GadgetByte Nepal

According to the announcement made by the Ministry of Home Affairs, bio-metric smart cards are all set to used in replacement for citizenship cards. Within January 2018, 1 lakh and 17 thousand Nepali will be provided with these biometric smart cards. This smart card will include the citizen’s personal information that exists in the present citizenship cards along with other biological information, collected and stored electronically.

As per the government’s annual policy, program and the budget, the National ID Center has set up a biometric card processing department that will be preparing all the necessary hardware and software supplies. At a meeting conducted among Government Officials in June 8, the design for the new bio-metric smart card had been approved.

Moreover, sensing the need for raising awareness about the significance of the biometric smart cards, the NID had been conducting consultations with the Election Commission of Nepal since September. They even put forward the idea for using these smart cards for voters’ registration or voter identity documents. The biometric smart cards will not only be the replacement of the citizenship cards, but also for distributing government services and social security benefits. These cards can also be used as an electronic authorization, cross-border security documentation and for the delivery of healthcare, welfare services, among others. All in all, these smart cards will help to provide prompt and quality service to the citizens at minimum cost, to maintain good governance and even to control crime in the society.

The Executive Director of National Identity Card Management Centre, Uddhav Prasad Timilsina has said that an online registration system will be made for registering the card. The Department of Passports is also said to be collaborating with NID Centre to add all the required information to the card. The polycarbonate cards, containing unique and random ID numbers, will contain 25 security features and will have unlimited validity. There’d be no initial charge for obtaining the card, but in case of loss or damage, the government is expected to charge around USD 3 which is the approximate manufacturing cost of one such card.

A French company: Safran Identity and Security, Morpho had won the bid for the project which is to be funded by the Asian Development Bank.

With innovation like Edgeless display trending in 2017, Jaima International Pvt. Ltd. has just unveiled a new bar phone from OTTO with a few trick up its sleeves. The OTTO Chekr is a device which can measure your glucose level and keep track of your steps.

Specs wise, the OTTO Chekr is your typical bar phone some with decent features. The device has a 2.0-inch curved landscape display. It is powered by a MT6261D chipset. The Chekr has a 1500 mAh battery which will probably give you a couple of days of battery life even under heavy usage. Other than these, the device supports wireless FM Radio and has a dedicated Facebook app for the social media lovers.

But what makes the OTTO Chekr stand out from other devices is its capability to measure blood glucose level. The changing lifestyle of people has resulted in an increase in the number of diabetes patients. And OTTO is playing its part by helping users check their sugar level in an instant through their mobile phone. To implement this technology, OTTO has paired up with Bioland technology to create something that has already been approved by USA’s Food and Drug Association.

When buying the mobile phone, customers get a separate box from Bioland Technology as well. This box, specially customized for OTTO, consists of a lancing device, lancets and a few packets of glucose test strips. Users will have to basically follow three steps in order to check their blood glucose level. I got to test it myself and found it to be relatively easy to use. One test strip can only be used for a single time, however. So, there is a hassle of buying a few packets of the strip every now and then. But Jaima will be soon selling a small customized box consisting of 25 test strips.

To measure the glucose level, users must firstly prick their finger through the lancet, and place blood on the test strip. There is a port on the OTTO Chekr which can house the test strip. Right after placing a touch of blood, the mobile phone measures glucose level after a couple of seconds. This is a fairly straightforward process that doesn’t take a lot of time.

Another major feature of the device is a Pedometer. The device can keep track of the steps taken by the mobile phone’s user. This could come in handy during your morning exercises. Also, it has an inbuilt K-Power sound amplifier for that crispy audio.

According to the officials at Jaima International, the OTTO Chekr is especially for the people aged more than 30 years who are prone to Diabetes.

The OTTO Chekr is exclusively available at Daraz Kaymu right now. It carries a price tag of Rs. 3,496. And being a medical student myself, I am quite amazed by this piece of tech!

Here’s everything you need to know about the OTTO Chekr:

• Display: 2.0-inch landscape curved glass display
• SoC: MT6261D
• 2G Connectivity
• Blood glucose meter
• Pedometer
• K-Power sound amplifier
• Wireless FM Radio
• Battery: 1,500 mAh