Learning by Scanning

Thoughts Thoughts Thoughts.......

Human beings are very visual people. If I was a 5 year old kid in a very remote part of Nigeria (I'm Nigerian, so not picking on any country), I would want a way to scan everyday items onto a device with a screen, and have the device tell me all about the item I just scanned in my native language.

Example: I'm 5 years old, and my mum asks me to bring her medicine. I'm not sure what this medicine accomplishes (even though I'm young, I want my mum to take the right things) - I scan the Chloroquine (popular malaria medicine) on a device and I get this feedback.

- A picture of the medicine on the screen

- The use of the medicine via the speakers

- The side effects of the medicine via the speakers

- The correct pronunciation via the speakers

Same thing should apply to other everyday items.. a comb, a broom, a mop .. Give me feedback with picture, correct use, side effects or dangers, and correct pronunciation etc.

Problems:

How does one accomplish this for cheap? Everyday items do not come with a barcode, so a barcode scanner is out of the question. A camera on the device that will search an image database will work in theory.. but without internet and power - you need a huge hard drive, memory and a battery powered computer... lol... to accommodate all that data.How do you update this device? Maybe you don't need to update so often if your database is very comprehensive??

Maybe a cheap black/white screen camera phone running android.. android is open source, and already has this technology.. cell phones are cheap, easy to deploy, black/white will save power... Wireless radios are almost everywhere now.. so technically, it may be slow but at least there is a way to get into the www to search and update the device. How do they afford to pay for the data though???

How does one provide a small, battery operated, camera equipped, database searching, device with a screen and speakers that the upfront cost is cheap, and the maintainance cost (e.g data costs) are 0 to very very little??

Thoughts Thoughts Thoughts??? Feel free to share if you have any ideas.