AUGMENTED REALITY

Until the release of the movie Iron Man, the world was never interested in the world like Augmented Reality (AR). The scientists researching on the product were at the end of table about this interesting concept still figuring out on the technology they had in hand and the exact application. But what Iron Man showed was just an animation but it led out a possibility that such thing could happen in the real world. Infact, there were gadget in the real world which weren’t tried until the famous British spy, James Bond, implemented him in his majestic movies.

Now, we have this version in hands and slowly these things are actually getting into our smartphones too! Amazed? Yes, you should be. The recent launch of the famous amazon phone, Fire phone, brought an innovative pet named Dynamic Perspective. The concept in the device is- the phone supports a five or three front cameras which decide the correct position of the person according to the gyro sensor and the accelerometer. The position in the sensor is then relayed onto the screen to give the tilt to the angle where you stand or the position in which you are looking at the phone and holding it. This will give a 3D like animation along with the tilt and an effect as if you were viewing the screen with your own eyes. Isn’t that amazing? The specs are but the phone isn’t. 

Now about the augmented reality in real life. The augmented reality uses computer sensory and the imaginary to design the original physical reality in a virtual way. The physical object is measured and actually projected with appropriated dimensions by the computer using proper lighting and camera sensors. The technology is currently a tidbit now, but developers are bringing things into action with Google showing off the Oculus Rift at this year’s I/O. The camera was widely acclaimed but it drew critics too. Google also launched Ingress to the smartphones which is a very famous AR games available. Nowadays, people are also purchasing Augmented Reality setups for their smart homes. Though the technology is presently in the developmental phase but has been garnering a huge amount of response from the Iron Man Fans (Infact, I am a fan too).

Some of the most exciting augmented-reality work is taking place in research labs at universities around the world. In February 2009, at the TED conference, Pattie Maes and Pranav Mistry presented their augmented-reality system, which they developed as part of MIT Media Lab's Fluid Interfaces Group. They call it Sixth Sense, and it relies on some basic components that are found in many augmented reality systems as Camera, Small projector, Smartphone and Mirror. Here the projector turns any of the available space as a screen and more of that the inputs can be taken through the use of capped fingers which are used to demarcate as the inputs for the reality system. The guys from MIT went on to say that it might work with different color of Nail-Polish too. The system at times often responds to various gestures shown to it. For example, a circle on the wrist will show the time on the hand. Many companies has also sold many equipments pertaining to Augmented Reality to the U.S. military.

This Sixth Sense of technology will soon be available to the world with 2 years in even the smallest devices and all the mega Sci-Fi movies will become a reality as we are garnering to enter that stage. As we have seen in the renowned work of Jules Verne” Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea”.

CONSUMER ELECTRONICS SHOW 2015

CES i.e. consumer electronics show touted as one of the biggest electronics show in the starting of year. Usually, the CES actually takes place in January, in Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas – Nevada. It has been around the corner since 1967, which showcased the world’s first cathode ray tube T.V.’s to the present curved display OLED 8K content T.V. sets. Though currently we don’t possess the infrastructure to view actually the 4K contents but time again such show bring us to notice the heights to which technology and science can actually reach. The show isn’t actually limited to what we say Electronics i.e. smartphones, smart T.V.s or even Smart Watches, it also did showcase some very great automobiles and their concepts though they are illegal on the streets for time being but they will be around the corner very soon. So let’s go through the brief of what happened this CES:

• ·         Smartphones:

The bar is rising every 2 months, who said that mobiles these days are an investment, right now its fashion. You buy a flagship and a month later they get is updated with a RAM, Processor or Graphic Rendering GPU. It’s a world full of smartphone addiction. This CES LG launched a successor to its old and mighty LG G Flex. Though the present specs are different but still it supports just 1080p. Bad isn’t it? While here we have phones which have Quad HD display. But yes we say” To get something in life you have to give something” and yes it’s true the organic LED (OLED) renders graphics so very well that its gives you very immersive experience. Moreover, we heard the launch of pretty good smartphones from Huawei too. We also had the launch of very famous Xiaomi MI5 on January 15^th. Apart from that KODAK the famous handy camera makers also announced their own smartphone! (Looks like everybody is getting on the smartphones bandwagon). The launched phones were Asus Zenphone2, Yota Phone2 (Must watch), HTC Desire 826 and many more.

·          Television Sets:

Who doesn’t like spending Sundays just in your pajamas and watching a good action flick for boys or your favorite soap Opera Rerun! The mere thought is exhilarating isn’t it? The popcorn and your Sofa. So, to hold you to your seats and give you and experience of lifetime Samsung and LG too introduced more 4K content for your television sets(because they are very costly and you have nothing to watch in it, sad isn’t?). We also saw a bit of 8K and 6K T.V.s too! Please don’t ask me what its use is. Because my reply is it’s an electronics show and they are going to sweep you off your feet. And those actually did!! They also did announce a 5mm television set and it was none other but Sony! (Do you know how thin 5mm is? Take a scale and measure it).

• ·         Automobiles:

The Automobiles sector just stole the show with what they had to offer. The BMW released their much awaited concept cars, which to auto stop when they see and obstacle and yes you could also call your car from where you are standing! It’s just like a Bat Mobil (how cool does it sound!). And BMW releases something Mercedes can never be far behind, it too launched some pretty impressive cars - Cars with actually LASER Lamps that automatically focus on the part of road and intelligently adjusts according to the height of user, so that the light doesn’t affect the eyes of the cars coming from other lanes (Though laser lamps are banned in USA, but for the time being these models will be sold in rest of Europe). Later they introduced rear lamps with LED which can be programmed to reflect the way we like it to be. Another customizability- pretty cool, though! While Hyundai too gave it Android Auto Demo giving support to Android to its newer versions.

• ·         Robots:

The CES also saw the display of a robot who could play you a Piano and yes it was just in a form of Human Being! It sounds creepy but you won’t feel it because you can turn it off with a switch!! This rather a very limited section for the time being but it will boom quite soon. With smart homes around the corner.

·         Smart Watches:

Smart Watches has been stealing the show since quite lot of time with MOTO 360, LG G watch and the Samsung’s whole cavalry of fitness bands (P.S. forgot to mention Sony too). Yet with these around the corner some companies did manage to showcase some watches, but they didn’t manage to steal the light!

• ·         Processor:

The most awaited QUALCOMM Launched its Snapdragon 810 processor with LG G Flex 2, the 64-bit support to Android smartphones, quite a long time when Apple launched its own 64-bit computing to its iPhones. The 810 SoC coupled with Adreno 430 will always be a gamers dream and with such timeless masterpiece of graphic rendering on the mobile phones.

Thus, they were a huge list of exhilarating products around the CES 2015 but as the definition of progress goes” There is still a bit place of improvements” and as we keep on pushing these boundaries we rediscover ourselves and where we can actually go and where science can take us. But the judicious use of these technologies can take us to newer height and yet their detrimental use can shun our growth. But we all know that “Our limits are actually decided by our mindsets”.

Thus, I hereby sign off to DEVELOPMENT….

CAMERA SENSORS (EXPLAINED)!

Helen Keller once wrote:

“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt by heart.”

Surprising this quote would hold true during the times when the best and most beautiful things couldn’t be captured. But, today we live in a world of memories where the only thing we yearn is to recreate those beautiful and the best moments of the past. A simple photograph from the past would lead you back to those golden years of magnanimous differences. Though now the meaning of photo has changed since the past eras. Today with all the Pure HD (1080p) content then the famous 4k contents have changed the way we look at memories. It’s just a fact that we don’t want to miss a pixel of that beautiful moments.

A great Greek philosopher Plato once said:

“Necessity is the mother of invention.”

And through those necessities does these inventions spring in and out the world. The modern etymology of Camera obscura signifies a dark room (a black box with lens). While now there is no such definition anything and everything that fits your mobile phone or a SLR is a camera. We will today see through the different camera technologies present in market today. There are chiefly three prominent technologies today present in the market:

(1) Back Illumination sensor- Considered to the forte of Apple, it included this sensor in almost all the latest iteration of iDevices. This sensors are made up of a variety of light sensitive layers that help in maximum exposure of light to take more clear photographs on the low light condition, while on the other hand they restrict excessive light from entering the lens giving grains and noise in the images. Due to which photos from an 8MP iPhone 5s could beat the clarity of 13MP Samsung galaxy devices. Thus, this illumination sensor is so photosensitive to light that they give the best shots in the low light condition. Due to lack of stabilization in it the photos come up with a bit vibration but overall the give very good picture keeping in mind all the hues and colours of the surroundings.

(2) Optical Image stabilization-Almost all modern smartphones and DSLR’s have it. The come with different aperture speeds and focal length, but they help in stabilizing the image. It is also called as the vibration reduction sensor. People usually confuse it to take good picture of moving object though it is not. The moving objects will still be unclear, it will only help in stabilizing a stationary picture and giving a sharper image as a result. Many of the Canon devices use this method. The best example in the smartphone is the google NEXUS 5. The OIS also comes in two types like the IN LENS and IN CAMERA. Both have their own disadvantages and advantages but the IN CAMERA OIS giving very fast images while the earlier one comes with different lens and configurable.

(3) Laser Image stabilization-One of the latest iteration in the smartphone market but an old one for the DSLR’s. This fancy technique has a fancy little laser as in the case of LG G3 following the focus and it can focus on anything simultaneously and faster in less than 5 sec. This method works prominently with the nearing shots which help the laser to reflect properly and thereby focusing properly on the images. One of my Nikon camera has a green laser which falls on the object to be focused. The LG G3 has been making quite a lot of noise for this LIS sensor it does help in delivering picture perfect images in the good light condition but it gives a bit low resolution picture with little noise under the low light conditions.

Here, all the discussed sensors have its own pros and cons and be used according to the way they are utilized. Even if you have the best sensor but then if they are not utilized accordingly by the processor then it is of no use. The one last concept to be dealt with is the ultrapixel configuration in the HTC ONE series. The ultrapixel used here have an ability to record each pixel in denser manner giving very good picture resolution but the only problem with this is – it leads to overexposure of the images giving extremely colour saturation images. There are also complaints of images having a pink hue around the images but that is prominently due to the ultrapixel concept. Though it is currently not worth the money investing for keeping in mind the 40k to 50k selling brackets of such high end camera smartphones.

Here it is all about the best camera sensors. Keep visiting for more information on the smartphones updates.

THE IRONIC WORLD

Initially, the world started with the invention of the wheel the people were so elated that everyone made a wheel out of wood or stone and used it. The world at that moment was self-reliant what all they had was what all they wanted. They didn't care to store for more because they had everything around them and they were subservient. This was termed as existentialism. But then again it is said conditions change from time to time and things did change the world took a turn when concept of king was introduced amongst them where one single head was rich enough and smart enough for all the luxuries to be adorned. He ruled the place and he started a method of exchange called as the barter system, it was a reward for the hard-working and degraded denomination for those who didn't work. The kings were hereditary or non-hereditary; it depended on the era and the place. At some places the kings squandered money, while at some place the made an exhilarating progress- the various eras had been a witness to that. Looking other way around, the earlier one was a Communist era while the later one was a Dictatorial or the Imperialistic. Let’s not get into the details of these because the newspapers these days tell about that enough with the amount of shape-shifting changes going around in the world.

The barter system was an implicit system of the particular empire where the people bartered or gave away the things they had in abundance to the things they needed. That can also be termed as the self-reliant method. Isn’t it? Keeping only the things you needed and giving away the rest to someone in need. The world was a much more harmonious place back then as the greedy motives of the people didn’t come in between these transactions. There was no barter made that- if I give you an onion one has to give 100 potatoes for that. It was as simple as an ‘eye for an eye’. People lived a lucid life which used didn’t raise much beyond what they need and what they had. But then came the era of the transcendental progress. The unprecedented progress allowed all the bread earners to have a much more decent life than before.

I’m talking about the industrial era where the concept of money and economy arose. The need to own and collect things was so distinct that they lost the single fact that they needed only what they wanted and spare the luxury. One can term that to be the unambitious behaviour of the recent era but I term it as the self-reliantness of the era. Because people had what they needed yet there wasn’t much better progress than -when people had everything that they wanted. The deviltry of the newer eras were not less when the Fords manufactured the least costliest black car (though they were costly) to the common man, the Wright brothers made aeroplanes, the governments of the countries which forced labourers to work half the wages for more hours. But right now when we look at the development we find it breath-taking –one cannot deny the lives aimlessly lost behind such a development. The development might have had happened anyways a decade give or take. Yet, the human greed we say doesn’t stop till the end. My grandfather used to tell this story:

There was this old man who earned a lot in his lifetime, he had nearly half of the town under his control, the lands and the workers (the concept of bonded labour cannot be forgotten in the early Indian eras). You can name it and he owned it all. But the only feature that god bestowed on him was –he was a miser. He couldn’t spend a penny. He would always look up for a half in a paisa. But then whatever approaches to everyone- his end approached. The day he thought he was going to die he had all his family members gather around him so that he could tell them something. The sons thought that their father would tell them about his will, the daughters about the gold and the wife about the money he will leave behind. And exactly at the moment of his end he instructed his son to come near because he wanted to say something after all his life was about to pass out. So the biggest son neared his ear to his dying father’s mouth thinking that his father would say that he has left the power of attorney to his estate to him. But the father said,” there is a cow eating our vegetables in the vineyard. Go and shoo her away”. And with that he left his breath.

The story sounded hilarious to me at the beginning because I didn’t understand the need of money and the present scenario concept for the time being. But now I realise that how compassionate we have become for ourselves so that we cannot let others have a moment of happiness. The old fellow was in such a state that even though the cow ate up his whole vineyard it would never have had affected him. But we are never able to let things go. We can’t let go a Rs.10 note to a deserving beggar or for a person in need. We have become so much negatively passionate about things, though these things are never going to last! Out hunger for these things and the vices from them has become so insatiable that we drown with them only. Then again with all this money comes a lot of vices too. People who are insanely rich have often been known to do things that when the world found out they were just left spellbound “The secret life of Malcolm Forbes” or the Indian example of recently incarcerated self-styled godman-Asaram and his son’s philandering habits. Whenever we dig deeper into lives of such people we find out dirty secrets of people who have abused their spouses, killed or covered up someone, have a hand in extortion, drug abuse or human trafficking. You can name the famous Jimmy Hoffer and his mysterious disappearance or the dubious death death of Marilyn Monroe and the involvement of elite brothers with that case.

People always see the money behind these things but nobody sees the lives money has ruined. One can term it as the short-sightedness of the human mind or the ignorance of the same mind. I term it as the side where we imagine ourselves to be so intelligent that these things would never affect us. But these things do have a way of inadvertently affecting us without our knowledge. Then again what can we do at those points? The answer is “what we do at those crucial moments define who we actually are. We cannot shrug off the momentary pleasures the world bestows on us. We should enjoy those but our ability to see people being a part of those pleasure and our decisions to help them will take us a long way than storing all the best things till the last- where we won’t be able to enjoy them. The effort to do the right thing at right time will define who we actually are.

PINPOINT- it's not a pen this time

Day and again I keep glancing on too many repetitive things that keep on happening in our country and even without a single inch of improvement in the desired sector, which made me think profoundly of the fact that exactly where are we heading with this headstrong attitude. Unlike every smart human being i also tried to figure out the grim nuances of the problem by hearing debates and thinking over the probable hypothesis which could lead to such fore bearing in our cultural country.

But I wasn't able to get the answer. So I tried an old trick

“When foresight gives you no idea, take the help of past”

And my musings knew no bound when I did find a little solace from the answer that i received from the problem. Let’s start for that matter of fact with the greatest of scriptures we know (for the matter of fact I won’t be an iconoclast proving wrong the traditions)- the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. There always been this Indian tradition of pin pointing everything that has come up in our way. As a matter of fact had not Draupadi pin pointed “a blind’s son is always a blind” the great distressing events of Mahabharata would have occurred. Though it did add a little bit of melodrama to the thought of it being the largest epic. Even in the Ramayana had not Kaikai been pin pointed the great fact that her soon won’t be a regal patronage the kingdom of Ayodhaya wouldn't have witnessed such dire circumstances too. One will question that even the scriptures wouldn't have been written without these events but then I must ask what actually did these events teach us. The fact that step-mothers are bad or for the fact in order to seek revenge we must cheat our cousins or bereft them of whatever they ever have had? The answer was just a simple NO. But the English lived in the communion without pin-pointing and ruled us for 200 years. Amazing isn't it!!! Stats don’t lie at times.

Looking at the debates we see on television where people are just delving their brains, accusing each other and even the public for the unrest. But what we never do is just find the real problem and implement it at the grass root level. People have to die to make a bill pass. And that’s what hurts our democracy. We will just sit at our tables read good books, drink great tasting tea and coffee and give our expert opinion on the naive behavior of the criminals. While the actual problem is left unaddressed, while us on the other hand try to understand the problem through these mass discussion. But when at one point we think with our rational brains we understand – what understanding does a son or a daughter actually needs when his father is actually shot by two assailants and police can’t catch them or the regards for a girl who has been raped by their own countrymen.

And through this article too i wish this hypocrite could just waiver people from just pin-pointing others and blaming unknown people for the things that they are never accused off (at least they will never be accused off). Just a fact that if we have problem it has to be dealt with in an urgent manner because “A stitch in time saves nine”.

A World Full Of Possibilities

There is always a secure cover world that we as human beings live in. Small children for example live in the world of fairies and stories of Cinderella and Snow White. They live on with a life to achieve a perfect and a happy ending. So is with STAR WARS where the young ANICAN SKYWALKER leaps beyond his destiny to have a perfect ending. Though when we grow up we see the world and realize that “All that starts well doesn’t end well”. Though major stories of children classical tales have been made to figure out the world of possibility the tale of Little Red Riding Hood does have many different endings in many different literatures. But the once we like is the one with happy ending. Why is it that all the heart wants is a perfect and a passionate ending where you just can look beyond the horizon holding hands for eternity?

Someone said once,

“If you want a happy ending it all depends on where you stop the story”

                                                     -Orson Welles

We change and so does the world around us changes.  People come and people go, some stay and some leave behind their footprints on the sands of time. Some leave willingly and some leave unwillingly and there comes a time where you are left with nothing –nothing to share and nowhere to go and that’s when  you start to retrospect the world of Snow White and Cinderella . Its only because we dislike ending, we always dislike the last day of summer vacation, last chapter of a beautiful book or the climax of a beautiful movie. But at the end all things must eventually end.and with that end people do disperse. Some nearer and some farther. But at the end of the day you have to make peace with the fact that they once a part of a beautiful memorabilia of your life. But with some people no matter how far they are not matter how unavailable they are. They will always be our solid ground to guide us during our difficult paths. Some will always be there for you when the time runs out or your watch doesn’t work. So this is a special enchantment by the time that we stop hating endings.  So at the end we shall not fear the endings may it be happy or bad because at the end when you have the end to cherish with your loved ones- it actually makes life one heaven of a thing to live in.

A Journey Called Life

There goes an idiom,

“Child is a father of man”

                                                -William Shakespeare

But actually we never anticipate how fast a child becomes a Man and we no longer look upto that toddler as a child play with toys but with an adult playing with responsibilities and emotions. And yet as we keep piling on birthdays one after another we expect that such an extravagant amount of time passed by just while you were standing and watching life. Today, I’m 20 years old and yet when look back to those years in the past, they seem like a perfectly strewn flawless pearl necklace but when you witness it from nearer it can’t seem to resist the fact that it does have some flaws. In a melodramatic way I can’t say that my life has exactly been a bed of roses or daffodils right out of a twilight movie(their extravagant charm still fantasies me nonetheless ), nor a streak of pathos ri

ght outside from  the movie SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE. But it has been a mixture of both. And when I look back I see those things completely mesmerizing and nostalgic.

Just as sir D.H.Lawrence said in his poem THE PIANO

“The glamour of childish days is upon me,

My manhood is cast down in the flood of remembrance,

I weep like a child for the past”

And, yes I must say that it does let down tears in my eyes when my heart yearns to recreate those moments once again. At times those memories like traveling on vehicle with your grandmother who is shouting to explain  you something, but you understand nothing while the people around get the lesson of their lives or when you just travel an extra mile to your friend’s house before leaving for tuitions, using a continuous tautology of words just to earn the criticism of their words or going around to McDonalds to grab a bag of large French fries who had a bad day at college or grabbing an ice-cream with a friend even though you have cold saying that they are good for health. Looking at those days it doesn’t matter how much these things take a toll on you- how much your energy is drained or how much these things cost you, at the end of the days these will be the memories that will make your life worth living. Actually it’s not the money or energy that’s most important it’s the smile of your loved ones that’s important at the end of the day. You wouldn’t like them to say THANK YOU but simple words

“You did this for me?”

And a smile

Those are the things for which you could cycle Tour De France on a tricycle.

Even the ways of acting weird in front of your parents, making yourself look insane in front of ten other people but their simple smile changes the insanity or eccentric behaviour into a worthwhile memory for which you could go to asylum for the rest of your life. And yet now when I look back on this days it doesn’t matter who gifted you what or who said what. But the smiles they gave will last for eternity in your mind. The small dimples, the freckles around the eyes and the minimising of eyes just to give a perfect look and those blushing red cheeks strike an arrow straight to your heart. Thus on this birthday a toast to friendship with a 1933 Bollinger (James Bond exquisite) to all those friends who made my life worth living with those smiles. People always say life isn’t about all hay and sunshine but in a worthwhile it actually is, and when those mystical dark days come those memories will still bind you by the force of love you have felt for eternity.