One Laptop per Child project presents "XO-2"

Nicholas Negroponte, founder of the "One Laptop per Child" (OLPC) project, has presented the design for the next generation of the laptop for school children. According to Negroponte, work is already underway on the "XO-2" laptop, which will be cheaper and smaller and will use less power than its predecessor. It will also have two touchscreens. According to current plans, it should be available in 2010. Before that, there should be an improved, cheaper version of the existing laptop in the form of the XO 1.5.

The XO-2 will also function as an e-book reader with two opposing pages.

OLPC is hoping that, with the help of new developments in display and processor technologies and through using different hardware and software, it should be able to reduce the price per laptop below the $100 target set out when the initiative was launched in 2005. The current purchase price for the XO laptop is $188. According to a press release, it may be possible to achieve a price of $75. Similarly, power consumption, which is 4 watts for the current XO, will be reduced to 1 watt. This means a reduction in the time it takes children to recharge the laptop using a hand crank or other means.

The XO-2 should be just half the size of OLPC's current laptop, being about the size of a book, so it's easier for children, who often have a long journey to school, to carry around with them. The case will continue to be available in green and white, but children will be able to choose from a range of different-coloured XO logos to help personalise their laptops.

In laptop mode, one touchscreen operates as the keyboard.

In place of a display and keyboard, the XO-2 will be equipped with two touchscreens. This means it can be used as a normal laptop, with one touchscreen acting as the keyboard and the other the display. According to OLPC, the layout of the virtual keyboard can thus be adapted to the children's capabilities. If the laptop is held as a book, the user can page forward or back through the e-book by pressing on the left or right displays. The display has been developed by former OLPC CTO Mary Lou Jepsen's company Pixel Qi.

Two children can use one touchscreen each for games.

The new design has been developed based on feedback from public bodies, teachers and children. According to Negroponte, reducing the cost, power consumption and the size of the XO laptop, so that it can be used by the world's poorest children, is extremely important. Since mass production of the first generation XO kicked off in November 2007, 600,000 units have been manufactured and distributed to Peru, Uruguay, Mongolia, Haiti, Rwanda, Mexico, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Ghana, Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as in the USA and Canada.

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(trk)