We all know that the term e-waste means electronic waste, an inevitable by-product of the technological innovations taking place today. Is it possible to give a better meaning to the same word? Something that can make an electronics engineer proud of? Yes, is the answer told by a group of research students from New Castle University. They came up with a product called BINCAM that can train you to be a good boy.
The idea of a BINCAM is as simple as this. The ordinary dustbin in an office room is engaged with a smart phone which is triggered on with the movement of the lid. It clicks a photo every time a person puts waste into it. This photo is automatically uploaded into Facebook with the help of 3G/Wi-Fi. The friends and relatives can see this image as a post and can make fun of the person if he is following unhealthy food habits. Simultaneously, this app will send the picture to Amazon’s Mechanical Turk service. An individual will be manually rating the waste management habits as a part of competition ‘Bin League’.
India is a country struggling a lot with the waste management initiatives. People are least bothered about having hygienic surroundings. I feel that if an approach similar to the BINCAM is introduced in the country, it will improve the behaviour of the people. Even though there are CCTV s placed in the townships where the waste is deposited, people who litter the waste carelessly are seldom punished. A system should be implemented where there is a provision to send the photos captured in a CCTV camera with the help of WiFi/3G and is posted in a community page where the people in the entire locality is a member. The people can criticize the habits of people who litter the waste.
Such bold initiatives are the need of the hour as the country strives to get the title ‘CLEAN INDIA’.
