SANGRAH - Knowledge Repository for FOSS in Education

          We are announcing the release of our portal Sangrah - Knowledge Repository for FOSS in Education http://nrcfoss.cdacmumbai.in/sangrah. The portal contains resources about different categories like Learning Management System, Content Management System, etc. It also contains user experiences for these categories, comparative analysis of various tools from these categories, specialised search, and collaboration facility for community supported content updates.



           The portal is maintained with least manual intervention as most of the tasks including, resource collection, categorization, user experience identification, comparative analysis, etc are largely automated.

           The portal is intended for academic institutions, entrepreneurs, among others to help them to adopt Free and Open Source Softwares (FOSS). The portal is still evolving, so kindly provide your feedback, improvement suggestions through the feedback section on portal.

  Kindly visit and register on the portal at - http://nrcfoss.cdacmumbai.in/sangrah

Regards
sangram Team.

GEM (GEstures with Mouse) RPM Packgae Release

RPM package of GEM (GEstures with Mouse) - mouse gesture based interaction mechanism from CDAC, Mumbai now available for download. It can be downloaded from http://www.cdacmumbai.in/accessibility. This work is carried out under "Enhancing Accessibility for FOSS Desktops" project under NRCFOSS-Phase II. This application is intended for persons suffering with motor disabilities.

Anumaan Standalone-0.2 Release

Dear all,

We are very happy to announce the new release of our open source predictive text entry system - Anumaan. This release includes new version of standalone flavour of Anumaan i.e. Anumaan-standalone-0.2. This version has been released as part of the activities of project "Enhancing Accessibility for FOSS Desktops" under NRCFOSS-Phase II being carried out at CDAC, Mumbai.

Anumaan gives predictions based on preceding text/words used by the user in his/her text and user can use these predictions, while composing text. By incorporating predictions, user can improve his/her rate of text entry to a great extent.

Anumaan is mainly intended to help persons with motor disabilities, specially ones facing problems in hand and finger movement. Such persons face difficulty in using regular input devices like keyboard for text entry related tasks. Anumaan can help such persons immensely in their text entry related tasks by way of predictions. However, It is equally useful for common users also and can support them in creating mails, letters, documents etc. in less time.

Salient features of current version include:

• More user-friendly and simplified interface for easy interaction and navigation.
• Re-oriented layout of text entry area and prediction display in order to reduce visual and cognitive overhead.
• A single comprehensive prediction list combining predictions from all relevant grams for easy selection.
• Keyboard support for selecting predictions from prediction list. It reduces time taken in selecting and committing predictions to text.
• Larger text entry area compared to previous version for easy text entry.
• Integrated context-sensitive help.
• Re-oriented menu bar for easy access and navigation.

All these features are intended to improve user interaction and experience for motor disabled people. Anumaan is developed on java platform and supports UTF-8, so it can effectively be run on any platform.

Newly released version of Anumaan can be downloaded HERE.

We will appreciate if you can use the application and send us your valuable feedback. Feedback, bug reports or feature enhancement requests about the application can be sent to ossd@cdac.in or predictanumaan@gmail.com

Thanks & Regards
Anumaan Team,
Open Source Software Division,
CDAC Mumbai.
Kharghar, Navi Mumbai

GNU/LINUX Install Mannual

GNU/Linux for Physically Challenged: Install from Live CD/DVD

First download GNU/Linux From http://cdacmumbai.in/accessibility

Note: Before you start, please note down carefully the partitions on your hard disk, their sizes and the operating systems residing on them. You will need at least 6-8 GB disk space to install the new OS. If it is not there, you will have to delete or resize an existing partition to free the required disk space. So decide in advance which partitions you could delete or resize if required.

1.Insert the CD/ DVD and restart the computer. Keep looking at the screen. A message indicating the button for entering boot options menu will be displayed at the top or bottom. The button may vary from system to system. It may be Delete or F2 or F9 or F12. Keep pressing the appropriate button while the system is starting. This will bring up the boot options menu. Select the option to boot from CD/ DVD and press Enter. If your computer is already configured to boot from CD/ DVD when one is loaded, this step is not required. When the computer boots from the live CD/ DVD, the following screen appears. Just press Enter to continue.

2.The next screen shows three options. The live option will run the new OS from the CD/DVD, without making any changes to your hard disk. This is an excellent way to try out the new OS. The install option starts installing the new OS on your hard disk. The hd option skips the new OS and boots your computer in the usual fashion. Select install Option press Enter key.

3.This is the first screen in the installation process. Choose the language (default is English) and click on the Forward button.

4.Choose your location and time zone (default is India time). Click on Forward button.

5.Choose the appropriate keyboard layout for your computer (default is USA) and click Forward button.

6.This is the most important step in the installation process. The following screen shows the existing partitions on the hard disk and the operating systems residing on them. Here you decide where on your hard disk the new OS is going to be installed. WARNING: NEVER CHOOSE THE SECOND OPTION viz. ERASE AND USE THE ENTIRE DISK. THIS WILL ERASE ALL EXISTING OPERATING SYSTEMS, APPLICATIONS AND DATA FROM YOUR HARD DISK, CREATE A SINGLE PARTITION OCCUPYING THE WHOLE DISK AND INSTALL THE NEW OS THEREIN. To retain the existing operating systems, applications and data, and to have enough control on the installation process, choose the last option viz. Specify partitions manually (advanced) and click Forward button.

7.The following screen shows the existing partitions and provides options to modify them. In the example shown, we want to delete partition sda10, because it doesn't contain anything useful. We highlight the partition and click on Delete.

8.The following screen shows that partition sda10 has been deleted and its space has been added to the available free space. Now we need to create new partitions to install the new OS. We need two partitions, a swap partition and a root partition.

9.To create the root partition, highlight the free space entry and click the Add button. Create a new partition dialog appears. Set characteristics of the new partition as shown. Note that the partition type is set to Logical. The size is fixed at 10000 MB (10GB). The partition is located at the beginning of free space. The file system is Ext4 (Ext4 and Ext3 are standard for Linux). The mount point is set to / (slash). This means that the new partition will be mapped to the / (root) folder of the Linux file system. Now click the OK button.

10.The new partition sda10 is seen in the screen below. We have to make one change to this new partition. Highlight the new partition entry and check the check-box in the Format column. This means that the new partition will be formatted before the installation begins.

11.The next step is to create a swap partition. Repeat the procedure that we followed to create the root partition, but some settings would be different. Set the partition type to Logical. Fix the size to double the size of system RAM. For example, if you have 2GB RAM, fix the swap partition size to 4GB. Locate the partition at the beginning of free space. Set the file system to swap area. There is no need to specify the mount point for a swap partition. Finally click the OK button. Note that the partition list in the previous screen already shows a swap partition sda5. In such a case you don't need to create another swap partition, so skip this step.


12.In the next screen type in your name as 'physical' and password as 'physical' and click Forward button.

13.The installer searches the existing operating systems for documents and settings corresponding to different user accounts. If it detects any, it allows you to import the user accounts to the new operating system being installed. Mark the accounts you want to import and click on the Forward button.

14.The installer summarizes all inputs which you have entered in the earlier steps and displays them for review. Confirm that all inputs given by you are correct and click the Install button. If you want to change any input, click on the Back button.

15.The installation is in progress. Wait untill the installation is complete and then restart the System.

16.When you reboot your computer, you see the GRUB menu showing different operating systems. The new operating system which was just now installed is at the top. Previous operating systems which existed before this installation are listed below it. If you find that any of the previous operating systems are missing, don't panic. Login to the new operating system and start the Grub Customizer utility (System -> Administration -> Grub Customizer). Suppose you find that the Windows operating system is missing. Look at the Grub Customizer window shown below. Find the entry corresponding to the missing OS (here it is - Microsoft Windows XP Professional (on /dev/sda2)) in the 'name' column and check the checkbox on its left in the 'is active' column. Also check the checkbox on the left of the heading (here it is - os-prober (custom)) under which the entry appears. If you want to move an entry upwards or downwards in the menu, highlight the entry and move it to the desired location by clicking on the orange coloured Up/ Down buttons in the toolbar. Finally click the File->Install to MBR option in the toolbar to save your changes. Close the Grub Customizer and reboot your system. You will find that the Grub menu now shows all the operating systems, previous and the latest.

GNU/Linux distributions for differently-abled people

CDAC Mumbai released three specially designed GNU/Linux distributions for specially enable people.

To Download below mentioned all ISO files please Click Here.

GNU/Linux For Visually Challenged:

This is a GNU/Linux distribution created specially for visually challenged users. It is based on Ubuntu 10.04; and uses Orca 3.1.3 pre-xdesktop screen reader. Visually challenged users can use it out of the box because accessibility settings required by them are already enabled.  

GNU/Linux For Physically Challenged:

'GNU/Linux for Physically Challenged-Beta-0.1.1' is a special distribution for physically challenged people, so that they can easily access FOSS desktops. This Distribution provides friendly and smooth environment for physically challenged people. This distribution is an outcome of 'Enhancing accessibility of FOSS desktop' project at CDAC Mumbai.

GNU/Linux For Cognitively Challenged:

 
This linux distribution has been developed to provide an accessible desktop environment to the cognitively challenged users. Cognitive disability is one of the most challenging disabilities to address and people suffering from cognitive disability face problems like memory loss – short-term or long-term, learning disability, forgetfulness, reading disability, attention problems, etc.

Release of GEM (GEstures with Mouse)

Introduction to GEM (GEstures with Mouse)

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Welcome to GEM (GEstures with Mouse)...! It is an input mechanism which uses gestures as input to the system. Gestures can be drawn using a mouse or some equivalent device like touch pad, joystick, pen tablet etc.

This Input mechanism is intended for people suffering with different kinds of motor disabilities, who may face problems in using mouse and keyboard in conventional way. Hence, it provides them with an alternate and effective mechanism for using the system to perform various tasks such as navigation, executing commands & keyboard shortcuts, and launching applications etc. on Linux desktop.

Terminology

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Gesture: Pointing device movements alongwith clicks recognized by the software.
Stroke:  A single complete movement
GUI: Graphical User Interface

Installing GEM (GEstures with Mouse)

****************************************************
Make sure following are already installed:
1. g++
2. libboost-serialization-dev (>= 1.40.0)
3. libgtkmm-2.4-dev
4. libxtst-dev
5. libdbus-glib-1-dev
6. intltool
If not, install them using apt-get install in super user/root mode (sudo) in Debian like systems.
Ex.: ..$sudo apt-get install <library-name>

#sudo apt-get install g++ libboost-serialization-dev libgtkmm-2.4-dev libxtst-dev libdbus-glib-1-dev intltool

To Download GEM CLICK HERE

# Unzip or untar the tarball of gem-beta-0.1 application.

# Change Directory to gem-beta-0.1 by typing
* cd gem-beta-0.1

# Execute makefile by typing
* make

# To install gem, execute the following command in super user/root user mode.
* sudo make install (in Debian like systems)
* Restart system ( if you don't find it in Applications->Universal Access->gem).

How to use GEM..?

***********************************
Under this section we will see the following things:

1.Start GEM Application.
2.Recording continuous (Single-part) gestures.
3.Recording discontinuous (Double-part) gestures.
4.Modifying recorded gestures details.
5.Deleting recorded gestures.
6.Executing recorded gestures.
7.Advanced Options selection.
8.Close GEM Application.

Start GEM Application

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To start GEM application, click on Applications->Universal Access->gem (GEstures  with Mouse) or Type gem in terminal.

Recording Continuous (Single-Part) Gestures

*********************************************************
Step -1
Check On Record/Modify Mode in Preferences tab of GEM GUI.

Step-2
Draw gesture to be recorded inside gem input window. To Draw a gesture, use following steps:
1.To start drawing, click & release Mouse Button-1 (left button) in gem input window.
2.Draw gesture by moving mouse pointer inside gem input window.
3.To end drawing, click & release Mouse Button-1 (left button) in gem input window.

Step-3
Now go to Actions tab in GEM GUI and click on Add Row button. It will add a new row in Actions Tab. This row provides fields to specify various details related to gesture being recorded like gesture name, action type etc.

Step-4
Once all relevent details are specified in the newly created row, ensure that it is highlighted. If not, highlight it by clicking over it. Then, click on Record/Modify Stroke button.

Recording Discontinuous (Double-Part) Gestures

**********************************************************
Step-1
Check On Record/Modify Mode in Preferences tab of GEM GUI

Step-2
To draw discontinuous gesture to be recorded, use following steps:
1.To start drawing discontinuous gesture, click & release Mouse Button-1 (left button) in gem input window.
2.Draw first part of discontinuous gesture by moving mouse pointer inside gem input window.
3.To end first part of discontinuous gesture drawing, click & release Mouse Button-1 (left button) again in gem input window.
4.To start second part of  discontinuous gesture drawing, click & release Mouse Button-1 (left button) in gem input window at desired location within 2 seconds after step-3.
5.Draw second part of discontinuous gesture by moving mouse pointer inside gem input window.
6.To end discontinuous gesture drawing, click & release Mouse Button-1 (left button) in gem input window.
     
Following screen shot shows drawing a discontinuous gesture.

Step-3
Now go to Actions tab in GEM GUI and click on Add Row button. It will add a new row in Actions Tab. This row provides fields to specify various details related to gesture being recorded like gesture name, action type etc.

Step-4
Once all relevant details are specified in the newly created row, ensure that it is highlighted. If not, highlight it by clicking over it. Then, click on Record/Modify Stroke button.

Modifying Recorded Gestures Details

**************************************************
1.To modify recorded gesture details like name, type and other details, highlight the corresponding row by clicking on it in Actions tab of GEM GUI and then edit them.
2.To record new gesture, follow above mentioned steps.

Deleting Recorded Gestures

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1.To delete already recorded gesture, highlight the corresponding row in Actions tab of GEM GUI and then click on Delete Row button.

Executing Recorded Gestures

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1.Uncheck On Record/Modify Mode in Preferences tab of GEM GUI.
2.Draw already defined Continuous or Discontinuous  gesture in gem input window.
3.If drawn gesture is recognized, associated action will be performed. A flashlable will also be displayed as a feedback that gesture is recognized.

Advanced Options selection

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1.In Advanced tab of GEM GUI, all connected pointer input devices like mouse, pen tablet, joystick etc are listed.
2.From those listed input devices, one can select any one device to draw gestures in gem input window.

Close GEM Application

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To close GEM, right click on GEM icon in panel, then left click on Close option.