Technology Trends

"Technology Trends"

Introduction: Technology
“Technology” refers to a collection of techniques. It is the making, modification, usage, and knowledge of tools,machines, techniques, crafts,systems, and methods of organization, in order to solve a problem, improve a preexisting solution to a problem, achieve a goal, handle an applied input/output relation or perform a specific function.
Technology is in changing process and its trends keeps on updating as the time passes. Technologies significantly affect human as well as other animal species' ability to control and adapt to their natural environments. Technology has incorporated various sectors in its shed: Education, Economy, Business organization, Information, communication, health, research, innovation, science, agriculture etc, without which, these sectors would not have been explored and developed.

Advantages
Some of the advantages of advancement of technology are:
v  Discoveries, Innovations and Explorations.
v  Creates Efficiency and Effectiveness.
v  Expands Capacity and Scope.
v  Enhance Flexibility.
v  Qualitative decision makings.
v  Objective Achievement.
v  Value Creation.

Top 10 Technological Trends for 2013
Here are some of the possible technological trends which will take place during the year 2013 as:

1) Mobile Device Battles
According to the research in 2013, mobile devices will pass PCs to be most common Web access tools. By 2015, over 80% of handsets in mature markets will be smart phones.


2) Mobile application and HTMLs.
The research also shows after 2014, JavaScript performance will push HTML5 and the browser will act as a mainstream application developer environment.


3) Personal Cloud.
The cloud will be center of digital lives, for apps, content and preferences. Sync across devices, services become more important and devices become less important.


4) Internet Of Things
At present Over 50% of Internet connections are things. Technological research shows that in 2011, there were over 15 billion things on the Web, with 50 billion+ intermittent connections. By 2020, there will be over 30 billion connected things, with over 200 billion with intermittent connections. Key technologies here include embedded sensors, image recognition and NFC.


5)Actionable Analytics.
The research states that Cloud, packaged analytics and big data accelerates in 2013 and 2014. And we’ll be able to perform analytics and simulation on every action taken in business. Mobile devices will have access to the data, supporting business decision making.


6)Integrated Ecosystems.
There will be integrated ecosystems where more packaging of software and services to address infrastructure will take place. There will be more shipment of “appliances,” with software delivered as hardware. New trend: virtual appliances, which Gartner sees gaining in popularity over the next five years.


7) Enterprise Apps Store
Technological research also states that by 2014, there will be more than 70 billion mobile app downloads from app stores every year. Also by 2014, most organizations will deliver mobile apps to workers via private application stores.


Current Technological Advancements
1) Google Glass (Communication and Medical Technology).




It is a wearable computer with an optical head-mounted display (OHMD) that is being developed by Google in the Project Glass research and development project, with a mission of producing a mass-market ubiquitous computer. Google Glass displays information in a smart phone-like hands-free format, that can communicate with the Internet via natural language voice commands. Google glass has some of the features as:
OS:               Android 4.0.4
Display:        Prism projector 640×360 pixels (equivalent of a 25 in. screen from 8 ft).
Sound:          Bone conduction transducer.
Input:           Voice commands through microphone, ambient light sensor, and proximity sensor.
Memory:       1 GB ram and 16 GB flash total memory.
Controller:    Touchpad, My Glass phone app.
Camera:        5MP, videos- 720p
Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11b/g, Bluetooth micro USB.
Weight:          50g
Recent Successful Use of Google Glass: “Streams Knee Repair”.



Dr. Christopher Kaeding performs ACL surgery and transmits the progress to a Google Hangout. For the first time in the US, a surgeon wearing Google Glass transmitted video of a surgery, live from the operating room, to a colleague and students miles away. Dr. Christopher Kaeding was the participating surgeon in the landmark moment, which occurred on August 21 during a routine ACL surgery at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus, Ohio. Kaeding, director of sports medicine at the university, wore Google Glass while repairing 47-year-old Paula Kobalka's knee, which she injured while playing softball.


2)Google’s driverless taxis to carry passengers (Automobile Technology).

Technology giant Google is planning to create a fleet of driverless 'robo-taxis' to pick up and drop off passengers. Such a system could transform transport systems around the world, doing away with the need for most people to buy cars. Since the launch of its self-driving car project in 2010, Google has created self-driving systems that have been installed in both a Toyota Prius and a Lexus RX. Cameras, sensors, radars and the company's own software has been added to the cars. Such vehicles have been given the green light to be tested on British roads before the end of the year.
However, some of the car manufacturing has been reluctant to enter a partnership with Google, not wishing to give the technology giant a foothold within the motoring industry. But Google understood to have turned to design its robo-taxi system within Google X, the department that develops futuristic technologies, including 'Glass' - a pair of high-tech spectacles that sends information straight to the eyes. Also they decide to incorporate other car manufacturing companies in achieving its aim of providing general public a good and reliable transport system.


3) Apple i Watch (Communication Technology).






The Apple iWatch is a smart watch wearable computing smart phone type device that's worn on a user's wrist. It is made of curved glass, possibly Willow Glass from Corning, that pairs, or connects, with another Apple iOS device like the iPhone or iPad to push iWatch-specific content to the device. It has a bluetooth and a 1.5-inch display. 

As far as features, the Apple iWatch is expected to be able to make calls, check caller ID and access visual voicemail, access stock and weather updates, provide fitness capabilities via pedometer and health monitoring sensors, offer map coordinates and directions, authentications finger print scanners and other health-related sensors and more. Thus apple is planning to launch soon in the second half of 2013.
4)Brain-To-Brain Control Interface (Neuro Technology).



Researchers at the University of Washington, Rajesh Rao and Andrea Stocco, have created a remote, non-invasive brain-to-brain interface that allowed Rao to move Stocco’s finger remotely on a keyboard using his thoughts.
“The Internet was a way to connect computers, and now it can be a way to connect brains,” Rao has been working on these interfaces for a decade and brain-to-brain control has been achieved in mice using invasive techniques. This is the first time the process has been used on humans and requires a transcranial magnetic stimulation coil to be placed on the head of the subject. The user in control can then send a signal by reacting to something on a screen or in the room. A electroencephalography machine picks up the brain waves and transmits them to the subject who, in turn, mimics the motion of the controller.
Application of this technology: Thus far the team has been able to demonstrate how to play a simple video game remotely. The controller plays in the game in one room in the lab and the sensors pick up his hand motions. The signal to initiate these motions is sent to the subject and, in turn, the subject begins mimicking the actions of the controller using the same game interface, essentially playing the game remotely without seeing the screen.


5)Honda: Technology to Warns drivers of pedestrian presence (Automobile).




One of the successful car manufacturing companies Honda has come up with the new technology to prevent cars from hitting pedestrians today. A communication link between a car and a pedestrian's smartphone warns the driver of an impending collision. Honda's technology shows a driver on a head-up display that a pedestrian is about to cross his path. Other Automakers have been developing a new networked technology called vehicle-to-vehicle communication, where cars will constantly broadcast their location, speed, and direction of travel but pedestrians were left out. Honda released a video today demonstrating a vehicle-to-pedestrian communication system, relying on the increasingly ubiquitous smartphone. Researchers have developed the V2V system based on the Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) protocol.
Application of this technology: It lets a car broadcast the fact that its driver just hit the brakes very hard. Following cars would receive that signal, and could flash an alert to their drivers, or even apply the brakes themselves so as to avoid a collision. The V2V system would be more effective than relying on drivers to perceive brake lights ahead, as it would know how hard the brakes are being applied. Similar to the car, the phone broadcasts its location and direction of travel. At intersections or crossings where pedestrians and drivers can't see each other, Honda's system alerts both before a potential collision.
Conclusion
Thus, technology plays an important role in working environment. It not only makes our work easier but in turn broadens the working scope, enhances flexibility and creates efficiency and effectiveness. The above discussed technological revolution have created and will create revolution in the changing working environment so we need to move on with its rocket changing nature, maximize its usage and acquire value from it.
References
1. http://news.cnet.com
2. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/n13xtmd5
3. http://www.engadget.com/
4.  http://techcrunch.com
5.  http://gigaom.com/
6.  www.geeky-gadgets.com
7. http://www.indianexpress.com/news/google-to-create-driverless-taxis-to-carry-passengers/1160318/
8.  http://google.com/glass
9. http://www.forbes.com/pictures/fhmf45eemk/mobile-device-battles/

Title: "A weaker rupee is not a bad thing".

 "A weaker rupee is not a bad thing".

It is good for the US and other European countries whose economic growth is booming consistently throughout the period but in my point of view, the developing countries like ours faces severe problems due to weakening of rupee against dollars. It has some serious impacts in economy but it does have certain advantage too.

Over three months, the rupee has slide 15% against the dollar, which is surging against most other currencies worldwide. The reason:economic recovery in the US and the continued faith in the dollar as the reserve currency of the world.

In my view the countries like India and Nepal where there are yelps of agony over the rupee's slide, as if its value against the dollar is some sort of measure of India's standing in the world. The economy of these countries now will be more open than it ever was and the rupee's movements are subject to the vagaries of traders worldwide.

And a little depreciation is not a bad thing. Exports have been sluggish for many months as the US and Europe struggled with their own woes and lower-cost nations such as Bangladesh chipped away at our share of textile and garment exports that could change with a weaker rupee.

At this stage the biggest gainer, of course, would be software exporter followed by a clutch of software, auto and machinery manufacturers. What's good for the exports is good for the current account deficit, which can narrow sharply on the back of this depreciation. The only source for the revenue generation for the developing country like ours is remittances, which are expected to rise quickly as working overseas seizes this window and send dollars back home.
 

Also the discretionary imports, like fine foods, personal care products and so on will be discouraged. And gold imports, a huge drain on foreign exchange reserves, are sure to get squeezed by higher rupee prices.

The government should now focus on reining in inflation, part of the reason for the rupee's weakness and likely to go up because of that weakening. These sort of weakening of rupee has also made great impact in the Indian economy, to control in some extinct : “The Reserve Bank of India has done what it could by keeping interest rates fairly high, but a lot of inflation is related to administrative lapses. Release part of the 78-million-tonne grain mountain into markets to dampen food grain inflation, now at 17%.” As we all know our currency is pegged with Indian currency so the weakening of Indian rupee also impacts in our economy as well so the government should also take some corrective actions regarding it and nourish the economy towards consistent growth.