A mobile App has been developed by a team of researchers of Central University of Tamil Nadu (CUTN), Tiruvarur, to ease difficulties faced by fisherwomen in selling the fresh catch in the streets of Nagapattinam.
The research team has, through the App developed in both Tamil and English languages, sought to address difficulties pertaining to transport, risky travel with heavy fish basket, and sustaining income at times of sickness.
The research team - K. Ahalya, Gangapatla Mounika, V. S. Arjun Raj, and P. Pasupathi - has incorporated in the App special features such as images of fishes, voice-based search to make different searches about market condition, location tracking for delivery of fish, and daily freshness of fish using image gallery to reduce the complexity of fish selling.
This mobile App that would enable maximising returns through peak-hour sales will help fisherwomen to boost their economic conditions and improve the quality of life, said A. Martin, Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science, CUTN, the research guide. This android-based mobile App is a first-of-its-kind developed for fisherwomen in Nagapattinam district in the local language, he said.
The fisherwomen could add fishes into inventory using images. A drop-down list is shown with fish images as well as fish names to store into inventory. Voice-based search is provided in this mobile App which will help the fisherwomen and customer to know about availability of fishes, he said. They can also do text-based search to find all kinds of fishes. The delivery location of the customer as well as current position of the fisherwomen is updated using Global Positioning System (GPS). Android Geo coder API in Google, latitude and longitude coordinates is applied to identify the customer and fisherwomen location and distance.
The different fishes added to the customer cart are shown using customer orders module. The new user registration for both fisherwomen as well as customer is carried out using new user registration. The demonstration has already been carried out, Prof. Martin said.
The mobile App will, while boosting the local economy, will help the fisherwomen selling in streets to manage their time in a better way. “It will reduce their business hours - right from leaving from home, buying, selling of fishes, preserving of fishes and returning home. In the long term, the quality of life, children's education and satisfaction of work-life balance of fisherwomen will definitely improve,” Prof. Martin said.
