A motion detector or motion sensor is a device that contains a physical mechanism or electronic sensor that can calculate the movement of an object. It can be integrated with other devices that can alert the user of the presence of a moving object within its view such as camera. The common types of motion sensor are Passive Infra-red, Ultrasonic, and Microwave. As this device has the ability to spot moving objects, we can create several interactive technologies by the use of it. Here are some examples of the advantages of motion sensors. Motion sensors are a vital component of security systems, for both homes and businesses such as the home security device. It can help create some eco friendly technology such as the television that can automatically turn off when we don’t watch it. It can be used in medical treatment such as helping stroke victims by guiding the way they exercise. It can also be used in advertising such as the 3D interactive dog in an advertising screen or the interactive hand that can catch people walking on the street in the screen. Last but not least, it can be used for gaming like what we play in Wii. Another interesting gaming technology that we should not miss is the xbox 360 which has the motion sensor feature.

‘Opinion’

As you can see the motion sensor is a very good technology as it results in tremendous new creative technology to be developed which can be very beneficial to business, people, or society.

This is a link to Xbox Project Natal website (The new motion sensor feature for Xbox)

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/live/projectnatal/

Source:

http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/tech-gadget/new-york-store-gets-sniff-the-3d-animated-dog

http://www.computeractive.co.uk/computeractive/news/2226200/motion-sensor-technology-help

http://www.gesturetek.com/gesturefx/introduction.php?gclid=CNDj8PWGgZ4CFdEvpAodX1YtpA

http://www.chrisoshea.org/projects/hand-from-above/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_detector

Do you remember when James Bond escaped the villains by using his remote-controlled car? Now technology from the world of fiction is moving to reality. A group of German computer scientists called the Spirit of Berlin have developed an iPhone application called iDriver. It allows them to drive their car by using the iPhone as a remote control. This application allow the user to operate the steering wheel, brakes, and accelerator pedal by just touching them on the mobile’s touch-screen and rotating the iPhone accelerometer like you play Mario Kart in Wii. The driver can drive the car without being in the car by the use of a video camera on the car dashboard, which transmits a signal to the iPhone, so the driver can see the real time picture in front of the car on the smart phone (The article doesn’t mention anything about “behind the car”). The commands are transmitted from the iPhone via WiFi, so the user can control a car to park as far away as the fourth floor of a building. The computer scientist team is investigating how autonomous vehicles could change our lives in the future. The director of the project said “we could one day all be dropped off and picked up by driverless taxis, which would remove the need for everyone to have their own car.”

‘Opinion’

Let’s talk about the cons first. For now I think that this application is useless and seems very dangerous because just driving a car with Wii remote, I have a lot of crashes, and so if iDriver and iCar are really available, maybe we need to have an iDriving license before using them. Moreover, now the range is still limited by the WiFi signal from the antenna on top of the car. However, for the positive side and in the long run, this technology will be very helpful if it is integrated with autonomous vehicles, which are capable of driving themselves and reacting to their surroundings. For example, when the driving robot faces a difficult situation on the road, we can use the iDriver technology to fix it.

iDriver

Ever wish you had someone to accompany you on a long drive — a companion that knows you well, can help you avoid traffic jams, maybe even help find the cheapest gas along the route home?

If so, a research team at MIT may be developing something for you.

MIT has announced that their scientists are working to develop a robot, which they have dubbed as the Affective Intelligent Driving Agent (AIDA). This robot is designed to sit in motor vehicles. They have claimed that their hope with this project is to change the ways in which people interact with their vehicle.

To quote Professor Carlo Ratti, director of MIT’s SENSEable City Lab, “With the ubiquity of sensors and mobile computers, information about our surroundings is ever abundant. AIDA embodies a new effort to make sense of these great amounts of data, harnessing our personal electronic devices as tools for behavioral support. In developing AIDA, we asked ourselves how we could design a system that would offer the same kind of guidance as an informed and friendly companion.”

The AIDA team, along with partners Audi and the Volkswagen Group of America’s Electronics Research Lab, is designing the robot to be embedded in the vehicle’s dashboard, pulling in real-time information from the Internet about traffic, and about businesses and gas stations along the driver’s route. The robot is programmed to remember the driver’s usual routes to and from work and other regular destinations like the local grocery story. AIDA also will monitor the driver’s facial expressions for signs of fatigue or agitation. MIT didn’t say when it expects to complete the project.

Opinion

Being someone who usually chooses to drive wherever I go, I find that this may be very useful, although a tad unnecessary and extravagant. Only a small proportion of people would really need this. Most people do okay driving on their own. Of course, if the robot monitors drivers’ moods et cetera, they may just be able to prevent some accidents or even road rage from occurring. On the other hand, as the robot has no direct control over the car or the driver, and is only allowed to make suggestions, it may just fail completely. If we look at this from a much larger perspective, namely the automotive industry, this could be a boon. The auto industry in the US is struggling to survive in the long term. This could help boost their chances of survival. All in all, it’s a very innovative and exciting product, but the question is, is it viable?

Source:http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9140120/MIT_rsearchers_developing_robotic_driving_companion

Differences between assembler, compiler, interperter, nonprocedural language, structured software and object oriented software?

Assemblers and compilers both convert code into machine language which is a series of ones and zeros, yeses and nos, or ons and offs (they all mean the same thing) that your computer can understand – but you cannot.

An assembler converts low level (assembly) language which consists of readable, or almost readable English-like words.

A compiler converts high level language directly into machine language. A high level language is usually structured even more like English but it also combines low level language commands to get more complicated things done in one step. For example – using a high level language a programmer might be able to amortize loan payments just by entering loan amounts, interest and months that is collected from a user. With a low level language you have to tell the computer the entire formula and how to use it to calculate payments.

Compiling and assembling are done before the software is run. An interpreted language is one that is not converted to machine language until it is actually run on you computer. It is interpreted into machine as it is run, every time it is run. There are pluses and minuses to this but with computers being as fast as they are now they run just about as fast as compiled or assembled code plus they are much more portable. Meaning they can be used on more operating systems etc. without having to be re-written for each system.

Structural software is procedural. In the old days when you wrote a program it ran from beginning to end using every line. If there were lines you wanted to skip at certain times you had to figure out how to tell the computer to skip those lines at that time. This made for what was called “spaghetti code” which was very hard to understand, keep track of and fix.

A procedural language executes code in blocks (procedures) and executes only the blocks you tell it to execute.

Let’s say you are writing a progam that performs math calculations for a user. With a non-procedural language if the user entered two numbers and wanted them added together it was easier adding them together than it was telling the program NOT do multiply them together, divide one by the other, get the square roots of the numbers, etc.

With a procedural language the user makes his choices and you execute only the blocks of code you want without having to specifically skip over needless code. Each block of code, or procedure, is kept on a separate page so to speak and the programmer can look at each procedure by itself without all the other code there to cause confusion.

Object oriented programming (OOP) uses objects for programming. I know – a circular definition. Software objects represent real life objects. If you are writing a game program involving cars and using OOP you might define an object called “car”. Then you could define the things this car can do such as accelerate, turn left, honk horn, stop.

Now you can set up a new object that is a specific car and give it more definition. Your game player might want to drive a blue 1957 Chevy. Once you give your new car the characteristics of a blue 1957 Chevy you do not have to re-tell it how to accelerate, turn left, etc. it already knows how to do all of that since it is already a “car”

There is more to OOP than this but that example really gives a good idea of what it means. OOP has three characteristics. They are inheritance, polymorphism and encapsulation. You can Google those if you want to know more.

http://yedda.com/questions/Differences_assembler_compiler_4956314162511/

BSB – Business Software Alliance

OSI – Open System Interconnection

ERP – Enterprise Resource Planning

CRM – Customer Relationship Management

SDLC – System Development Life Cycle

CMOS – Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor

CSMA/CD – Carrier Sense Multiple Access/ Collision Detection

CSMA/CA – CSMA/ Collision Avoidance

__________________________

Acronyms from the lessons

3Gs – Third Generation

IT – Information Technology

KBE – Knowledge Based Economy

IBM – International Business Machine

RAM – Random Access Memory

ROM – Read Only Memory

VPN – Visual Private Network

VOIP – Voice over Internet Protocol

CBIS – Computer Based Information System

Modem – Modulation + Demodulation

OS – Operating System

BIS – Business Information System

TPS – Transaction Processing Systems

ERP – Enterprise Resource Planning

MIS – Management Information Systems

DSS – Decision Support Systems

ESS – Executive Support System

PC – Personal Computer

NC – Network Computer

COBOL – Common Business Oriented Language

OOP – Object Oriented Programming

JIT – Just in Time (Complier)

RAD – Rapid Application Development

IDEs – Integrated Development (or Design) Environment

HTML – Hyper Text Markup Language

XHTML – Extensible HTML

RSS – Really Simple Syndication

JAVA – [not an acronym] A high-level programming language developed by Sun Microsystems

XML – Extensive Markup Language

WML – Wireless Markup Language

AJAX – Asynchronous Java and XML

DHTML – Dynamic HTML

PDLC stage – Program Development Life Cycle

SDLC stage – System Development Life Cycle

IPO –Input Process Output

DFD – Data Flow Diagram

CMM – Capability Maturity Model (Certification)

CMMI – CMM Integration (a newer version)

SWCMM – Software Capability Maturity Model

GUI – Graphical User Interface

BIOS – Basic Input/ Output System

VM – Virtual Memory

ISP – Internet Service provider

CIM – Common Information Model

WBEM – Web Based Enterprise Management

OSS – Open Source System

FAT – File Allocation Table

NTFS – New Technology File System

MFT – Master File Table

CPU – Central Processing Unit

ALU – Arithmetic Logic Unit

ULV – Ultra Low Voltage

ASCII – American Standard Code for Information Interchange

EBCDIC – Extended Binary Codec Decimal Interchange Code

CMOS – Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor

DRAM – Dynamic RAM

SRAM – Static RAM

MRAM (RAM) – Magnetoresistive RAM

SIMM – Single Inline Memory Module

DIMM – Duo Inline Memory Module

RIMM – Rambus Inline Memory Module

ATC – Advanced Transfer Cache (L1 Cache)

PROM – Programmable ROM

USB – Universal Serial Bus

PCI – Peripherial Component Interface

PCIe – PCI Express

FSB – Front Side Bus

BSB – Back Side Bus

RAID – Redundant Array of Independent Disk or Inexpensive Disk

NAS – Network Attached Storage

ATA – Advance Technology Attachment

SATA – Serial ATA

EIDE – Enhance Integrated Drive Electronics (Ultra ATA or Fast ATA)

SCSI – Small Computer System Interface

SAS – Serial Attached SCSI

CD – Compact Disc

CD-ROM – CD-Read Only Memory

CD-R – CD-Recordable

CD-RW – CD-Rewritable

DVD – Digital Video Disc

IEEE – Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineering

IEEE 802 – IEEE develop in 1980 February

OSI – Open System Interconnection

SAP – Service Access Point

LLC – Logical Link Control

MAC – Medial Access Control

MAN – Metropolitan Area Network

TAG – Technical Advisory Group

LAN – Local Area Network

VG – Voice Grade

PAN – Personal Area Network

WAN – Wide Area Network

URL – Uniform Resource Locator

ISP – Internet Service Provider

FTP – File Transfer Protocol

TCP – Transmission Control Protocol

IP – Internet Protocol

ZIP – Zone Information Protocol

SCP – Session Control Protocol

MPEG – Motion Picture Experts Group

JPEG – Joint Photographic Experts Group

GIF – Graphic Interchange Format

Online word processors are becoming more popular currently. Google said soon many more software will be web-based. Talking about a spreadsheet in browsers, Google is not the only one service provider, there some other competitors such as Zoho and Office Web Apps (will available in 2010). They promise to offer better office online. However, let’s see the comparison between Google Docs, Zoho, and Office Web Apps. Google Docs probably seem to be the first choice when we have option. However, the result turns out to be worst if you decide to replace Office with Google Docs. This is because when you put a document into Google Docs, anything that is more complicate than a simple column of text will be distorted including tab space, indentation, page margin, and even images. It also happens to Excel files. Syntax sometimes is shown error although it works fine in normal Excel. All images and text format are discarded. Even charts are shown No Data. For PowerPoint on Docs, texts are moved around. Graphics appear blurry, and all animation and transition are completely erased. Consequently, if you want to use online office, avoid Google Docs. While Google Doc is providing a Spartan online service which converts your well made documents into texts, Zoho is said to be better for new user. Zoho does not distort text format, images, or charts as much as Google Doc do. It also provides basic tools for user such as thesaurus. It also supports basic pivot tables and charts. However, for more advance tools Visual Basic macros in Excel, it fails to understand the script. Like Docs printing is unreliable. So Zoho can be appealing for small business that want to use online business application, but do not require IT staff to operate. Microsoft Office Web Apps will be release with the release of Office 2010. The preview version of Office is said to give the exact result as it does in normal office version. Printing is also perfect. It also works nicely in Excel and PowerPoint.

‘Opinion’

As you can see to use office online, Microsoft seems to be the best service provider as it is the one who creates Office. However, we still have to wait as it still has not been released officially. So, now the best option for online spreadsheet discussed above would be Zoho, or maybe just using the normal office would be the best. Another important thing you should remember is that you should understand these new services before deciding to rely on them.

Source: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9139059/

When first looking at this device, you may be thinking “What is that? An antenna? A portal?” This contraption is something much more common: a fan. James Dyson’s latest invention, the Air Multiplier, is a fan without any bladeless. According to their press release, The Air Multiplier uses some innovative airflow engineering to pull air up through an energy-efficient brushless motorbase and multiply it 15 times, expelling it through an airfoil-shaped ramp at a rate of 118 gallons a second.

Dyson, the company, says its fluid dynamics engineers spent four years “running hundreds of simulations to precisely measure and optimize the machine’s aperture and airfoil-shaped ramp” and air fluctuations were mapped with something called a Laser Doppler Annometry.

Dyson, the man, says the ramp was key to creating the bladeless fan. “[They] realized that this inducement, or multiplication, effect could be further enhanced by passing airflow over a ramp.

The Air Multiplier has a dimmer-like knob that controls air flow and the fan can be set to oscillate with a touch of a button. You can also tilt the Air Multiplier by simply pulling the ring forward or back.

Opinion

This is a very innovative product although its premise is not entirely accurate. It’s supposed to be a bladeless fan, but it is simply that the blades are not in plain view. Still, it is a very impressive gadget. However, there is a very high price to pay for innovation. The 10-inch model is available for $300 and the 12-inch model for $330. That is a lot of money.

However, there are benefits. Parents who choose to use this product in their homes will not have to worry about their small children accidentally injuring themselves with the blades of a fan. This way, children can even have a little more fun with the fan, as the dead center of the ring is a dead-zone, and the experience can be quite enjoyable.

This product might just work, as it is very quiet, although only at lower speeds. At high speeds, the sound is about the same as that of an XBO360 gaming console that is trying to cool itself down.

[b]Source[/b]: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10373251-1.html?tag=TOCmoreStories.0