How do you operate a computer with a single button? A team of two Indian software experts seems to have answered the question, and opened a new world of possibilities in the process. The duo say that a software they have developed to help the famous paralysed physicist Stephen Hawking communicate, can be used to connect thousands of disabled people as well as illiterates to the Internet. Named eLocuter, the software generates voice from text inputs keyed in by a single button. It allows all the usual text editing functions, and also anticipates what the user will type or do next, simplifying communication for the disabled. And given the popularity of radio in rural areas and among illiterates, the software’s voice generation capability can also be used to connect this largely “offline” community to the Internet. The radio can reach the poorest, and the Internet can feed quality content to it, they say. The project started when Hawking asked them to write software to upgrade his aging communication machine, says Arun Mehta of New Delhi, who with his friend and colleague at radiophony.com, Vickram Crishna of Mumbai, put the product together. “He (Hawking) met several software companies and when he last came to India, requested us to write this very important software for him. We felt it was a privilege to be able to help such an eminent person, who is such an inspiration to us all,” says Mehta, an alumni of IIT. Once through with the “Hawkings Project,” the two realized their software's potential to serve many other causes. “The intended beneficiary is Professor Stephen Hawking of the University of Cambridge, U.K., but we expect that many thousands of people will ultimately find it useful and productive.”