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Students at the University of Washington (USA) have developed a voice activated mouse, according to a report in the Seattle Times. This could mean more accessible computers to people with disabilities.

Say “ahh” and the cursor zips toward the northeast corner of the computer screen. “Ooo” sends it shooting straight south. Want it to head southeast? Say “ohh.” To make the cursor do a circle or figure 8, let vowel sounds bleed into one another, like eee into ahh into aww and so on. You can make it hurry or slow by regulating the volume of your voice. To open a link, make a soft clicking sound.

So goes the University of Washington’s “Vocal Joystick” software, which uses sounds to help people with disabilities use their computers.

Its development has been a multidisciplinary task with faculty and students from several university departments electrical engineering, linguistics, computer science, as well as the Information School
blending their expertise. (It is just one of a series of UW-generated assistive-technology projects ranging from enabling the blind to use touch screens to developing an alternative to the point-and-click method of computer navigation).

Researchers at the university have tested the joystick with spinal-cord-injury patients at the UW
Medical Center and just finished another round of testing with 10 participants with varying levels of disabilities.

Susumu Harada, a computer- science and engineering graduate student, administered the tests, putting each subject through 12 hours of training. He evaluated how they learned producing the correct vowel sounds, memorized the directional patterns and manipulated cursor speed.

Sometimes,moving the mouse by voice seemed frustrating, even a bit tiring. If the operator was out of sync with his own sounds as recorded by the software, the cursor might speed past a target in one direction and go so slowly in the other that the subject would have to take a break to catch his breath.

Some sounds came easily. Some seemed a bit unnatural and strained. But when a subject caught the rhythm, the task was easy and natural.

There are several options for people who need accommodations in using computers, but the UW software is distinguished on several levels. For one, it doesn’t use standard voice-recognition technology. Instead, it detects basic sounds at about 100 times a second and harnesses them to generate fluid, adaptive cursor movement.

Vocal-joystick researchers are of the opinion that the system is easier to use because it allows users to exploit a large set of sounds for both continuous and discrete movement and to make visual adjustments on the fly.

The Vocal Joystick requires only a microphone, a computer with a standard sound card and a user who
can vocalize. The team behind the study, funded by the National Science Foundation of USA, hopes to make a prototype available online this fall.

If this system is successful commercially as well, it is likely to come as a blessing for people with different types of disabilities who previously had restricted usage of the computer.

As time progresses, methods of instruction are being metamor phosed and updated continually. The days of ‘Spare the Rod and Spoil the Child’ are slowly vanishing and newer ways of instilling knowledge are being introduced in schools worldwide. Where only direct instruction and repetition were the chief means of learning, teachers are now using a variety of teaching aids to stimulate the various senses of the students.

Every student has a different learning capacity and each child learns better from a different set of senses. For example, some students learn better from stimulation through sound or rhythm, some through visual stimulation and others through touch.

To reach the most number of students, the teacher needs to create a variety of learning experiences. This can best be made possible through use of technology and multimedia in the classroom.

Today, technology has made it possible to access a sea of information through just a click of a button. The internet has opened vistas for an assortment of educational benefits. Students can use it to research on a given topic, share ideas, directly ask an expert on the topic, discuss it in online forums and finally put together a school project or a multi-media presentation.

The internet has also facilitated collaborative work among peers, whereby, students in a project group can mutually discuss what they want to put into their project and work together from their own individual homes. What’s more, schools can use it to keep students and parents updated with the latest school events and PTA meetings, inform about any emergency holidays and even provide immediate results of any examination or test given through their website.

With the help of e-mail, teachers can post lecture notes to absentees or all the students in general, absentees can submit their projects or homework from home, and teachers and parents can use it to keep in touch with one another about their child’s performance in class.

Scholastica in Dhaka has used this approach to allow the school to keep in touch with parents at all times. They have started an SMS service that keeps parents informed about important school announcements and provides other emergency notifications. They also maintain a database of email addresses of parents and use it to get in touch with them, even if they are not in the country. Parents can also communicate with the school through email with their individual queries, complaints or suggestions. This way, parents can remain updated with their child’s progress no matter where they are.

Besides the internet, there are numerous multimedia programs designed to meet the special needs of diverse learners. For example, a student learning English as a second language would benefit from a computer program where they could learn the language at their own pace. They could spend as much time as needed on the computer, without feeling pressured to keep up with other students in the class. One class may consist of a range of students, each with a different preferred way of learning. One cannot expect all teachers to teach every student in their preferred way and pace, but a computer program or multimedia application may have the capabilities of doing so without taking additional time away from other students. By utilizing such programs, a single teacher can employ many more resources and methods within one classrooms, rather than teaching the information in one manner to all students. A wide range of such educational software is available for every subject imaginable and teachers can use these effectively for their benefit.

Educators can also use the multitude of software available that are designed primarily for them, such as time-table generators and other class management software that help teachers to record, analyze and summarize attendance and student test scores. Such software save time, ensure accuracy, make the assessments more objective and fair and allow for flexible and easy changes. There are even software that can transform any text into fun classroom activities, like crosswords, jumbles, flashcards, pair-matching puzzles, and more.

Interactive White Boards are revolutionising the education sector today all over the world, and SMART Technology has pioneered in this revolution with their SMART Boards. The blackboard, chalk and eraser may become obsolete with this new technology that retrieves information, notes and lessons with a simple click. According to the official website of SMART technology (www.smarttech.com), a SMART Board is “an interactive whiteboard that connects to a computer and draws the power it needs from the computer.

The SMART Board driver automatically starts when the computer is turned on, and the interactive whiteboard becomes active once the driver is running. When (the SMART Board) connects a digital projector to your computer, you can project the computer image onto the SMART Board interactive whiteboard. The SMART Board driver converts contact with the interactive whiteboard into mouse clicks or digital ink. This feature enables you to use your finger as a mouse or write overtop of applications.”

With the help of the SMART Board touch screen, teachers can make their lesson more interactive, allowing students to directly interact with the application on the Board. It has also been reported to enhance student concentration and participation in class. Since it is basically connected to a computer, it can do everything that a computer can, including accessing the internet and running multimedia applications. To top that, colored digital pens provided with the Board can be used to highlight, mark or write over. This makes it ideal for teaching maps or diagrams. Moreover, teachers can easily save the notes and markings that she had used during her lecture and use them for later reference or to distribute them to the students at the end of her lecture.

Unfortunately, due to the high cost, very few educational or training institutions in Bangladesh have been found to use SMART Boards. However, if the cost is weighed against the teaching benefits, SMART Boards may prove to be quite worth it, especially in boosting the institution’s reputation.

Interactive Personal Response Systems (PRS) are yet another wonder of technology for modern education. It includes a radio frequency (RF) remote for each student in the class, a central receiver, whiteboarding software and assessment software, which tally student responses, record attendance, post test results and provide individual feedback. In this way, the PRS systems provide a direct wireless connection between the teacher and students.

With it, the teacher displays or speaks prepared or ad hoc questions, students anonymously key in answers with their remote, and responses are tallied, then displayed on a projection screen or interactive whiteboard immediately.

The advantages of this system are manifold. It allows frequent questioning and feedback, which engages students more actively in the material being studied. This data can then be used to provide relevant in-class feedback, and to adjust instruction according to identified needs. Moreover, Students send their responses privately, so they are free to answer without feeling judged by peers.

ELECTRONIC payment industry is stepping into maturity in Bangladesh. Banks are now more focused on investing in card business either in the form of debit card and/or credit card; independent processing or
processing though third party. In whatever way it is, business is growing with a positive trend.

It is expected that within next two to three years, Bangladesh will experience a 100% growth in card industry especially in debit card. More banks are becoming on-line and started issuing debit card. On the other hand, lifting of AIT from credit card bill will augment card usage. But return from this high profile business does not show expected results as of now. It always remains blurred to most of the local banks how to ensure substantial profit from card business.

There are a number of ways to look at profitability in the card business and each in turn may be the most
relevant depending on the purpose of the financial analysis. The following is a list of ways which one may consider the economics of card business.

Transactional level: Banks must focus on profitability per transaction. This approach is useful when considering how to encourage certain types of customer behavior, including the role of loss-making transactions, play in the overall mix.

Card level: Bank needs to focus on profitability per card. This is key to customer segmentation. We need to define our profit maximization strategies basing on per card profitability. In turn, this will serve to identify the most customer profitable behavior and also will help in the customer servicing strategy.

Customer level: (a) new customer - we need to assess the cost of acquisition of any new customer to determine whether such acquisition is likely to be a profitable. We also need to identify what is his potential, his risk profile and his likely behaviour; (b) existing customer - we need to assess whether we have profitable customer relationship with any given customer. For example, are insurance and non-card lending opportunities being maximised? What are the prospects when considering all cross-selling opportunities for other bank products?

Segment level: Considering size and margin of any particular segment we focus, is this a profitable segment. What are the comparative returns opposite other segments, to what extent should this be a focus and what are the opportunities for profit improvement?

Product Level: We need to assess whether the products we have ensure substantial profit for us.
Considering size and margin, to what extent should this be a focus, how well does it suit the current market and is it necessary to change anything to improve product profit performance? We need to identify how
we can best balance the product mix?

Portfolio level: What are the current and prospective economics of our portfolio? It is worth acquiring and at what price, what synergies can one extract, how can one use it to drive premium revenues and margins, what other cross selling and profit improvement opportunities exist, what data, technology, management or other intellectual capital will one acquire and what value should one place on that?

Country P & L level: what are the prospects for the country? What are the fixed and variable elements of the economic structure and so to what extent should one be investing in scale or focusing on marginal contribution through cost revenue re engineering? What is the sum of the above opportunities for this market?

Business Unit level: We need to identify how ROA and ROE stand up against industry and market best in
class. What mode we have chosen - growth or profit harvesting mode? What role does card play in overall strategy of the financial institution and what key measures of performance should one be setting?

Most often more than one method will be used. All these particular dissections will feed into strategic and tactical decision making. They should naturally weave themselves into the planning and decision making
processes of the business.

Once we have exercised the above, turning to the key elements of card business strategy can then determine successful and profitable businesses. It is suggested by world leaders in card industry that to make a highly profitable card business each bank must have the following characteristics:

• Economies of scale and scope
• Strategic market positioning
• Customer loyalty
• Customer service orientation
• Operational efficiency
• Continuous business redesign

There are particular challenges to exploiting these characteristics in the financial card business in Bangladesh and besides, how well these characteristics are adopted and performed in each bank that is most
important.