December 29, 2012

Roboy team aims to build robot toddler in nine months


If robots are going to be part of our everyday lives, they’ll need to fit into our homes rather than the factory floor. Few people would be comfortable living with a metal spider on tank treads, so the University of Zurich’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (AI Lab) is building a robot toddler called “Roboy.” Using “soft robotics” technology that mimics the human body, the 1.2 meter (3 ft, 11 in) tall humanoid robot is part of an effort to make robots that people are more comfortable with in day-to-day situations.

Roboy doesn't look very endearing at the moment. In fact, it looks more like a cyborg skeleton than a charming child, but it’s still a work in progress. The laboratory’s goal is to build Roboy in only nine months. Work began last June with 15 project partners and over 40 engineers and scientists. These parties are providing expertise and funds through sponsorship and crowdfunding that includes auctioning space on the robot for logos, and hiring it out for business functions when completed.

Roboy's features

Roboy is based on the laboratory’s previous project, the humanoid, frighteningly cycloptic Eccerobot. Built out of plastic, Roboy is modeled on the human musculoskeletal system, but this mimicry goes beyond the aesthetic. Instead of motors in its joints, Roboy uses motor assemblies that pull elastic cables, so the system operates in a way similar to muscles and tendons. AI Lab claims that this will allow Roboy to move “almost as elegantly as a human.”

Currently, Roboy is more of a research project than an engineering enterprise. The team is developing new technologies with an eye toward scalable production using CAD and 3D printing to allow for full production of robots within days of development.

The purpose of Roboy is to push for the acceptance of service robots by making people more comfortable having them around all the time. With an aging population, AI Lab believes that such service robots will be increasingly important in helping the elderly to continue independent lives.

Roboy is currently getting a new face chosen by a Facebook contest, and can move its arms. Later, the robot will be covered with a soft skin. Roboy will make its first public appearance at the “Robots on Tour” exhibition on March 9, to celebrate AI Lab’s 25th anniversary.

The video below shows Roboy in action.

Source: Roboy, AI Lab


December 10, 2012

LuminAR Bulb transforms any surface into a touch screen

The LuminAR Bulb works with standard light fixtures and projects an interactive image onto...

We've all seen gigantic touch screens on the news or in movies, but what if you could achieve the same type of interface by simply replacing the bulb in your desk lamp? That's the idea behind the LuminAR, developed by a team led by Natan Linder at the MIT Media Lab's Fluid Interfaces Group. It combines a Pico-projector, camera, and wireless computer to project interactive images onto any surface – and is small enough to screw into a standard light fixture.

The LuminAR project (the capitals reflect its shared properties with other augmented reality set-ups) has two separate but interconnected components. The Luminar Bulb is a stand-alone unit that allows users to interact with its projection through simple hand gestures for zoom, position control, and content manipulation. It can plug into any fixture, but takes on even more functionality when combined with the LuminAR Lamp - an articulated robotic arm (similar to the Pinokio Lamp), enabling you to move the projected image around.

The Luminar Lamp remembers where you've moved different applications, allowing you to organize your workspace accordingly, such as putting your twitter feed in a less distracting location, or projecting a Skype session onto a wall. The Lamp can also take snapshots of the work area, allowing you to quickly scan and share work documents seamlessly across multiple devices.

Besides tracking your hands and fingers, the camera and image processing software could detect objects in the work space, such as a canned soft drink, and automatically display targeted advertising around it. One potential application would be projecting rich media, including product information, in a retail setting. In effect, browsing a store's display could incorporate the same media and interactivity as a product web site.

The LuminAR project was developed through 2010, and showcased earlier this year at the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.

See how it works in this video summarizing its development.


Source: Fluid Interfaces Group




November 22, 2012

Breakthrough 3D gesture controller opens new vistas for human-computer interfacing


The smallest gesture can hide a world of meaning. A particular flick of a baton and a beseeching gesture can transform the key moment of a concert from mundane to ethereal. Alas, computers are seriously handicapped in understanding human gestural language, both in software and hardware. In particular, finding a method for describing gestures presented to a computer as input data for further processing has proven a difficult problem. In response, Microchip Technologies has developed the world's first 3D gesture recognition chip that senses the gesture without contact, through its effect on electric fields.
The MGC3130 chip in a 5x5mm package, resting on a fingertip
The MGC3130 chip in a 5x5mm package, resting on a fingertip
Microchip Technologies has recently unveiled their GestIC technology as implemented in the soon-to-be-available MGC3130 chip, an outgrowth of anearlier technology. When used as a 3D digitizer, the MGC3130 resolves position within a 15 cm (6 in) cube at a remarkable resolution of 150 dpi. (Yes, that's vertical resolution as well as in the plane, meaning that roughly a billion voxels (3D pixels) can be distinguished within the scanning volume.) The sampling rate is 200 measurements per second, allowing the GestIC technology to follow quick adjustments of hand and finger positions, velocities, and accelerations.
The MGC3130 enables a new approach to the problem of human-machine interfacing (HIM), recognizing gestures by measuring the changes in an electric field as the gesture is made. When gestures are sensed via their effect on electric fields, the step of precisely measuring hundreds of positions for each millisecond of a gesture and converting that data into a concise description of a gesture is no longer needed. Instead, a vastly simpler procedure can be adopted. The output of an electric field-based gesture sensor is itself something of a gestalt of a gesture, which has the potential to greatly simplify the interpretation of gestures.
The electric field lines produced by the GestIC technology electrodes in the absence of an...
The electric field lines produced by the GestIC technology electrodes in the absence of any perturbing influence
GestIC technology detects gestures through the changes which appear in a circumambient electric field. The chip generates an excitation voltage having a frequency around 100 kHz. The excitation voltage is applied between the transmitter electrode and a ground plane (in commercial practice, the function of the ground plane will be taken by the device using GestIC technology). This sets up an electric field that extends from the transmitter electrode into the scanning region above the electrodes. As the wavelength of the excitation voltage is far larger than the size of the electrodes, the electric field is quite uniform through out the scanning region.
The same electric field adjusts to the presence of a hand
The same electric field adjusts to the presence of a hand
When a user reaches into the scanning area, the electric field changes in response. Electric field lines must approach a conducting body perpendicular to the surface of that body. This is shown in the image above, where the field lines which pass near the hand are shunted to ground through the conductivity of the human body itself. (The person operating the device must be grounded to the ground plane.) The position of the hand within the sensing volume causes a compression of the equipotential lines and reduces electrode signal levels.
Block diagram of the MGC3130 chip driving a set of sensing electrodes
Block diagram of the MGC3130 chip driving a set of sensing electrodes
Instead of producing a scanned map of points on the surface of the hand, however, the MGC3130 measures a small number of analog voltages – the five voltage differences between the various electrodes and the ground plane. This analog data provides a highly compressed signature of the gesture. It can't be used to uniquely model the position of the hand, as there is not enough redundancy in the data. Despite this, this data can be used to accurately identify gestures.
A given gesture always produces the same signature, and gestures close to the given gesture will produce similar signatures, as will the same gesture being presented by a user with a larger or smaller hand. (This is equivalent to saying that mapping electric field gesture detection onto actual gestures is mathematically a continuous function.) As the system is now dealing with tens of bits of data instead of thousands of bits of data, the job of recognizing patterns associated with particular types of gestures becomes far easier, in analogy to the image preprocessing which occurs in the retina before the processed data is presented to the visual cortex.
Electrode geometry for Microchip's GestIC gesture recognition technology
Electrode geometry for Microchip's GestIC gesture recognition technology
Imagine that a user places their hand in the sensing volume, and then curls their thumb and forefinger together in an "A-OK" gesture. The GestIC sensor produces five voltages which are characteristic of that gesture. It doesn't know or care (speaking anthropomorphically) that the thumb and forefinger are touching and the other three fingers are splayed outward. Neither can a computer determine the position of the hand by analysis of the five voltages: the detailed position information is simply not in that data.
Instead, the sensor's MPU says to itself "the voltages swooped about pretty quickly with time and then settled down into a new pattern. I guess this is a new gesture. Let's compare the sizes of the present voltages with a bunch of patterns of standard gestures in my memory. Hmmmm. These voltages seem to match pretty well with a slightly rotated "A-OK" gesture – at least, better than anything else in my recognition patterns. Don't know what that means, but I'll send my decision over to be used as input data by the rest of the program."
The layers of programming support provided by Microchip for their GestIC system
The operational software that emulates this inner dialog is part of the Colibri software suite that supports the chip. Comparison and recognition of input patterns is carried out by a stochastic Hidden Markov model analysis that is preprogrammed with a reliable set of standard 3D hand and finger gestures (no, not that one) that can be easily employed in their products. Examples include position tracking (essentially digitizing the position of a fingertip), flick, circle, and symbol gestures, and many more. A system can also be activated from a standby condition by a stylized gesture. The Colibri suite allows developers to rapidly and inexpensively incorporate GestIC technology into products, as the programming for a basic human-machine interface has been provided.
At present, the MGC3130 chip will be supplied in the 28 lead 5x5-mm QFN form factor. The frequency of the electric field is variable between 70 and 130 kHz, and the firmware on the 3130 chip enables frequency hopping to substantially eliminate RF interference. The power requirements are very small, about 100 milliwatts while actively detecting and processing gestures, about 150 microwatts in standby mode, and about 30 microwatts in a deep sleep mode. Both an MPU processor and a firmware version of the Colibri software suite are integrated on the one chip.
Sample circuitry for an operational 3D gesture recognition system built around the MGC3130...
Sample circuitry for an operational 3D gesture recognition system built around the MGC3130 chip
Only a set of electrodes and eleven discrete electronic components are required for full operation of a GestIC system. This circuitry is provided in Microchip’s Sabrewing MGC3130 Single Zone Evaluation Kit. The Sabrewing comes with selectable 5" or 7" electrodes and the AUREA Graphical User Interface, which allows designers to easily match their system commands to Microchip’s Colibri Suite (also included). The evalutation kit costs US$169.
Let's imagine an application perhaps two generations down this development path. In front of you appears a somewhat larger set of electrodes. The transmitter electrode delivers an electric field of two different frequencies, while your right and left arms are connected to the ground plane through filters. In this way, gestures of your right hand can be separated from gestures of your left hand. The application is a 3D sculpturing program, in which virtual clay is formed by the motions of your hands and fingers. The virtual clay could be spinning for throwing pots, or fixed for more traditional sculpture. Once you obtained a pleasing sculpture, the program would send the description to a 3D printer or CAM system to fix it in the sculpting material of your choice.
Such machines might be available not only for professional sculpture, but at a suitable price point might be used to encourage artistic talent and imagination in children. Who knows, perhaps even artists of other species (elephants, apes, etc.) might benefit from this new technology…
The video below presents a panoramic overview of the GestIC system.

October 27, 2012

Windows 8 Versions

Windows 8 RT:

Basic version of windows 8. Not available to open market, yet its good to know. It is suitable for ARM processors but not suitable for Intel and AMD processors. Many legacy apps fail to run in this version of windows which means that it can not run x86 programs. If it is loaded to a tablet, it is sure that it provides good battery life.


Windows 8 Enterprise:

It is loaded with special features for system administrators. Hence suitable for customers with volume licencing.


Windows 8:

Ordinary version of windows, machines powered with this version lacks the encryption power.


Windows 8 Professional:

Most admired and booked version. If you feel to upgrade your old windows powered machine, then certainly its your choice of preference. Only thing lacking in this version is that for enterprise customers. 


HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS:

1GHz or faster processor, 1GB RAM (32-bit) or 2GB RAM (64-bit), 16GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20GB (64-bit), DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver. For Modern UI apps a screen with a resolution of 1024x768 pixels is mandatory.

Buying Windows 8:

3 ways are available:

1. If you are with a system or laptop purchased after June 2 of this year, then you can get it at Rs.699/- (Offer valid only till January 31,2013)

2. If you are the user of any of versions after xp (xp,vista,7) then you can download windows 8 from microsoft website at Rs.1999/- (Offer valid only till January 31,2013)

3. Retail box is available at the cost of Rs.4000/- (Offer valid only till January 31,2013). Then after sources say, it may reach up to Rs.11000/-

October 26, 2012

How to Get Microsoft's Windows 8


Microsoft's revamped Windows 8 operating system is finally ready for primetime. Redmond started selling digital downloads of the new OS at 12:01 a.m. local time this morning, shortly after it opened up the doors to its holiday pop-up store in New York's Times Square.
But how do you get it? There are a variety of options, from upgrades to entirely new systems. Read on for how to snag Microsoft's latest operating system.
Upgrade your existing PC online: PC users running Windows XP SP3, Windows Vista, or Windows 7 can upgrade their PCs to Windows 8 Pro via a $39.99 download from now until Jan. 31, 2013. First, Microsoft will run the Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant to make sure your computer can handle Windows 8. If you're in the clear, you will be walked through the upgrade process. Those with Windows 7 will have their files, apps, and settings automatically transferred to Windows 8 Pro (though it's always good to have a backup). If you have a PC with XP or Vista, you will have to reinstall apps.
New buyer upgrade: If you purchased a Windows 7 PC after June 2, 2012 you can get a Windows 8 Pro upgrade for $14.99. Microsoft started accepting upgrade registrations in August, but you can sign up now via windowsupgradeoffer.com. Starting today, Microsoft will send out promo codes via email. When you upgrade via Windows.com, Microsoft will display the $39.99 price for general upgrades; enter the promo code on the confirmation page to get the $14.99 price. Users have until Feb. 28, 2013 to use their promo code. For more, see Microsoft's FAQ.
Buy boxed software: If you're a little wary of upgrading your PC online, you can still buy a boxed version of Windows 8 Pro for $69.99. It's available from Amazon, Best Buy, Staples, Office Depot, and the Microsoft Store.
Buy a new PC: If your PC is ready for an upgrade, why not kill two birds with one stone and get the new OS and a new computer at once? This time around, there are a few more options when it comes to hardware, though. Do you want a traditional Windows-based laptop, a super-fast ultrabook, a Windows RT tablet, or a convertible tablet/laptop combo? Whatever you choose, Windows 8 will come pre-loaded on the device, so you don't have to worry about upgrading or installing the OS on your machine. To help you make up your mind, check out 5 Windows 8 PCs Worth Waiting For.

original content is posted in http://www.pcmag.com

October 23, 2012

Russia builds its first realistic female android

A few months ago, the Russia 2045 movement unveiled the first realistic Russian android head, based on its founder Dmitry Itskov. He's a big believer in the prophetic technological singularity, and claims that by 2045 we will have developed the means to transplant our minds into computers and android bodies. His android surrogate, built and programmed by Moscow-based Neurobotics, has been dismantled and turned into the country's first female android.


Alissa's face may look somewhat realistic at first glance, since the silicone mask was made from one of Neurobotics' employees. However, unlikeother android heads which can have more than 30 points of articulation, Alissa has only eight. This works out to be just enough to add movement to its eyes and mouth, which are controlled with a standard game pad. The head is mounted to a mannequin, which stands on a wheel base for mobility.
Alissa has some basic AI thanks to the company's conversational software, which synchronizes the mouth movements to the words spoken by its speech synthesizer. "The pseudo-AI is very basic, providing simple question and answer type interactions. The voice recognition doesn't require training for specific people, but it is sensitive to pauses and speech volume," explained Mikhail Shcherbakov, who recently visited the lab. The lab work is still in its early stages.
In telepresence mode, the operator uses Skype to communicate with the outside world. The cameras in Alissa's eyeballs provide a video feed, while the operator uses a headset. The company is experimenting with a relatively simple EEG (electroencephalography) set-up to allow the operator to drive the robot's base using thoughts alone.
Neurobotics is working closely with Russia 2045, which claims androids will be commonplace by the end of the decade. However, given the humbling reality of the current state-of-the-art in countries like Japan, such predictions should be taken with a heavy grain of salt. You can see Alissa in action in the following video.

source: http://www.gizmag.com/

October 1, 2012

New app that can hack your smartphone camera and spy on you


US military experts have demonstrated a new smartphone app that can turn your mobile's camera into a spying tool for cyber criminals, secretly beaming images of your house, chequebook and other private information back to them.
The software can even build up a 3D model of your house, from which the hackers can inspect your rooms, potentially gleaning information about valuables in your home, calendar entries as well as spying on you.
The app 'PlaiceRaider' was created by US military experts at Naval Surface Warfare Center in Crane, Indiana, to show how cybercriminals could operate in the future, the Daily Mail reported.
The creators even demonstrated how they could read the numbers of a cheque book when they tested the Android software on 20 volunteers.
As long as the app could be installed on the users phone, it can instantly begin beaming back images from the phone when it senses the right conditions, and software on the other end can then re-construct maps of the visited room.
The team gave their infected phone to 20 individuals, who did not know about the malicious app, and asked them to continue operating in their normal office environment.
The team said they could glean vital information from all 20 users, and that the 3D reconstruction made it much easier to steal information than by just using the images alone.
Researcher Robert Templeman said their app can run in the background of any smartphone using the Android 2.3 operating system.
Through completely opportunistic use of the phone's camera and other sensors, PlaceRaider constructs rich, three dimensional models of indoor environments.
"Remote burglars can thus "download" the physical space, study the environment carefully, and steal virtual objects from the environment (such as financial documents, information on computer monitors, and personally identifiable information)," researchers said.
PlaiceRaider will silently take photographs, recording the time, location and orientation due to the sensors within most modern smartphones.
It will then delete any blurred or dark shots, before sending the rest back to a central server, which can reconstruct the user's room, based on information such as phone orientation.
Then the hacker can explore the user's property at will - for instance, scanning the room for calendars, private details on computer screens, and cheque-books or card details.
"We implemented on Android for practical reasons, but we expect such malware to generalise to other platforms such as iOS and Windows Phone," Templeman said.

source: www.indianexpress.com

September 24, 2012

Emulation Vs. Simulation

There is a vast number of computer systems in use today. From the computer on our desktops and the phones in our pockets, to the electronic brains within our cars, ATMs, airplanes, the number of different architectures is constantly growing. These systems require programming and training, which involves the use of either a simulator or an emulator. Though similar in their use, simulators and emulators are two different styles of providing an imitation of another system.


Purpose of Simulation and Emulation

  • Simulators and emulators share a common purpose: the imitation of one complicated system with another complicated system. There are a variety of needs for these systems. For example, a programmer needs to create the software for a variety of devices on a desktop computer, and uses emulators and simulators to mimic the device before installing the new software. Another example is the use of simulators for training purposes, especially when the activity is dangerous to do untrained. Even modern gaming consoles will use emulators to allow gamers to play games from older systems on newer devices.

Definition of a Simulator

  • A simulator is a software or hardware system that mimics another complicated system, with a varying level of reality. A lot of simulators are software-based. A large subset of video games are simulations, such as city simulators, war simulators and flight simulators. While video game simulators are not very realistic, highly realistic simulators like airline training simulators not only include ultra-realistic physics and details in the software, they also usually include hardware with realistic controls and feedback.

Definition of an Emulator

  • Emulators are limited to imitating computer hardware systems. In short, emulators are computer system simulators. For example, there are emulators for just about every kind of phone that runs on desktop computers. These emulators allow programmers to write software for the emulated system without needing the hardware in hand. This saves time and money in development. Other uses include legacy support. Modern video game consoles use emulators to mimic the hardware of their previous incarnations. As computers evolve, emulation is required to run software that was written for older systems.

Other Uses for Simulators

  • Simulators have a myriad of uses. Public organizations use simulations to model the growth and spread of disease in various settings and the effects of disasters, such as flooding and tornados. Scientists use simulations to model physical systems to the point that computational science is a growing field with its own journals. Manufacturers use simulations to model and design products before money is spent making them. Artificial intelligences use simulation to learn and build their database of knowledge. Simulation and emulation has proven itself an important tool in this modern age.
    _________________________________________________________________

    Emulation

    • Emulation is making one computer act like a different computer. One of the most popular applications of emulation technology is using an emulator program to run gaming software from outdated computers, like the Commodore 64, on new PCs. Gaming emulators can also make PCs run games from older consoles like Nintendo or Sega Genesis. Another practical application of emulation software is to emulate the OS, or operating system, of a different computer. An emulator can be used this way to make Mac software run on a PC or vice-versa.

      Legality

      • Emulators that allow computers to run software from other types of computers, or even gaming consoles are perfectly legal. Many emulators are freeware and open source, meaning anyone can download them and anyone has access to the actual programming code. But many of the games that can be played through emulators are illegal. The read only memory games, or ROMs, are usually copies of copyrighted software. Those are illegal to distribute or download.

      Other Devices

      • Emulators are also common for smart phones.
        Emulators aren't only made for computers. Emulators are available for iPods, iPhones, Blackberries, Google's Android and other "smart" devices. Most of these emulators are designed primarily for game play. Some of them are fully and legally licensed and some are more homemade versions available for free.

      Simulation

      • Simulation is also a from of mimicry, but it is different than emulation. A simulation is a computer recreation of a particular scenario. Simulations are designed to act like an authentic system or situation. Simulations are popular in the gaming world, one of the first being Microsoft's Flight Simulator. Many other games allow users to recreate theme parks, restaurants or historical battles. The Sims series is just a simulation of everyday life.

      Other Uses

      • Pilots may log many hours in simulator cockpits before they actually fly a plane.
        Simulations are valuable scientific tools. They are common in physics, biology, chemistry and engineering. They can allow scientists to study virtual scenarios that may be impossible to actually create. Simulations are also used in economics, mathematics, sociology and other fields. Simulators are also an integral part of flight training programs for pilots. Microsoft's Flight Simulator is just a game, but real flight simulators create a realistic, but perfectly safe experience for pilots in training.

        source: www.ehow.com

September 13, 2012

Inside the iPhone 5: What makes it tick

Apple's A6 chip is big step up from the A5, according to analysts. Qualcomm's newest 4G LTE silicon is a major improvement too.

The Apple A6 chip. The combo CDMA-LTE Qualcomm chip is at bottom.
The Apple A6 chip. The combo CDMA-LTE Qualcomm chip is at bottom.
(Credit: Apple)
Apple's revamp of the iPhone included an overhaul of the inside too. So, what new silicon did Apple drop into the iPhone 5's chassis?
A6 chip: It's faster! (duh). Here's a summary of what Apple says. "Up to twice as fast compared with the [iPhone 4S' A5 chip]...The A6 chip also offers graphics performance that's up to twice as fast as the A5."
Problem is, Apple doesn't say much beyond that. So, I asked Anand Shimpi from chip review site Anandtech. While some of it's guesswork until reviewers decap the chip, Anand is usually on the money.
Based on the performance gains, he believes the A6 is based on an ARM Cortex-A15 design. That's the latest and greatest from ARM, the chip architecture that powers virtually all of world's major-brand smartphones.
This is pretty big because, if true, it means Apple's chip is truly cutting edge. "It looks like Apple has integrated two ARM Cortex A15 cores on Samsung's [32 nanometer manufacturing] process. This is a huge deal because it means Apple beat both [Texas Instruments] and Samsung on bringing A15s to market," he wrote in a blog post today.
The graphics processing unit is less clear but Anand believes it could be using four Imagination PowerVR SGX543 cores, doubling the GPU core count in theiPhone 4S.
Another analyst believes Apple is able to balance increased performance with decent battery life because of tweaks done independent of the main central processing unit, or CPU.
"In order to get double the performance but still have good battery life, more than likely it's because they have beefed up peripheral cores," said Francis Sideco, an analyst at IHS iSuppli. "Those are GPUs, accelerators that are peripheral to the main core," he said.

Source: CNET News


July 24, 2012

QR Code : Explained

QR Code - A common term that is seen in the media that reads "Scan your smartphone here to get more details". Its a modified version of Bar-Code that has some added features of readability even in damaged code. QR Code is the one that comes with auto error correction. So what is QR Code?

QR Code - Quick Response Code is a combination of Black and White squares as it is below:


The most beauty part of it is that any one can make this code and any one can generate them for free. Of course the unique one. Once the QR Code is generated or created, one can modify its colour, graphics, or even one can mess it up! One needs not to be a great hacker to crack the code, just knowing the basics can make it all.

QR Code is a 2 dimensional code that is categorized in matrix code. 
The features of QR Code are:
  1. High speed in reading the code.
  2. Error correction.
  3. High capacity.
Since the QR Code has been created, it is available in two models- Original and Extended model. Extended model is the one in use now-a-days. Depending upon the number of characters used, the size of the QR Code changes. More the characters, big is the size. Though it can hold any number of characters, QR Code scanner (smartphone!) finds difficult to scan the code. 


Versions and Character encoding:
Depending upon the size of the QR Code, the version number changes. There are around 40 versions available starting from 21*21 grid pattern for version 1 to 177*177 grid pattern for version 40. QR Code can hold:
  • Numeric characters(0-9) - 10 Characters
  • Alpha-Numeric characters(0-9 A-Z special symbols) - 45 Characters
  • 8-bit data
  • Multi Byte data

Know QR Code:

  • Three large squares marked RED are position markers. These tells the scanner where the edge is.
  • A single small square in RED is an alignment  marker that tells the scanner that the codes are lined up properly. Their number increase when the size of the grid increases as here.
  • RED stripes that runs over the alternative white and black squares is a timing pattern, defines the position of number of rows and columns.
  • GREEN tells the format of the QR Code as it is a website or text message or a phone number.
  • BLUE area describes the version number used in the QR Code. (It is already discussed few lines before)
Here is a pictorial representation. These areas are the sensitive ones and other areas can be changed depending upon your data.

Error Correcting:
An added feature of QR Code is error correcting. QR Code defines 4 levels of error correction in case the white and black squares are misread. 
  • Level L: Up to 7% of the error can be corrected.
  • Level M: Up to 15% of the error can be corrected.
  • Level Q: Up to 25% of the error can be corrected.
  • Level H: Up to 30% of the error can be corrected.
Because of this error correction, you can create an error for sure as it is here.

You can do even like this as it is Here. It is still readable until you don't touch the sensitive areas as it is described above.

Now you can create your own QR Code for your Products or Website or E-Mail or Phone Number... Or generate online here for free. Google can fetch you some more online QR Code generators.


July 19, 2012

Domain Types

There are many types of domain in the internet world. Here I do not mean it as .com or .co.in or something like that. I come to say about Parked Domains, Sub-Domains, Add-on Domains and Redirects.

Parked Domain
Suppose, say you have two domain names like mydomain.com and my-domain.com. If you want the users to point to the same website from mydomain.com and my-domain.com, then this is the right choice for you, which means that when the users type mydomain.com or my-domain.com, DNS (Domain Name Server) will direct the user to the same website.

Try it: Everyone knows Google website. You just type www.google.com to access that website. Have you just tried www.gooogle.com or www.ggoogle.com? You may wonder that it all directs you to same page!
This is the use of Parked Domain.



Sub-Domain
An online company wants to have a forum website for its main website. Though the forum is needed for it, they do not buy another website for forum, instead they use the existing website as the link to it. In other words, sub-domain utilizes the existing domain name. Consider mycompany.com is a company's domain name, if it wants to add a forum page to its website and to be shown as a unique one, it just creates a sub-domain as: forum.mycompany.com. Its just the concept of replacing www with your own words.

Know it: forum.mycompany.com is a sub-domain and it also can be called from www.mycompany.com/forum
This is how the sub-domain can be used as a unique domain. Sub-domains are usually free and is most preferred in order not to change a domain.



Add-On Domain
It is like having two seperate domain names with different contents but with the same hosting account, which means your content is split in public_HTML folder inside your hosting account itself. Main account and Add-on account uses same bandwidth of the hosting account but different nameserver. Here the advantage is that add-on domain can be accessed either separately or can be accessed from you main account as :

addondomain.com
maindomain.com/addondomain
addondomain.maindomain.com



Redirects
This is different from those previously discussed domain types. Those domain names are dependent on your webhosting plan. But Redirect is the concept that you point out a website either to your blog or a social networking profile or even a website hosted in a different web server. Some redirects allow you to point out your IP address similar to the DNS address. The Redirecting server do not host your website or its contents rather it stores the URL that is to be redirected when the redirecting URL is entered in the address bar. Some services even allows masking of the real redirecting URL and displays their URL.

July 15, 2012

CDPD vs CMDA vs GSM vs GPRS vs EDGE

CDPD :


Cellular Digital Packet Data
  • Packet-based network.
  • Optimal bandwidth of 19.2 Kbps.
  • Run in the same spectrum as the AMPS networks.

CDMA :

Code Division Multiple Access
  • Either packet based or circuit based.
  • CDMA1 :  Uses circuit switch data, that runs at 14.4 Kbps, and acts as a dial-up connection.
  • CDMA2000 : packet based, and has a maximum of 144 Kbps, and delivers 50-120kbps in real world usage.
GSM :

Global System Mobile Communication
  • Circuit-based network.
  • The user must make a dial-up connection to access the network.
  • Optimal bandwidth of 14.4 Kbps.
  • Provides voice service through digital network.
  • SIM card (Subscriber Identity Module card) stores phone number, connection information, and may store an address book. 
  • This allows a user to switch devices without needing to contact the service provider.
GPRS :

General Packet Radio Service
  • Packet-based wireless communication service.
  • Extends the GSM network that allows for advanced data services.
  • Data rates from 56 up to 114 Kbps and continuous connection to the Internet for mobile phone and computer users, but delivers in the 30-50 Kbps in real world usage.
  • Advantage over GSM is that one can use the device as the modem or as an Web-Browser.
EDGE :

Enhanced Data for Global Evolution
  • An extension to the GSM / GPRS networks.
  • 3 times faster than GPRS.
  • Download speed extends about 300 Kpbs.