ARDUINO

I was surprised to see a twelve year old boy giving life to his electronic gadgets. He was trying his hands on building his own creative toys which involved hard electronics and software skills. My zeal was on its peak to know the magical power inside the young chap. How did he understand the concepts of electronics so early? How did he develop the software? Anxiously I went down and asked him about the magic he was doing. The answer was “ARDUINO” 

 

Arduino is an open source electronics platform accompanied with a hardware and software to design, develop and test complex electronics prototypes and products. The hardware consists of a microcontroller with other electronic components which can be programmed using the software to do almost any task. The simplicity of the Arduino language makes it very easy for almost everyone who has an interest in electronics to write programs without the understanding of complex algorithms or codes.

 

Arduino is intended for an artist, tinker, designer or anyone, interested in playing with electronics without the knowhow of complex electronics and programming skills. Arduino is an excellent designed open source platform. It has specially designed boards which can be programmed using the Ardunio Programming Language (APL).

The presence of Arduino is not only spreading between hobbyists, but it has also expanded its roots in industries and used by experts for making prototypes of commercial products. Arduino takes off the efforts required in complex coding and designing hardware.

 

The open source nature of Arduino has been the main reason for its rapid horizontal growth. Since it is an Open Source project, all the files related to hardware and software is available for personal or commercial use. The development cost of the hardware is very small as against the costly similar proprietary products by the industrial giants. The open source nature doesn’t require any licenses to develop, use, redistribute or even sell the product. But the Arduino name is trade mark protected (Arduino™) i.e., you are free to sell the Arduino board under any other name however in order to sell it under the name “Arduino” you need to take permission from the founders and follow their quality terms.

 

The Software files which includes all the source code library are also open sourced. A user can modify them to make the project more versatile and improve its capabilities. This provides a strong online community support.

Multi-touch Screen Technology

While we are all fascinated by the touchscreen-market gimmick cajoling us with its ‘Touch away’ tagline, are we actually only at an inch’s distance? This ‘no-distance’ de facto makes sense at the front end only. When given a hawk’s eye, there is another world inside waiting to be discovered, waiting to satiate your knowledge for technology. Well, for the smart gadgets with smart people in the smart world, it’s an uncanny missing out a discussion on Touchscreen Technology, specifically undertaking the Multitouch Technology.

 

The multi-touch or the plural touch is an interactive technique which allows users to interact with the digital environment inside the gadget, directly or indirectly with his fingers or palm. Multi-touch devices include smart phones, touch tables, computer tables, public kiosks, walls, and ‘touchpad’. Well these inverts in touchpad bring us to a minute line of demarcation between touchscreen and touchpad. While in a touchscreen, the screen being manipulated lies directly underneath the user-interactive surface, in a touchpad the touch surface does not overlays the screen.

IRIS Detection

Day in and day out we need to prove our identity at various places, for secure access to buildings, air and rail travel, to cast a vote, etc. Security and the authentication of individuals are necessary in different spheres of life.

 

Traditionally, we have been using photo-based identity cards to prove our identity and we have been quite accustomed to it. These identity cards were augmented/replaced by passwords in many cases. However, of late, these conventional identity proofs are being replaced by biometric identifications to overcome many of the shortfalls of these methods. One of the most dangerous security threats is the impersonation, in which somebody claims to be somebody else. Trend in the identification & authentication world is headed towardsbiometrics. Finger prints, face recognition, Iris Recognition, DNA pattern recognition are replacing printed identity cards. Biometric identification provides a valid alternative to conventional authentication mechanisms such as ID cards and passwords. Biometric identification identifies an individual based on “who they are (Biometrics)” rather than “what they possess (passport)” or “what they remember (password)”.

 

Amongst various biometric authentication systems, IRIS recognition system is very important technique that uses pattern-recognition techniques on images of irides to uniquely identify an individual. Iris recognition is a particular type of biometric system that can be used to reliably identify a person by analyzing the patterns found in the iris. Because of the uniqueness of the iris, this is a very reliable form of authentication system. Although there is a genetic influence, particularly on the iris’ colour, the iris develops through folding of the tissue membrane and then degeneration (to create the pupil opening) which results in a random and unique iris.