today, these villages are typically near a city or large village which is electrified but may still be at an impractical distance to utilize regularly.
A very common need for people who are not in electrified areas is cell phone charging. This is something that has been picked up by many NGO's and start-up companies. For example Zamsolar is a start-up aimed at using solar energy to satisfy the demand for phone charging. Network reception and the phones themselves are becoming extremely common among most developing nations and unfortunately this sort of technology moves faster than infrastructure development. When Lydia and I were thinking about implementing beneficial technology in such areas this application immediately arose after speaking with various professors involved with similar ventures.
In some areas, but not all, lighting is also a priority or at least a decent benefit to the life styles of the locals. A group which specializes in this is the Himalayan Light Foundation (HLF) who, similarly to our project, use domestic solar panels for energy. With the advance of LED brightness over the last decade we are hoping to incorporate some simple house lighting into the node's features. LEDs are extremely long lasting, reliable and energy efficient which makes them perfect for this application.
The other thing that we are interested in was how we could use our node for telecommunication. Apart from cell phones FM radio is popular in almost every area of the globe and so a basic radio could be incorporated into the package. The utility of the internet is forever increasing as well. 3G networks are surprisingly not uncommon in un-electrified villages. Two Duke students last summer traveled to Togo to set up a solar powered internet cafe in a rural village in Togo. (see article here) They got internet from a local cell tower which was powered by an internal combustion generator refueled periodically.
The idea of bring internet to someones how through one of these nodes seems incredible. Since we do not have a location for our project yet we cannot guarantee what infrastructure will be in the area. If 3G is available that would could be used if the subscription is economical. Alternatively there are interesting projects being planned in Australia which provide internet to very rural areas through digital radio which would be very long range. If a transmitter could be set up in a local electrified city then this could be a window to the internet. A very cheap compact computer which has recently exploded on the geeky scene is the Raspberry Pi. These small devices could do the bulk of the signal processing required for a digital radio and also provide the needed hardware for accessing the internet.
Lydia and I aim to deploy our technology over a roughly 30 day period between May and June. Time is against us in terms of prototyping our node and so what we are determined to have implemented is the ability for house lighting and phone charging. The other features will be tested if possible. The next blog post to come shortly will be about financing and the social aspect to this project.
A very common need for people who are not in electrified areas is cell phone charging. This is something that has been picked up by many NGO's and start-up companies. For example Zamsolar is a start-up aimed at using solar energy to satisfy the demand for phone charging. Network reception and the phones themselves are becoming extremely common among most developing nations and unfortunately this sort of technology moves faster than infrastructure development. When Lydia and I were thinking about implementing beneficial technology in such areas this application immediately arose after speaking with various professors involved with similar ventures.
In some areas, but not all, lighting is also a priority or at least a decent benefit to the life styles of the locals. A group which specializes in this is the Himalayan Light Foundation (HLF) who, similarly to our project, use domestic solar panels for energy. With the advance of LED brightness over the last decade we are hoping to incorporate some simple house lighting into the node's features. LEDs are extremely long lasting, reliable and energy efficient which makes them perfect for this application.
The other thing that we are interested in was how we could use our node for telecommunication. Apart from cell phones FM radio is popular in almost every area of the globe and so a basic radio could be incorporated into the package. The utility of the internet is forever increasing as well. 3G networks are surprisingly not uncommon in un-electrified villages. Two Duke students last summer traveled to Togo to set up a solar powered internet cafe in a rural village in Togo. (see article here) They got internet from a local cell tower which was powered by an internal combustion generator refueled periodically.
The idea of bring internet to someones how through one of these nodes seems incredible. Since we do not have a location for our project yet we cannot guarantee what infrastructure will be in the area. If 3G is available that would could be used if the subscription is economical. Alternatively there are interesting projects being planned in Australia which provide internet to very rural areas through digital radio which would be very long range. If a transmitter could be set up in a local electrified city then this could be a window to the internet. A very cheap compact computer which has recently exploded on the geeky scene is the Raspberry Pi. These small devices could do the bulk of the signal processing required for a digital radio and also provide the needed hardware for accessing the internet.
Lydia and I aim to deploy our technology over a roughly 30 day period between May and June. Time is against us in terms of prototyping our node and so what we are determined to have implemented is the ability for house lighting and phone charging. The other features will be tested if possible. The next blog post to come shortly will be about financing and the social aspect to this project.
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