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Tuesday, December 30, 2008

A novel photo sharing experience with CEIVA digital photo frame

A novel photo sharing experience with CEIVA digital photo frame
Sharing our photos with friends and family will always be an exciting experience. Normally we love photos with frames of different styles which changes the look of photos more lively experience. There are number of digital photo frames available online. But I would like to elaborate a novel digital photo frame which I recently accessed through net. Yes, it is CEIVA Digital Photo Frame. The simple thing we have to do is creating a Picture plan membership with CEIVA, then the CEIVA frame will automatically display new photos received from friends and family located anywhere in the world.

Its features are unique when comparing with other photo frames. I would like to enumerate its photo sharing experience with respect to its way of display with all sort of communities with its personal touch and fully secured features.
We can share our photos with a single click. By creating groups of friends and family members, then we can invite our loved once to receive or send photos directly to the digital frame. The new photos can be received or send via email or camera phones. In addition to this, photos can also be received via Wi-fi, i.e. without having to connect with computer.
Photos tell the stories of our life. Now we can share those cherished memories in our own style by personalizing our photos with the following features.
• Add decorative borders and special messages
• Send customized photo greetings and holiday cards
• Add weather, news, sports, horoscopes and dozens of other channels — all delivered daily
As our photos are priceless, with its built in security, we can securely share photos with a circle of friends and family through a private network of frames. Its features are
• If it breaks, we fix it for free (customer pays return postage)
• Automatic and ongoing software upgrades
• Constant virus protection updates and spam filtration technology
• Live, U.S.-based customer service
The subscription with Picture plan can be monthly or annually with its least subscription fees. CEIVA digital photo frame gives really a magic experience with our photos.

Post?slot_id=30195&url=http%3a%2f%2fsocialspark

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Real time operating systems (RTOS) concepts and applications

Real time operating systems (RTOS) concepts and applications

In most of the electronics system, the operating systems used are RTOS. For understanding RTOS, it is required to know Embedded systems, Real Time systems, Need for OS in embedded and so on. Recent days the engineering projects are done on Embedded systems. So it is mandatory to know about Real time operating systems. I would like to share some of the important RTOS concepts here.

Embedded systems
There are many definition for describing the embedded systems. One among them is
“ Customized computer hidden inside a system to perform a specific task, but not itself a computer on it’s own “. Otherwise simply it can be defined as a computer on a single chip.

What is a real-time system?
Zero Processing time

Definition
The times by which tasks will execute can be predicted deterministically on the basis of knowledge about the system’s hardware and software

Real Time Systems

• As you may have noticed, most embedded components operate under real-time constraints – in industry, the terms embedded and real-time computing are used interchangeably
• The real-time computing domain is continuously expanding to support automation and vertically integrating enterprises in industry, telecommunications, public services and consumer devices

Some of the examples of Real time systems are
A web server, A word processor, An audio/video media center, A microwave oven, A chess computer

Real-Time Systems can be with time constraints which can be of soft or hard

• In soft real-time systems, missed responses are undesirable, but do not result in complete failure (e.g.video decoder, network switch)
• In hard real-time systems, failure to meet constraints results in complete system failure and is, therefore, an unacceptable condition (e.g. air traffic controllers,missile guidance systems or health monitoring systems where a missed response can have catastrophic consequences)

Need for OS
• We have seen that we can write program code for a microcontroller to enable it to perform various control and/or monitoring functions, e.g. a washing machine control system, without any operating system
• So, what is an operating system and why would one be needed for a microcontroller system?
Operating Systems

• The most basic feature, common to all operating systems, is support for multitasking, on top of this support could be added for networking, peripheral interfacing, etc. as required
• An operating system such as MS Windows has a complete graphical user interface and sophisticated functions for printing, disk handling, networking, etc.
Embedded OS
• Maybe an embedded microcontroller system does not require all of these, but it may need some of them
• The types of operating systems used in real time embedded systems, which often have only the fundamental function of support for multitasking. These operating systems may vary in size from as little as 300 bytes to 10Kb, so they are small enough to fit inside on-chip ROMs

Why Multitasking ?
• Embedded systems usually have access to only one processor, which serves many input and output paths
• Any concurrency must, therefore, be simulated and logical (rather than physical)
• Real-time systems must divide time between various activities in such a way that all the time deadlines (constraints) are met
Multitasking Advantages
• Activities / events occur concurrently (simultaneously) in the real world. Through multitasking, multiple applications can be logically modeled as task activities
• Better computing resource usage as multiple task execution can be interleaved on a single processor (rather than having a separate processor dedicated to each task)
Disadvantages
• Specific task execution time and sequence is usually non-deterministic due to interleaving (complicates timing problem)
• Debugging process is complex and difficult

Real-Time OS
Real-time operating systems (RTOS) will always include the following features:
• Support for multiple tasks running concurrently
• A scheduler to determine which task should run at any point
• Ability for the scheduler to preempt a running task
• Ability for external events to preempt a task
• Support for inter-task communications – synchronization and communication constructs

Real-Time OS Basics
The OS divides time into execution units called system ticks, at every system tick the scheduler is run and it decides which task should run next. A task is allowed to run for the duration of a system tick unless it is preempted by a higher priority task or it gets suspended

Some RTOS terminology:
• The term kernel is used to refer to the operating system component which provides core system functionality
• A task is an entity maintained and run by the operating system as an independent thread of execution
• There are normally multiple tasks running in a system, the kernel data structure used to monitor, control, and schedule execution of these tasks is referred to as the scheduler (or task control block)
• A task can be in any one of three states, pending, ready or running

Task Context Switching
• In multitasking systems a mechanism is needed for switching the processing context from one task to another, this is achieved by storing the currently running task’s state in kernel data and then loading the ready task’s state, thereby changing the context
• Consider a system with two task threads, A and B, when task B is running the stack pointer and program counter are set for task B’s context
• Upon a context switch to task A from task B, task B’s state, which includes the contents of the registers, program counter, and stack pointers, is saved, and that of task A is simply loaded from the task control block by the kernel

Task Preemption
• Ideally the kernel should have the ability to preempt low priority tasks with a higher priority task whenever one becomes ready (for a real-time system this is pretty much a requirement), such support is termed preemption support
• A preemptive kernel can be essential if it is necessary to absolutely guarantee the real-time response of particular tasks

Embedded System Design Considerations
There is little difference between the fundamental requirements of a general purpose OS and an embedded RTOS, however, there are a number of design considerations that apply specifically to embedded systems:
• Small footprint – there is a constant demand for ever smaller devices, and devices with more intelligence, a small embedded OS must often use no more than a couple of kilobytes of RAM and ROM memory
• Life time – embedded systems may be required to run for years without manual intervention, which means that the hardware and the software should never fail
Embedded System Design Considerations
• Failsafe – many embedded systems control devices that can be dangerous if they don’t work exactly as designed, therefore, the status of these devices has to be checked regularly. The embedded computer system itself, however, is one of these critical devices, and should also be checked, hence, hardware watchdogs are often included in embedded systems
• These watchdogs are usually retriggerable monostable timers attached to the processor’s reset input, the OS checks within specified intervals whether everything is working as desired, for example by examining the contents of status registers, it then resets the watchdog
• If the OS doesn’t succeed in resetting the timer, that means that the system is not functioning properly and the timer goes off, forcing the processor to reset
• Fast recovery – If the system does fail despite its designed robustness (e.g. RAM corruption from cosmic rays), there is usually no one around to take corrective actions, hence, the system itself should reboot autonomously, in a “safe” state, and “instantly” if it is supposed to control other critical devices
• Low power – embedded systems are often required to run for a long time on batteries (e.g. mobile phones), or are part of a larger system with very limited power resources (e.g. satellites)
• Low cost – embedded systems are often produced in quantities of several thousands or even millions, decreasing the unit price by even a small amount can generate enormous savings

RTOS timing Constraints
• Different applications have different timing constraints and in an ideal world any RTOS would be able to satisfy all of them
• In practice, however, this is not possible and in general the RTOS scheduling algorithms must be tailored to suit one of the following classes of time constraint:
• Deadline: a task has to be completed before a given instant in time, but when exactly the task is performed during the time interval between now and the deadline is not important (e.g. the buffer of a sound card must be refilled before it empties;the voltage on an output port must reach a given level before another peripheral device comes and reads that value)
• Zero execution time: the task must be performed in a time period that is absolutely minimized (zero in the ideal case), e.g. digital control theory assumes that taking a measurement, calculating the control action, and sending it out to a peripheral device all take place instantaneously
• Quality of Service (QoS): the task must get a fixed amount of “service” per time unit (“service” most often means “CPU time”, but could also be “memory pages”, “network bandwidth” or “disk access bandwidth”), this is important for applications such as multimedia (streaming audio or video) or network servers (e.g. in order to guarantee a minimum service level for voice over IP or other latency critical applications)
• The major problem with achieving any of these goals is that the scheduler needs complete knowledge about how long each task is going to take in the near future,and when it will become ready to run
• This information is almost impossible to get in practice, and even when it is available, calculation of the optimal scheduling plan is a search problem with high complexity, and hence high cost in time
• Different tasks compete for the same resources: processors, network, memory, etc., . . . much more than in the case of a general purpose OS
• Programmers of real-time systems have to take into account worst-case scenarios: if various tasks could be needing a service, then sooner or later they will want it at the same time
• The latency (or tardiness) of a task is the difference between the instant of time on which the task should have started (or finished) and the instant of time on which it actually did
• Latencies are due to several factors:
• the timing properties of processor, bus, memory (on-chip cache, off-chip RAM and ROM) and peripheral devices
the scheduling properties of the operating system
the preemptiveness of its kernel
the load on the system (i.e., the number of tasks that want to be scheduled concurrently), and
the context switch time (the time the processor needs to save the data of the currently running task, e.g. registers, stack, and IP, and replace it with the local data of the next scheduled task)

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Touch Screen Technology and Applications

Touch Screen Technology and Applications

Today’s innovative technologies are countless. After the introduction of Touch screens in the technology era, it has replaced the conventional methods of screen displays and controls. Touch screens, or touch screen panels are display overlays which have the ability to display and receive information on the same screen. The effect of such overlays allows a display to be used as an input device, removing the keyboard and/or the mouse as the primary input device for interacting with the display's content. In simply, the screen’s control is by touching the menus or buttons on the screen to input or display the required output. This technology has also been used in applications of Graphical user interface (GUI) and entering data. Multi Touch screens also one among the touch screen technology for inputting two or more inputs at simultaneously.
The different types of touch screen technologies are Capacitive Touch screen Technology, Resistive Touch screen Technology, Infrared (IR) Touch screen Technology and so on.

The current applications of touch screen technology are ATM, Smart phones, PDA devices, Portable game consoles, Projector screens and so on. These screens are also popular in Museum displays, Room automation where as the keyboards and mice do not allow a satisfactory, intuitive, rapid, or accurate interaction by the user with the display's content.

Monday, December 22, 2008

Engineering Project Links for Final Semester Students

Engineering Project Links for Final Semester Students

I would like to share some of the Engineering projects related website links which will be very useful for referring their final engineering projects. I can find very few websites from blogs. Very few authors contribute for guiding the engineering students online. Some of these sites are really giving useful information related to our projects. I really thank all the owners of these sites.

1. http://www.makeitsolar.com/science-fair-ideas/index.htm
2. http://www.hobbyprojects.com
3. http://iprojectideas.blogspot.com/
4. http://www.solarlantern.blogspot.com/
5. http://instruct1.cit.cornell.edu/courses/ee476/FinalProjects/

6. http://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/showthread.php?t=3907
7. http://www.crazyengineers.com/forum/project-ideas-seminar-topics/3899-ce-ultimate-mini-project-ideas-seminar-topics-telecommunication-engineering.html

Based on the above links i have written some of the posts. These fruitful sites will definitely guide for the end semester projects.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

PSIM software

PSIM software
I have already discussed about various simulation software in previous blogs. In this connection, i would like to bring more about PSIM software which will be very useful for doing projects at UG and PG level. On request of some of our net friends, i would like give a details of PSIM software with an example.

PSIM is a simulation package specifically designed for power electronics and motor control. With fast simulation and friendly user interface, PSIM provides a powerful simulation environment for power electronics, analog and digital control, and motor drive system studies. PSIM is having three add-on Modules: Motor Drive Module, Digital Control Module, and SimCoupler Module. The Motor Drive Module has built-in machine models and mechanical load models for drive system studies. The Digital Control Module provides discrete elements such as zero-order hold, z-domain transfer function blocks, quantization blocks, digital filters, for digital control analysis. The SimCoupler Module provides interface between PSIM and Matlab/Simulink2 for cosimulation. The PSIM simulation package consists of three programs: circuit schematic program PSIM, PSIM simulator, and waveform processing program SIMVIEW1.

Typical uses of the software include.
• Math and computation
• Algorithm development
• Data acquisition
• Modeling, Simulation and prototyping.
• Data Analysis, Exploration and Visualization
• Scientific and Engineering graphics
• Application development, including graphical user interface building.

A circuit is represented in PSIM in four blocks: power circuit, control circuit, sensors, and switch controllers.
The power circuit consists of switching devices, RLC branches, transformers, and coupled inductors. The control circuit is represented in block diagram. Components in s domain and z domain, logic components (such as logic gates and flip flops), and nonlinear components (such as multipliers and dividers) are used in the control circuit. Sensors measure power circuit voltages and currents and pass the values to the control circuit. Gating signals are then generated from the control circuit and sent back to the power circuit through switch controllers to control switches.

Example:
To simulate the sample one-quadrant chopper circuit “chop.sch”:

• Start PSIM. Choose Open from the File menu to load the file “chop.sch”.
• From the Simulate menu, choose Run PSIM to start the simulation. The
simulation results will be saved to File “chop.txt”. Any warning messages
occurred in the simulation will be saved to File “message.doc”.
• If the option Auto-run SIMVIEW is not selected in the Options menu, from the Simulate menu, choose Run SIMVIEW to start SIMVIEW. If the option Auto-run SIMVIEW is selected, SIMVIEW will be launched automatically. In SIMVIEW, select curves for display.

Monday, December 15, 2008

Latest Trends in Nano Technology and applications

Nano Technology and applications
Nano technology has been revolutionized the world in all the field. The main features Nano Technology is creating miniature devices at Nano scale. Nano technology offers ways to create smaller, cheaper, lighter and faster devices that can do more and cleverer things, use less raw materials and consume less energy.Nano Robot
I have found recently an website which is specific to Nano technology, it talks on latest news, events, education, job career on this field, innovations and so on. Some of the applications of Nano technology are nano coatings which can repel dirt and reduce the need for harmful cleaning agents, or prevent the spread of hospital-borne infections, New-generation hip implants can be made more ‘body friendly’ because they have a nanoscale topography that encourages acceptance by the cells in their vicinity, nano technology based mobile phones which are small in size, faster with less prizes.
In addition to this, nanobots (Robots at nano level ) are used for drug injection at cell level. This novel techniques are used in Textile fields also. Its potential applications are plenty whichis going to replace some of the conventional technologies.
Nanowire

Saturday, December 6, 2008

World record by the first solar powered car’s round the world journey

World record by the first solar powered car’s round the world journey
I have been talking about the Green technology. A world record has been achieved by a Solar powered car by its world Journey. The Car named as Solartaxi has completed its journey about 32,000 mile and ended its journey at Poland (During the UN Climate talks).
The first solar powered car completing the world journey

This vechile is completely free from all sort of pollution. The features of solartaxi are

• Noiseless
• Speed upto 55 mphr.
• Travel 185 miles for full charge
• Economy: Open road with solar energy!
• Ecology: Zero CO2 emission!
• Always a reliable partner: High efficiency cells and an optimal support for every solar project.
• A new energy solution provides independence: 6m2 solar cells on a rooftop yield power for 15,000 km per year!
• Freedom: To drive up to 400 km with the latest ZEBRA battery technology.
• Max. speed: 90 km/h
• Light weight: 500 kg (+ 250 kg for thailer)
• Energy efficient: Consumption of 8 kWh/100 km (equivalent of 0.8 l petrol / 100 km)
Though the inital cost of this solar powered car is high, once mass produced, then it can be a boon for people on earth to have a green life.

Learn from Online teachers - A great opportunities for students from Brightstorm

Learn from Online teachers - A great opportunities for students from Brightstorm

The Internet era has taken the entire field and related technology revolutions are limitless. Yes, Students here after need not go to tuition classes in order to improve their grades, The door is now open for them to take the tuition classes online.
The Brightstorm has emerged in this online education field and offers online video courses related to the high school student subjects. The teachers who is online are expert in the specified subjects. These teachers highlight key information and provide clear explanations, making it easier to understand the subject, leading to improve student's grades.
Brightstorm

The Courses offered are interactive quizzes, practice problems and study guides to provide immediate homework help and will ensure your student is ready for their next test, essay. The registration is freely available, we can take free tests among the 19 courses offered. At the lowest prices they offer full materials and tests in our choice of courses.
So Now the parents and school students need not search for a good teacher to improve grades, Students can get all sort of info from online itself, specifically at home itself. You can get free registration on line here. https://www.brightstorm.com/register/register?a=10100

Friday, December 5, 2008

Green Revolution by Greatest Planet

Green Revolution by Greatest Planet
Global warming and the fight against it has been a top priority among the science world as well as in political concern on earth. Carbon emission due to the various action of human beings has been the cause for this global warming. In order to avoid or reduce the effect of global warming the Greatest Planet, a non profit, global environment organization has been working on many projects of carbon offset.
I have recently found such an organization online. Greatest planet assists the people (individuals and business people) all over the world to reduce the carbon emissions. Their aim is to see a healthy planet and a good life for everyone on it. Their vision has been focused as "a phrase intended to highlight both the privileges of living on this wonderful planet and the responsibilities of having a raised consciousness about climate change."
The Greatest planet website provide information on climate changes and it effect, various projects to reduce the effect of global warming like usage of Solar energy (Solar energy by using solar panels, Bio energy, Wind energy, Tree plantation and so on. They have listed top 10 projects by the Greatest Planet.
We can also get more info by their blog available in the resource centre. They also give tips on how to reduce the Co2 emission at our household. For example, The average household produces over 100 pounds of carbon dioxide per day.
At this time, we should also take right steps to reduce carbon emissions at our level. For example, we can use solar panels for lighting or for our household appliances, usage of hybrid vehicles instead of using conventional vehicles, tree plantation around our house, bringing awareness among the young world and so on. It is also our Prestige to do all these for saving our mother earth.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Simulation softwares for Power Electronics and Power Systems

Simulation software for Power Electronics and Power Systems
The mostly used software for simulation of Power electronics circuits or Power electronics controllers design are Matlab and Power SIM (PSIM).
Matlab software: Matlab software has number of toolboxes and Blockset which cater the need of all sort of simulations. The simulation environment are user friendly which are all built on the concept of Graphical User Interfaces. This mainly interact with the user and can be used for created and designing all kind of circuits and controllers. The basic models are available in the simulink.
Simulink provide the various form of input electrical sources, output scopes & displays, built in maths tools and user defined functions and so on. Some of the commonly used toolboxes Control system toolboxes, data and image acquisition toolboxes, SimPowersystems (Mainly for power systems and power electronics topics), Neural Network, Fuzzy logic toolboxes, simulink extras, DSP, Virtual reality toolboxes and so on. Matlab application
These toolboxes provides ther required tools or electrical and electronic components to design the desired power system and power electronics related engineering projects at UG and PG level.

PSIM software: Another main software used is PSIM. This is a simulation software developed mainly for power electronics and motor control applications. PSIM provides very efficient and powerful simulation environment for the said applications.
PSIM add-on modules are motor driver control, digital control module, thermal module, Simcoupler and Mag coupler modules. Among these modules, the simcoupler modules can be used to make interface between the PSIM software and Matlab software. Some features which are available in matlab can be interchangebly used in the PSIM simulation environment.
I would like to the features of the simulation softwares
1. These softwares provides user friends graphical interface, simple to use with fast simulation
2. Very interactive simulation environment
3. It saves time and cost in overall completing a project from design to testing stage

In addition to all the above the Power world, Mi Power are all the other simulation software exclusively available for Power system simulation environment. Some of the tools are available at free from these software vendors for Educational use.

Hobbyprojects - Review

Hobbyprojects - Review

While researching on net for engineering projects, there are thousands of websites. Some websites or blog site provide a worth of information related to Electrical, electronics, communications and other engineering fields. In this series while searching on net, i got this amazing site called as hobbyprojects.com which have collections of basic electronics circuits, electronics kits with novel ideas to advanced engineering projects with circuit descriptions and relevant working models.
This site mainly focuses projects on electronic, microprocessors, microcontrollers, PC based controllers useful for engineering students, electronic hobbiest and Research & Developers.They are adding new circuits or projects with links everyday. This site is really an electronic resource centre where we can access all the resources relected to electronics and engineering projects. In addition to this the resource centre provides tutorials on various categories. For example if you want to know about the 8085 microcontrollers, just go through the tutorials available on this site.
In the advanced section, hobbyprojects includes projects on Robotics, Power electronis controllers and so on. This will be a master guide for electronic enthusiast.


Sunday, November 30, 2008

Children choice of toys and electronics games


Children choice of toys and electronics games

I have a quite a lot of experience with toys. Yes, I am accompanying my son for purchasing toys. One interesting thing I have noticed was that the taste of toys changes time to time for children. At different ages they prefer different toys. For example at the age 2-3, my son preferred cars, bikes and so on. At the age of 3-4, he preferred trains, puzzles and so on. Now a days he used to prefer, remote controlled cars, trains, planes and so.


Toys create a different wonder world for them and keep them always happy and fun mood. Now some question arises, Where to buy these funny loving toys for them?. Everything is available online. I would say that toys are great gift ideas for children and every parent is having keen interest to gift toys at festival times. Cheap toys are normally available online. These toys include creative, educational, action and fantasy toys and so on. We need not go to showrooms where these toys are sold with higher prices. Now, Children are keen waiting for celebrating Christmas day. Children will be expecting gifts from parents.
As I said already the taste of children varies from time to time, older children would like to play electronic games. So, we should also make a difference for Gifting these children the electronics games like the latest release of Nintendo wii console with fun games or Nintendo ds handheld games.
Creating a different world is our duty for children. It creates a imaginative power for them. It helps them to tackle the real world problems and make them to act quickly.
There are thousands are toys available, so you find the right toys for children at an affordable price from online store, spend less and enjoy this Christmas.

Nintendo DS and Wii games - Women and Youngster’s choice of Portable gaming console

Nintendo DS and Wii games - Women and Youngster’s choice of Portable gaming console

Playing video games has become a part and parcel of our youngsters. In the present world, the video game system has been very popular since a very long time. It has been played leisurely as well as improving our intelligence to interact and tackle the real time problems. It boosts our working speed and thinking power.
Nintendo iis games are very popular now a day in the portable gaming consoles era. It also has reached the top rankings among other gaming systems in the world. Nintendo DS games released in 2008 has over taken the Nintendo game boy with its portable hand held game console. In this series the Nintendo DS Lite with its responsive touch screen is very cheap which can be bought and played at an affordable price ranges. These Nintendo DS Games are available in Pick and Mix Bundles which are worth for our money and gives satisfaction and value for its use. We can also save handsome amount of money by buying cheap Nintendo DS games by its comparative prices.

I would like to share some of its latest releases
1. Professor Layton and the Curious Village - Nintendo DS
2. My Best Friends: Cats And Dogs
3. Brain Training,
There are hundreds and hundreds of games available in various categories

Another interesting amazing thing is that its wii games which are wireless control games are so fun to play. The play of Ninento wii games gives complete freedom to play and increases our interest with the gaming console.
I would like to share some of these games, accessories and its features.

* Wii Games including wii fit, guitar hero III, wii sport and mario kart
* Wii Consoles : Cheap Wii Consoles in Stock, bundled with fantastic Wii Games
* Accessories for Wii : Get the most form your Nintendo Wii with a Wii Wheel, Guitar Hero wireless controller or wii fit battery pack

Some of these Games are Wii High School Musical Combo Accessory Pack, Wii Dual Charger / Docking PowerStation and so on.

So it will be so delighting experience by playing the Ninento DS and Ninento Wii games. One particular thing i would like to emphasis is that these games are available at an affortable prices and saves the whole load of our money.

Friday, November 28, 2008

Energy saving measures

Energy saving measures

Today the energy demand is more than the energy generated from different conventional and non conventional methods. Here are some of the energy saving measure which will significantly reduces the demand, so that we can all live comfortable with available energy or power
1. Switch off lights and fans when not required
2. Use minimum lights required for the work table and switch off other lights

3. Whenever sufficient day lighting is available, switch off excess lights in corridors and verandahs

4. Whenever sufficient day lighting is available, switch off excess lights during the lunch hours
5. Use one AC only in rooms which are fitted with two ACs. Switch off ACs when the occupant is not in the room

6. One will use 3 to 5% less energy for each degree the AC is set above 22 degree Centigrade(71.5 F) Set the thermostat of the room of AC at 25 Deg. To provide the most comfort at the least cost
7. Using Ceiling room or fans allow you to set the thermostat higher because the air movement will cool the room

8. Turn off your computers / office equipment when not in use
9. Screen savers save the computer screens, not energy. Start-ups and shutdowns do not use any extra energy nor are they hard on your computer components. In fact, shutting down computers down when you have finished using them actually reduces system wear and saves energy

10. Setting computers, monitors and copiers to use sleep mode when not in use help cuts energy cost by approximately 40%

11. Use photo copiers during specific timings only. Collect various copying works and carry out during the specific timings only. Avoid frequent on-off switching since more power is drawn during every start up

12. Battery chargers, such as those for laptops, cellphones, and digital cameras, draw power whenever they are plugged in. Switch off, pull the plug and save energy
13. Avoid incandescent lamps which consumes more power.
14. Ensure monitoring and follow up of above measures by all concerned.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Smart Tech Inventions and Electronics Gadgets

There hundreds of new devices have been invented in the technology era. I would like to share some of the latest inventions which are so slim and smart. The devices that i would like to share are music following robots, lemon powered light, hand grip charger, fiber optic cable for fast communication, password key tracker, world smallest camera, infrared temperature meter, flat bulbs, open source hardware. There is no end for technological inventions and makes our life more comfortable and smart.

1. Music tracker with user:
This amazing music robot follows the user. The main thing that this robot wheels can balance itself.
2. Power from Lemon :
This is a lemon powered light. We need give power to the light from external source
3. Hand gripped charger:
For emergency charging this is the best option. Yes, this charger uses a hand grip for power charging of the chargers.

4. Password key tracker :
This device which is very compact can be fit back to the computer port which will just track the password that you have entered and stored in the computer. Be careful to use.


5. Smallest Camera :
This is actually a real camera and smallest in the world

6. Infrared Temperature sensor:
In this mini devices, infra red sensors are used to read the surrounding temperatures. Here you can see the instant display temperature from the device
7. Flat Bulbs:
Conventionally we are using round shaped bulbs. Here you can see the smart thin bulbs so that it can be fit any where. Space will be a criteria.

9. Open source hardware chips:
We have heard about open source software like Linux in which the source code can be modified by the user. In the same way, here is the open source hardware, you can use chip according to your desire of designing circuits.
9. Fast net fiber cables
10. Yes this slot is for you, you invent new things and add as a 10th device.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Wireless Energy Transfer

Wireless Energy Transfer

To the energy transfer is taking place through wire or conductor. With wired power or energy transfer, we can easily transmit energy of very low to extra high value. But for some places it will be very useful if the energy transfer occur without wire is required. There are different concepts used in the field of wireless transfer technology. The one more thing is that the % of amount of energy transfer is main criteria to transfer between places of very large distances.
These are

1. Transformer coupling
Energy transfer between two coil through magnetic fields
but in this method, distance between two coils should be too close.

2. Resonant induction coupling (Evenescent wave coupling)
Electro magnetic wave in a high angular waveguide is called as evenescent waves which carry no energy, when if a proper resonant waveguide is brought near the transmitter then a tunnel is formed to the power drawing waveguide which can be converted in DC using rectifier circuits.
A prototype model is achieved with 5 meters of ranges with this method.

3. Radio and microwave energy transfer:
with this method a long range is possible. In this method microwave is sent to the long distances and can be received through rectenna which extract microwave energy back to electrical energy. But the problem with this methods is that the diameter of antenna should be order of km.

4. Laser beam transfer
In this method, laser is beamed to the photo voltaic cells which extracts the electrical energy

5. Electrical conduction method
In this method, while tranfer energy through wires or conductors, when the voltage reaches the breakdown voltage, the sorrounding medium start conducts, in this way the enegy can be transfered through air medium.

Though there are several methods available, in practical cases there is no device for transmitting power wirelessly with high energy capacity. But at low power transfer there are so many devices available in the market.

credits to

Monday, November 17, 2008

Flexible Organic solar cells

Flexible Organics solar cells
Solar technology have revolutioned the world with its flexible, light weight form of solar cells which are so flexible to use in almost all the applications. These organic solar cells are made of polymers. Such solar cells can be easily printed or painted in roof of the building or any vehicle to drive its engine.

Formation these cells:
The solar cell uses a carbon nanotubes complex, is a molecular configuration of carbon in a cylindrical shape. The name is derived from the tube's miniscule size. Scientists estimate Nano tubes to be 50,000 times smaller than a human hair. One nanotube can conduct current better than any conventional electrical wire.
these carbon nano tubes and combined them with tiny carbon Buckyballs (known as fullerenes) to form snake-like structures. Buckyballs trap electrons, although they can't make electrons flow. The falling of sunlight over these structure excite the polymers, the bucky balls will grab the electrons. Nanotubes, behaving like copper wires, will then be able to make the electrons or current flow.
Using this unique combination in an organic solar cell recipe can enhance the efficiency of future painted-on solar cells. Once this is mass produced then this process become an inexpensive energy alternative for households around the world.
Merits of this Novel solar cell






This is so light weight, more efficiency and robust in nature
Uses less silicon and so it is in expensive.
It can be easily embedded with other applications
It can be used to power GPS systems and so on


Ultimately, it gives energy with 100% green technology. We all will be happy when such a technology is implemented in our usage.







Saturday, November 15, 2008

Latest in LED Technology - Organic LED

Latest in LED Technology - Organic LEDs
Conventional LED:

LEDs are known as Light Emitting Diodes. Light-emitting diodes are made up of using semiconductors such as Gallium Arsenide, Gallium Phosphide, and Gallium Nitride, have been around since the late ’50s. The main application of LEDs are indicator lamps, calculators, large advertising signs with high brightness. Limitation of LEDs Though such crystalline LEDs are not inexpensive, but it has its own limitation like integrating them into small high-resolution displays. L.E.D.’s work well in giant screens and advertising displays like those in Times Square, they cannot easily be used to create small, high-resolution screens for portable computers.

Organic LEDs – A breakthrough in LED technology


To overcome the difficulties faced by the conventional LEDs, the Organic LEDs has entered into the field. Organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs) operate on the principle of converting electrical energy into light, a phenomenon known as electroluminescence. They exploit the properties of certain organic materials which emit light when an electric current passes through them. In its simplest form, an OLED consists of a layer of this luminescent material sandwiched between two electrodes. When an electric current is passed between the electrodes, through the organic layer, light is emitted with a color that depends on the particular material used. In order to observe the light emitted by an OLED, at least one of the electrodes must be transparent. Advantages of OLEDs When OLEDs are used as pixels in flat panel displays, they give greater viewing angle, lighter weight, and quicker response. Since only the part of the display that is actually lit up consumes power, the most efficient OLEDs available today use less power. Because OLEDs are self-luminous, backlights are not required as in liquid-crystal displays (LCDs). OLEDs have very low power requirements and are thin, bright and efficient.

Applications of OLEDs
OLEDs have been proposed for a wide range of display applications including magnified microdisplays, wearable, head-mounted computers, digital cameras, personal digital assistants, smart pagers, virtual reality games, and mobile phones as well as medical, automotive, and other industrial applications. This OLEDs with its full color displays will replace today’s liquid crystal displays (LCDs) used in laptop computers and may even one day replace our ordinary CRT-screens.

Future scope of OLEDs
In OLEDs as crystalline order is not required, organic materials, both molecular and polymeric, can be deposited far more cheaply than the inorganic semiconductors of conventional LED’s. Patterning is also easier, and may even be accomplished by techniques borrowed from the printing industry. Displays can be prepared on flexible, transparent substrates such as plastic. These characteristics form the basis for a display technology that can eventually replace even paper, providing the same resolution and reading comfort in a long-lived, fully reusable (and eventually recyclable) digital medium.

Friday, November 14, 2008

Wind Energy Harvesting

Wind Energy Harvesting
Wind Energy is one among the Renewable energy sources. Wind energy is also available plenty world wide. Once all the conventional energy sources are exhausted, the alternative sources of energy are wind, solar energy and so on.
This wind energy is normally extracted by using a Wind mill which are installed at high or low speed wind directions. Wind mill comprises of a generator coupled with blades, once the wind flows over the blades, it is rotated which in turn rotate the shaft of the generator, so that the power is extracted as electrical energy.

The amount power generation depends on wind speed, blade size, orientation of blades towards wind and so on. By properly using the converter systems, we can extract more energy with availabe wind mills.
These future energy sources will never exhaust and forever available to meet out our energy demand.

The best online gaming with fun

The best online gaming with fun
There are plenty of online games to play and enjoy the moment. Intercasino is a best online gambling game where you can earn while playing the games. There are wide variety of Casino games like Microgaming casinos, RTG casinos and so on. You can also play the free blackjack training games. In addition to this, for each game variety, you are provided with game rules which clearly depicts the game rules with video.
The interesting thing is that you play the games with fun.Play and enjoy the game with earnings.

Efficient way of Solar Energy Harvesting

Efficient way of Solar Energy Harvesting
Solar power is available plenty in nature. Once the conventional energy sources are exhausted, one of the alternative energy source is solar power. Solar panels are normally available for extracting energy from solar sources. But the efficiency of converting solar power to electrical power is very low as well as costly. So it is required to extract the electrical energy from solar, we have to use efficient energy conversion systems so the more power from the solar can be obtained.There are so many methods to extract more energy from solar with high efficiency, one method is solar tracking system. In this method, solar panels will be rotated along the sun axis, so that more solar rays will fall over the panels, hence more solar energy during the days. In this method also we have to use motors and control circuits to track the sun.
Another method is maximum energy conversion system. From the V-I characteristics of the solar panel, it is found that for each solar light intensity, temperature and surrounding atmospheric conditions, at one point maximum power will be available. This point can be identified by through converter systems, i.e. monitoring the maximum current and voltage point, accordingly the firing angle to the converter can be controlled. At this point, the battery connected to the solar energy conversion system is charged. In this way maximum efficiency can be achieved.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Train Collision Detection Technology Updates


Train Collision Detection Technology Updates
Now a days people prefer to travel in Train instead of Bus, according a lot of changes the way of using our transport systems. More and more trains are aiding for the transportation systems. At the same time the probable of Train to train collision, Train to other vehicles at unmanned level crossing are increasing day by day. There so many technology updates in this connection to avoid collisions and save the people.
The GPS (Global Positioning Systems) have revolutionized in the area of avoiding Train collisions. In this system, GPS transmitter and receiver are fit in the trains and vehicles. The receiver collects the data of position of train and other vehicles on earth which is compared, according to the relative distance between trains or train - vehicle, the speed of the train or vehicle can be controlled. In this way, the collision can be avoided.
This same technology is also used to avoid collision between Bus - Car or Bus - Truck and so on.
If this technology is implemented in all vehicles, the overall the collision rate can be reduced significantly and travel will become safe for everyone

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Great Opportunities from GoDaddy to Own a Domain

Great Opportunities from GoDaddy to Own a Domain
There are numbers of free web hosting services offered in the net world, but it has its own limitations like low Bandwidth, Low storage, less security, sponsors and so on. So it is required to have our own web domain, so that we can have our own web design templates of our interest. At the same time, we can have our own ads for earnings. Though I have only free web hosting services, I would like to have my own. In this connection, I searched on net to own a web domain with web hosting services. I found that GoDaddy is offering such services with more Bandwidth, More storage with high security at lowest prices for owning a web domain.
$7.49 .com banner

GoDaddy.com provides services for individuals and businesses to establish, maintain and evolve an online presence. GoDaddy is the world's leading domain name registrar and largest web host with more than 30 million domain names under management,.
The features of the company are
1. A variety of domain name registration and Web site hosting services
2. Web site creation tools,
3. e-commerce and security solutions, and
4. productivity and marketing tools.
For each domain it offer the following as a free bonus
Online Photo Filer

Quick Blogcast
Hosting with Web
site builder
Personalized Email Account
Starter Web Page
" For Sale" Page
Parked Page
Getting Started Guide
Domain Forwarding & Masking
100-Pack Email Forwarding
Total DNS Control
Change of Registration
Status Alerts
Domain Locking

It provides 24x7 customer service, so that we can have our website very safe at all the time without any problems.
Affiliate Sponsor from Socialspark for this post.

Friday, November 7, 2008

Ph.D. Registration Tips

Ph.D. Registration Tips
What are the basic requirement before you start research and get Ph.D.
1. Pre requisite is that you must have a Master degree ( Most of the University set this as a qualifying for applying Ph.D.)
2. Choose your area of interest to do Ph.D.
3. Supervisor or Guide
4. With above three steps, you can apply for Ph.D. to a University
5. Next step is the University scrutinize your application and invites for an Interview
6. You appear for the interview with a proposal of your research area
7. Once you are selected from the interview panel, you will be registered as a Ph.D. candidate in the University
8. Next step is that formation of Doctoral Committee (DC) members ( Research experts) along with your supervisor.
9. Decide your course work examinations ( 4 PG subjects), DC members will assist in selection of these papers and recommend to the University.
10. Once you complete your course work, you can start your research
11. The University prescribe the number of National and International journals to be published for awarding Ph.D.
12. Once you publish the number of required journals (Most probably International journals), then you start writing thesis
13. Next step is Thesis submission for review ( Review committee will be national as well as foreign reviewer)
14. Final thing is the Public Viva voce where the candidate has to give the final presentation before the external and internal experts and audiences (public). Your Ph.D. degree will be finalized for recommending for award of Ph.D.
15. You will get the degree from University

Congrats.

Latest in Energy Meters

Latest in Energy Meters
Induction type Energy meters have been in use all over the world. This is a indicating type where we have to note down the meter reading accordingly the number of units of power consumption then billing is done. It is a time consuming for consumer as well as energy provided. What are the other types of energy meters to overcome this difficulty. I would like to share some of these types.
1. Digital Energy meter, Here the energy meter readings are available in digital which can be easily transmitted or received between consumer and energy provider
2. Digital Energy meter with prepaid card, Here the number of units of power can be purchased in advance from Energy provider as if it is used in Mobile phone, the power consumption can be done according to the amount available, then recharge the card again according to our requirement
3. The latest trends in this technology in the energy meter era is networking of energy meters. Here the each energy meter from the consumer is considered as a node and assigned a unique IP address. This is like computer nodes connected in network with unique IP address. In this way, a communication is made between the consumer and energy provider, so that each parameter like current, voltage, power, energy, number of units consumed and the tariff rate can be accessed from a single place (from energy provider side) and can be constantly monitored.
This technology will reduced the gap between the consumer and energy provider in turn save time and over cost. Benefits will be for both sides.
These energy meters are classified as web enabled, energy meter with embedded network, meter network with RS485 and wireless energy meters and so on.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Web electronics design – review

Web electronics design – review
I would like to share the another interesting website for electronics buds or guys, is called as web electronics design simly web-ee.


This site provides various tools for electronic circuit design like Pspice, Orcad (student edition), simulators, filter design software and so on. These tools can be downloaded and can be used for our electronics design. In addition to these tools, there are tools for signal processing which will be very useful for the input and output signal or waveform analysis.

You can also use graph paper generator and chart generator. A plenty of resources for electronics enthusiast are available from this site. You can also download all the feature’s projects from this website. Grab it and use it for your projects in order to make your project more effective.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Virtual Reality Cocoon

Virtual Reality Cocoon
Virtual Reality is a technology in which we interact with computer in a simulated environment. The simulated environment can be real world, e.g. simulations for pilot or VR games. This technology has revolutionized the way of interaction with computers in visual as well as in sound effects as sensory systems.
The Virtual Reality Cocoon is a Walk-in pad being developed by NAU, an International design collective that aims to revolutionize the way we interact with the computers. This is in the design stage, whet it is completed, it looks like a DOME with a 360 degree display screen and surround sound effect.
Normally mouse or joystick will be used to interact with screen where as this immersive cocoon is designed with a tracking cameras will follow the movement of the arms, legs, face, walking and jumping.
NAU says,"It is completely different from me sitting in front of a screen, looking at a little picture and typing something in -- almost like the experience is reduced to my brain and my fingers. In the Cocoon we have the whole body immersed inside."
By this Virtual Reality environment, we can do 3D shopping as Virtual shoppers, for example

"Imagine Amazon.com being fully 3D. We could walk through a 3D space where you have all the books lined up, and you could walk right up to a book," he says.

Really exciting is it? Wait till Oct 2009, to interact with this environment.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Best Engineering Projects - review

Best Engineering Projects - review

Best engineering projects is a very good website for final year students which have collections of engineering projects from various websites. This site has all categories of electrical projects which can be used as a reference for doing their final year projects.
Though it does not guarantee in working, collections comprises wide range of basic circuits for reference. Some of the examples from the categories are switching circuits, Timer based circuits, Robotics projects and so on.
Some of these projects can be done as hobby electronic projects. They have taken more efforts in collecting all the projects.

Plan and do selective engineering projects

Plan and do selective engineering projects
Now a days, the emerging technology fields are countless. In proportion to the development of technology, the demand for engineering graduates also very prominent. So the engineering graduates should select their project according to meet these demands with latest technology updates. The Pathetic condition is that most of the students do not thing about their projects, instead purchase readily available project available in the market and submit as final project for their viva. I would like to summarise some of the point to those student who can do good real time projects of their fields
1. First thing is research their area of field and choose a best project topic from this fields. Initially, two or more topics can be chosen.
2. Then Collect the relevant materials and make a file.
3. Third things is, discuss the chosen topics with the guide or supervisor and clarify doubts if any
This will make a focus on the fine tuning of the topic of interest.
4. Then make a complete sketch of your overall project. This may be of block diagram or signal flow graph
5. Then design a circuit relevant to your project
6. Testing of your project is another major step. You can make a test initially with a software relevant to your project before doing a hardware. This will save your time and cost.
7. Prepare a proper time schedule for doing steps 4, 5, 6.
8. Keep a constant touch with your guide in discussing your projects, so that you can fine tune your hardware project more successful.
9. Finally Document your project and submit as a project report
10. If you do all the above steps, you will rewarded with good marks. You can also get good opportunities from core companies in near future as you do the project yourself.