Indian-origin scientist’s software transfers files by just touching screens

Transferring files from one computer to another is a major pain.

Now, you can just pick up stuff from one machine and put in the other, thanks to a programme developed by an Indian-origin scientist of the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Pranav Mistry has developed a programme, called 'Sparsh', that lets you transfer files from one device to another by simply touching the screen.

"The user touches a data item they wish to copy from a device, conceptually saving it in the user's body," New Scientist quoted him as saying.

"Next, the user touches the other device to which they want to paste the saved content," he added.

The first touch copies the item to a temporary file in either a Dropbox or an FTP account. The second touch retrieves the data.  This requires both devices to be running the software and for a user to be signed into their Dropbox or FTP account.

The programme works for any type of data, be it a photo, an address or a link to a YouTube clip.

Currently, 'Sparsh' runs as an application on smart phones, tablets and other computers.

Mistry said the ideal home for 'Sparsh' is to be built into an OS so that it can provide the copy-paste feature across all applications.