A cell phone can indeed be the one and only relatively high-tech possession for a poor family in an impoverish region. Used cell phones and/or low-end handsets

A cell phone can indeed be the one and only relatively high-tech possession for a poor family in an impoverish region. Used cell phones and/or low-end handsets subsidized by the carrier help them proliferate. Vaguely tangential, a UCLA professor developed a microscope attachment for a cell phone camera, to permit remote phlebotomy and other telemedicine in areas lacking facilities otherwise. http://www.engineer.ucla.edu/newsroom/featured-news/archive/2012/professors-cell-phone-microscope-honored-as-best-innovation-of-2011 http://www.engineer.ucla.edu/newsroom/featured-news/archive/... A good overview of this style of tech innovation is the Smithsonian Institute's "Design for the Other 90%." http://archive.cooperhewitt.org/other90/other90.cooperhewitt.org/ http://archive.cooperhewitt.org/other90/other90.cooperhewitt...