Yantramanav: a humanoid to spread literacy among rural children through eGurukul education system

Abstract

eGurukul system is derived from the ancient Indian’s Gurukul education, where students gather in one place and learn from their master. Early childhood is the right time for children to improve their foundation skills. Children in Urban areas are exposed to such an environment where parents put their kids in kindergarten school. In rural areas, children would be admitted in school only at the age of eight years. Also, in our current education system, many rural schools across India do not have sufficient teachers to educate the children. So, we propose an eGurukul system, teaching aid to engage the students to learn the basics of communication language without the presence of a teacher/human. The Yantramanav is designed to teach the students with basic language (English, Tamil & Hindi) alphabets writing, pronunciation of the alphabets and rhymes, also the basics of Mathematics to the rural kids under the age of eight. The Yantramanav is designed with a mini projector, camera & speakers as a teaching and monitoring aid during time of activity. The humanoid uses the projector as a major tool for teaching. The projector helps the students to gather in one place and make the students to be attentive during the activities. The humanoid takes the attendance using the camera with the help of face recognition. Humanoid uses the speakers’ to deliver audio contents during activities. The entire activities are controlled by a MCU Board, which operates based on the programmed instructions. Switches are used to choose the communication language and activities. The content can also be delivered to other regions of various districts through online mode at the same time.