Due to the improvements in performance in computer power and storage capacity achieved over the last decade, today's data-intensive scientific applications and simulations are capable of generating massive amounts of data. Sensor networks will soon consist of thousands of (possibly moving) sensors, distributed in a three- dimensional (3D) environment and recording multiple parameters. Standard visualization techniques are not capable to render the huge data sets at interactive frame rates.
There are thousands of stand-alone projects that aim to bring information and communication technology (ICT) to developing regions, but nearly all depend on existing hardware and infrastructure developed for affluent regions. These imported technologies fail to address key challenges in cost, deployment, power, and support for semi-literate users. This proposal develops the key technologies and infrastructure to enable these projects, and many new applications that were previously intractable.
The goal of universal access is to make applications accessible to everyone. One of the first, most common, and most useful tasks done by today's computer users is World Wide Web (web) browsing. Because of this, much research in accessibility has focused on developing guidelines and tools in support of universal Web access. Examples include the W3C accessibility guidelines and numerous services for vision-impaired users, the people most obviously needing support to deal with graphics and text in Web pages.
