Tags |
|
|
Links |
|
|
Will You Add? - Pervasive Computing
This year, in October 2006, a new European Union law will secure basic working rights for older workers in the UK and ease the pressures of midlife career change. Until then, however, employers will remain legally entitled to make people redundant for being too old, or to otherwise discriminate purely on the grounds of age. It is a sad fact that ageism and age discrimination will continue, albeit wrapped up as some other (spurious) reason for the discrimination, so older workers will have to be on the lookout when it comes to midlife career change. But far from becoming defensive about your age, look on it as an accumulation of experience and wisdom. High on the list of your key strengths and accumulated wisdom is likely to be the ability to deal with adversity and deal with difficult people.Presented in the right way, you can be an asset to any employer.Although critics argue that legislation is long overdue and that employers need to ditch any prejudice over age sooner rather than later, increased life expectancy coupled with a pensions shortfall, means that many of today's over 50s are going to have to remain in work for longer than planned in order to fund their retirement.So what does all this mean for midlife career change? Over the next decade and beyond, not only will older workers be in growing demand, they will increasingly be in need of the work. And this is going to require a major shift in attitudes from employers and employees alike. One of the major challenges facing more mature workers is that after years of discrimination and negative conditioning their confidence and self-belief can suffer.Midlife career change , then can be an option for most people, but it means you will have to work at it more than younger up-and-coming applicants. You must make more of your network of contacts, along with their contacts. People who know you directly or from a recommendation are more likely to consider your abilities and competence, than simply your age.Although your skills and experience may be much greater than the person who interviews you, you will be perceived as more of an asset than a threat if you acknowledge their superior position; show how you will support them and help them to further their career. In other words by being the strong underpinning to their career growth, their own self-interest is served.Have confidence in yourself but don't oversell or continually talk about how you used to do things; ask how your new firm approaches it's tasks, then show that you are keen to contribute and support, NOT takeover and lead. Not yet anyway!You can learn everything you need to know in order to make a successful midlife career change by referring to the material on my website. Find out
BIONIC ARM
Todd Kuiken at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago at the Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine has developed a thought-powered bionic arm. The arm is based on a pioneering muscle reinnervation procedure that takes an amputee’s nerves and connects them to a healthy muscle. Doctors take nerves that used to go to the arm and connect them to chest muscles. The nerves grow into the chest muscles and can contract the muscle when the patient thinks, for example, “Close hand.” Electrical signals from the chest muscles drive the arm. Surface electrodes sense these impulses from the pectoral muscle and carry them through to the arm, causing it to move. Jesse Sullivan, a high-power lineman who had both of his arms amputated after being severely electrocuted, is the first patient to be outfitted with bionic arms. The arms have enabled him to do daily activities such as put on socks, shave, eat dinner, take out the garbage, carry groceries, and vacuum. Future generations of the arm will incorporate the sense of touch and feeling.
Mobile and Sensor networking
Sensor mobility allows better coverage in areas where events occur frequently in many sensor networks, considerably more units are available than necessary for simple coverage of the space. Augmenting sensor networks with motion can exploit this surplus to enhance sensing while also improving the network’s lifetime and reliabilit
Unsecured personal loans are viable funding options for borrowers who do not want to place any security against it. They are available for specific purposes and the repayment terms and conditions are mostly fixed by the lender. The loan amount is largely dependent upon the credit history and debt to income ratio of the borrower. Some of the purposes for which this loan can be used are paying medical or educational bills, meeting wedding expenses, enjoying holiday trip, consolidating smaller debts or making home improvements.In an unsecured personal loan, the borrower is completely free from any risk as the loan is not approved against his property. The absence of security makes it a relatively hazardous investment for the lender. Before approving the loan application, the lender would want to make sure that the borrower has a regular income or has a repayment capacity befitting the sum taken. He does this to ensure safe and timely repayment of the loan amount. At the same time, he charges a higher interest rate for this loan (as compared to a secured loan) to cover the risk he undertakes. This makes it difficult to get cheap unsecured personal loans.Universally, to get approval for an unsecured personal loan application, one needs to have an impressive credit history together with a strong repayment capacity. But, over the years, the concept of globalisation and consumerism has influenced the credit market also. According to the principles of target marketing, lenders devise various loan plans to reach the highest number of borrowers. Thus, bad credit record holders also get an easy acceptance in the loan market. However, they are charged higher interest rates and landed with very strict repayment terms.The borrowing limit for an unsecured personal loan is comparatively less than secured loans. Similarly, the repayment term also differs. The borrower is provided with a smaller tenure to pay off the loan. The loan amount starts from ?500 and sometimes reaches up to ?25,000. The repayment term may vary from 6 months to 10 years. In some cases, loan seekers may be allowed to prematurely pay off the loan sum before the end of the loan cycle without being charged a high penalty rate.
Modern devices that may serve the ubiquitous computing model include mobile phones, digital audio players, radio-frequency identification tags and interactive whiteboards. Other terms for ubiquitous computing include pervasive computing, calm technology, things that think, everyware, and more recently, pervasive Internet.
Ubiquitous computing encompasses a wide range of research topics, including distributed computing, mobile computing, sensor networks, human-computer interaction, and artificial intelligence.
HISTORY
Pervasive computing is the third wave of computing technologies to emerge since computers first appeared:
• First Wave - Mainframe computing era: one computer shared by many people, via
workstations.
• Second Wave - Personal computing era: one computer used by one person, requiring a
conscious interaction. Users largely bound to desktop.
• Third Wave – Pervasive (initially called ubiquitous) computing era: one person, many
computers. Millions of computers embedded in the environment, allowing technology
to recede into the background.
BACKGROUND
Eight billion embedded microprocessors are produced each year. This number is expected to rise dramatically over the next decade, making electronic devices ever more pervasive. These devices will range from a few millimeters in size (small sensors) to several meters (displays and surfaces). They may be interconnected via wired and wireless technologies into broader, more capable, networks. Pervasive computing systems and services may lead to a greater degree of user knowledge of, or control over, the surrounding environment, whether at home, or in an office or car.There have been calls for more widespread debate on the implications of pervasive computing while it is still at an early stage of development.
PERVASIVE COMPUTING TECHNOLOGIES
Pervasive computing technologies classified in to four converging areas
- Mobile Computing
- Embedded and Applied computing
- RFID and Sensors
- Mobile and sensor networking
Mobile Computing
The widespread use of mobile computing devices has changed the way people compute and vastly expanded research areas in distributed computing and networking. In fact, traditional distributed computing is actually a subset of the broad area of mobile computing. Many topics in "mature" areas like distributed databases, distributed fault tolerance, and resource management now require much additional study, because many traditional assumptions are challenged. Mobile computers operate in more hostile environments, are resource-constrained (limited power, frequent disconnection), and are peripheral-poor.
Mobile computing is changing the way we live and work, as profoundly as the introduction of the automobile did almost a century ago. Key advances in mobile networking, wireless connectivity, mobile information access, content adaptation, data synchronization, technology for notebook and wearable computers, and innovative mobile e-business solutions have come from worldwide research laboratories..
Some of the recent research in mobile computing includes:
WEARABLE DISPLAY OF ATHLETES’ STATISTICS
TeamAwear is a basketball jersey that displays real-time information about its wearer’s statistics such as their fouls, points, and scores and alerts players when the game is nearly over or when time is running out to shoot. Mitchell Page and Andrew Vande Moere at the Centre of Design Computing and Cognition of the University of Sydney developed the system, which consists of numerous colored electroluminescent panels. A small computer attached to the player’s body controls the panels and communicates wirelessly with a server that tracks relevant game statistics. For example, panels on the jersey’s side light up to show how many goals the wearer has scored, with each panel representing 10 goals Although the inventors developed the TeamAwear jersey originally for basketball, they claim that it could also work in other fast-paced sports in which player-specific data changes rapidly, such as soccer, volleyball, cricket, and baseball. It could also support emergency teams working in noisy environments where verbal communication is inefficient.
SKYSCOUT
If you’ve ever looked at the night sky and wondered what stars you were observing, Celestron’s SkyScout might be for you. Especially useful for novice astronomers, this handheld device combines GPS technology with a map of the sky to identify, locate, and provide information about celestial bodies. To identify an object of interest, you simply view it through the SkyScout and press the Identify button. SkyScout’s technology identifies the object and tells you what it is. To locate a celestial body, you select it from a reasonably easy-touse menu of objects and press the Locate button. SkyScout uses red directional arrows around the eyepiece to guide you to the object in the sky. A nice feature is that the menu shows only objects that should be visible. (Unfortunately, Sky- Scout has no way to know which of those objects are blocked by trees). Finally, the device can educate you about many of the more popular celestial bodies. The information is available both through audio and text and includes facts about the object and its history and mythology. SkyScout’s release was delayed in 2006 because of manufacturing problems in one of the components.
NOKIA NSERIES PHONES
Nokia has announced three new mobile phones in its multimedia Nseries, each targeting a different market segment. The N71, N80, and N92 offer a long list of features. The N71, from the Nokia XpressMusic family, offers an FM stereo tuner, a five-band equalizer, and support for audio and video formats including MP3, AAC, eAAC+, WMA, JPEG, and MPEG-4. It offers a 240 _ 320-pixel display and two cameras, one 2-megapixel (1600 _ 1200 pixel) and the other VGA (640 _ 480 pixel). It operates on dual-mode wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA)/GSM and triband GSM. The N80 offers a 352 _ 416-pixel display and a 3-megapixel camera with features including four flash modes, 10 scene modes, manual exposure correction, and four color tones.
Embedded and Applied Computing
Embedded and ubiquitous computing is an exciting new paradigm that provides computing and communication services all the time and everywhere. Its systems are now affecting every aspect of our life to the point that they are hidden inside various appliances. This emergence is a natural outcome of research and technological advances in embedded systems. An Embedded Pervasive Computing Environment is equipped with hardware and software components that autonomously respond to the needs of its occupants. Embedded system is the core part of pervasive computing and it deals with various applications like wearable computer architecture and applications, sensor networks, real-time embedded operating systems, embedded servers, embedded system networking, address-free routing, smart spaces, dynamic service discovery, mobility and case studies. Some of the on-going researches in embedded systems include:
ROLLABLE DISPLAY
Who hasn’t dreamt of a display that rolls up when not in use? Phillips took one step toward this dream on a commercial scale when it formed venture company Polymer Vision in January 2004. Polymer Vision recently reported that it can make a flexible display with a 2 cm bending radius. The display is an organics-based, QVGA (320 240 pixels) active-matrix display, 5 in. on the diagonal and 85 dpi. The display layers a 200-micron thick, reflective Electronic-Ink display from E Ink Corporation (www.eink.com) on top of a 25-micron thick, active-matrix plane.
USING LANDLINES FOR CELLULAR CALLS
Xcelis (www.xcelis.com) has developed an innovative product for coupling cell phones and landline handsets. The Pantheon (see Figure 3) plugs into a landline phone line and, using a Bluetooth connection, routes incoming and outgoing voice calls and data from users’ cell phones to their landline handsets. The Pantheon indicates incoming mobile calls with a distinctive ring. While the mobile call is in progress, it doesn’t tie up the landline, meaning you can still receive landline calls through your other telephones. You need one device for each landline telephone that you want to multiplex. When making calls from your landline, you can choose whether to use your cell phone or landline account. The Pantheon provides additional features, including conferencing a landline call and a mobile call, accessing a user’s mobile phonebook from a landline phone, and switching mid-call from a landline phone to a mobile phone. The Pantheon is also compatible with voice over IP handsets.
BIONIC ARM
Todd Kuiken at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago at the Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine has developed a thought-powered bionic arm. The arm is based on a pioneering muscle reinnervation procedure that takes an amputee’s nerves and connects them to a healthy muscle. Doctors take nerves that used to go to the arm and connect them to chest muscles. The nerves grow into the chest muscles and can contract the muscle when the patient thinks, for example, “Close hand.” Electrical signals from the chest muscles drive the arm. Surface electrodes sense these impulses from the pectoral muscle and carry them through to the arm, causing it to move. Jesse Sullivan, a high-power lineman who had both of his arms amputated after being severely electrocuted, is the first patient to be outfitted with bionic arms. The arms have enabled him to do daily activities such as put on socks, shave, eat dinner, take out the garbage, carry groceries, and vacuum. Future generations of the arm will incorporate the sense of touch and feeling.
Mobile and Sensor networking
Sensor mobility allows better coverage in areas where events occur frequently in many sensor networks, considerably more units are available than necessary for simple coverage of the space. Augmenting sensor networks with motion can exploit this surplus to enhance sensing while also improving the network’s lifetime and reliability
Wearing a nametag 24-7-365 for six straight years represents a simple, yet powerful business idea: make the mundane memorable.I’m still surprised more organizations don’t embrace this. It’s not our corporate policy. It violates our company’s handbook. We don’t want to do anything risky.Come on. That’s garbage!Businesses NEED to be doing this stuff. Because when companies can find a way to make the mundane memorable, fives things happen:1) Customers start talking 2) Employees have more fun 3) The brand lives and breathes in a new way 4) Uniqueness shines through 5) Loyalty skyrocketsQuikTrip is the perfect example of this. I fill up at QT whenever possible (ahem, loyalty), just to hear the cashier say, “Hurry back!”That’s what they say. In every transaction.Not “Have a nice day.” Not “Thank you, come again.”They say, “Hurry back.”And people do. Not to mention, they've made the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For 3 years running. Wonder why?Mundane into memorable.Or Bishop’s Barbershop in Portland, where you can get a great haircut for roughly the same price as anywhere else. Except at Bishop’s, the minute you walk in the door for your appointment, the receptionist gives you a free bottle of Pabst Blue Ribbon.That’s just cool. I don’t even drink, but I used to go there when I lived in Portland, just to get the free beer!Mundane into memorable.Then there’s my favorite ad agency, The Hughes Group. When you walk into their elevator, you’ll notice 21 buttons, just like any other elevator. Except theirs doesn’t say “4,” it says “Hughes.” And you better believe every client, potential client or guest comments about it. Then they tell five other people about it. Awesome!Mundane into memorable.Or what about the parking garage down the street from my office? Every time I go there for a meeting, the guy in the little ticket box takes my slip and says, “That’ll be $4000!” I go back there every month, just to hear him say it. A parking garage! It doesn’t get more mundane than that!The point is: this stuff is easy. Yet very few companies (and people) do it.Because they're scared of stepping out of their corporate comfort zones.However, for those bold few who choose to embrace the mundane, here's what happens:Breaking the silence = breaking the pattern. Breaking the pattern = mundane into memorable. Memorable moments = increased comfort. Increased comfort = increased approachability. More approachability = strangers into friends. Friends = people who become loyal, aka, fans. Fans = peopl
PERVASIVE COMPUTING TECHNOLOGIES
Pervasive computing technologies classified in to four converging areas
- Mobile Computing
- Embedded and Applied computing
- RFID and Sensors
- Mobile and sensor networking
Mobile Computing
The widespread use of mobile computing devices has changed the way people compute and vastly expanded research areas in distributed computing and networking. In fact, traditional distributed computing is actually a subset of the broad area of mobile computing. Many topics in "mature" areas like distributed databases, distributed fault tolerance, and resource management now require much additional study, because many traditional assumptions are challenged. Mobile computers operate in more hostile environments, are resource-constrained (limited power, frequent disconnection), and are peripheral-poor.
Mobile computing is changing the way we live and work, as profoundly as the introduction of the automobile did almost a century ago. Key advances in mobile networking, wireless connectivity, mobile information access, content adaptation, data synchronization, technology for notebook and wearable computers, and innovative mobile e-business solutions have come from worldwide research laboratories..
Some of the recent research in mobile computing includes:
WEARABLE DISPLAY OF ATHLETES’ STATISTICS
TeamAwear is a basketball jersey that displays real-time information about its wearer’s statistics such as their fouls, points, and scores and alerts players when the game is nearly over or when time is running out to shoot. Mitchell Page and Andrew Vande Moere at the Centre of Design Computing and Cognition of the University of Sydney developed the system, which consists of numerous colored electroluminescent panels. A small computer attached to the player’s body controls the panels and communicates wirelessly with a server that tracks relevant game statistics. For example, panels on the jersey’s side light up to show how many goals the wearer has scored, with each panel representing 10 goals Although the inventors developed the TeamAwear jersey originally for basketball, they claim that it could also work in other fast-paced sports in which player-specific data changes rapidly, such as soccer, volleyball, cricket, and baseball. It could also support emergency teams working in noisy environments where verbal communication is inefficient.
SKYSCOUT
If you’ve ever looked at the night sky and wondered what stars you were observing, Celestron’s SkyScout might be for you. Especially useful for novice astronomers, this handheld device combines GPS technology with a map of the sky to identify, locate, and provide information about celestial bodies. To identify an object of interest, you simply view it through the SkyScout and press the Identify button. SkyScout’s technology identifies the object and tells you what it is. To locate a celestial body, you select it from a reasonably easy-touse menu of objects and press the Locate button. SkyScout uses red directional arrows around the eyepiece to guide you to the object in the sky. A nice feature is that the menu shows only objects that should be visible. (Unfortunately, Sky- Scout has no way to know which of those objects are blocked by trees). Finally, the device can educate you about many of the more popular celestial bodies. The information is available both through audio and text and includes facts about the object and its history and mythology. SkyScout’s release was delayed in 2006 because of manufacturing problems in one of the components.
NOKIA NSERIES PHONES
Nokia has announced three new mobile phones in its multimedia Nseries, each targeting a different market segment. The N71, N80, and N92 offer a long list of features. The N71, from the Nokia XpressMusic family, offers an FM stereo tuner, a five-band equalizer, and support for audio and video formats including MP3, AAC, eAAC+, WMA, JPEG, and MPEG-4. It offers a 240 _ 320-pixel display and two cameras, one 2-megapixel (1600 _ 1200 pixel) and the other VGA (640 _ 480 pixel). It operates on dual-mode wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA)/GSM and triband GSM. The N80 offers a 352 _ 416-pixel display and a 3-megapixel camera with features including four flash modes, 10 scene modes, manual exposure correction, and four color tones.
Embedded and Applied Computing
Embedded and ubiquitous computing is an exciting new paradigm that provides computing and communication services all the time and everywhere. Its systems are now affecting every aspect of our life to the point that they are hidden inside various appliances. This emergence is a natural outcome of research and technological advances in embedded systems. An Embedded Pervasive Computing Environment is equipped with hardware and software components that autonomously respond to the needs of its occupants. Embedded system is the core part of pervasive computing and it deals with various applications like wearable computer architecture and applications, sensor networks, real-time embedded operating systems, embedded servers, embedded system networking, address-free routing, smart spaces, dynamic service discovery, mobility and case studies. Some of the on-going researches in embedded systems include:
ROLLABLE DISPLAY
Who hasn’t dreamt of a display that rolls up when not in use? Phillips took one step toward this dream on a commercial scale when it formed venture company Polymer Vision in January 2004. Polymer Vision recently reported that it can make a flexible display with a 2 cm bending radius. The display is an organics-based, QVGA (320 240 pixels) active-matrix display, 5 in. on the diagonal and 85 dpi. The display layers a 200-micron thick, reflective Electronic-Ink display from E Ink Corporation (www.eink.com) on top of a 25-micron thick, active-matrix plane.
USING LANDLINES FOR CELLULAR CALLS
Xcelis (www.xcelis.com) has developed an innovative product for coupling cell phones and landline handsets. The Pantheon (see Figure 3) plugs into a landline phone line and, using a Bluetooth connection, routes incoming and outgoing voice calls and data from users’ cell phones to their landline handsets. The Pantheon indicates incoming mobile calls with a distinctive ring. While the mobile call is in progress, it doesn’t tie up the landline, meaning you can still receive landline calls through your other telephones. You need one device for each landline telephone that you want to multiplex. When making calls from your landline, you can choose whether to use your cell phone or landline account. The Pantheon provides additional features, including conferencing a landline call and a mobile call, accessing a user’s mobile phonebook from a landline phone, and switching mid-call from a landline phone to a mobile phone. The Pantheon is also compatible with voice over IP handsets.
BIONIC ARM
Todd Kuiken at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago at the Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine has developed a thought-powered bionic arm. The arm is based on a pioneering muscle reinnervation procedure that takes an amputee’s nerves and connects them to a healthy muscle. Doctors take nerves that used to go to the arm and connect them to chest muscles. The nerves grow into the chest muscles and can contract the muscle when the patient thinks, for example, “Close hand.” Electrical signals from the chest muscles drive the arm. Surface electrodes sense these impulses from the pectoral muscle and carry them through to the arm, causing it to move. Jesse Sullivan, a high-power lineman who had both of his arms amputated after being severely electrocuted, is the first patient to be outfitted with bionic arms. The arms have enabled him to do daily activities such as put on socks, shave, eat dinner, take out the garbage, carry groceries, and vacuum. Future generations of the arm will incorporate the sense of touch and feeling.
Mobile and Sensor networking
Sensor mobility allows better coverage in areas where events occur frequently in many sensor networks, considerably more units are available than necessary for simple coverage of the space. Augmenting sensor networks with motion can exploit this surplus to enhance sensing while also improving the network’s lifetime and reliabilit
Many people have never heard of a website directory. A website directory acts as an organized listing of numerous different websites that are located on the Internet. With over eighty-million different websites currently in operation it is important to have a website that lists these websites under main categories and subcategories.Oftentimes when we are searching the Internet it is hard to find the information that we need. Usually precious minutes and even hours are wasted from looking up websites that are irrelevant to what we are initially searching for. A website directory eliminates this waste of time. Most website directories are composed of twenty main categories and then over three-hundred main categories. A main category is considered to be arts and entertainment. A subcategory under arts and entertainment would be museums or names of publisher. An individual can easily find the information that the individual is seeking out by visiting a main category and then a subcategory.Many businesses and individuals use a website directory because by listing with a directory the visibility and name of a website is more easily found by the general public. This is an easy way to increase the foot traffic a website receives. Most webmasters agree that listing with a website directory is a very good idea.Other benefits to listing in a website directory is that users can take advantage of the latest links, top hits and latest articles. This is a great way for not only a business but an individual to find information. The latest articles are listed from many top news organizations around the world. This is an easy way to find information for a specific project or report. The top hits section of a website directory allows users to view the top websites or categories that are frequented the most. This allows one to see how their website might be more effectively run or changed.Anyone who lists their website with a website directory will automatically be able to see the many benefits that a website directory provides users with. This is an easy way to increase the foot traffic a website receives.
SKYSCOUT
If you’ve ever looked at the night sky and wondered what stars you were observing, Celestron’s SkyScout might be for you. Especially useful for novice astronomers, this handheld device combines GPS technology with a map of the sky to identify, locate, and provide information about celestial bodies. To identify an object of interest, you simply view it through the SkyScout and press the Identify button. SkyScout’s technology identifies the object and tells you what it is. To locate a celestial body, you select it from a reasonably easy-touse menu of objects and press the Locate button. SkyScout uses red directional arrows around the eyepiece to guide you to the object in the sky. A nice feature is that the menu shows only objects that should be visible. (Unfortunately, Sky- Scout has no way to know which of those objects are blocked by trees). Finally, the device can educate you about many of the more popular celestial bodies. The information is available both through audio and text and includes facts about the object and its history and mythology. SkyScout’s release was delayed in 2006 because of manufacturing problems in one of the components.
NOKIA NSERIES PHONES
Nokia has announced three new mobile phones in its multimedia Nseries, each targeting a different market segment. The N71, N80, and N92 offer a long list of features. The N71, from the Nokia XpressMusic family, offers an FM stereo tuner, a five-band equalizer, and support for audio and video formats including MP3, AAC, eAAC+, WMA, JPEG, and MPEG-4. It offers a 240 _ 320-pixel display and two cameras, one 2-megapixel (1600 _ 1200 pixel) and the other VGA (640 _ 480 pixel). It operates on dual-mode wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA)/GSM and triband GSM. The N80 offers a 352 _ 416-pixel display and a 3-megapixel camera with features including four flash modes, 10 scene modes, manual exposure correction, and four color tones.
Embedded and Applied Computing
Embedded and ubiquitous computing is an exciting new paradigm that provides computing and communication services all the time and everywhere. Its systems are now affecting every aspect of our life to the point that they are hidden inside various appliances. This emergence is a natural outcome of research and technological advances in embedded systems. An Embedded Pervasive Computing Environment is equipped with hardware and software components that autonomously respond to the needs of its occupants. Embedded system is the core part of pervasive computing and it deals with various applications like wearable computer architecture and applications, sensor networks, real-time embedded operating systems, embedded servers, embedded system networking, address-free routing, smart spaces, dynamic service discovery, mobility and case studies. Some of the on-going researches in embedded systems include:
ROLLABLE DISPLAY
Who hasn’t dreamt of a display that rolls up when not in use? Phillips took one step toward this dream on a commercial scale when it formed venture company Polymer Vision in January 2004. Polymer Vision recently reported that it can make a flexible display with a 2 cm bending radius. The display is an organics-based, QVGA (320 240 pixels) active-matrix display, 5 in. on the diagonal and 85 dpi. The display layers a 200-micron thick, reflective Electronic-Ink display from E Ink Corporation (www.eink.com) on top of a 25-micron thick, active-matrix plane.
USING LANDLINES FOR CELLULAR CALLS
Xcelis (www.xcelis.com) has developed an innovative product for coupling cell phones and landline handsets. The Pantheon (see Figure 3) plugs into a landline phone line and, using a Bluetooth connection, routes incoming and outgoing voice calls and data from users’ cell phones to their landline handsets. The Pantheon indicates incoming mobile calls with a distinctive ring. While the mobile call is in progress, it doesn’t tie up the landline, meaning you can still receive landline calls through your other telephones. You need one device for each landline telephone that you want to multiplex. When making calls from your landline, you can choose whether to use your cell phone or landline account. The Pantheon provides additional features, including conferencing a landline call and a mobile call, accessing a user’s mobile phonebook from a landline phone, and switching mid-call from a landline phone to a mobile phone. The Pantheon is also compatible with voice over IP handsets.
BIONIC ARM
Todd Kuiken at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago at the Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine has developed a thought-powered bionic arm. The arm is based on a pioneering muscle reinnervation procedure that takes an amputee’s nerves and connects them to a healthy muscle. Doctors take nerves that used to go to the arm and connect them to chest muscles. The nerves grow into the chest muscles and can contract the muscle when the patient thinks, for example, “Close hand.” Electrical signals from the chest muscles drive the arm. Surface electrodes sense these impulses from the pectoral muscle and carry them through to the arm, causing it to move. Jesse Sullivan, a high-power lineman who had both of his arms amputated after being severely electrocuted, is the first patient to be outfitted with bionic arms. The arms have enabled him to do daily activities such as put on socks, shave, eat dinner, take out the garbage, carry groceries, and vacuum. Future generations of the arm will incorporate the sense of touch and feeling.
Mobile and Sensor networking
Sensor mobility allows better coverage in areas where events occur frequently in many sensor networks, considerably more units are available than necessary for simple coverage of the space. Augmenting sensor networks with motion can exploit this surplus to enhance sensing while also improving the network’s lifetime and reliabilit
“Wisdom is knowing what path to take next. Integrity is taking it.” - Robyn ElpruhzleinThe field of online marketing is a diamond with many facets – the trick is finding the right sparkle on a well-traveled path.Marketing your websiteAn important tool is Search Engine Optimization. This is typically done through a targeted use of keywords or phrases that visitors may likely use when conducting an online search. By going directly to the source (in this case Google) we can learn a few things about how websites are ranked.1) A web crawler (Googlebot) indexes the pages of your website for ranking purposes.2) An index is created for each page that allows the search to be performed more quickly.3) A rank is determined for your website based on pertinent keywords or phrases.4) A rank for your website is further enhanced by the number of links from other web sources to your web page – the more reputable the linking sources the greater weight in site ranking.5) The use of a specific keyword or phrase will also increase your ranking if those exact words are typed in the search window.6) It may not seem fair, but a site with a greater overall reputation or that has been in existence for an extended period of time is typically given more weight in the ranking process than a newer site.7) Once Google completes their scoring process for each page, based on keywords or phrases, the rankings are adjusted on their search engine.What have we learned?• The primary lesson for online marketing is that optimizing your website is a long term objective.• Keywords and phrases play an important role in site ranking.• Encouraging other sites to link to yours is a positive way to increase your search rank.By understanding the method one of the more famous search engines use to rank sites you can learn to patiently work to establish your websites as reputable and fully optimized.Never allow your site content to remain static. Continually work at adding reputable and solid content that will be advantageous to your visitors and ultimately to your site ranking.Avoid overstuffing articles with keywords or phrases in an attempt to gain a higher ranking. Google indicates they ultimately penalize these sites when such ‘spamming’ techniques are discovered. Some site owners have even added invisible keywords to their site to increase their rankings. This path may work in the short term, but damages your ranking and does a real number on your perceived integrity.
Embedded and Applied Computing
Embedded and ubiquitous computing is an exciting new paradigm that provides computing and communication services all the time and everywhere. Its systems are now affecting every aspect of our life to the point that they are hidden inside various appliances. This emergence is a natural outcome of research and technological advances in embedded systems. An Embedded Pervasive Computing Environment is equipped with hardware and software components that autonomously respond to the needs of its occupants. Embedded system is the core part of pervasive computing and it deals with various applications like wearable computer architecture and applications, sensor networks, real-time embedded operating systems, embedded servers, embedded system networking, address-free routing, smart spaces, dynamic service discovery, mobility and case studies. Some of the on-going researches in embedded systems include:
ROLLABLE DISPLAY
Who hasn’t dreamt of a display that rolls up when not in use? Phillips took one step toward this dream on a commercial scale when it formed venture company Polymer Vision in January 2004. Polymer Vision recently reported that it can make a flexible display with a 2 cm bending radius. The display is an organics-based, QVGA (320 240 pixels) active-matrix display, 5 in. on the diagonal and 85 dpi. The display layers a 200-micron thick, reflective Electronic-Ink display from E Ink Corporation (www.eink.com) on top of a 25-micron thick, active-matrix plane.
USING LANDLINES FOR CELLULAR CALLS
Xcelis (www.xcelis.com) has developed an innovative product for coupling cell phones and landline handsets. The Pantheon (see Figure 3) plugs into a landline phone line and, using a Bluetooth connection, routes incoming and outgoing voice calls and data from users’ cell phones to their landline handsets. The Pantheon indicates incoming mobile calls with a distinctive ring. While the mobile call is in progress, it doesn’t tie up the landline, meaning you can still receive landline calls through your other telephones. You need one device for each landline telephone that you want to multiplex. When making calls from your landline, you can choose whether to use your cell phone or landline account. The Pantheon provides additional features, including conferencing a landline call and a mobile call, accessing a user’s mobile phonebook from a landline phone, and switching mid-call from a landline phone to a mobile phone. The Pantheon is also compatible with voice over IP handsets.
BIONIC ARM
Todd Kuiken at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago at the Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine has developed a thought-powered bionic arm. The arm is based on a pioneering muscle reinnervation procedure that takes an amputee’s nerves and connects them to a healthy muscle. Doctors take nerves that used to go to the arm and connect them to chest muscles. The nerves grow into the chest muscles and can contract the muscle when the patient thinks, for example, “Close hand.” Electrical signals from the chest muscles drive the arm. Surface electrodes sense these impulses from the pectoral muscle and carry them through to the arm, causing it to move. Jesse Sullivan, a high-power lineman who had both of his arms amputated after being severely electrocuted, is the first patient to be outfitted with bionic arms. The arms have enabled him to do daily activities such as put on socks, shave, eat dinner, take out the garbage, carry groceries, and vacuum. Future generations of the arm will incorporate the sense of touch and feeling.
Mobile and Sensor networking
Sensor mobility allows better coverage in areas where events occur frequently in many sensor networks, considerably more units are available than necessary for simple coverage of the space. Augmenting sensor networks with motion can exploit this surplus to enhance sensing while also improving the network’s lifetime and reliabilit
As an entrepreneur, do you need MLM software developed in-house or should you hire a software provider to set up the business? I know the idea of owning and running my own business is intriguing and that MLM is likely my best shot at being able to do so. However, if I do choose to go that route, should I develop my own MLM software, or is there a provider that will work best for me? The truth is, probably neither. The MLM land is littered with the corpses of failed owners who tried to write programs on their own, or by entrepreneurs who chose bad providers. The problem that you can run into is that you may start letting the ideas and thoughts of some young hot shot programmer get to you. Their enthusiasm and cockiness can be intoxicating. However, MLM software is not just about programming. The MLM business world is highly competitive and any programmer of MLM software needs to understand it in order to be effective. So you end up spending money on MLM software that is ineffective and your otherwise sound business goes down the tubes as a result. The same thing can happen if you hire an equally unproven or inexperienced MLM software provider. The answer is to be very careful about who you choose as your MLM software provider. So as the time comes that you need to select the MLM software you are going to use, start asking questions of the right people. Find out who the best MLM software provider in the industry is. Find out about promising newcomers and the track records of existing companies. Also find out who has a lot of experience and who is using the latest in technology and technical advances. Find out about support packages as well. Finally, and maybe most importantly, figure out who you can afford. As you ask around, you will find out quickly that the same MLM software providers rise to the top of each conversation. You will, then, end up with a list of two or three providers that you can choose from. It is recommended that you use an MLM software provider that has several thousand hours of experience in the MLM industry and is also priced to your budget. Also, make sure that whoever you choose will have the ability to make your business smarter and stronger. Finding the right MLM software provider to support a new MLM business is difficult to do. What makes it difficult is that it is not always an easy decision when you are faced with the temptation of a private programmer that promises great results or a new MLM software provider that promises great results but has no experience in the MLM industry. The most important thing for you to do is to ask around and find out who the best and most reliable MLM software prov
BIONIC ARM
Todd Kuiken at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago at the Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine has developed a thought-powered bionic arm. The arm is based on a pioneering muscle reinnervation procedure that takes an amputee’s nerves and connects them to a healthy muscle. Doctors take nerves that used to go to the arm and connect them to chest muscles. The nerves grow into the chest muscles and can contract the muscle when the patient thinks, for example, “Close hand.” Electrical signals from the chest muscles drive the arm. Surface electrodes sense these impulses from the pectoral muscle and carry them through to the arm, causing it to move. Jesse Sullivan, a high-power lineman who had both of his arms amputated after being severely electrocuted, is the first patient to be outfitted with bionic arms. The arms have enabled him to do daily activities such as put on socks, shave, eat dinner, take out the garbage, carry groceries, and vacuum. Future generations of the arm will incorporate the sense of touch and feeling.
Mobile and Sensor networking
Sensor mobility allows better coverage in areas where events occur frequently in many sensor networks, considerably more units are available than necessary for simple coverage of the space. Augmenting sensor networks with motion can exploit this surplus to enhance sensing while also improving the network’s lifetime and reliability. When a major incident such as a fire or chemical spill occurs, several sensors can cluster around that incident. This ensures good coverage of the event and provides immediate redundancy in case of failure another use of mobility comes about if the specific area of interest (within a larger area) is unknown during deployment. For example, if a network is deployed to monitor the migration of a herd of animals, the herd’s exact path through an area will be unknown beforehand. But as the herd moves, the sensors could converge on it to get the maximum amount of data. In addition, the sensors could move such that they also maintain complete coverage of their environment while reacting to the events in that environment. In this way, at least one sensor still detects any events that occur in isolation, while several sensors more carefully observe dense clusters of events. On going researches in sensor networking includes:
WORLDWIDE BROADBAND WIRELESS ACCESS
Option is offering a PC data card that can access wireless broadband worldwide. You can use the GlobeTrotter GT Max on the 850, 1900, or 2100 MHz HSDPA/UMTS (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access/Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) networks and the 850, 900, 1800, or 1900 MHz EDGE/ GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) bands. The card can support data speeds up to 1.8 megabits per second on HSDPA networks, 384 kilobits per second on UMTS networks, 247 Kbps on EDGE networks, and 85 Kbps on GPRS networks. It’s a Type II PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association)-compliant 3.3-V PC card and includes a novel “Butterfly” retractable antenna that doesn’t require users to remove the card when it’s not in use. Numerous wireless carriers offer the card, including Cingular, which recently announced that it would offer it under two plans. One plan will cost users $110 per month and includes unlimited data use in the US and 100 Mbytes of downloads in Canada and Mexico. The other plan will cost $140 and will include unlimited use in the US and 100 Mbytes of downloads in 24 countries including Australia, China, France, Italy, and Germany.
THE SELF-CLEANING HOUSE OF THE FUTURE
The house of the future won't need cleaning. Not by humans, leastways. Every surface will be dirt-repellent and antibacterial; and on the floors the vacuum cleaner is buzzing around – all on its own. The outer walls are all glass which can be screened off entirely and the interior surface used as TV screen. The scenario of the self-cleaning house belongs in the distant future, maybe 20 years from now. With the rapidly increasing development of nanotechnology we have seen for the past few years, it is not easy to predict a specific time span and it will be not only self-cleaning but also self-sufficient, energy wise. Today, the Australians are already experimenting with nanoglass-houses where the glass can be treated with a pigmented coating rendering the entire house non-transparent – the roof included.
WALL SENSORS
The house of the future will be capable of alerting its owner if it's in need of repair. The building materials will, of course, be susceptible to wear and tear due to wind and weather, and they will therefore have built-in sensors. When these sensors appear, the house computer will receive a message that this particular section needs repair. A variety of conditions are similarly monitored. This way, house owners can cheaply repair worn materials and avoid major, expensive repairs after the damage has been done.
THE INTELLIGENT HOUSE
The intelligent house of the future will alert the fire brigade in case of fire when you're at work. Or, if you've got a leaky water pipe, it will get hold of the plumber. Multifunctional sensors throughout the house will keep an eye on heating, lights, indoor climate etc. The house of the future will comprise two major digital gateways. One gateway will be the media server which comprises the complete collection of the family's music, films, photos etc. Another feature will be the highly secure homegateway – a server communicating with the many sensors distributed all over the house to monitor heating, indoor climate etc. The two gateways are separate entities, as the security on the homegateway needs to be exceedingly tight. This gateway should not be exposed to hacking, which could have fatal consequences with respect to security. If, for instance, the motion detectors are tampered with, the burglar alarm might be disabled. Likewise, it would be an unpleasant experience to come home to a room temperature of 40 degrees Celcisus, because someone is mad at you and has hacked into your system to change the temperature settings Thus, each room in the house of the future will be equipped with small sensors. – Larger rooms may have several. They will measure the physical conditions in the room and communicate with the homegateway which will then take care of the Internet-based communication out of the house.
RFID and Sensors
Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology uses radiofrequency waves to transfer data between readers and movable tagged objects without line of sight. RFID holds the promise of real-time identifying, locating, tracking and monitoring physical objects, and can be used for a wide range of pervasive computing applications. To achieve these goals, RFID data have to be collected, transformed and expressively modeled as their virtual counterparts in the virtual world. RFID data, however, have their own unique characteristics – including aggregation, location, temporal and history-oriented – which have to be fully considered and integrated into the data model. The diversity of RFID applications pose further challenges to a generalized framework for RFID data modeling. Today, Radio Frequency Identification enjoys an enormous interest as the first widely deployed pervasive technology as not only from the standpoint of research
but also from Corporate practices future. Some of the recent researches in RFID technologies include:
TAGS EVERYWHERE
The Ubiquitous ID Center provides the infrastructure for managing electronic tags embedded in or attached to objects in a ubiquitous environment. The center developed the ucode, a multicode tag that automatically identifies information stored in bar codes, RFID chips, smart cards, and electronic tags embedded in virtual entities such as software and electronic money. Comparable to the ISBN (International Standard Book Numbering) code used in the publishing industry, the UID Center assigns unique numbers to each tag and stores data relating to the object in database servers. The ucode tags use a 128-bit code that can be extended in 128-bit units, creating a virtually limitless string of numbers. To navigate this tagged environment, the UID Center developed the Ubiquitous Communicator, a PDA-like device that reads ucode tags and retrieves the relevant data from the UID Center’s server database. The standard UC has a host of features, including wireless LAN, Voice over Internet Protocol, infrared data communication, and a biometric reader. Apart from the PDA-like version, the UID Center developed a cell phone model and a watch style. At home, it will serve as the remote control for home entertainment systems and appliances. In the office, it will read a printer’s tag and order a replacement cartridge as needed
FROM UPC TO RFID
Smart packaging became a possibility with the introduction of small battery-free microprocessors called RFID (Radio Frequency Identification Device) tags. Though these have been commercially available for a number of years, they have been too clunky and too expensive for use in packaging. This situation is changing rapidly: industry experts predict that the price per tag will fall to under 10 cents each in the course of five years or so. The new generation of RFID tags can take the form of a sticker like the classic bar codes, or they can be directly integrated into the packaging material itself. They consist of a silicon microprocessor and some form of radio antenna—conductive carbon ink is replacing the more expensive metal coil of earlier tag types. This radio antenna functions as both input/output channel and power source. Electricity is generated in the antenna by either a magnetic field or a radio signal; the tag responds by sending out a radio signal in turn. This reply signal contains metadata stored on the chip, typically an ID number .With the help of RFID readers—in our cell phones, in supermarket freezers and check-outs, in our private fridges—we will be able to retrieve information about a particular item based on its ID number. In fact, the f
HTTP = HTML link (for blogs, profiles,phorums):
<a href="http://www.atriclecheck.com/article/175341/atriclecheck-Pervasive-Computing.html">Pervasive Computing</a>
BB link (for phorums):
[url=http://www.atriclecheck.com/article/175341/atriclecheck-Pervasive-Computing.html]Pervasive Computing[/url]
Related Articles:
Round Pegs In Round Holes: The Amazing Secret of Succeeding in Any Business Every Time!
How to Use the Internet Safely to Find Service Providers Part 2
Chameleon Advertising: Marketing to Your Niche Markets with Stories
Bookmark it:
|