Microsoft researching ways to help illiterate people use computers

One of Microsoft's research labs in India is working on a system that would help illiterate domestic workers in India with families seeking their services.

The system uses video, photo and voice commands to tell women what jobs are available, the salary and where they are.

The goal is to help the women see how technology can make finding work more efficient, as the first step toward creating broader tools to help illiterate people benefit from technological advances.

Researchers on the Indian project say they have had to overcome their preconceptions about how the technology should work, and why people would want to use it. Kentaro Toyama, a researcher overseeing the project, said the first big hurdle was to understand what kind of computer images actually made sense to the domestic workers.

More details over at Business Week.