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Published on 25 Nov 2018. Written by Vasanth Vidyakar

Raspberry Pi is a miniature card-sized computer that can perform all the functions that we do with our desktop. Raspberry Pi was originally designed for education purposes but now it is even being used for commercial activities. The board was inspired and built upon the 1981 BBC Micro technology.

Eben Upton is the man behind this innovative hardware technology. He designed this platform to create a low cost electronic device that would help enthusiasts and hobbyists to improve their programming and hardware understanding skills very easily.

Raspberry Pi serves as a pocket friendly desktop that can be used as a media center, game consoles or even as a router. In addition to these applications, Raspberry Pi is also used to develop many cool projects. From mobile phones, tablets, robots, smart devices to an intelligent camera, everything can be developed on this platform.

Now, this powerful Linux computer is being used to build many IoT projects that can transform any device smarter. Since IoT technology requires a microcontroller to process the data, WiFi integration to send data to the cloud and actuators to control operations, innovative minds across the globe prefer using Raspberry Pi for developing IoT projects. As Raspberry Pi can perform all the above stated operations seamlessly without any external integration, it serves as a compressive platform to build IoT projects.

Some of the features of Raspberry Pi which makes it as an effective platform to build IoT projects are:

Published on 25 Nov 2018. Written by Vasanth Vidyakar

The world’s population is expected to increase by another two and half billion from current 7.3 billion by 2055. This means we will have 10 billion humans needing food, shelter, water, electricity. We need to face these issues in addition to climate and environmental changes.

Alert! Tough times ahead :(

The result is more people fighting for space & resources and we will have no way of solving it.

However, one potential solution is implementing smart city projects. Even government organizations across the globe had already started to plan and execute smart city projects to tackle the problem.

So, how can you make a city smarter?

Here, ‘smart’ indicates optimizing the usage of resources. Better optimizing will result in better distribution of resources without increasing the production mechanisms.

IoT, Internet of Things is a unique technology that can help us optimize the usage. IoT technology offer insights about the resource consumption habits of residents and help us in streamlining them.

Published on 19 Nov 2018. Written by Vasanth Vidyakar

“Dreams about the future are always filled with gadgets”

- Neil deGrasse Tyson, American Astrophysicist

I find the above quote so compelling and can relate it to a lot of dreams that I have been having lately :)

I mean, who don’t like gadgets? Innovators & hobbyists across the globe had developed an addiction for latest electronic gadgets. Having such electronic gadgets makes you feel that you are also a part of the device’s technological innovation.

So what do all the trending electronic gadgets have in common? What makes them the smartest device in the industry?

IoT (Internet of Things).

IoT is one of the latest technologies that is transforming the electronics industry as we see it. IoT is a simple, yet powerful technology that integrates the devices onto the cloud. This means, all the data collected by these devices will be sent to cloud for storage and analysis.

The collected data will provide us with valuable insights of a particular device. And the data can also be used to trigger various actuations based on conditions.

Understanding the importance of IoT technology, top industries around the globe had already started to implement it onto their operations to improve their efficiency and productivity.

Would you like to know about the electronic gadgets that raised eyebrows across the globe?

Published on 19 Nov 2018. Written by Vasanth Vidyakar

“Every once in a while, a new technology, an old problem, and a big idea turn into an innovation.”

- Dean Kamen, Dean of Invention – American TV Show

IoT, Internet of Things technology is a classic example for the above statement. IoT is the latest innovation in the field of smart technologies and all the top industries are gearing fast towards the implementation of IoT on to their devices.

IoT not only makes the electronic devices smarter but also provides the user with valuable insights to make the processes efficient and productive. It is simply because of the efficient data management system that the IoT system provides to a user.

With the boom in consumer internet usage, almost all the electronic devices that we use in our day to day life collects data about our behavior, preference and personality traits. And IoT technology enables the service providers to use the data collected to improve the overall user experience and interactions.

With such offerings, IoT is quickly transforming the industries and consumer products as we see it.

IoT technology not only amazes us with its offerings but also develops a curiosity within us to learn about it.

Published on 28 Oct 2018. Written by Vasanth Vidyakar

Many people think that if a robot is not fully functioning on its own (i.e autonomously), then it is not actually a robot. But, this isn’t the case.

Robots can be classified based on their operation in to 3 major types,

1. Autonomous Robots
2. Semi-autonomous Robots
3. Manual Robots

Autonomous robots are the ones that are capable of functioning completely on their own. They don’t need any human intervention to carry out their activities. They can work for longer periods and doesn’t really need complex cognition capabilities to carry out the activities. For instance, industrial assembly robots don’t require human interaction to operate. They carry out the activities in a fixed and repetitive pattern.

Then we have the manual robots, which are operator assisted robots. The human operator should provide step by step commands to the robots to carryout medium to high level tasks. For instance, robots that are used in space and military are classic examples for this category. The human operator will provide commands real time and the robot will actuate accordingly.

Published on 28 Oct 2018. Written by Vasanth Vidyakar

The term “Robotics” was first coined by Isaac Asimov, a science fiction author who used the term in a short story back in 1940s. In that story, he suggested three principles to guide the behaviour of robots.

1. Robots must never harm human beings
2. Robots must follow instructions from humans without violating rule 1
3. Robots must protect themselves without violating the other rules

Yes, it is the storyline of the “IRobot” movie. Suggest you to watch, if you hadn’t already :)

In reality, robotics is the industry that relates engineering, construction and operation of robots. Robotics is a broad and diverse field that is being used by commercial industries and consumers to carry out various activities. Robotics can also be defined as an engineering branch that involves conception, design, manufacture and operation of robots.

The robotics field greatly overlaps with other technologies like electronics, computer science, artificial intelligence, mechatronics, nanotechnology and bio-engineering.

Published on 28 Oct 2018. Written by Vasanth Vidyakar

“Now you can harvest electronic components right from your home”

We all know someone who maintains a garden in their backyard and harvest their own vegetables.

Being a technical person, you might not have interest towards vegetable harvesting. But now you can harvest electronic materials all by yourself from your home.

Super fun that would be right?

So how does this work actually?

Published on 21 Oct 2018. Written by Vasanth Vidyakar

“Google patented building robots with personalities”

Yes, you heard it right!

A new patent was awarded to Google recently for outlining the ways to download and customize the personality of a robot or computer. Google’s patent details a cloud-based system where a personality could be downloaded to a robot, in the same way one might download an app.

This means, say you like working with a specific person at your work and for some reasons he/she stopped coming for work, you will miss them right? But not after Google introduces the worker robots. Because these robots can mimic the personalities of any user seamlessly and you couldn’t tell the difference.

So, in near future you will not only be assisted by robots but you can also program them with specific personalities according to your comfort and be in harmony.

And who knows, possibilities are you can bring back your loved ones from dead with these robots.

Published on 21 Oct 2018. Written by Vasanth Vidyakar

To the fans out there for “Breaking Bad” television series, Better Call Saul is a well-known phrase. When any criminal is on trouble, Saul the lawyer comes to the rescue and gets them out. Zapping all the issues brilliantly with crazy skills, Saul became a strong character and even a new series is being telecasted just with his story line.

Now, if anyone across the globe is in need to eliminate or zap dangerous viruses like Ebola in a quarantine zone, better call Saul.

Yes, Saul will come to the rescue. But only difference, Saul who comes to rescue this time is not the fictional character but an advanced robot.

Standing 5 feet 2 inches tall, Saul is a germ zapping robot that can harness power to kill off dangerously contagious viruses like Ebola in a gist. Saul uses pulses of high intensity ultraviolet rays that are 25000 times brighter than florescent lights to split bacterial cell walls and eliminates the dangerous pathogens commonly found in quarantine zones.

Saul is super smart and very efficient that it can eliminate viruses like Ebola, two meters out in any direction in just five minutes at an efficiency rate of 99.9 percent.

Published on 21 Oct 2018. Written by Vasanth Vidyakar

Instruction set architecture is an integral part of a processor, which is necessary for creating machine level programs to perform any mathematical or logical operations. This acts as an interface between hardware & software and make the processor respond to commands like execution, creation, deletion etc. given by the user.

The performance of a processor solely depends upon the instruction set architecture designed in it. We know both software and hardware are needed for proper functioning of a processor, but there is always a debate about which should play a major role.

For example, the hardware part of Intel is named as Complex Instruction Set Computer (CISC) and Apple named their hardware as Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC)

Intel believes that hardware should play a major role than the software and built their processor on CISC. Whereas Apple bet is on software rather than hardware and built their processor on RISC.