Another example would be Piper, which is a home security and automa-tion device that combines panoramic video, Z-Wave home automation and environmental sensors into a single elegant prod
Trang 1For You
APRIL 2014
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Vol 2 No 12
ISSN 0013-516X
Pages: 158+8 UK #5; US $10
Trang 6c o n t e n t s
next issue • FPGA (Programmable Chips) • Connectors & terminals • FPGA training Kits
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Digital Radio Heralding Opportunities
for R&D, Manufacturing and Exports
EFY EXPO India 2014: What you
have missed
ESD Safety Solutions
India’s Biggest Electronics
Design Awards
“We think using open platforms
that comply with standards is the
right way to go ”
What is New in Multimeters
14 Smartwatches: To buy or not to buyeStyle-Buyers’ Guide
34 Some Techniques Used for the
Third Dimension
Technology: 3D
42 Part 1 of 4: Defence Lasers and
Optronic Systems: Role of Electronics
Defence Electronics
50 What is New in the Humble
Signal Generator
Test & Measurement
Handheld Digital Multimeters
Power Electronics in Solar Industry
to Soon Hit the Mainstream
• Network Storage with Raspberry Pi
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• Resistor Value Calculation StandaloneApplication with MATLAB
• Part 3 of 5: Designing with FPGAs: An RS232 UART Controller
“SiC leads to both lower system cost and
an improvement of efficiency”—Niranjan G
general manager - Business Development and Technical Marketing, ROHM Semiconductor
“What every green product designer should know”—Puneet Shukla CEO, Saison Components and Solutions
CAT III CAT II CAT IV
Trang 10First Look!
Swipe Telecom’s Dual-SIM 3G Calling Phablet
Offers high-quality LCD and Android 4.2 operating system
Swipe Telecom has launched a 3G
calling phablet, Halo Fone, which promises to be India’s most value-for-money product in its category The Halo Fone adds to Swipe’s existing and impressive range of Halo products which features a unique design blending the form factor of a tablet with the portability and functionality of a smartphone
The Halo Fone may be light on the pocket, but is heavy on its looks with a sleek design and weigh-ing only 235gm It com-bines the best of both the worlds—smartphone and tablet PC, making it an irresistible package
With a gigantic high-quality LCD size
of 16.5cm (6.5-inch) and
one-glass solution (OGS) capacitive touchscreen display that supports a reso-lution of 800×480 pixels, the Halo Fone provides a video viewing experience closest to that of a tablet
The form factor is large enough
to truly enjoy videos, and small enough to carry in a pocket, mak-ing it stand apart from its competitors The du-al-SIM phablet runs on Android 4.2 operating system and is fuelled by a 2800mAh battery, provid-ing hours of endless enter-tainment
The phablet is powered
by a 1.3GHz dual-core cessor and 512MB RAM, which guarantees a smooth experience
Sony India has introduced Xperia
T2 Ultra, the next evolution in
large-screen smartphone design It
brings together the best of Sony’s
im-aging and display technologies with
ground-breaking design efficiency to
produce a stunning Android
smart-phone at a mid-range price point
Key specifications for the
smart-phone include a 15cm (6-inch) HD
IPS display (720p) with Triluminos
and mobile Bravia Engine 2 for
mobile, a 13-megapixel camera with
Flash and Exmor RS for mobile,
1.1-megapixel front-facing camera
with Exmor R and access to Sony’s
one-touch ecosystem of 132
NFC-connected accessories The device is
powered by Snapdragon quad-core
1.4GHz processor with 1GB RAM
and 8GB on-board storage (microSD
slot expandable up to 32GB) It is
powered by a large 3000mAh
em-bedded battery with Battery Stamina
Brings the best in class sound variants to pep-up the mood
Intex Technologies has introduced two
new variants of multimedia ers, IT-2440 FMU and IT-2460 SUF,
speak-to enhance cusspeak-tomer experience The products are aesthetically designed and combine quality sound output to make your music experience more fulfilling
Also, the in-built FM enables you
to ensure you get the taste of latest music which the world
is listening to and add into your playlist
These packed speakers are adequately powered to boost the sound output
power-of your normal laptop, DVD player and
TV Now you can be your own DJ by flipping through the songs using the fully-functioned remote control With a power output of 30W and 20W, respec-tively, these channel speakers are fully equipped to create an everlasting thump
in surroundings, thus producing supreme
quality sound experience for music aficionados
These multimedia speakers promise to deliver superi-
or sound They are sleek, magnetically shielded beauties that will add value to your home or work computing
Trang 12Mobile phone maker Intex has unveiled
its new entry-level Android smartphone,
dubbed as the Cloud X1+ It comes with
an 8.8cm (3.5-inch) touchscreen display,
as the device is targeted towards the
first-time smartphone users The dual-SIM
smartphone will soon be available across
all the retail stores in India It is priced
very reasonably at ` 2990.
Samsung to Launch New
Website for Product Design
Samsung had teased a video on the
com-pany's official YouTube channel, dubbed
as Samsung Tomorrow The intended
trailer marked for the company's newest
upcoming launch in the beginning of April
And, this time it is not a smartphone or a
tablet that is coming up The new launch is
a website by Samsung that is completely
ordained with product design.
Huawei Stalls Dual OS
Smartphone Idea
In recent news, Huawei was said to be working
on a smartphone that would support both
An-droid and Windows Phone OS The dual-boot
smartphone concept is reportedly stalled by
the company, as of now Media reports claim
that the electronics company has said it will
not release a dual-OS smartphone any time
soon Another smartphone maker Asus was
also expected to launch a similar concept
de-vice, dubbed as Transformer Book Duet TD300
The company has also stalled its plans.
iPhone to Get a Brainy Battery
Usage System
Battery drain is always an issue with Apple’s
devices, but it appears that the company is
all set to address the issue It is reportedly
working on a way to ascend the battery
backup on iPhones The new system will
col-lect data from its apps, which the users run
such as motions (gyro), light sensors, GPS,
wireless network availability, user's
environ-ment and phone's usage including screen
on/off, power adaptor attach/detach It will
interpret the data and make forth the best
option for performance and efficiency.
Lenovo Unleashes Premium Multi-Media Notebook
Features Windows 8.1 operating system
Lenovo has launched the New
IdeaPad Z510—a multi-media notebook that offers a superior combination of premium features and a stylish design The laptop is equipped with a powerful processor, graphics performance along with an integrated DVD drive and superior audio quality, making it ideal for everyday multimedia experience
This new notebook from Lenovo weighs only 2.2kg,
offering an amazing combination of fea-tures and performance
It packs amazing audio quality with JBL speak-ers and Dolby Home Theatre, with multi-ple storage options
Optimised to be a complete portable entertainment hub, the device is pow-
ered with fourth-generation Intel core processor; latest graphics card with up
to six hours of battery life and a great
HD LED display with antiglare The white backlit keyboard not only makes typing easy but also adds a lot of class
to the overall design of the notebook.Some important features include Windows 8.1 operating system, hy-brid 1TB SHDD storage and NVIDIA graphics card with integrated 8GB NAND Flash, sharper and crisper
visuals with slim 15.6 HD LED display with anti-glare for multi-touch touchpad for easy scroll and zoom functions
Another tant feature is 1M HD camera to stay con-nected with friends and family through video chats
impor-ZTE9 Limited has released FunBox,
the world’s fastest home ment console, bringing consumers and families a unique high-performance all-in-one gaming, video-chatting and online video experience
entertain-The FunBox is powered by IA’s Tegra4 processor, based on the new A15 architecture, and the supe-rior graphics performance is delivered by a 72-core GeForce graphics processor with 2GB DDR3L memory and 8GB Flash memory
NVID-The specifications make the FunBox the highest performance home
ZTE9 Releases The World’s Fastest Home Entertainment Console
Powered by NVIDIA’s Tegra4 processor
entertainment console currently able globally
avail-The FunBox is the first home tertainment console to support video-chatting, allowing users to conduct video calls on their smart televisions for the first time With a dual-antenna, dual-frequency Wi-Fi design and a Bluetooth controller, FunBox offers
en-superior connectivity and robust network performance In the future, users will be able to buy personal-ised versions of the FunBox with custom-ised casings
Price: ` 6685
Price: ` 52,954
Trang 14Buyers’ Guide
Before we start off, let us get one thing straight, a smartwatch is not a new product by
any means While it is the rave in tech town nowadays, if anything, this is the second
iteration of smartwatches in the country Do we have a point here? Indeed we do When buying a smartwatch, you should not look at it as something completely new that you are experimenting with, rather, you should take the same approach as the average consumer takes with most other things—budget and want Yes, the two basics that keep popping up in economics textbooks
Smartwatches: To buy or not to buy
PraSid Banerjee
When it comes to
smart-watches, it is very difficult
to determine a need for the
device While wearables will, without
a doubt, become needed devices in
fu-ture, currently they remain a matter of
want Not taking anything away from
their functionality and usefulness, you
need a smartphone, but you can get by
without a smartwatch
The general features of a
smart-watch include reading messages,
tak-ing calls, setttak-ing alarms on your phone,
amongst others These devices come as
companions for your smartphone They
connect to your phone using
technolo-gies such as Bluetooth or NFC and offer
various functions, because of which
you would not even have to pull your
smartphone out of your pocket often
Moving on, there are quite a few
options on offer The Samsung Galaxy Gear and Sony Smartwatch 2 are per-haps the best known devices in this segment Moreover, if you have the budget, you can go for the current unanimous winner of the smartwatch segment, the Pebble Steel Yes, they do ship to India So, if price is not a con-straint for you, then get your hands on one of these
Coming back to our territorial borders though, the Galaxy Gear is priced at ` 22,990, which frankly is a
little steep in our opinion, especially when combined with the fact that it only works with a handful of Galaxy smartphones Way to pull off an Apple, Samsung!
The Sony Smartwatch 2 SW2 is first the best example of why smartwatches are not new This device is an upgraded version of the company’s first Smart-watch The Smartwatch 2 is priced at
` 14,990 and works with all Android phones (with Android 4.0 or above) Make a note of this, because this is a huge plus for Sony Not only do you not have to worry about what phone you
Some SmartwatcheS to chooSe fromSamsung Galaxy Gear Sony Smartwatch 2 Sony Smartwatch Burg 13 casio G Shock Pebble Steel
h Bluetooth 3.0
h Android release: 4.0 and later
h Charging with micro USB
h Water resistant IP57
h Battery lasts for
a week on low usage and one day
on heavy usage
h USB charging
h 3.3cm (1.3-inch) OLED display
h Call and SMS alerts
h Works with iPhone 4S and iPhone 5
h 5ATM waterproof
h Tri-colour LED
h Daylight readable display
Trang 15Buyers’ Guide
15
have, the watch costs almost half of what
the Galaxy Gear costs This would make
it lucrative for many customers
Further, if the better known ones
do not fit your fancy then go ahead for
the Burg Smartwatch and the Casio
G-Shock Digital Bluetooth watch Both
feature voice recorders and MP3 and
MP4 players The Burg smartwatch also
features a phonebook that can store up
to 500 numbers
Sony is also still selling its original
Sony Smartwatch, which is more of a
budget option It has the features of a
smartwatch but comes at less than half the
price when compared to the Galaxy Gear
The Casio G-Shock on the other
hand applies only to the iPhone 4S and
iPhone 5 owners It has lesser features
than the others and frankly pales in
comparison in this department
Price
When a tech firm comes up with a
de-vice, a huge amount of R&D goes into
commercialising it This in part means
making the device cheap enough to sell
to the general public One of the main
reasons why the market for
smartwatch-es is still developing is their pricing
Take the Galaxy Gear for example, not
everyone can spend ` 70,000 plus to buy
the Galaxy Note 3+ Gear combo On the
other hand, the standalone price of the
device is not small either
The buzzword here is value
Are you going to try and churn out
every ounce of functionality from your
device? If so, spending well on a
smart-watch does make sense for you If not,
go for the cheaper models
Functionality
Not every smartwatch provides the same
kind of functionality While Galaxy Gear
and Sony Smartwatch 2 provide pretty
much the same functions, the one big
dif-ference is that you can use any Android
phone with the latter As mentioned
before, this is a huge plus, especially
con-sidering the fact that the cheaper Galaxy
devices do not support the Gear yet
Similarly, if you are choosing
be-tween the Burg and Casio models, then
Burg is the hands down winner tionality wise
func-Looks
As with many other things in our mind, looks play a big role in choosing a smart-watch This is a big reason behind the accolades received by the Pebble smart-watches A smartwatch is still a watch and you would not want a grotesque device to be wrapped around your wrist
Subjective as this decision is, the Pebble Steel, launched at CES 2014, is considered by most to be the best in the looks department The Casio G-Shock looks like your traditional swanky G-shock watch The Burg 13 smartwatches
on the other hand present more ful options, as does the Sony Smart-watch 2 SW2 The Galaxy Gear though has been criticised a bit looks wise
colour-Conclusion
In the post Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2014 era, the market for smart-watches has been changing Samsung has ditched Android to launch its proprietary Tizen-powered Gear 2, Gear 2 Neo and Gear Fit smartwatches Incidentally, the Gear Fit was awarded the best mobile device title at MWC 2014
Samsung dropped the highly cessful Galaxy branding for its smart-watches (using its proprietary Tizen platform) and Google followed with the Android Wear platform meant solely for wearables The LG G Watch and Moto 360 smartwatches from LG and Motorola respectively have created some waves with their introductory videos
suc-The companies have all promised an evolution in wearable computing, which
is just what we have been saying all along Smartwatches are here and they are evolving In addition, the market is expanding with newer products entering the competition
Yet, buying a smartwatch still pends on the need, ‘to buy or not to buy;’
de-indeed that is the question Whether you want such a device enough and are going
to use it is what decides whether you are going to buy it
The author is a correspondent at efyTimes.com
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Trang 18Janani Gopalakrishnan Vikram
Be(a)ware of the smart home
Smart homes are great They are more energy-efficient, safe and comfortable too But, you need to resist the temptation to micro-manage your home, or it can make you dizzy! let us set you thinking by telling you a few (mostly nice) things about the emerging smart home
of consumer electronics and smart home platforms is enough to prove this point
Whether it is a washing machine to which you can send your instructions (LG), a learning thermostat (Nest), intelligent remote-controlled lights that can wake you up with gradual lighting (Philips), a super-smart mobile-controlled security sys-tem (Piper), easy to setup mo-tion sensors and baby monitors (WeMo) which help watch your home or a TV that switches itself off when you fall asleep (Sony), today’s chip-equipped gadgets ensure that your home runs like clockwork
There are some brilliant examples in this space, and one
such device that is expected to create waves is Rotimatic
Dubbed as a one-touch solution for fresh chapatis, Rotimatic is a device developed recently by an Indian cou-ple for making chapatis, apparently inspired by the long hours Indian wives spend in the kitchen
You can customise everything from the number of chapatis and the amount
of oil in each chapati, to their ness and crispness Each chapati takes around a minute to prepare and slides out temptingly from the cute machine! Launched in Singapore, Rotimatic is expected to be sold in the Indian market too, perhaps sometime this year.The Internet-connected crock-pot launched by Belkin at CES 2014 is an-other example to show how automation
thick-is invading the kitchen The compatible slow-cooker can be pro-grammed and controlled remotely too
WeMo-So, you can load it with all that needs to
be cooked for dinner and switch it on just before you leave office
The watchdog that never sleeps
“With the increase in nuclear families and urban living with double-income
A home that runs
like clockwork
A smart home could satiate unfulfilled
dreams—kids who switch off the fans
when they leave the room, a husband
who helps around the kitchen or a wife
who wakes you up with a hot cup of
coffee!
A smart home can pamper you
and see to your every comfort Your
water heater will turn on when you
enter the home, the coffee maker will
start brewing when you park your car,
the air-conditioner will turn up the
temperature when you pull up your
blanket tighter It is just what you need
to live a comfortable life, 24×7
One look at the current generation
Nest protect and thermostat lifestyle
the Internet-connected crock-pot (WeMo-compatible slow-cooker) launched by Belkin
Trang 20households, there is a growing need
for intelligent surveillance of
residen-tial properties Home owners are
look-ing for solutions that can help them
clearly identify intruders, monitor their
homes while they are on the go,” says
Sudhindra Holla, country manager,
Axis Communications, India, which
offers several advanced security
prod-ucts and solutions
Indeed, security appears to be the
biggest motivation for implementing
smart home solutions in India Builders
and real-estate developers are installing
holistic surveillance systems that help
to monitor large residential campuses
Traditional measures such as locks
and extra doors have been replaced
by high-end burglar alarm systems
and security products with integrated
remote monitoring software Security
guards are ably supported by
intelli-gent CCTV surveillance systems
There is a growing demand for
cam-eras with smarter analytics, especially
vandal-proof cameras and video
mo-tion detectors “The latest tech trends
unfolding on home security are
razor-sharp detail on video, motion detection
and tamper-proof cameras In India,
we see a higher adoption of thermal
cameras, cameras with high definition
(HD) motion sensors and facial
recog-nition software,” says Holla A thermal
network camera uses thermal imaging,
allowing users to detect people, objects
and incidents in complete darkness and
difficult conditions such as smoke, haze,
dust and light fog
Likewise, smartphones and
video-capable networking have also given
home security a boost Real-time access
to recorded visuals is a reality today, and there are several affordable smart-phone apps that make good use of this
“Home automation technology has become an integral part of nearly every new alarm panel that hits the market these days This will enable mobile users to monitor their home from any corner of the world 24×7,” says Holla
Surveillance-as-a-service (SaaS) is another growing trend in India This helps home users switch from low-end analogue cameras to network-based IP surveillance easily and at a low cost
Globally, there are several derful examples of security products that can be deployed quite easily by the user itself WeMo offers a range of motion sensors and other products that you can install for various home auto-mation purposes including security
won-Canary recently launched a smart home security device that is armed with an HD video camera and multiple sensors that track everything from mo-tion to room temperature, sound and activity to help keep your home safe
Another example would be Piper, which is a home security and automa-tion device that combines panoramic video, Z-Wave home automation and environmental sensors into a single elegant product that you interact with
on your smartphone or tablet
Electricity bills give
a pleasant surprise
“While currently the demand for smart home products in India is limited to safety and surveillance/monitoring,
we believe this will change in the future because technology will allow people to use resources more effi-ciently, improving convenience, saving money and facilitating a greener life-style,” says Guru Ganesan, president and MD, ARM India “We are already seeing automation used fairly widely for monitoring energy and water usage
to help reduce a household’s mental footprint and electricity bills.”There are several smart technologies today that would help a home reduce its energy footprint, and some high-end builders are including such technolo-gies to conserve power used by lighting, elevators and other common amenities
environ-So are home owners
There are many ways in which home automation can conserve power For example, lights and HVAC systems can be switched off automatically the moment your car leaves the garage Lights can switch on and off as people enter or leave a room
Two-way meters and smart mostats can help people understand and alter their energy usage
ther-Cloud-based services can help utilities to analyse, understand and recommend ways to reduce power consumption at user locations
Common protocols used by home automation systems
X10 One of the oldest protocols in this space, it has evolved from power line to
wireless Cannot claim to be very robust in terms of speed or communications, and hence
not too popular
ZigBee A happening technology, IEEE 802.15.4 (aka Zigbee) is a low-power
communication technology that makes mesh networks to help devices communicate on
par with each other
Z-Wave Another wireless home protocol, owned by Sigma Designs, which makes and
sells chips for Z-Wave-capable products
Insteon Combines wired power line and wireless communications to form mesh
networks for the devices to communicate when in proximity If one mesh fails, the others
can take over Insteon was developed by SmartLabs, and is compatible with X10
Wi-Fi Wi-Fi needs no introduction Although it is power and bandwidth hungry, experts
feel that the use of Wi-Fi in home automation can definitely not be ignored due to its
popularity and ubiquity of access points
WeMo app for Android
Trang 22One example of a home energy
management system is Savant’s
Smart-Energy monitoring solution, which sets
your intelligent lighting to
automati-cally turn on and off with the rising
and setting sun by timing them to an
astronomical clock, automates
open-ing and closopen-ing of blinds to keep out
the sun and conserve energy, regulates
thermostat levels based on outside
temperature, controls switching on
or off of lights using motion sensors
and lets you remotely manage your
home’s media components and other
smart electronics using iOS devices to
prevent prolonged operation and
un-necessary energy consumption
This, of course, is just the tip of the
iceberg!
Always within reach
You might have thought your home
became smarter the day the water
heater supported auto cut-off or your
kettle had temperature control or your
microwave let you make paneer butter
masala with its auto-cook option, but
that is nothing compared to the
pos-sibilities that connectivity has opened
up for smart devices!
Connectivity means many things
It means your devices can talk to each
other, they talk to your mobile phone,
they talk to (perhaps) a central server
such as an energy monitoring system
at the utility end or a remote tic solution of the original equipment manufacturer
diagnos-In short, the products will, over time, become a part of the Internet
of Things, becoming intelligent and capable of managing their lifecycle by themselves to a large extent
“M2M is at the core of the smart home offering Effectively, it is one machine talking to another It is the air-conditioner talking to the mobile phone So, M2M is definitely a very critical part of the whole solution
From a protocol perspective, ing on what is being used, there are a bunch of protocols that are essential
depend-For instance, all of the connectivity protocols such as 802.11, Bluetooth, Zigbee, 2G, 3G and 4G are all very es-sential,” says Thilak Kumar, regional engineering manager, Wind River
M2M makes many things possible
For example, as you walk along a sage, the lights could talk to each other
pas-to ensure that subsequent lights turn on
as the ones you cross go off
Your bed could sense and tell the air-conditioner when you are feeling too warm or too cold, so the temperature can be adjusted accordingly
Your dishwasher could tell your motor to turn on and fill the overhead water tank when the water flow in the pipeline reduces
Above all this, connectivity also makes it possible to control multiple devices using a common interface, as it can be quite hassling to manage a dozen home automation tools individually! One example of such an application
is the Revolv Smart Home tion solution, which supports multiple protocols including Wi-Fi, Z-Wave and Insteon and lets you access and control varied devices such as the Nest ther-mostat, Sonos speakers, Philips Hue lightbulbs and more, using the Revolv app on your smartphone
Automa-That said, Kumar warns us, nectivity allows full control remotely
“Con-by the owner, but at the same time brings in security risks that need to be addressed.”
Home in your palms
“I believe that smart homes need to be looked at from the lens of mobility and smartphones today The smartphone has quite quickly become the centre
of our lives and I see tremendous tential for it to become the centre of our homes, and that is the single big-
po-gest trend in this space, says Annie Mathew, di-rector, Alliances and Business Development, BlackBerry India “What smartphones bring to the table are wireless pro-tocols such as NFC and Miracast that are driving device connectivity That said, they also bring a plethora of apps that create a singular console
to manage home mation.”
auto-There are many popular mobile-based
What’s inside?
Sensors to know the environment
Processor for intelligence
Software for functionality,
progra-mmability and integration
Connectivity for remote-accessibility,
integration and diagnostics
User interface on device or as a
smartphone app for easy setup and
usage
It’s hot
The global home automation industry is projected to grow from $16.9 billion in 2011 to
$35.6 billion by 2016, according to a study conducted by marketsandmarkets.com
International Data Corporation (IDC) anticipates there will be more than 200 billion
connected devices by 2021, with more than 30 billion being autonomous devices
In a recent report published by Allied Market Research, it was concluded that the global
smart home and buildings market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate
(CAGR) of 29.5 per cent between 2012 and 2020
Blacksumac’s ‘piper’ smart home automation and security device
Trang 24smarthome solutions today, such as
the Samsung Smart Home platform,
Canary, Insteon Hub, MobiLinc, Roger
Smart Home Monitoring and so on
Roger Smart Home Monitoring,
for example, helps subscribers to view
and control their smart home
monitor-ing system from wherever a mobile
Internet connection can be made The
app helps to remotely arm and disarm
your smart home monitoring system,
and allows you to control security and
monitoring devices including cameras,
thermostats and lights
Technologies such as NFC and
Mi-racast make it easy to wirelessly connect
a mobile phone to the television, home
theatre or sound system, and enable
users to stream their mobile games to
the television or music from the mobile
radio to the home speaker systems
An app that comes to mind at this
juncture is NFC Shortcuts, which
al-lows users to launch apps or shortcuts
conveniently by tapping a BlackBerry
phone to NFC tags “For example,
when you reach home, you can just tap
an NFC tag at the entrance and your
BlackBerry will turn off the cellular
radio, turn on Wi-Fi (home network),
turn off Bluetooth (used for hands-free
in the car) and even send an SMS to your family members (not at home) notifying them that you are home You can even tap a tag on your nightstand
to set the BlackBerry into bedside mode and tap it again in the morn-ing to take the device out of bedside mode,” explains Mathew
Mobile phones enable the concept
of smart home to extend beyond the home too The SkyPark Café in Hy-derabad is an exciting example The cafe is set up with BlackBerry devices, NFC points and a BlackBerry music gateway to play music to customers in
a jukebox style
In addition to that, PlayBooks are used to browse, work and play on and also double as the menu There is also
a wall dedicated with NFC stickers for customers to easily check-in with NFC-compatible devices And there are also QR codes that customers scan
to avail of freebies as well as an App of the Month offer
Plus, nowadays there are phone apps such as Control4, which integrate all your home automation systems from media, security, lights
smart-and thermostats using one easy-to-use interface
For example, a single ‘goodnight’ button could ensure all your lights are switched off and doors are locked A
‘cooking’ button could brighten the kitchen lights, switch on the chimney, pre-heat the oven, and play your fa-vourite music on the kitchen speakers! Life becomes even easier
“Home automation has created opportunities for consumer durables
to cross-sell devices and products that are compatible with each other Smart-phones have driven this trend, given that it is today our single view of the world and consumer durable brands are fast adopting capabilities such as NFC and Miracast to ensure that con-sumers are able to control their homes from their smartphones,” says Mathew
Do it yourself
Obviously, you know your needs best, and that is the greatest motivation for DIY in the home automation space
A simple web search and you will be overwhelmed by a mind-boggling list
of projects in this space Low-cost crocontrollers and development boards
mi- “At the moment, the market is at an early stage due to
cost economics, but we see that changing as innovation drives
consumer value and competition drives price down for mass market
adoption The other trend that will help is the real estate industry
increasingly building smart technology into homes and innovative
service providers bringing ‘solutions’ to consumers by integrating
these smart gadgets with telecom, mobile and tablets Current
devices, we are already seeing in reasonable numbers, include CCTV
surveillance systems, sensor-based LEDs and climate control apps
on smartphones.”—Guru Ganesan, president and MD, ARM India
“In India, the idea of smart home is slowly catching up with
luxury homes and corporate offices making a conscious effort
towards providing green environments The idea is yet to become
pervasive amongst the common man and may be incentives to
support green initiatives and lower costs will increase the adoption
There is also growing interest in big cities as it does offer a lot of
safety, security and automation benefits
“For instance, it does enable working couples to manage
their homes much more efficiently, help remotely monitor old-age
parents and respond to any issues in a timely and effective manner
The most popular home automation systems today are safety and
security systems, automated lighting, automated entertainment and
automated energy management amongst others.”—Thilak Kumar,
regional engineering manager, Wind River
“In India, smart homes have gone from being a premium
concept to one that is fast becoming mainstream Realtors have
been integrating this into their constructions for a while now, and the
average home owner is increasingly looking for ways to automate The last two years have seen cost of technology and the speed of its advancement become inversely proportionate
“As technology advances, costs continue to come down and affordability is therefore driving smart home adoption Its application has evolved as well In that, home automation has moved from switching buttons on and off, to complete home surveillance and helping to operate and observe the home remotely Intelligent fire safety systems, gas leakage detectors, motorised curtains, remote controlled lighting, video phone, automated alarms, remote monitoring of homes via Internet and adjustment of heating/cooling, wireless door locks and video door stations for security are some of the systems that have gained popularity Again, as these become mainstream, we are of the firm opinion that smartphones will remain at the centre of driving adoption as they are being used
as the primary controllers of these automation technologies.”—
Annie Mathew, director, Alliances and Business Development, BlackBerry India
“Smart home as a concept is on the rise in India With increased need for security, builders and real-estate developers are installing holistic surveillance systems that help to monitor large residential campuses In India, cameras with smarter analytics are witnessing growing demand, especially the vandal-proof cameras and video motion detectors Here, one can also witness higher adoption of thermal cameras, cameras with HD motion sensors and
facial recognition software.” —Sudhindra Holla, country manager,
Axis Communications, India
In India
Trang 26from ARM, Raspberry Pi and Arduino
are making it possible for anybody
with a slightly technical bent of mind
to develop devices by themselves Add
to this the innumerable DIY tutorials
on the Web and your life is made!
From stoves that warn you when
they are not switched off before you
leave the house to saucepans that beep
when the milk is about to spill over,
from automatic cat feeders to garden
sprinklers, the range of made-by-users
devices is extremely large today
While regular DIYers can start with
a development board and do it all by
themselves, others too can experiment
with DIY home automation using kits
available in the market today
Ninja Blocks is an interesting
exam-ple in this category It is an open-source
home automation system that lets you
connect a bunch of sensors to the
Inter-net It is very easy to connect the
sen-sors to the peripherals and to program
them using simple if-this-then-that
logic, just like other commercial kits
like Belkin’s WeMo Interestingly, Ninja
Blocks also supports WeMo, so you can
use it to extend an existing system if
you already have one installed
There are several people who use
Arduino or Raspberry Pi based
auto-matic garden watering systems, which
employ sensors to keep checking the
humidity of the garden soil,
auto-matically turn on the sprinkler when
it is too dry and also tweet the user
to confirm that the garden has been
watered Some advanced DIY projects
even make use of recycled water from
the air-conditioner to water the
gar-den! Now, how’s that for DIY home
automation—everything is perfect for
your needs!
Making them work together
While there are many home automation
products available today, it is important
that these should be able to connect
and interact with each other using a
common language Otherwise, it will
be more of a headache than a pleasure
managing these disparate systems!
Interoperability, in fact, was one
of the significant themes at this year’s
CES Global retailers such as Staples and Lowe’s seem to be making notable strides towards interoperability
Staples, for example, launched the Zonoff-based Staples Connect system late last year, and in the past few months it has expanded the number
of products that work with it Staples solution comprises a hub that connects
to a user’s Internet router, and uses a smartphone app to centrally control thermostats, light bulbs and security systems
While the basis of the solution is that most smart home systems use com-mon technologies such as Bluetooth, Z-Wave, Zigbee or Wi-Fi to connect, they hope to also include proprietary standards like Lutron’s Clear Connect within the purview of the solution
Lowe’s also has a similar solution called Iris, developed in partnership with connected-device leaders such
as First Alert, Honeywell, Schlage and Whirlpool Iris comes with Ivee, a voice-activated system to which users can issue vocal commands to control their home
However, the sad part is that still most devices are not ‘open’ for such interoperability Even industry leaders like Samsung run their smart home con-cepts on their own platforms, allowing others to program but yet not interoper-ate with the devices and platforms
“While there are open, technology standards such as Wi-Fi, Z-Wave, Zig-Bee, Bluetooth on which these prod-ucts are built, there is a lack of official industry standards to provide end-to-end solutions This presents an interop-erability challenge amongst domestic
and business automation systems This is also an issue in terms of market growth as home automation requires open, horizontal platforms, centralised controllers, distributed architecture and IPv6 to endpoints that include security, trust and privacy so that houses can self manage systems and services in a truly integrated manner,” explains Ganesan The responsibility, to a large extent, rests with consumers, to choose de-vices based on interoperable rather than proprietary standards so that it will be easier to manage their smart home
Many a mickle, but no muckle
All said, a technology is useful only as long as you do not let it run your life Some industry experts feel that, though connected home technologies are use-ful, they tend to push users to micro-manage their homes, often leading to frustration
So, exercise moderation when ing smart home technologies As far as possible, choose solutions that have an easy user interface, opt for those that are based on standard communications protocols that do not require you to set
install-up any extra infrastructure Try and integrate those through a smartphone app so that you can manage them using
a common interface Program them in a balanced fashion and resist the tempta-tion to keep checking on your house every ten minutes
If not, you might need Aura by Withings to monitor and improve your sleep!
The author is a technically-qualified freelance writer, editor and hands-on mom based in Chennai
Major contributors to this report
Annie Mathew
director, Alliances and Business Development, BlackBerry India
Guru Ganesan
president and managing director, ARM India
Trang 28Most happening, fact-filled current affairs froM around the world
technology nEWS
First global high-speed
broadband for the skies
US-based Honeywell Aerospace and
Gogo, suppliers of in-flight
connectiv-ity systems to airlines, in collaboration
with satellite giant Inmarsat, are now
coming up with the ‘first global
high-speed broadband for the skies.’ The
Global Xpress (GX) Aviation network
will enable passengers to surf the web
as if they were in a coffee shop and will
satisfy their craving for high-speed
Wi-Fi on planes
According to Briand Greer,
presi-dent of Honeywell Aerospace Asia
Pacific, “In-flight Wi-Fi could generate
$2.8 billion for the company alone over
the next 20 years Around 7-8 per cent
of airlines currently offer wireless
con-nection, but this number is expected to
grow to 25 per cent by 2018.”
In-flight Wi-Fi will now enable
download speeds of up to 50 megabits
per second, thanks to the advanced
technology “It will be like you are
sitting at Starbucks with your
smart-phone, your computer and your iPad,”
Greer added
Free voice calling
without Internet
Engineers from M.S Ramaiah Institute
of Technology, Bengaluru have come
up with ‘FreeKall:’ a new free
voice-calling service that works without
the need of any Internet connection
FreeKall will be free for all and
of-fer voice calls to users on all mobile
devices
The free voice calling will,
how-ever, come at a price of its own: The
service will incorporate
advertise-ments between calls All you have to
do is dial the FreeKall number or give
a missed call to it, and the service will
call you back Just enter the number of
the person you want to connect, when
prompted, and FreeKall will do the
rest Upon connecting, you can start
talking for free Users will hear an ad instead of a dialler tone when the call
is being connected Further, both the caller as well as the called person will have to pause their conversation at intervals of two minutes during which
as well they will hear an ad
Onyxphone, an ink phone made for reading
With massive technologies coming
in the market, a major concern for a buyer is a phone’s battery back-up
Onyx Midia has launched the Phone, a device that features a Rock-
Onyx-chip processor and
an energy-saving 10.9cm (4.3-inch) e-Ink screen, unlike the commonly used LCDs or OLEDs This is a new-age solution to power consumption in phones
Reportedly, the phone does not support the same colour and fast re-fresh speed, thus videos and gaming may not be a suc-cess The OnyxPhone features a 1GHz Rockchip processor, 512MB RAM and an 1800mAh battery The phone does not use a hybrid e-Ink or an LCD screen as in the Yotaphone It is en-tirely an e-Ink device
E-dogs to detect explosives
If IIT Bombay has its way, very soon our security personnel will bid adieu
to traditional bomb-sniffing dogs and replace them with e-dogs The proto-type e-dog will be an ultra-sensitive low-cost explosive detector that could effectively detect an IED or RDX ex-
plosives in either of the three states of matter
The e-dog will come with an e-nose comprising sensors made up of a nano-material called canti-lever Having much more stronger ‘sniff-ing’ powers than the olfactory powers of
a real dog, the e-dog will be able to sense traces of RDX from
a distance of 46cm, claim the develop-ers
Free voice calling without Internet
OnyxPhone with e-Ink touchscreen
Trang 30E-dogs can be used to detect ex-plosives at places such as bus sta-tions, airports and railway stations
The e-dog will be powered by a re-chargeable Li-Po battery and will be very easy to use and maintain It will be commercially avail-able in two years
Turn your favourite sunglasses into night-vision goggles
If Prof Gabby Sarusi of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev has his way, very soon you will be wearing your favourite shades in the dark! Yes, you heard that right Sarusi and his team are currently working on a material that could practically turn any pair of glasses into night-vision goggles Thanks to the team, we might soon be able
to say goodbye to the ever bulky set of traditional vision devices and replace them with our favourite and even stylish pair of designer eye gear!
night-The team is currently working on creating a thin coating that will turn invisible infrared light into visible light for effective night vision
Contrary to other expensive and bulky night-vision tems, Sarusi’s team is looking to develop a one-micron-thick layer that could be applied to any pair of glasses The ambi-tious project will take five years for completion However, once successful, it will prove to be a very noteworthy tool for one and all
sys-Everyday motion to power cell phones
Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a novel concept of harnessing everyday motion such as vibrations, rubbing and stepping to fuel mobiles and other similar devices This technology could be used
to tap into the endless energy of ocean waves to meet the world’s ever-growing energy demand in the near future.Zhong Lin Wang and his team of researchers have built the world’s first triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) The nanogenerator successfully deploys the phenomena of
New cell-phone-charging system harvests energy from vibrations
Real bomb-sniffing dog versus e-dog
Trang 31technology nEWS
31
piezoelectric effect as well as triboelectric effect and will
most likely change how we power our devices in the days
to come
Piezoelectric effect is basically electricity resulting from
pressure Now, while working on a miniature generator
based on the phenomenon, the researchers found the
result-ing power output to be much greater than expected Upon
careful investigation, it was discovered that two polymer
surfaces in the device had rubbed together, producing a
tri-boelectric effect, resulting in greater power output And that
was their ‘eureka’ moment! The researchers then boosted the
power output density by a factor of 100,000 in subsequent
experiments to create what they now term as TENG
Control your phone in your pocket,
without touching it
Remember the time when touchscreens seemed a distant
dream? Well, the era of touchscreens is now upon us for sure
but, being humans, there is no end to satisfying us Once
we get our hands on something new, we begin to itch for
something better We are practically a selfish breed that gets
bored in seconds So, while most of us eagerly feast upon the
ease of touchscreens, there is a select elite out there that is
now aspiring for more, basically giving touchscreens a run
for their money!
University of Washington computer scientists have
now come up with an all-new gesture-recognition
technol-ogy called ‘AllSee’ that will basically access stuff on your
smartphone, or any other smart device for that matter,
without having to actually touch it! This is the first
gesture-recognition system that can be implemented for less than a
dollar and does not require a battery You can leverage TV
signals both as a source of power and as a source of gesture
recognition
Gesture input for devices
and interactive displays
Buzz has it that Microsoft is currently working on a
next-generation technology that will bring phones, tablets and
televisions that can be operated from a considerable
dis-Control your phone in your pocket
Trang 32Check efytimes.com for more news, daily
tance, eliminating the need of actually
touching them The new gesture input
technology will be the first of its kind
effort by the Redmond-based
technol-ogy giant which will change the way
we operate devices and interactive
displays in the future
Reportedly, Microsoft is planning
to implement the gesture input
tech-nology using an electronic bracelet
rather than the traditional method
wherein a camera is used to track
movements
Since the technology does not rely
on a camera, users would not
neces-sarily have to be physically present
in the same room as the gadget they
desire to control It must be noted that
start-ups like Ring & Fin have already
introduced such gesture recognition,
but this is for the first time that a
company as massive as Microsoft is
looking to venture into the territory
Anticipation is therefore obviously
notches higher
Bladder-pressure sensors
to replace catheters
The Foundation For Scientific and
In-dustrial Research, in collaboration with
Sunnaas Hospital in Norway, have
now come out with a tiny
bladder-pressure sensor that could provide
much needed relief to patients
suf-fering from the neurological disorder
that bars them from controlling their
bladder for long When effective and
commercially available, the technology
could replace traditional catheters
In Norway, over 200,000 people
suffer from this disorder
Taking due cognisance, SINTEF, an independent research organisation in Scandinavia, has finally developed a pressure sensor that might help patients Current method makes use of catheters to make the relevant blad-der-pressure measure-ments A catheter is in-serted inside the urethra, therefore the process is very uncomfortable for the patient Also, it is not very reliable
SINTEF’s miniature sensor, on the other hand, can be easily inserted into
a patient’s body through
a thin needle The cess does not lead to any discomfort and is, quite frankly,
pro-a welcome chpro-ange from trpro-aditionpro-al catheters
Further, patients can go out and perform their daily tasks involving natural movements, something that
is very restricted in the case of lier technologies The bladder-pressure sensor is connected to control systems via thin wires as of now However, researchers are working on wireless technology which, in the future, could allow measurements at regular inter-vals using even smartphones
ear-Now a shape-shifting smartphone
Wearable devices, which can be monitored via devices such as tabs, phones or computers made news this year in many recent exhibi-tions But so far, no smartphone has been made wearable or shape changeable Not any more, since scientists are reportedly developing new smartphones that can trans-form their shapes from that of an armband to a phone, or a tablet, to best suit your style or need
The gen-next smartphones will be able to quickly transform
their shapes Researchers at Hasselt University iMinds in Belgium have developed a prototype smartphone called the ‘Paddle.’ It is a single gadget that can be transformed physi-cally into different shapes The gadget
is inspired by the famous Rubik’s Magic Puzzle, which is a device that comprises eight square tiles and can
be folded or unfolded to form various shapes
According to a Fast Company report, Raf Ramakers, a PhD student
in human computer interaction at the university, said, “At the moment our Paddle prototype supports around 15 different shapes, but this number in-creases every day as we are including more and more shapes of the original Rubik’s Magic Puzzle.”
The device can be transformed into a book, whose pages you can leaf through to read The users who need to scroll through a list can simply turn the phone into a bracelet and roll through
It can also be turned into an armband when you need to jog If the Paddle is completely unfolded, it becomes nearly the size of an iPad However, when
it is folded up, it can become smaller than an iPhone
A tiny bladder-pressure sensor
Shape-shifting smartphone—Paddle
Trang 34The nature has provided us with
such a beautiful optical system
that it has no match so far Our
eyes with which we see the world
individually form two-dimensional
(2D) pictures and the brain processes
this data and provides us the depth
perception
One-eyed persons also perceive
depth as they use the other biological
tools provided by nature, though
over-all they have monocular vision Tools
that enable depth perception basically
include:
1 Binocular vision The
binocular-ity.org states that our two eyes form
images of a point that are slightly
separated, denoted by ‘d’ (Fig 2), and
the brain converts those two different
images to a single image in depth
From this we can conclude that if
we have smaller eye separation, depth
perception will be more
2 Accommodation It is basically
the ability to focus on close as well as
distant objects In doing so, the shape
of our eyes changes and thus provides
us a clue of the depth
3 Parallax It is basically the
ap-parent difference in the position of
an object when viewed from different
positions
4 Size familiarity By this, our
brain approximates the distance if it is
aware of object size For example, take
two pencils of the same size and place
them at different distances The one
looking bigger will be closer But our
brain can interpret their sizes correctly
5 Aerial perspective This is
ba-sically related to contrast Contrast
is simply the difference in colours
how do we perceive the third dimension, that is, how do we distinguish between two and three dimensions? The answer is here
Some Techniques Used for the
Third Dimension
ViShnU GaUTam
and brightness within the same field
of view The human eyes are more sensitive to contrast than to lumines-cence As light is scattered by every object, a closer object would have a better contrast than a distant object
These tools are used by our cal system simultaneously However, due to limitation of technology, the 3D videos use only a combination of three
do not line up in the same direction) and optic nerve hypo-plasia (nerves not ending correctly)
The technology
In movies, the depth perception
is achieved by colours, contrast, movement, perspec-tive art and spatial presentation The first 3D film was presented at Astor Theatre, New York on June 10, 1915 Earlier, methods used anaglyphs (wavelength-specific encoding) for ste-reoscopic 3D effect The most common combination was red and cyan The viewers were provided with eyeglasses having different wavelength-specific filters
The filter colours have to be posite on the VIBGYOR colour spec-trum to avoid crosstalk between two independent images formed by the eyes It was a convention to wear cyan (RGB:000,255,255) filter on the left eye and red (RGB:255,000,000) filter on the right The filters allowed the wave-length opposite to the sheet colour
op-to pass through them while the same wavelength was blocked The anaglyphs basically used the stereoscopic vision that exploits the binocular disparity of our eyes
Basic classification
3D content can be created with glasses
Fusion
Retinal disparity Stereopsis
Cognition
Fig 1: Basic process showing how real-world objects are perceived
Stereopsis is the cognitive sensation and retinal disparity is the inter-ocular distance (Courtesy: www.affonsobeato.com)
Z
Fig 2: Concept of binocular vision E is ocular distance, Z is viewing distance and d is physical disparity (Courtesy: www.binocularity.org)
Trang 36inter-or without glasses Stereoscopic
meth-ods use glasses for producing the
cognitive sensation These methods
further use time-parallel or
time-mul-tiplexing approaches
In time-parallel approach, the left
and right views are displayed
simul-taneously For this, the viewers must
wear wavelength-selective filters or
polarised glasses
In time-multiplexing approach,
there is an alternate display of left and
right views Both the views are stored
in two separate frame buffers and the
screen is refreshed alternately For
time-multiplexing, liquid crystal
shut-ters are used
Autostereoscopic method With
this method, one can pro-ject 3D content without glasses
This method comprises dif-ferent displays that work on different prin-ciples such as integral imag-ing, holographic approach and use of voxels to project depth
Stereoscopic method The ba-
sic idea behind this is parallax
More the lax, the more it creates stereo-scopic sensation
paral-Our binocular vision enables us to have horizontal parallax, that is, the ability to view an object in two different ways horizon-tally
The inter-ocular distance between eyes is about 6.35cm (2.5-inch), which forces the eyes to form slightly different images of an object, causing retinal dis-parity The human brain then combines these 2D images into one perspective image called stereoscopic image
Wavelength-selective glasses—
Anaglyphs In 1858, Joseph D’Almeida
projected a 3D magic lantern by ing red and blue filter glasses How-ever, Louis Du Hauron created the first printed anaglyph using colour printing available at that time An anaglyph is
us-a type of 3D imus-age creus-ated from two photographs taken approximately 6.35cm (2.5-inch) apart
Polarising glasses The idea is based
on different polarisations of the two
images In this method, to overcome the reduced perception in anaglyphs,
a projector projects two views onto the screen (having different polarisations).But, for polarisation, we need to wear special glasses that would allow only one image into each eye As the glasses contain polarised lenses, they would allow a specific orientation of light to pass
However, the problem with this was that the polarised light from each row would create 1D for each eye,
so the resolution would be half The solution that came up was spatial multiplexing in which a checkerboard pattern in each pixel was used The left pattern was opposite of right This pro-vided better sampling and thus better resolution than its counterpart
LCD shutter glasses This concept is
based on real-time processing by the computer that provides control signals
to the glasses
In this case, the LCD and filters cause the lenses to lighten and darken
at the refresh rate of computer An
IR sensor is used as an indicator for the glasses to judge the darkness and lightness of eye filters This provides a much realistic image The refresh rate
is responsible for quality 3D
For watching high-speed movies
or sports in 3D, a refresh rate of about 200Hz is needed Plasma TVs provide
a very reliable option as they have a refresh rate of 600Hz Many television and computer manufacturers are us-ing this technique The disadvantage
is that all this depends on the refresh rate Having a non-uniform refresh rate causes the screen to flicker, and thus very few monitors provide the required compatibility
Autostereoscopic methods
The concept is based on glassless 3D For this, there are two possible ap-proaches:
1 Eye tracking For creating 3D
as per eye position, the camera stantly observes head position, so the screen can be mechanically shifted One approach, for example, is two-
Time-multiplexing approach Multi-view displays
Holographic optical element displays Integral imaging
Volumetric displays
Autostereoscopic (glassless) 3D methods
Fig 3: Classification of 3D methods
Left image with all display
cells’ green and blue lights
turned off
Right image with all display cells’
red lights turned off
Left and right images mixed together to form a red-blue anaglyph image
Fig 4: A basic anaglyph Consider the RGB of two filters
(Courtesy: www.google.com/image search)
Fig 5: Simple polarisation process
(Courtesy: www.google.com/image search)
Polarising
3D glasses
Trang 38view displays But this approach is not
successful as, in case of many users, it
leads to flickering
2 Providing multiple views With
multiple views, a proper 3D pattern
can be formed
To create multiple views, the most
common method is to use lenticular
lenses Wikipedia defines a lenticular
lens as an array of magnifying lenses
so that, when viewed from slightly
different angles, different images are
magnified
In multi-view lenticular
autoste-reoscopic displays, the LCD is located
at the focal plane of lenses (lenticular)
As the image in LCD is placed at a
fo-cal plane, different view angles become
possible For example, if there are three
columns of pixels, three viewing zones will be possible But it has a problem
of its own As the number of zones increases, and when the viewer’s eyes change the zone, the image appears to flip between the views
The Stereographics Corporation, USA developed a 106.68cm (42-inch) autostereoscopic monitor that offered nine perspective views
Holographic approach
Holog-raphy is a photographic recording technique that can record and repro-duce the image with the properties of light waves, such as amplitude and wavelength, very precisely In this technique, the scene and the target both are illuminated with coherent light It is supposed to be a very close
approximate of real 3D viewing Some ba-sic models have been created that reduce the amount of spatial data
Pros True 3D, full
parallax
Cons Difficulty
to receive full colour images, high cost and complicated system
Holographic cal element displays
opti-These are based on the diffraction prop-erty of light These displays have no information about what is being pro-jected, therefore they just diffract the light
But for this, a tracker
is needed that moves the light source in the direction of the movement of head
These displays use a hologram of evenly diffused plane which
is in rastered form so that, when the light falls, it would direct
it from alternating patterns to specified viewing zones
Integral imaging This method
was invented by M.G Lippmann in
1908 Here, a lens array with many convex microlenses is placed in front
of a transparent film This results in
a number of small elemental images corresponding to the number of lenses With these elemental images, the trans-parent film is developed
For the reproduction of the object, the transparent film is irradiated from behind by diffused light This bounds the light beam to retrace the original path and converge at the same point where the real object was The major advantage of this is that we have sev-eral zones of auto stereo vision due to the number of microlenses
Advantages Less spatial data
re-quired, possibility of simultaneous vision by several viewers and less hardware required
Problems The viewing side is
op-posite to that of pick-up side, thus the resultant image is pseudoscopic
in nature with reverse depth, that is,
we see a convex image for a concave object So we would need to convert the pseudoscopic image to orthoscopic.Besides, there is interference be-tween elemental images during pick-
up This interference can be reduced
by setting optical barriers between neighbouring lenses
The NHK Science & Technology Research Laboratories has developed
a hexagonal-packed gradient-index (GRIN) fly-eye lens to capture elemen-tal images In this process, a convex lens is used to control the depth of the reproduced image The GRIN structure overcomes the pseudoscopic and in-terference problem However, the lens structure that they used was bigger, so the reproduced image was somewhat deteriorated After lot of research the deterioration has been reduced to an acceptable level
Overall, we can say that, due
to small resolution of displays and charged-coupled devices (CCDs), the depth of 3D is insufficient in this inte-gral imaging
Volumetric displays This is a
com-pletely different approach as here a 3D
View 1
Substrates
Lenticular sheet Pixels
Film Elemental image Pickup
(a) Pickup Object
Trang 40Motor and position sensor Display volume
Dichroic
mirrors
Y
image is produced in a physical space
rather than on a flat screen The image
is said to contain voxels, that
is, volumetric pixels that have
x, y and depth z coordinated
The voxels appear at different physical depths within the space, thus allowing the eye
to converge and focus just as they would converge in the real world The first volumetric display was created by W.D
Chase in 1976 He used a ing helix screen
rotat-A volumetric display prises a rotating helical screen (semi-transparent), computer interface and laser system The helical screen rotates at such a high speed that it becomes in-visible to eyes The computer provides the required control signals (on/off durations and intensity control) to the 3D in-terface, which then modulates the RGB lasers to form the required colour combination
com-As the light beam hits the rotating screen, it scatters and causes a voxel
The location of this voxel is determined
by the intersection of light beam with the rotating helix Expanding this concept further, instead of using helix structure, an LED array screen is ro-tated at high speed
Health-related side effects
Watching excessive 3D content can
be very harmful not only for the eyes but also for the brain The projected 3D content is very much different from the real world that our eyes see Chromatic adaptation of individuals also plays an important role in the harmful effects of 3D Some common effects include:
1 Motion sickness
2 Excessive eye strain
3 Disturbance of postural balance that leads to disorientation problems
4 Increase in heart beat
5 Headache and increased stress levels
The author is a B.Tech fourth-year student at Vidya College of Engineering
3D image
LCD panel Fly-eye lens High-definition camera
Fig 8: The GRIN structure (Courtesy: NHK Science and
Technology Research Laboratories)
Fig 9: A volumetric display functioning
(Courtesy: www.google.com)