More from the UKTI’s pre-Mobile World Congress event, showcasing some of the UK startups which will be exhibiting at the show in February.
First, QRpedia told us about its platform, which enables a museum to tag its exhibits with QR codes that forward to Wikipedia articles, to give visitors a greater breadth of information on the specific topics that interest them. Scan the code next to the Domesday Book, in the National Archives in Kew, and youll be taken to the Wiki article outlining its history.
As Wikipedia is available in 283 languages, and with QRPedia codes rolled out in museums around the world – from Britain to Barcelona, Indianapolis to (they think) Iran – QRpedia had to reflect that. The platform automatically detects the users native language, as defined in their device settings, and serves the relevant version of the article. For topics that dont have pages specifically written in that language – QRpedias own, for example, is available in 24 languages – it provides a Google Translation version of the page.
And its not just museums that can benefit from Wikimedia – Roger Bamkin, Wikimedias chair, pointed out that anyone can create and QRpedia codes, even if its just used in their bedroom. Bamkin also told us that over the next three months, the entire town of Monmouth will become QRpedia-enabled, providing information on all its historic buildings and, for buildings and institutions without their own specific article, offer a page on a relevant general topic – the history of or butchers, for example.
Next came a slightly left-field chat with Wood & Douglas Grant Notman, about the development of its dog-mounted video transmitter, Portable All-Terrain Wireless System – abbreviated, inevitably, to PAWS – and a contactless payment fob system for golf courses that also helps chase off slow golfers. 
Finally, Datawinds Alia Khan, VP of UK operations, and Ivan Kotorov, national sales manager Germany, told us about the low-priced Ubislate 7 Tablet device. Datawind won a tender from the Indian Government to produce 100,000 of its Tablets which are currently being deployed by the Ministry of Education, and given to university students for free.
Its a fascinating idea, and something I had to get my hands on. Trying out the Ubislate, which runs Android 2.3, was a noticeably slower experience than your average tablet, with navigation of the menus feeling unresponsive. But, as Datawinds Kotorov pointed out, the devices are being offered to an audience with limited experience of computing.
Something that isnt true in the UK and Europe, where Datawind is rolling out a retail model from March, at a price point of £99. Accordingly, the retail model of the Ubislate will have slightly better specifications, and come bundled with a year of phone connectivity.
