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Hey guys, Happy to see your comments. Shanmugavadivel Here, Hardware Engineer and Co-founder @Tohands
What challenges have you had developing hardware for this population? (Literacy, cost, picking what to focus on, etc?)
Hey guys, Happy to see your comments. Shanmugavadivel Here, Hardware Engineer and Co-founder @Tohands
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I think you could, but you wouldn't leave your phone in the shop for other employees to use. You would have to buy a dedicated phone for the purpose... At that point you can also buy a dedicated calculator instead.
Many people have an old phone they could wipe, however. Even a brand new phone for this purpose would be cheaper than this smart device. Still very cool and there are UX benefits to this device.
Syncs with their phone app, to keep a track of bills and expenses. Based on the Espressif ESP32. Quite handy for small shop owners who can't have a full-blown computer+screen cash register. Disclaimer: I am working as a freelancer for their next version of hardware that will be based on Linux.
I think moving to a full blown operating system is moving in the wrong direction. I think moving in the other direction towards a strictly hardware double entry book keeping system would be progress. I think any operating system over complicates and encumbers the idea with un-needed dependices. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-entry_bookkeeping
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I think moving to a full blown operating system is moving in the wrong direction. I think moving in the other direction towards a strictly hardware double entry book keeping system would be progress. I think any operating system over complicates and encumbers the idea with un-needed dependices. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-entry_bookkeeping
> I think any operating system over complicates and encumbers the idea with un-needed dependices. The prime problem is latency , which becomes both noticeably larger and unpredictable . Both those aspects cause huge loss of ergonomics. It's quite easy to tell whether a piece of hardware is doing things directly in firmware, or if it's running a full OS with a software stack - the latter has neither instant nor predic…
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> I think any operating system over complicates and encumbers the idea with un-needed dependices. The prime problem is latency , which becomes both noticeably larger and unpredictable . Both those aspects cause huge loss of ergonomics. It's quite easy to tell whether a piece of hardware is doing things directly in firmware, or if it's running a full OS with a software stack - the latter has neither instant nor predic…
Nah it's all the fault of touchscreens.
Forget texting from pocket. Consider why we can't really operate any of the common touchscreen devices, like phones, tablets and computers, without looking at them. It's because of unpredictable input latency, unpredictable UI timings, and unpredictable UI behavior all across the stack - from the apps with bullshit flashy UX, down to the OS which is not a real-time OS, and will introduce arbitrary latencies for arbitrary reasons.
The touchscreens and their driving hardware is itself fine. It's the introduction of a proper, non-real-time OS, that's the "original sin" here. Everything else is just decades of practice of writing for such OSes, with the fundamental unstated assumption that interactivity means user is looking at the display while operating the device. This assumption bleeds all the way to the very core of *nixes and Windows.
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If the device is cheap enough(so theft is not a concern), and it has a wifi signal, a barcode scanner could easily be plugged in, or added wirelessly so it can track SKUs or whatever the shop uses. It syncs to a more powerful device which can maintain inventory counts .
Oooooooo Now you are talking. The website does NOT explain this. I read about the app which is meh. You end up like thousands of copycat khata apps that do single entry accounting. Didnt test your app but that is quite difficult to do on its own so if you are able to connect with existing accounting softwares, then it can be much better.
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Anujdesh, this is amazing. Is the calculator being manufactured fully in India or shipped from China? Curious. Love the WiFi connected ability. Does the user have any choice on what api they want to export to? Or it has to be a specific app? Even in the US, 90+% of gifts bought for Christmas are made in China. Almost anything containing electronics, plastics and some kind of plush fabric / faux leather seems to be ma…
The name is split as: Anuj Deshpande So Anuj is probably what you wanna call him on first name basis :)
I think this is a ridiculously brilliant idea. It's probably hard for Americans and folks in the West to imagine why this is a big deal. There are millions of vendors who basically dominate India's retail market, which is probably one of the largest unorganized corners of the global economy with the world's largest population. There have been tons of efforts and a significant amount of VC funding to digitize unorgani…
As someone that has worked a cash register both with barcodes and scanning, and doing the same thing with a calculator when power/computers crashed, I don't know how you can say a calculator is more efficient than a proper POS.
Labour efficient? Time efficient? Tax avoidance efficient?
why not just use the (smart) phone?
Also, unlike a phone, the advantage of a single-purpose device is that it doesn't need to be switched back to the right app, is unlikely to crash, and isn't something you depend on for a whole load of other things in your life.