The French center established a pilot project in Senegal that experimented with adapting the LOGO language for a Third World population. But that project failed years later because of politics and because the computers involved were too expensive.
"We needed three decades," Reddy said, for those technologies to help developing nations. He noted that in the early 1980s, computing was more focused on data processing, while today the focus is communications.
Coincidentally, he said, is that designing a system largely for people who cannot read will require more wireless network bandwidth than is currently required for most modern computer networks, since communication will rely more heavily on audio and video transmissions than on text messages.
With a small team of students and faculty here at Carnegie Mellon University's West Coast campus, Reddy has built a simple control screen that allows the PCtvt to be used for audio and video conferencing, electronic mail and viewing local newspapers on the Web through a TV remote control.
The designers have intentionally limited the computer's functions because they are struggling to simplify what the users see and experience.
One challenge Reddy faced was in persuading Microsoft to offer a version of its Windows software for the project for far less than its commercial price. But Reddy said he eventually won the support of Craig Mundie, the chief technical officer and a senior strategist at Microsoft.
Meanwhile, Reddy's team is also working with social scientists to determine the effect that access to this technology has on communities.
"If we can do these experiments" and show that people living in poverty are a market for computers, Reddy said, "we will have proved something."
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