LETS BANG WITH "iBangle"

Every time when you jog, just for the sake of listening to music you have to put up with headphones and all the connecting wires dancing along. Wearable computing seems to be the latest fashion and though it is still away from making a formal appearance, it has begun creating waves already. Well this time, I hope you won’t see any such dancing wires because the engineers at Apple are trying out wearable devices, which also includes a curved glass iPod meant to be drawn on the wrist and put to use using Siri voice commands. A small group of Apple employees contribute in developing this wearable gadget by setting up the now-present-everywhere smartphone as a data-collecting centre.

This device what I am talking about popularly would be called as “iBangle” or “iPod-Bangle”.

The device can be used with any other locally available wrist-strap as a wrist-watch alternate. Talking about the technology embedded in it, the company has provided Bluetooth 4.0 support (popularly called as “Bluetooth Smart Ready”) as in its latest iPhone 4S.

Slash Gear reports that Apple is quietly testing and trying, what they're referring to as a curved glass iPod, which can be worn around one's wrist - more like a bangle. Interestingly, Siri will play a very important role in this one, since reports reveal that the curved iPod will be controlled, almost entirely by Siri.

It has become atrociously obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.
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SWARM INTELLIGENCE

A long time ago, people discovered the variation of the interesting insect or animal behaviours in the nature. A flock of birds swings across the sky. A group of ants hunts for food. A school of fish swims, turns, flees together, etc. We call this kind of aggregate motion as SWARM behaviour. Recently biologists and computer scientists in the field of artificial life popularly called as Artificial Intelligence (AI) have studied how to model biological swarms to understand how such social animals interacts, achieve goals, and evolve to its immediate surroundings. Moreover, engineers are increasingly interested in this kind of swarm behaviour since the resulting swarm intelligence, which can be applied in optimization in telecommunication systems, power system, economical load dispatch, traffic patterns in transportation systems, and military applications.

In short Swarm Intelligence (SI) is an innovative, distributed intelligent pattern solving optimized technique that has been formerly commenced by the consistent activity of the physical laws or biological creatures which when reacting to their natural surroundings.

 It has been also quoted that “SI is the emergent collective intelligence of group of simple agents.”

It basically a three step process of identification of analogies, understanding the problems and then engineer the solution in a very economical n efficient way with accuracy and speed. It has greater advantages as such as; system performance optimization, decentralization, distributed task allocation with effective monitoring etc. 

Technology has already been implemented in various developed countries and also developing countries, equipped with most hi-tech and ground-breaking algorithms such as Simulated Annealing (SA), Ants Colony Optimization (ACO), Gravitational Search Algorithm (GSA), Bacterial Foraging Algorithm (BFA) etc. As its an heuristic study, so still the best possible algorithms are been under research keeping exclusive factors like accuracy and speed in mind.

There is always an immortal link between nature and technology.
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SMARTPHONE ON 4 WHEELS

Are you bored of using your iPhones and iPads, then just flip your eyes on the new concept what I call it as an "iCar". World famous Toyota Motor Corporation shown the Toyota Fun Vehicle interactive internet in short called as TOYOTA Fun Vii at the 2011 Tokyo Motor Show, a concept vehicle that heralds a future where people, cars and society are linked.

Toyota Fun Vii is a 3 seater car with ultimate in personalization functions offer the ability to display messages or other information on the exterior and interior of the Toyota Fun Vii, with the same ease as downloading an application. The whole vehicle body can be used as a display area, with the body colour and display content changeable at will.

With hi-tech vehicle facilities, the interior can also function as a display area, with the interior freely modifiable to match one's mood of the moment. Content such as navigation information is blended seamlessly into the interior through the use of augmented reality technology. Furthermore, a vehicle's "navigation concierge" can provide the passengers with driving information and guidance through a vocal interface.

Operation of the Toyota Fun Vii is not limited to inside the vehicle itself, with a number of the vehicle's functions accessible remotely via a Smartphone or any other mobile communication device. For such sophisticated and extensive apps similar to a smartphone, its preferable to call it as SMARTPHONE ON FOUR WHEELS.

In addition to such features, the vehicle has a network update function which ensures the software versions for the vehicle's drive, control and multimedia system are always up-to-date. The Toyota Fun Vii is able to link with surrounding vehicles and infrastructure, allowing it to detect other potentially hazardous vehicles - such as vehicles in blind spots - in advance, or to connect with friends who are driving nearby.

The world has moved to smarter products whether it may be phone or be power, its time for us to make a smarter world with smart users.
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SMART GRID

Amitabh Bacchan, Indian superstar, monitors his  power consumption on Google. Well he is not the brand ambassador of Google, neither is this some gizmo which he has purchased from some flashy store abroad. 

Welcome to the world of smart grid, which is gradually moving into our living rooms across cities.

A combo of power distribution system, telecommunication devices and electrical gadgets which can predict, and respond to, usage patterns of both suppliers and consumers, smart grids have been taken up as full fledged projects or pilots in key states and metros. Such grids are seen as a solution to demand-supply mismatch in power by stressing on efficient use.  Such grids cut down on wastage and ensure dedicated service and lightning fast response times Each state in India is gradually heading this tech savvy path, which gradually reap a lot of positives in the long run.

RIL (Reliance Infrastructure Ltd.) , the power distribution company of the Anil Ambani group, offers users the capability of remotely monitoring their power consumption in the metros like Delhi and Mumbai. The smart grid installed has the capability to re-route electricity and specifically help you in cutting down on your heavy power bills by pointing out the power guzzlers.

Apart from Reliance, it is being adopted on a pilot basis by the West Bengal’s power distribution company, Bangalore’s distribution company as well as the state electricity distribution company in Karnataka. The first global smart grid was installed in Italy by Enel six years back. It delivers savings of Euros 500 million annually on a project cost of Euros 2.1 billion.

Smart Grid also serve as an early warning system predicting load on transformers and as the name goes will smartly redirect load and share the burden, rather than crashing and causing inconvenience.

The man power and wages for remote connects, disconnects and on demand reads will gradually reduce once this system is in place. This will reduce faults and increase up times and thus earnings. Welcome technology into your homes now.

Benjamin Franklin may have discovered electricity, but it was the man who invented the meter who made the money. 

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OXYGEN + HYDROGEN = LEAF

Mankind, the biggest victim to suffer in future from the deadliest problems that the world would ever suspect. Innovation and Research are the two main weapons that can uproot such problems.

Researchers have developed an ARTIFICIAL LEAF that can split water into Oxygen and Hydrogen in presence of sunlight, without needing wires or electricity. With this technological advancement, researchers have been able to create an artificial leaf.

This artificial leaf is actually a silicon solar cell with two different materials on either side. Once immersed in water and exposed to the sunlight, the leaf begins producing bubbles on either side of the surface. The video shows formation of Oxygen and Hydrogen bubbles on either side of this artificial leaf. Oxygen and Hydrogen produced by artificial leafs can be separated using pre-developed technology and then store them or use them for Electricity generation.

Researchers explains that this artificial leaf has been produced using material that’s available in abundance. It uses cobalt, silicon and nickel and works in regular water.

The development of Artificial Leaf opens many new avenues of investigation and development of reliable and cheaper sources of energy which will last for hundreds of years.

Check out this short video that shows the artificial leaf in action:-

Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought.
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SPACE HIGHWAYS

Have you ever seen the rope hanging from the space ? Or, better to say the rope which end disappears in the azure of the sky? Yes, you answer, but only in the cartoon about Aladdin.

However, believe me, the rope that hangs from the sky, is absolutely possible and that too without any conjuring tricks. I must be more precise and it is better to say that the rope is fastened on the surface of the Earth, consequently on the ground, and it falls into the sky.

A Space Elevator made of a carbon nano tubes composite ribbon anchored to an offshore sea platform would stretch to a small counterweight approximately 62,000 miles (100,000 km) into space. Mechanical lifters attached to the ribbon would then climb the ribbon, carrying cargo and humans into space, at a price of only about $100 to $400 per pound ($220 to $880 per kg).

Such technologies would lead to a terminology called "SPACE HIGHWAYS", which means high speed connectivity link between any celestial body and the space using a ultra high speed vehicle rolling over the it.

Looking energetically, the space elevator is the device that uses the Earth's rotational energy. Lifting up the load on greater distances is energetically very profitable. As the difference from the rocket, lifting up and landing can be done continuously. The price for drive would be law. That is the only way for massive lifting up of the load in the future. Other uses are possible, as for example the transmission of the electric power to the ground, improvement of the telecommunications etc. The space elevator would be ecologically very acceptable.

The greatest barrier in the technical sense and the most demanding task would be lifting up and setting up the first cable on the synchronous axis.

This is no more science fiction, this is what I called Technology.
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VACTRAIN (VACUUM TUBE TRAIN)

Imagine a world where you can reach New York from London in just less than an hour. Yes the research has crossed the limit of speed and velocity to an ultimate level, which is just beyond your thinking.

That vision could become reality with Vac Train or so called Vacuum Tube Train, a futuristic train system capable of traveling 5,000 mph (6.5 times the speed of sound). To attain such unbelievable speeds, Vac Train builds on the revolutionary magnetic levitation system already used successfully in Asia and other locations by placing the entire train in a vacuum-sealed tube. Not only does such a system effectively eliminate friction and wind resistance (permitting extremely high speeds), but it does so in a manner which requires very little energy.

SIMPLY IMAGINE A TRAIN TRAVELLING FASTER THAN MACH 1 (AT SEA LEVEL) WITHOUT NOISE.

The train travelling at a speed up to 4000–5000 mph (6400–8000 km/h), faster than any commercial plane listing its title as the world fastest public transport. Theoretically, Vac train tunnels could be built deep enough to pass under oceans, thus permitting very rapid intercontinental travel. Vac trains could also use gravity to assist their acceleration. Also supersonic travel requires a large increase in propulsive power as one enters the near-sonic region. Again with reduced air pressure the speed of the onset of this effect will also increase, allowing faster speeds with lower energy requirements.

Due to booming blowout of the science and cutting edge technology, advancement in tunneling technology has been visualized to make such ultimate dream project come true. The "Trans Atlantic Tunnel" is one of such theoretical project has been undertaken for the building of such Vacuum based tunnel, which could facilitate such super-sonic speed transport system by next decade.

China is in the process of moving a scaled down version of Vac Train from conceptual design into reality. Southwest Jotting University in China has developed a prototype Maglev train system which would operate in low pressure underground tubes and would be capable of traveling up to 600 mph (3 times faster than current Maglev trains).



For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled.

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