Electronics For You 07 - 2017

` 100 july 2017

For You Why switching to

How Businesses Are using Google Maps (Page 97)

LED Tubes

makes business sense… for your organisation (Page 68)

Can Online uPS Save Money? (Page 76)

Vol. 06 No. 03 ISSN 2454-4426

Pages: 156+8

Tech for Speciallyabled People (Page 18)

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Contents Nexte Issu

ng Printi • 3D hting ig L l • LED erma g Th rovin • Imp issipation D

July 2017 VoL. 06 | No. 03 ISSN-2454-4426

Editor

: ramesh Chopra

Editorial : Editorial Secretary CorrESpondEnCE phone: 011-26810601; E-mail: [email protected] (technical queries: [email protected]) SubSCriptionS & : phone: 011-26810601 or 02 or 03 E-mail: [email protected] miSSing iSSuES baCk iSSuES, bookS, Cds, pCbs etc.

: kits‘n’Spares, new delhi phone: 011-26371661, 26371662 E-mail: [email protected]

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54

Smart World

94 Virtual reality: Get the first mover advantage 95 3 ways big data analytics can go horribly wrong 97 Navigate your way to success with Google Maps 98 Deep learning for deeper employee engagement

rESEarCH & dEVEloPmENt

printed, published and owned by ramesh Chopra. printed at international print-o-pack ltd, C-4 to C-11, hosiery Complex, phase-ii Extension, noida-201305, gautam budh nagar, uttar pradesh, on the first day of each month and published from d-87/1, okhla industrial area, phase-1, new delhi 110020. Copyright 2017. all rights reserved throughout the world. reproduction of any material from this magazine in any manner without the written permission of the publisher is prohibited. although every effort is made to ensure accuracy, no responsibility whatsoever is taken for any loss due to publishing errors. articles that cannot be used are returned to the authors if accompanied by a self-addressed and sufficiently stamped envelope. but no responsibility is taken for any loss or delay in returning the material. EfY will not be responsible for any wrong claims made by an advertiser. disputes, if any, will be settled in a new delhi court only.

Period Newstand Price Year (`) two 2400 one 1200

Green Mobility Focus

July 2017 | ElEctronics For you plus

18 BIOTECH: How technology is helping specially-abled people 46 TECH FOCUS: Building a future with 5G 66 DESIGN: Developer board trends for industrial applications 84 INNOVATION: AirBar, Magbine, WattUp, da Vinci Mini, Airblock, Sprout Pro G2 86 INNOVATION: Aurassure: Air quality monitoring to keep environment clean 103 DESIGN: The art of design for manufacture

EVErYtHING YoU WaNtEd to KNoW aBoUt… 26 ULTRASONICS: Cleaning silently with sound waves 32 TUTORIAL: LASER: An Innovative Tool for Multidisciplinary Applications 40 NETWORKING: Software-defined networking: A revolution 58 EMBEDDED: Heterogeneous architecture and computing

INdUStrY 68 LIGHTING: How type ‘A’ LED tubes make business sense 70 TEST & MEASUREMENT: Network analysers moving to lasers for increased effectiveness 74 TEST & MEASUREMENT: Signal and power integrity: Let your product be in harmony 105 INTERVIEW: Syam Madanapalli, NTT Data: Roof computing with standard interfaces…IoT ecosystem 106 INTERVIEW: Ashish Gulati, Telit: Integration is a big issue in IoT device deployment

Policy And

Industry Drivers

107 MARKET SURVEY: Are ‘Made In India’ Mobile Phones in Growth Phase?

GUIdES 76 BUYERS’ GUIDE: How online UPS can save you money 88 SOFTWARE: A guide to programming in Perl, PHP and Python 117 eStyle DIY: How to install wireless Bluetooth speakers 118 eStyle BUYERS’ GUIDE: What to look for in LED bulbs

Do-It-Yourself

120 122 124 126 128 130

Voting machine using AVR microcontroller Countdown timer Low-cost 3.7V to 5V-6V DC-to-DC converter 3W audio amplifier using TDA7056 Arduino based digital IC tester using MATLAB Design your own Li-Fi dongle and speaker for audio and… 132 Centre-of-mass extraction using MATLAB

NEWS 12 Tech News 100 Industry News 112 New Products 115 eStyle: First Look

EFY Plus DVD EFY+ DVD: Design, simulate and automate with open source software.............................. 82 Fritzing: Design your PCBs with ease .................... I Creating solid geometry using BRL-CAD ..............IV Fly high with SU2 .............................................VII Regulars 08 Feedback: Your suggestions 10 Q&A: Things you wanted to know www.EFymag.com

Feedback Your suggestions

THANKS! I found the latest issue of EFY on my desk. I just read it and found myself unaware of several technological developments. So kudos to your team as you are doing your job exceedingly well! I would ask myself why two magazines EFY and EB from the same stable and apparently for the same audience, but then I realised EFY is primarily focused on its core audience—engineers, geeks, developers and decision makers in the technical sphere, whereas EB is consolidating foothold in commercial decision making. Last but not the least, I was really impressed with Binay’s 12W LED tubelight with lumens output equivalent to an 18W standard tubelight’s!

interested in using these motors can contact us for details. B.S. Sastry and B. Ramana Aerospace Engineers, DRDO, Govt of India The author Sanjay Banerjee replies: Your inputs are valuable, and it would be my pleasure if you share some more details of your work in this sector. Readers like you motivate us to dig deeper on a subject and write for the greater benefit of the society.  Your article ‘Green Mobility’ is very helpful for startups to understand the future of EVs as also the current scenario in Li-ion sector in India. Please also publish some article on government’s policies and future plan for EVs.

Ajay K. Gugnani Trade Corp., New Delhi

Manan M. Patel Through email

EFY. Your email made our day! We are happy that you found the recent issue informative, and that through the letter you have explained to our esteemed readers the difference between EFY and EB. Thanks for the good wishes!

The author Sanjay Banerjee replies: It is a pleasure knowing that you have gained from the article. Going forward, it would be our endeavour to write an articulated article on Indian government’s policies for the sector. As I understand, India lags behind in the race of lithium reserves. Therefore it must look at other forms of energy to drive the Green Mobility vision. My next article in this issue focuses on how different organisations are gearing up to take advantage of Electric Vision - 2030 set forth.

GREEN MOBILITY The article ‘Green Mobility’ published in June issue is very interesting and covers at great length developments in all the countries. The heart of an electric vehicle (EV) is an electric engine. Electric engines are brushless DC (or BLDC) motors with highenergy rare earth magnets powered by Li-ion batteries. Compared to industrial motors’ 2kW per kg, the recent advances allow BLDC motors to output 5kW per kg. We are using BLDC motors extensively for both linear and rotary applications. Entrepreneurs 8

July 2017 | ElEctronics For you

MESSAGE DISPLAY We are looking for a complete kit of LED-based moving message display. Please provide the list of related projects published in EFY. Kamal Kumar Through email

EFY. You can refer to the following projects: 1. LED Scrolling Display (http:// electronicsforu.com/electronicsprojects/hardware-diy/led-scrollingdisplay) 2. Propeller Message Display with Temperature Indicator (http://electronicsforu.com/electronics-projects/ propeller-message-display-with-temperature-indicator)

FINGERPRINT DOOR LOCK In ‘Fingerprint Door Unlock System Using Arduino’ DIY article published in EFY Jan. 2016, can we use any other module if correct Rx pins are selected? Sandeep Chakraborty Through email  The code for this project shows the following error message: “Fatal error: Adafruit_Fingerprint.h: no such directory #include compilation terminated. Exit status 1. Error compiling for board Arduino/Genuino uno.” Please help. Chris C.K. Through email The author Dinu D. replies to Sandeep Chakraborty: This project will not work with other biometric modules because almost all the commands (99.9 per cent) for other sensors are different. To verify this, you can compare the datasheet of R305 sensor with other sensors’. Reply to Chris: This error in the code is because you didn’t add the Fingerprint.h header file for R305 module. Please include library file in the Arduino folder and try again. www.EFymag.com

Q&A

Things You WanTed To KnoW! Ques. What is an accelerometer? What’s the difference betWeen tilt sensor and accelerometer sensor? Pamarthi Kanakaraja

ans. An accelerometer is an electromechanical device that measures acceleration forces. The forces may be static or dynamic. If you have the amount of static acceleration due to gravity, you can find out the angle the device is tilted at with respect to the earth’s surface. If you have the amount of dynamic acceleration, you can analyse the way the device is moving. Accelerometers can be used to measure vibration on vehicles, safety monitoring devices, industrial machines and process control systems. These are also used to measure seismic activity, inclination, dynamic distance, and speed with or without the influence of gravity. Accelerometers are commonly made of either piezoelectric, piezoresistive or capacitive elements, which are used to convert the mechanical motion into an electrical signal. The piezoelectric is the most common form of accelerometer that uses microscopic crystal structures. When the static crystal structure is deformed due to physical force or bending, it creates a voltage from the stress and the accelerometer interprets the voltage to determine velocity and orientation.

Accelerometer sensor vs tilt sensor Accelerometer sensor. Accelerometer sensors are available in one-, two- or three-axis models to detect magnitude and direction of acceleration. Accelerometers in most smartphones make use of three-axis models, whereas only two axes are used in 10

July 2017 | ElEctronics For you

some cars to determine the moment of impact. The more sensitive the accelerometer, the more easily it can measure acceleration. An accelerometer can be used as a tilt sensor but not all tilt sensors are accelerometers. For example, a mercury tilt sensor can’t give you a readout of acceleration. A typical accelerometer sensor is shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1: A typical accelerometer sensor

Fig. 2: A typical tilt sensor

Tilt sensor. It’s like a type of onoff level switch. It simply tells you that it has tilted. Its contact opens when tilted and closes when not tilted. The contact doesn’t open through other logic unless it is physically tilted. Normally, a tilt sensor doesn’t measure motion. A full motion detector would use at least three axes and often additional sensors. A tilt sensor often measures the tilting in two axes of a reference plane. A typical tilt sensor is shown in Fig. 2.

Q2. What is a community radio station and What are the PrereQuisites for oWning one? mukul rustagi

a2. Community radio station (CRS) or community radio (CR) is another type of radio broadcasting service. There are several subtypes of radio broadcasting: commercial, noncommercial educational (NCE) public broadcasting, and non-profit types like community radio, student-run campus radio stations and hospital radio stations. In India, CRS is operated in

frequency modulation (FM) mode. FM broadcasting is capable of better sound quality than AM broadcasting. Throughout the world, the FM broadcast band falls within the very high frequency (VHF) part of the radio spectrum. Usually, FM band is in 87.5-108.0MHz range, or some portion thereof, with a few exceptions in some countries. The effective radiated power of a CRS FM transmitter should be 100 watts or even less. Transmitter power above 100 watts and up to 250 watts is allowed but subject to approval by the Committee constituted under the chairmanship of Secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, India. The permitted maximum height of antenna above the ground is 30 metres, and the station is expected to cover a range of 5-10km. You can get the list of operational community radio stations from the website of Ministry of Information & Broadcasting: http://www.mib.nic.in/broadcasting/ community-radio-stations-0 Depending on the setup and wattage requirement, the CRS may cost anywhere between ` 300,000 and ` 29,00,000 or even more. For details on the cost, you may refer to http:// communityradio.in/pdf/crs-in-indiainfrastructure-technology-considerations-paper.pdf and http://becil.com/ Admin_Doc/CRS_proposal.pdf You need to apply in the prescribed format along with a processing fee in the form of a demand draft drawn in favour of Pay & Accounts Officer, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, New Delhi, and payable at Delhi. Detailed guidelines and application form are available on the ministry’s website: www.mib.nic.in Answers compiled by Sani Theo, senior assistant editor (technical). Letters and questions for publication may be addressed to Editor, Electronics For You, D-87/1, Okhla Industrial Area, Phase 1, New Delhi 110020 (e-mail: [email protected]) and should include name and address of the sender www.EFymag.com

Tech News Technology UpdaTes

Wearable system to help visually impaired navigate The white cane that visually impaired people frequently use to navigate paths has two major drawbacks: One, the obstacles they come in contact with are sometimes other people. Two,

Navigation for visually impaired people (Image courtesy: http://news.mit.edu)

they can’t identify certain types of objects, such as tables and chairs, or determine whether a chair is already occupied. MIT Researchers have developed a new system that guides the user in the same way as a suite of sensors can guide a self-driving car. The system consists of a 3D camera worn in a pouch hung around the neck; a processing unit that runs the team’s proprietary algorithms; a sensor belt, which has five vibrating motors evenly spaced around its forward half; and a reconfigurable Braille interface, which is worn at the user’s side. The system could be used in conjunction with or as an alternative to a cane. The key to the system is an algorithm for quickly identifying surfaces and their orientations from the 3D camera data. The algorithm first groups the pixels into clusters of three. Because the pixels have associated location data, each cluster determines a plane. If the orientations of the planes defined by five nearby clusters are within ten degrees of each other, the system concludes that it has found a surface and begins to buzz the associated motor if the wearer gets within two metres of it.

Telephone calls clear as a bell Smartphones can do almost everything you want, but their poor voice quality is still a vexing issue. Fraunhofer researchers have helped develop a new codec that makes voice quality as natural as if the person you’re calling is standing right next to you. That’s because, for the first time, the entire audible frequency spectrum is transmitted. The new Enhanced Voice Services (EVS) standard promises a step change comparable with the transition from analogue CRT to digital flat-screen TVs. Specifications for standards of this type are extremely demanding. “First of EVS developers Markus Multrus, Guillaume Fuchs and Stefan Döhla (from the left) (Image courtesy: https://www.fraunhofer.de) all, the codec must be capable of transmitting high-quality speech signals at relatively low data rates—so as not to compromise cost-efficiency,” says Dipl.-Ing Markus Multrus, but simple, given that speech coding and audio coding are who coordinated the software development part of the project two separate worlds. The new codec therefore analyses the at Fraunhofer IIS. Another requirement is that the codec flow of signals every 20 milliseconds to distinguish between should be sufficiently robust to recover from transmission voice and music transmission, enabling appropriate errors, thereby ensuring that calls are not dropped due to algorithms to be applied. poor reception. Moreover, the codec must also be able to Explains Dr Guillaume Fuchs, the research scientist who deliver similarly high quality when processing other types led the development of EVS at Fraunhofer, “The frequency of signal, such as music on hold. This challenge is anything range of the audio signals transmitted by currently available 12

July 2017 | ElEctronics For you

www.EFymag.com

Tech News codecs only extends to 3.4kHz. Any frequencies above that limit are simply cut off, which is why phone calls sound so muffled. The new codec allows frequencies of up to 16 or even 20kHz to be transmitted, depending on the bit rate of the connection.”

Computing system inspired by human brain A team of researchers from Georgia Institute of Technology and University of Notre Dame has created a computing system that employs a network of electronic oscillators to solve graph colouring tasks—a problem that tends to choke today’s computers. Graph colouring problem starts with a graph—a visual representation of a set of objects connected in some way. To solve the problem, each object must be assigned a colour, but two objects directly connected cannot share the same colour. Typically, the goal is to colour all objects in the graph using the smallest number of different colours. In designing a system different from traditional transistor-based computing, the researchers took cues from the human brain, where processing is handled collectively, such as a neural oscillatory network, rather than with a central processor. The electronic oscillators, fabricated from vanadium dioxide, were found to have a natural ability that could be harnessed for graph colouring problems. When a group of oscillators were electrically connected via capacitive links, these automatically synchronised to the same frequency— oscillating at the same rate. Meanwhile, oscillators directly connected to one another would operate at different phases within the same frequency, and oscillators in the same group but not directly connected would sync in both frequency and phase. “If you suppose that each phase represents a different colour, this system was essentially mimicking naturally the solution to a graph colouring problem,” said Arijit Raychowdhury, an associate professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

A groundbreaking 5-nanometre chip A fingernail-sized chip housing a whopping 30 billion transistors, the on-off switches of electronic devices, could be a possibility soon. The impetus comes from development of transistors for a 5-nanometre semiconductor chip, jointly by IBM Research and partners GlobalFoundries and Samsung. Right now, the most advanced semiconductor chips use a FinFET process with circuitry that is 10 nanometres in width. Companies such as Intel can build chips with 10 or 15 billion transistors using that process. 14

July 2017 | ElEctronics For you

IBM Research scientist Nicolas Loubet holds a wafer of chips with 5nm silicon nanosheet transistors (Image courtesy: http://www-03.ibm.com)

“A 5-nanometre chip could perform about 40 per cent faster than a 10-nanometre chip, given the same power settings,” said Mukesh Khare, vice president of semiconductor technology research at IBM Research, in an interview with VentureBeat. Or a chip could be 75 per cent more power efficient. IBM said the resulting increase in performance will accelerate cognitive computing, the Internet of Things (IoT), and other data-intensive applications delivered in the cloud. The power savings could also mean that the batteries in smartphones and other mobile products could last two to three times longer than today’s devices before needing to be charged. Scientists achieved the breakthrough by using stacks of silicon nanosheets for the transistor, instead of using the standard FinFET architecture. The transistors are built with extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, which is used to stencil the circuit designs on chips. With EUV lithography, the width of the nanosheets can be adjusted continuously, all within a single manufacturing process or chip design.

New system to restore communications during a disaster A portable system that allows communications to be restored in the wake of a disaster and helps direct survivors to safety is being devised by academia. Ron Austin, associate professor of networks and security at Birmingham City University (UK), has created the prototype system, which could be used to plug a crucial gap in systems such as telephone, GPS and Internet links during the first 24 hours following a disaster. The network runs using Raspberry Pi computer development boards, which can be linked together to form a bespoke setup tailored to the needs of a site. It www.EFymag.com

Tech News could also be used to monitor environmental factors such as earthquake aftershocks and tsunami second waves. The new portable system could help save lives by allowing basic systems to be put in place to plug the gap during the first 24-48 hours following a disaster and allow communication with emergency services and survivors until full-scale systems can be restored. First responders would be able to transport the system in a single box or briefcase to the site and instantly set up communication systems that have been damaged or eliminated during the disaster. Inbuilt battery power supplies fitted to briefcases or transportation boxes would provide power for up to two days, while solar panels could also be used in areas of good lighting.

Fastest phased-array 5G communication link Keysight Technologies and the University of California (UC) San Diego have demonstrated the world’s fastest bidirectional phased-array link in the 28GHz 5G band. The achievement is an important milestone for delivering future applications in 5G, aerospace and defence.

University of California San Diego’s demonstration of wideband, 28GHz, pre-5G phased-array signal transmission, with the help of a Keysight 5G millimetre-wave testbed (Image courtesy: Keysight Technologies, Inc.)

The demonstration included a 64-element array that achieved a data rate of 12Gbps at 0 degree and more than 8 Gbps over all scan angles up to ±50 degrees in azimuth and ±25 degrees in elevation at a link distance of 300 metres. The array produced data rates of up to 18Gbps at shorter distances. The results did not rely on any calibration on the 64-element phased-array, thereby greatly reducing implementation costs. The 64-element phased array, built on a low-cost printed circuit board, consumed only 7-11W of DC 16

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power in either its transmit or receive mode, thanks to the UC San Diego high-performance system-on-achip (SoC) design that uses a third-generation silicon germanium process. UC San Diego used Keysight’s 5G millimetre-wave testbed for the communication link.

Combination of features produces new Android vulnerability A new vulnerability affecting Android mobile devices results not from a traditional bug but from the malicious combination of two legitimate permissions that power desirable and commonly-used features in popular apps. The combination could result in a new class of attacks, which has been dubbed ‘Cloak and Dagger.’ The vulnerability, which was identified and tested in closed environments by computer scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology, would allow attackers to silently take control of a mobile device, overlaying its graphical interface with false information to hide malicious activities being performed underneath—such as capturing passwords or extracting the user’s contacts. A successful attack would require the user to first install a type of malware that could be hidden in a pirated game or other app. The issue could be more difficult to resolve than ordinary operating system bugs. Said Wenke Lee, a professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Computer Science and co-director of the Institute for Information Security & Privacy, “The two features involved are very useful in mapping, chat or password manager apps, so preventing their misuse will require users to trade convenience for security. This is as dangerous an attack as we could possibly describe.” The first permission feature involved in the attack supports the use of devices by disabled persons, allowing inputs such as user name and password to be made by voice command, and allowing outputs such as a screen reader to help the disabled view content. The second permission is an overlay or ‘draw on top’ feature that produces a window on top of the device’s usual screen to display bubbles for a chat program or maps for a ridesharing app. When combined in a malicious way, the accessibility permission acts as a cloak, while overlay serves as the dagger. The two could allow attackers to draw a window that fools users into believing they are interacting with legitimate features of the app. The malicious program, operating as the overlay, would then capture the user’s credentials for the malware author, while the accessibility permission would enter the credentials into the real app hidden beneath, allowing it to operate as expected and leaving the user with no clue that anything is awry. www.EFymag.com

biotech

How Technology Is Helping Specially-abled people

T Dr S.S. Verma is a professor at Department of Physics, Sant Longowal Institute of Engineering and Technology, Sangrur, Punjab

FingerReader for the visually impaired (Image courtesy: news.mit.edu)

18

his year, the government of India dedicated the National Science Day to the theme “science and technology for specially abled persons.” The idea was to encourage innovation, awareness and reach of accessibility solutions to specially-abled people in the country. The differently-abled population in India is estimated to be 100 million, half of which is under the age of 30. This indicates a huge need for assistive technology products. The government plans to work together with corporates, educators, NGOs and the differently-abled people so as to promote availability of solutions that can help differently-abled people to lead independent lives. People with disabilities meet barriers of all types. However, with the help of assistive technology, they are now able to do things that would have never been possible before—from switching on a light to having a voice to express themselves. Technology has always lent a helping hand for people with visual impairment, speech impairment and motor disabilities. The mobile technology, in

July 2017 | ElEctronics For you

particular, has provided the foundation for development of a lot of apps and gadgets that can help ease the difficulties people with disabilities face on a daily basis.

Devices for people with visual impairment Dot. It is the world’s first Braille smartwatch. A practical, wearable solution, it is more affordable than regular e-Braille devices which may cost thousands. Dot helps the visually impaired to access messages, tweets and even books anywhere and at any time. It can connect via Bluetooth to any smartphone, then retrieve and translate the text (from an email or messaging app) into Braille for its owner. Braille ebook reader. A Kindle-style e-reader, it lets visually impaired people read easily. Alphabets are represented as raised bumps. So the visually impaired can read by tracing lines of raised bumps with the help of their fingertips. The reader also helps to understand graphics and figures. Tactile wand electronic stick. It lets visually impaired people to determine the objects that come in their way. As soon as the user approaches an object, the stick starts vibrating. The closer the user comes to the object, the greater the vibration. FingerReader. This wearable tool assists in reading as well as translating text. The user can wear the device on a finger, then point it to a body of the text, one line at a time. The small camera on the FingerReader scans the text and gives real-time audio feedback of the words it detects. It also notifies the reader via vibrations when the user is www.EFymag.com

biotech

Talkitt for speech impaired (Image courtesy: cdn.nocamels.com)

at the start of a line, end of a line, moving to a new line or moving too far away from the text baseline. Be My Eyes. This iPhone application connects the visually impaired with sighted volunteer helpers from around the world via live video connection. It is an easy way to seek help for simple tasks like checking the expiry date on a milk carton or navigating surroundings. Volunteer helper receives a notification for help and a live video connection is established. If the volunteer is too busy, the app can find someone else to step in and help. Sesame phone. It is a touch-free smartphone designed for people with motor disabilities. It works by tracking the user’s head movements, using the built-in, front-facing camera on the phone. These tracked movements are combined with computer vision algorithms to create a cursor that appears on the screen of the phone. The on-screen cursor is controlled by the position and movement of the user’s head, and supports even minimal movements. Touch, swipe, browse, play and download—it’s all possible using the Sesame smartphone. Voice control adds a real hands-free experience to the phone. Kapten PLUS personal naviga20

July 2017 | ElEctronics For you

tion device. Traveling alone is a challenge for the visually impaired. There is always the possibility of taking a wrong turn or getting disoriented in the shuffle of busy pedestrians. The Kapten PLUS personal navigation device is a very small GPS locator designed for people with low vision. As users walk down the street, the device speaks out directions and locations, so users always know where they are and where they’re heading. In addition, users can plan and store routes and tag locations for use again. Designed as an affordable GPS accessory (and not a total replacement) to cane or guide-dog travel, the device offers security, confidence and a wealth of useful information, allowing visually impaired people to travel independently without the fear of getting lost or wandering in the wrong direction. Car with smart feedback. Engineers are developing a car that can actually be driven by the visually impaired. The aim is to integrate several computer systems, sensors and cameras to observe the environment around the vehicle and provide alternate forms of sensory input, including sound and vibration. This may include seat vibrations of various strengths and locations, pulsing vibration signals in gloves

worn by the driver, auditory alerts from a headset and a sort of screen that paints a virtual picture of the surroundings using compressed air. Smart glasses. Oxford University researchers are developing a pair of glasses that gives people with limited vision an aid that boosts their awareness of what’s around them. With extra information on who or what’s around them, they can walk around unfamiliar places confidently and with greater freedom. The gadget consists of two small cameras, a gyroscope, a compass, a GPS unit, a headphone and transparent OLED displays. Using it, visually impaired people would be able to distinguish between light and dark. The glasses make anything a little brighter when it gets closer to the wearers, so they can discern people and obstacles.

Devices for people with hearing impairment Cochlear implant. This little device continues to evolve with advancements in software and hardware. The single-channel implant provided mostly static, while early commercial implants with five channels gave some indication of cadence and rhythm. Today’s cochlear implants, however, have more than twenty sound channels, allowing users to hear with much better clarity. The implant is still far from perfect, with background noise continually being a problem. However, the technology has advanced to such a point now that voices can be heard with enough clarity to be readily understood and identified, making verbal communication possible and productive. UNI. It is a two-way communication tool for hearing-impaired persons that relies upon gestures and speech technology. It works by detecting hand and finger gestures with its specialised camera algorithm, then converting these into text in a very short time to provide meaning to a given sign language. A voice recognition software converts www.EFymag.com

biotech

RoboDesk for wheelchair-bound people (Image courtesy: wfdd.org)

speech into text for two-way communication. UNI also allows users to create their own sign language with its sign builder, so it is easy to add custom language to dictionaries. It is a subscription-based app with two versions, one requires a data connection while the other doesn’t. Transcence. Transcence is a mobile app that makes group conversations possible for hearing-impaired people. In a conversation, using the microphone of each participant’s smartphone, the app catches what the participant is saying, then converts it into text in real time. All speakers are assigned corresponding text bubbles, differentiated by colour, just like what we would find in a regular group messaging chat room.

Devices for people with speech impairment DynaVox EyeMax. This device gives paralysis, cerebral palsy and stroke victims the ability to participate in spoken communication using only their eyes. Using a sophisticated eye tracking system, users can interact with an on-screen keyboard to enter words and phrases. These words and phrases are then translated into 22

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spoken text using text-to-speech mechanism of the device. In addition to the on-screen keyboard, the language software on the device offers hundreds of pre-defined phrases and words, which can be selected from lists or chosen via pictures and scenes. This makes the device instantly accessible to young children and people with mental disabilities who may be unable to grasp written language. Talkitt. This application helps people with speech and language disorders to communicate with clarity. It translates unintelligible pronunciation into understandable speech, so the other person can understand what the user said. It works by learning the user’s speech patterns first, creating a personal speech dictionary. Then it identifies and recognises the unintelligible pronunciations, translating them into speech people can understand.

Technologies for others AxS map. Many public places are not equipped with facilities like wheelchair ramps and wheelchair-accessible restrooms. This causes inconvenience to those who need a wheelchair

to move around. AXS Map is a crowd-sourced map that provides information about wheelchair-accessible ramps and restrooms in public places such as restaurants, hotels and shopping malls. Star ratings help users know how well-designed these facilities are. Assist-Mi. This app connects service providers and caregivers with specially abled users on the go. Users can get assistance in real time at the touch of a button. Services include help in getting to work, shopping and travelling. The Mi-Profile feature of the app lists users’ needs so service providers know what to do when assistance is requested. The app also supports two-way communication and GPS for better information on location. Liftware. It is a self-stabilising handle that can be attached to eating utensils like forks and spoons. It is very helpful for people with Parkinson’s disease or other forms of motion disorders that cause hand tremors. Liftware stabilises up to 70 per cent of the disruption and helps reduce the amount of spillage before food reaches the patient’s mouth. The Liftware system comes with a charger and three utensils, a spoon, a fork and a soup spoon in addition to the handle. Depending on how long the user’s meals last, Liftware lasts for three to six meals between charges. The handle can be wiped clean, while the spoons and fork can be washed like a normal utensil. HeadMouse Nano. HeadMouse Nano replaces the standard computer mouse for people who cannot use or have limited use of their hands. Mounted on the top of a laptop’s screen and showing an onscreen keyboard, it tracks and translates natural movements of the user’s head into directly proportional mouse pointer movements—move your head and the mouse pointer moves as well. The HeadMouse has a wireless optical sensor that tracks a tiny disposable target worn www.EFymag.com

biotech by the user on forehead, glasses or even a hat. With HeadMouse Nano’s high tracking resolution, users can perform such tasks as drawing, photo editing, graphic illustration and computer-aided design. Bionics. Advances in 3D printing and bio-electronics are allowing replacement of lost limbs with prosthetics, giving specially abled people extra functionality. Bionics enables prosthetic limbs such as hands that can be controlled via a mobile app. DEKA robotic arm. This highly sophisticated and highly functional prosthetic arm for injured people has such precision and control that the user can peel a grape. The arm supports a number of customisable controls and modular components, making it easy to tailor to users’ individual needs, whether they require only a hand or an entire arm and shoulder socket. Another promising feature of the arm is its sensory feedback system. RoboDesk. It is a special sensor device for people in wheelchairs who face the problem of ‘pressure sores.’ Pressure sores are caused by sitting or lying in the same position for too long. This decreases blood circulation to the area under pressure, eventually leading to a breakdown of the skin in that area. The RoboDesk sensor device fits snugly on a wheelchair seat and connects to a smartphone app via Bluetooth. If the app notices that the pressure over an area of the skin hasn’t changed over a certain period of time, it will notify the user as a reminder to move. Developers of the device are contemplating a version for hospitals, where critical care patients are at an increased risk of developing bedsores. HeadMouse Extreme. It replaces the standard keyboard for those who can’t move their hands. It translates the head movements into proportional mouse pointer movements, performing the respective operation. Gesture Search. This Google app for Android helps users to find something quickly on their Android device. Users need to draw a single initial character to get a quick list of matching items on their device. The app helps users to quickly navigate through contacts, applications, settings, bookmarks and much more with utmost ease.

Key to success People with disabilities often benefit from technology developed for regular consumers, but it also works the other way around. It has been found that when manufacturers design with special needs in mind, their products get better for everybody. While it’s a great news for specially abled people that tech companies are taking interest in making products for them, there’s still a long way to go as high cost of these products remains the biggest barrier to their adoption. 24

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ultrasonics

Cleaning Silently With Sound WaveS

O

ften, we struggle to clean electronic gadgets and other gizmos, especially those having small, delicate, inaccessible parts. The proven solution to such a need is an ultrasonic cleaner. In order to understand how an ultrasonic cleaner works, we should look at the techniques behind it and its inner electronics.

T.K. Hareendran is founder and promoter of TechNode Protolabz

Fig. 1: Portable ultrasonic cleaner

Nothing but a bubble At the heart of ultrasonic cleaning is a bubble. Bubbles are created by ultrasonic sound waves (having frequencies higher than audible sound) as these move through water. This is known as cavitation, which is simply the formation of bubbles (cavity) in water. Since bubbles created through cavitation are just empty spaces, there is nothing to keep these open. As a result, bubbles implode almost as fast as these are created. In an ultrasonic cleaner, this happens millions of times per second. This constant implosion produces tremendous vacuum energy in the form of heat and pressure that gives enormous cleaning power to ultrasonics. When cavitation happens near a dirty object, vacuum action produced by those millions of bubbles constantly imploding creates a tiny pressure wave that reaches deep into every nook and cranny of even the most delicate items. This tiny pressure wave dislodges and breaks up the dirt and other contaminants and gently lifts it away. The result is very fast and effective cleaning.

The silent scrub You can use ultrasonic cleaning for fast and perfect removal of contaminants from objects by immersing these in a tank of fluid flooded with ultrasonic waves. Ultrasonic energy enters the fluid within the tank and causes the rapid formation and implosion of minute bubbles. The bubbles rapidly increase in size until 26

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these implode against the surface of the object immersed in the tank. The resulting enormous energy release lifts contamination off the surface and innermost recesses of even intricately-shaped parts. Ultrasonic cleaning is the ultimate solution for cleaning contact lenses, jewellery and metal goods such as dental tools, watches and screws. With the right method, ultrasonic cleaning can thoroughly strip the object of dirt, dust, grime and other contaminants, both on the outer and inner surfaces, without causing any damage to the object. The cleaning process is non-destructive and produces consistent cleaning results of the highest standard, time after time. Ultrasonic cleaning is an energy-efficient, environmentally-friendly and technicallyfeasible alternative to cleaning solvents that are ozone-depleting and have other undesirable characteristics. Reduced emissions, biodegradable waste and a safer working environment are among the many benefits of using an ultrasonic cleaner.

Cleaning machines Nowadays, in addition to industry-grade equipment, lightweight (portable/desktop) ultrasonic cleaners are also available for day-to-day cleaning of objects. These cleaners come in a range of sizes that have different working frequencies. Desktop models with lower frequency (40kHz -70kHz) waves are good for home and dental equipment. Powerful cleaners capable of making ultrasonic frequencies as high as 200kHz (70kHz -200kHz) are expensive, but worth the investment for precious jewellery and objects with fragile parts, such as watches and contact lenses. Basic components of an ultrasonic cleaner include an ultrasonic transducer, an ultrasonic generator and a tank filled with aqueous solution. The key component is the transducer that generates the high-frequency mechanical energy. Outer body of the ultrasonic cleaner consists of a stainless www.EFymag.com

ultrasonics ultrasonic cleaner. Electronic goods and jewellery, however, need a more powerful cleaning agent. Note that, water-soluable special ultrasonic cleaning solution is also available. It conducts ultrasonic waves better than regular water. Some of these ultrasonic cleaning solutions are generalpurpose, while others are intended for specific objects.

Fig. 2: Process of ultrasonic cleaning

Inside electronics

Fig. 3: Types of ultrasonic cleaners Fig. 5: Electronics of a Chinese ultrasonic cleaner

Fig. 4: Ultrasonic cleaning solutions

steel tank (usually accompanied by a steel mesh basket to keep the object), also known as the ultrasonic tank. A transducer is usually placed at the bottom or on the sides, or sometimes both when watt density is a concern. It can be welded directly into the tank, or a watertight immersible unit can be placed directly into the aqueous solution. The ultrasonic generator converts a standard electrical frequency of 50Hz - 60Hz into high frequency required for the task, in the ultrasonic range. A piezoelectric transducer, commonly used in common models, contains piezo-ceramic crystals that change their size and shape when exposed to ultrasonic waves. This causes the sides and bottom of the tank to vibrate and form innumerable microscopic bubbles in the fluid. As 28

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these expand and compress alternately, a vacuum cavity builds up within these. In addition, the crystals’ constant impact against each other produces heat energy. Since cleaning of some objects calls for precise time and temperature control, a timer and heater circuitry is also included in the ultrasonic cleaner. (Heated ultrasonic cleaning improves the cleaning efficiency by removing trapped air in the fluid.) Besides, auto-follow electronic circuitry in latest ultrasonic generators is designed to maintain the centre frequency when the ultrasonic tank is subjected to varying load conditions. When parts to be cleaned are placed in the tank, or when water level changes, the load on the generator changes. With auto-follow circuitry, the generator matches electrically with the mechanical load, providing optimum output at all times to the ultrasonic tank. When it comes to the cleaning solution, regular tap water works just fine for a desktop (home-grade)

Electronics of an ultrasonic cleaner consists of a power supply, an ultrasonic generator and transducers. Usually, a main printed wired board (PWB) holds all components of the power supply and the ultrasonic generator. A sub-circuit board is used for the microcontroller based timer/heater commander, and this board also carries user interface keys, indicators, the display panel and so on. Whole electronics of a Chinese ultrasonic cleaner (40kHz/100W) is shown in Fig. 5. Piezoelectric ultrasonic transducers are made up of several components. The ceramic (usually lead zirconate) crystal is sandwiched between two strips of tin. When sufficient voltage is applied across the strips, it creates a displacement in the crystal, known as piezoelectric effect. In principle, the ultrasonic transducer is effectively a series-resonant LC circuit, where piezo plate electrodes form a capacitor, and the resonating mass acts as an inductance. The metal horn attached to the transducer focuses the energy into a small area, as demanded by the specific application. The horn vibrates at its own resonant frequency, so resonant frequency of the complete setup (transducer and horn) is a blend of the two. When the transducers are epoxied to a diaphragm on the walls or the bottom of the tank, displacement in the crystal causes a movement of the diaphragm, which, in turn, causes a pressure wave to be transmitted through the aqueous solution in the tank. The transponder driver circuit is, in fact, a variation of the famed Royer www.EFymag.com

ultrasonics

Fig. 6: Partial schematic of an ultrasonic cleaner with a clear view of transponder driver circuitry

etration and cleaning in the smallest crevices and between tightlyspaced parts in a cleaning tank. Typical applications found in the metal industry are removing chips and cutting oils Fig. 7: Removal of flux from printed circuit board using an ultrasonic cleaner from cutting and machining operations, removing buffing and polishing oscillator—an electronic relaxation compounds prior to plating operaoscillator that employs a saturabletions, and cleaning greases and sludge core transformer. Fig. 6 shows the from rebuilt components for automopartial schematic of an ultrasonic tive and aircraft applications. Fig. 7 cleaner with a clear view of the shows a typical application examtransponder driver circuitry. ple—flux removal from printed circuit Ultrasonic cleaning removes board using an ultrasonic cleaner. a variety of contaminants from parts immersed in aqueous media. Give care Contaminants can be dirt, oil and grease, to name a few. Materials Efficiency of the core component, the that can be cleaned include metals, transducer, affects both the cleaning glass, ceramics and so on. Ultratime and efficacy achieved during the sonic cleaning is powerful enough cleaning cycle. As the cleaning power to remove tough contaminants, yet of a unit stems from the transducer’s gentle enough not to damage the performance, it is good to select a substrate. It provides excellent penreputed-brand ultrasonic cleaner inte30

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grated with reliable transducers. Besides, there are other variables that need taking into account when cleaning items. Heat, power, frequency, detergent type and time influence the overall cleaning process. Also note that, the main electronic circuitry in most heated tabletop models is susceptible to damage from excess temperatures, so it should be set at optimal levels as recommended by the manufacturer. Whenever possible, it is best to use a water based detergent in the ultrasonic cleaning process. Water is an excellent solvent. It is non-toxic, non-flammable and environmentalfriendly. Cavitation energy in a water based solution is more intense than in an organic solvent. Similarly, temperature of the solution has a profound effect on ultrasonic cleaning potential. Higher temperatures will result in higher cavitation intensity and better cleaning. However, if the temperature approaches the boiling point of the solution (water cavitates most effectively at about 70°C), the liquid will boil in the negative pressure areas of the sound waves, reducing or eliminating cavitation. www.EFymag.com

tutorial

Laser: An Innovative Tool For Multidisciplinary Applications

L Subhranshu Sekhar Samal is senior scientific officer, ITRA-Media Lab Asia (Ministry of Electronics and IT), New Delhi Ashank Bharati is BE-II (CSE), Siddaganga Institute of Technology, Tumkur Amrita Samal is co-founder, Evergreen Association, Odisha

Scientist doing research in a quantum optics lab

32

ight in general and lasers in particular are ruling the world of science and technology for decades now. Interdisciplinary applications of lasers are in the fields of medical science, communication, defence, security, data storage and more. The most important application of light as a laser is in day-to-day challenges faced by people of the world, due to its unique characteristics. This article focuses on laser and its major applications.

What laser is The word laser stands for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation. The unique property of laser, emission of coherent light, makes the applications of laser cutting and lithography possible. Laser pointing is also an application based on the property of the laser to follow a narrow path over great distances. In the vast heaps of applications, laser finds a place in optical disk drives, laser printers, optical fibres (hence, optical

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communication), barcode readers, laser surgery, dermatology, cutting, welding, photo rejuvenation, endarterectomy, ophthalmology, military law enforcement devices for locating targets and measuring range and speed, and laser lighting displays in entertainment, among others. Having properties like coherence and mono-chromaticity, a laser can be focused as a narrow beam over a very small area up to distant places without any reduction in power. Hence, a laser produced by stimulated emission of light can be employed in applications where light, if required, cannot produce spatial coherence using simpler technologies. During 1960s, when the laser was invented, it was known as the solution looking for a problem, as a laser finds its utility in varied applications.

Applications of lasers The various applications of lasers are described below. Defence. The purpose of knocking down an enemy tank requires that the range (locating the target) is accurate. High intensity and low divergence of the laser satisfies this need. Neodymium and carbon-dioxide lasers are used as standard items for artillery and tanks. Laser rangefinders are lightweight, having reliability and superior range accuracy. When a laser beam is directed towards a target and reflected light from the target is received by an optical system and detected, corresponding time taken is measured. Half the time recorded is multiplied by the velocity of light and product to calculate range. A laser finder is powerful www.EFymag.com

tutorial make inter-continental ballistic misfrom a laser, with extremely small than a microwave radar as the siles obsolete. divergence that can be achieved in former provides better collimation, There are many limitations, the following four ways: which makes high angular resoluhowever, to the laser playing an 1. The laser beam is used to iltion possible. Having the advananti-missile role. Huge power staluminate the target tank. The tage of greater radiant brightness tions are required to produce huge anti-missile system then homes and the fact that it is directional power lasers. CO2 and chemical in on the target, as the latter beeven after travelling long distanccomes a source of back-scattered es, the size of emitting system is lasers developed in the USA and radiation. gradually reduced. A laser rangeRussia produce huge power in con2. A laser beam is used to profinder of medium range (up to tinuous mode, which is sufficient vide guidance instructions to 10km) is used in several defence to destroy enemy battle tank. the missile. areas, including: Data storage. Optical tech1. Tank laser rangefinders for batniques play a major role in storage tle tanks of high-density data. These are Defence anD Security 2. Portable laser rangefinders used based on the principle that, when  Marking targets in field artillery fire-control a powerful laser illuminates a thin  Guiding systems layer of metal, its optical properammunitions 3. Air-borne laser rangefinders for ties change. As a laser beam can  Missiles air forces be focused on points smaller than  Electro-optical counter measures 4. Laser walkie-talkie one micro diameter,  Blinding troops rangefinders it takes less than one meDicine anD Another application square micro to record enforcement healthcare anD Scientific/ of laser is lidars (or, one bit of data, that  Bloodless surgery tech reSearch laser radars). These is, 100 million per  Laser fingerprint  Kidney stone are better than microsquare cm. There are detection treatment laSerS waves, as lasers can laser CDs and DVDs  Forensic science  Dermatology  Spectroscopy  Ophthalmology be focused with lenses available in the market  Laser ablation  Dentistry and mirrors easily with the required data  Laser scattering  Neurology while microwaves need stored in the form of microscopy  Tissue repairs huge antennae and audio, video, docu Metrology  Cosmetology commercial anD components. Moreover, ment, etc. Interestentertainment dimension and disingly, erasable disks  Laser printers  Optical disks tance of target can be are now coming into the picture,  Barcode scanners obtained with high accuracy in case something that was considered to  Thermometers of lidars. be a drawback.  Laser pointers The types of lasers used are Holography. The technique of  3D holograms carbon-dioxide lasers, Q-switched obtaining an image of a 3D body on  Laser light shows or gallium-arsenide semicona 2D photographic plate is termed  Decoration ductor. High power output with as holography. The stored image requisite spectral purity producis called a hologram. The whole Applications of lasers tion capacity of CO2 laser is better process is based on the interference produced by the interaction of twofor this purpose. High frequency beam monochromatic light waves 3. The missile itself carries a laser of CO2 lasers also produces high under certain conditions. scanner and a seeker for active Doppler shift even from slowThe hologram is recorded when homing on target. moving targets. Fine beam width a part of the emitted laser beam 4. The missile rides the laser beam and high Doppler shift give CO2 or reference beam goes directly towards the target. lasers an unparallelled imaging to the photographic plate and the In an anti-missile defence setup, capability. Radar systems are used other part being object beam is a laser is used to dispose of the for measuring radial velocities to reflected from the object and made energy of the warhead, by partially track low-flying aircraft and slowto fall on the photographic plate, damaging the missile. Tremendous moving objects. hence interfering with the referenergy is required to completely Then, there are laser-guided ence beam to produce an interferdestroy the missile. According to anti-missile systems that can be ence pattern, which is called a predictions, lasers will ultimately guided by an infrared beam emitted 34

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tutorial hologram. Even if the hologram is broken into pieces, single pieces produce the whole image of the body with reduced intensity. Holography is used for diagnosis in various fields of medicine, non-destructive testing, holographic information storage, display devices and pattern-matching procedures in credit cards and identity card verification. It is also used for establishing a secret communication system by storing secret documents, maps and objects as holograms and reconstructing the image only at the receivers’ end. It is expected that in the near future, holography may even be used for target recognition from air to ground, and we may have holographic movies and TVs. Communication. Properties of a laser like wide bandwidth and narrow beam width over long distances enable its utility in this field. The semiconductor laser is generally used for optical-fibre communication, which is excited directly by electric current to yield a laser beam in the infrared region. Capacity of the communication channel is directly proportional to the bandwidth of frequency. So at optical frequencies, the information-carrying capacity is higher than at lower frequencies. Communication of signals where light is used as a signal carrier and optical fibres as transmission medium is called optical-fibre communication. The first ever optical-fibre communication system was established in 1977. Since then, millions of dollars have been spent on long-distance communication where data or signals are converted into light pulses or codes using a suit36

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Institutes/Research organisations in the field of lasers 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47.

RRI (DST), Bengaluru, Karnataka IISc, Bengaluru, Karnataka LEOS (ISRO), Bengaluru, Karnataka Manipal University, Karnataka NCBS, Bengaluru, Karnataka PRL, Ahmedabad (ISRO), Gujarat SGSIT, Indore, Madhya Pradesh DAVV, Indore, Madhya Pradesh RRCAT, Indore (DAE), Madhya Pradesh UGC-DAE CSR - Indore, Madhya Pradesh TIFR, Mumbai (DAE), Maharashtra BARC (DAE), Mumbai, Maharashtra Pune University, Maharashtra SAMEER, Mumbai (MeitY), Maharashtra DIAT, Pune (DRDO), Maharashtra IIT Mumbai, Maharashtra UGC-DAE CSR - Mumbai, Maharashtra IRDE, DEHRADUN (DRDO), Uttarakhand ARCHEM, University of Hyderabad, Telangana CLPM, ARCI - Hyderabad (DST), Telangana IIT, Patna, Bihar LASTEC (DRDO), New Delhi IIT Delhi, New Delhi Delhi University, Delhi NPL, Delhi (CSIR), Delhi IISER, Mohali, Punjab NCESS (MoEs), Kerala ISP, CUSAT (Kochi) - Centre of Excellence in Lasers & Optoelectronic Sciences (CELOS), Kerala IIST (ISRO), Trivendrum Sathyabama University, Chennai, Tamil Nadu IGCAR, Kalpakkam (DAE), Tamil Nadu NCUFP, University of Madras, Tamil Nadu IIT Madras, Tamil Nadu UGC-DAE CSR - Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu SN Bose National Centre For Basic Sciences, Kolkata (DST), West Bengal IICB (CSIR), Kolkata, West Bengal Calcutta University, Kolkata, West Bengal Jadavpur University, Jadavpur, West Bengal IISER, Kolkata, West Bengal SINP (DAE), Kolkata, West Bengal IIT Kharagpur, West Bengal IACS (DST), Kolkata, West Bengal UGC-DAE CSR, Kolkata, West Bengal IIT Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh IIT Guwahati, Assam BS Abdur Rahman University, Chennai, Tamil Nadu University of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala

able light source. Light signals are transmitted through the core of optical fibres, amplified at the receiving end and converted into readable electrical signals by decoding light signals and, hence, getting the required original information. As light has high information-carrying capacity, optical-fibre communication is most probable these days. Moreover, light can easily be transmitted through extremely-thin hair-like fibres to large distances without reducing the intensity. Advantages of optical-fibre communication are: 1. High information-carrying capacity 2. Free from electromagnetic interference 3. Lightweight 4. Minimum signal leakage Due to these advantages this system finds many applications in the field of telecommunications. The telecommunication market for optical fibres has exploded in several developed countries like the USA, the UK, France, Denmark, Germany and Japan. Medicine. No talk on laser in medicine can be done without mentioning Leon Goldman, the father of laser medicine. He was the first to use laser to treat a skin disease, which developed as dermatology. Photo-rejuvenation is a process in which lasers are used to evaporate moisture from tissues responsible for wrinkles, dark spots and the like, from the face and create a layer of selfhealing wounds. Lasers have been extensively used in surgery, the very first being eye surgery where a laser was used to weld detached retinas and photocoagulate the vessels that grow in retinas, www.EFymag.com

tutorial thereby blocking vision. Laser beams easily pass through transparent portions of the eye, including the cornea and lenses, to reach the region where energy of the laser is absorbed and used for treatment. Traditionally, the use of xenon arc lamps and sunlight to focus over the choroid coat was really painful and required high-level anesthesia. Introduction of high-pulsed lasers like Nd:YAG was a major breakthrough when dealing with eyes. When focused on a tiny spot at the detached retina in order to weld it to the choroid coat, it leads to painless surgery. Lasers are also used to burn small tumors on the surface of the eye or its vessels. These are being used to treat coma, cataract, sealing of retina and viral diseases of the eye. As lasers are less damaging than x-rays, these are extensively and

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Professional bodies in laser and allied fields 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Indian Laser Association Photonics Society of India Optical Society of India IEEE-Photonics Society IEEE-Laser and Electro-Optics Society SPIE - The International Society for Optics and Photonics

effectively used to treat different types of cancers by removing those enlarged tissues that are responsible for the cancer. Lasers are also effective in curing diseases of gynecology, ear, nose, throat, tongue, palate and cheeks. These are effective in reducing tumors, too. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is the new form of cancer treatment, which combines laser with lightsensitive dye, hemato-porphyrin derivative (HPD), which is derived

from cow’s blood, and travels through the body of a patient and settles in malignant tissues. An argon red light is used to activate the HPD, which energises to release a highly-reactive chemical that destroys cancer cells. Reports say that PDT is 80 to 90 per cent successful in causing total regression of tumors. Lasers are also used to treat colonic and gastro-intestinal cancers. Tools like endoscopes use laser energy to destroy neuro-plastic tissue while preserving the bowel wall integrity. Lasers also find a role in clearing kidney stones. Lasers are used for dental treatment, too. Using a process called laser glazing to perform tooth decay clearance, a high-intensity laser is focused on the decayed tissues of the tooth. This destroys the infections in the affected areas in a fraction of a second.

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networking

Software-DefineD networking: A Revolution

T Prof. Arjav A. Bavarva is working as assistant professor at Department of Electronics & Communication, School of Engineering, RK University, Gujarat. His areas of interest are electronics, wireless communication and networking

Number of users (billion)

Amee Badiani is an electronics hobbyist. Her area of interest is networking

pletely opposite architecture. Device-level he research for a new paradigm for management is eliminated from networking. a better architecture of networking Here, the network administrator has the began in 2004. After several proposauthority to shape the traffic from a cenals and researches, the concept of softwaretralised control console without configuring defined networking (SDN) emerged in individual devices in the network. Unlike 2008. In 2011, Open Networking Foundatraditional networks, where the switch tion was formed to take this concept to an forwards all frames as per a pre-defined executable level. The foundation consists of program, SDN has the provision to send the 69 members including Cisco, Juniper, HP, decision to switch through an application Dell and IBM. running on a server. Also, the switch can Google, Yahoo, DT, Microsoft and Facequery the controller to provide information book serve as the Board of this foundation. about the current traffic. This results in a One of the first SDN projects was AT&T’s highly-scalable, flexible and agile network. GeoPlex. Some of the available commodity switches that are compliant with OpenFlow Need for new architecture protocol of SDN are Hewlett-Packard (8200zl, 6600, 6200zl), Brocade (5400zl, 3500/3500yl) There are several reasons why the tradiand IBM NetIron CES 2000 Series. tional hardware-centric architecture needs In traditional networks, most of the netto be replaced. work functionality is implemented in hardIncreasing number of users. As shown ware devices like switches and routers. In in Fig. 1, advancement in technologies is such systems, each appliance needs to be leading to a drastic increase in the number configured individually. Moreover, a router of Internet users. Technologies and devices will treat all incoming packets equally and are becoming user-friendly. These have will follow the same protocols for all. now become an inevitable part of our daily Inculcating such functionality is under lives. This calls for a demand of upgrade the control of the device provider. So in the technology to accommodate the when a new technology, feature, update increasing traffic. or application is introduced, all hardware Continuously varying traffic pattern. devices need to be replaced. Thus, it has The number of users at any particular place been found that traditional net3500 working evolves 2923 slowly, is not 3000 2710 dynamic and has 2510 2500 limited functional2271 2032 ity, as provided by 2000 1751 the vendors. Being 1561 hardware-centric, 1500 1365 1151 it proves to be a 914 1024 1000 huge challenge 785 677 when the network 495 500 394 is big and complex. 0 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014* SDN can be treated as a comFig. 1: Increasing number of Internet users (Courtesy: www.statista.com)

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networking

42

60 Number of connected devices (billion)

is not always the same. Traffic pattern, thus, keeps changing continuously. There is a drastic change in the number of users at day time than at night time. Due to such variations in traffic pattern, there arises a demand for a flexible technology that should be capable of handling such traffic. To eradicate vendor dependence. Traditional networking devices are functioned and programmed by technicians. The network administrator cannot modify the program or update the protocol. Thus, when any new algorithm or protocol is to be implemented in the network, altogether, the existing devices become useless. Evolution of Cloud technology. Companies are now moving towards Cloud computing. Most of their data is stored on Cloud servers for easy and quick access. Ultimately, it increases the burden on network architecture and increases traffic. Increasing number of networking devices connected through the Internet. As shown in Fig. 2, researchers predict from the statistics that the number of connected networking devices may reach 50 billion by 2020. Fig. 3 reveals the complexity of the network. To manage and control such a tremendous volume of traffic, appropriate architecture is required. Evolution of the Internet of Things (IoT). As shown in Fig. 4, the IoT may connect 50.1 billion networking devices by 2020. The IoT market rev-

50.1

50 42.1 40

34.8 28.4

30 18.2

20 10 0

8.7

2012

14.4

11.2

2013

22.9

2014

2015*

2016*

2017*

2018*

2019*

Fig. 2: Number of connected networking devices worldwide (Courtesy: www.statista.com)

2020*

enue is expected to grow from US$ 1.928 billion in 2013 to US$ 7.065 billion in 2020. Such a rapid evolution results in the demand for highly-reliable and agile networking architecture. Data-intensive services offered by the IoT like video surveillance, emergency services and uninterrupted monitoring demand a technology that supports the cause with excellent quality of service and high data rates.

Architecture components of SDN

Fig. 3: Complexity of network due to connected networking devices (Image courtesy: https://en.wikipedia.org)

Fig. 4: Growth of the IoT

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Fig. 5 shows the various components of SDN architecture. The architecture comprises three planes, namely, data, control and application. Data plane includes the dedicated hardware and is responsible for the processing of packets as well as traffic forwarding. In the controller plane, policies are configured to define the scope of control given to SDN application and to monitor system performance. Optimising resource allocation and checking network failure are also the roles of controllers. In both planes, security functions are considered to ensure secured intercommunication. As demonstrated in Fig. 6, in traditional networking, each device has an embedded set of protocols that make the routing decision. Whereas in SDN (Fig. 7), there is a central network operating system (OS) that controls all devices in the network. All decision-making protocols www.EFymag.com

networking Application Layer Business Applications API Control Layer

API

SDN Control Software

Network Services Control Data Plane Interface (e.g., OpenFlow)

Infrastructure Layer Network Device

API

Network Device

Network Device

Network Device

Network Device

Fig. 5: SDN architecture components

and access-control algorithms are centrally managed by the control plane.

OpenFlow protocol OpenFlow is an application program interface (API) that provides interface between data and the control plane. It controls the forwarding table of the router from a remote location. OpenFlow based controllers maintain an inventory of all paths of the network and store these for further allocation. The controllers update the flow table as per network traffic, using OpenFlow protocol. Northbound. In general terms, Distributed algorithm running between neighbours northbound inComplicated task-specific distributed algorithm terface allows network components to communicate with higher-level components of the same network. Here, northbound is the API that interfacFig. 6: Traditional control mechanism (Image es control plane courtesy: www.ieiit.cnr.it) Routing, access control, etc

Control Program Global Network View

Network OS (e.g., NOX)

Forwarding Model

Fig. 7: Controlling mechanism in SDN (Courtesy: www.ieiit.cnr.it) www.EFymag.com

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networking Feature

Feature

Feature

Network OS

OS

Feature

Feature

Custom Hardware

OS

Feature

Feature

Custom Hardware

OS

Feature

Custom Hardware Feature

Custom Hardware

Feature

Custom Hardware

OS Feature

Feature

Custom Hardware

Custom Hardware

Custom Hardware

OS Custom Hardware

tRaditiONal

Custom Hardware

SDN

Fig. 8: Central management in SDN (Courtesy: www.ieiit.cnr.it)

with business application plane. Southbound. Southbound interface allows network components to communicate with lower-level components of that network. In SDN, OpenFlow protocol behaves as southbound, enabling intercommunication of controller and data planes. Extensible Markup Language (XML) and Lisp are other examples of southbound SDN.

Implementation considerations Three basic aspects that are taken into prime consideration while implementing the new architecture are: Quality of Service (QoS). Considering the current trend of growing Internet users, the prime factor for acceptance of any new technology is the QoS it provides. The traffichandling capacity and error rates are the parameters that judge the efficiency of any technology. Protocols for dynamic networking are needed to be designed such that there is no compromise with the QoS it offers. Security. SDN security requirements differ from those of a static network due to their inherent characteristics. Protocols are expected to reduce the security threats by deploying SDN controllers within their secure computing environments. Being dynamic, SDN is more prone to hazardous security attacks. However, the networking environment needs to be scalable, secured and efficient, simultaneously. 44

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Flexibility. Adaptation of new technology is possible only if its implementation has flexibility. The objective behind switching to a new technology can be achieved by making the technology user-friendly. Also, scalability is a mandatory characteristic of any network, especially when it is a dynamic architecture as more number of private networks join the existing network every day (the IoT).

Benefits of SDN Better traffic-handling capacity. In today’s networks, proprietary firmware on the switch determines where frames are forwarded. In SDN, network administrators can actually shape network traffic. They can do this from a centralised network console that integrates the information and controls all their network switches into a kind of network fabric. They can also change data traffic rules on-the-fly if they need to. The network administrator has complete control over network traffic through a software interface that SDN provides. This allows organisations to decrease their reliance on more expensive switches with proprietary firmware that perform these functions—and that must be set manually. Relaxing vendors from the burden to embedding specific functionalities into individual devices. Since vendors do not need to embed any single function/program into individual devices,

their task becomes easier and time saving. A common prototype of a device can be approved, and all devices must be manufactured such that these are flexible and programmable. Central management. SDN provides network administrators an opportunity to make their network device adjustments through a software interface instead of manually configuring individual hardware. Fig. 8 shows the comparison between traditional networking and SDN. It is clearly displayed that, in SDN, no separate network OS is available with individual devices. Rather, a central OS controls each and every connected device, and all features are generalised and not specific for individual device. To summarise, owing to the increase in the use of the Internet and evolution of new technologies like Cloud computing and network virtualisation, there is need of a new architecture that can offer flexible and affordable services. SDN is a promising architecture that removes manual configuration and hardware dependence. It is totally software-centric, and the authority to configure and implement different protocols and handle traffic is provided exclusively to the administrator. This promotes efficient use of bandwidth and better handling of traffic. Networks would no longer be a mere collection of various hardware devices. www.EFymag.com

tech focus

Building A Future With 5G T Purba Das is senior business journalist with EFY

he abysmal state of healthcare in India can be attributed to lack of adequate number of healthcare experts and specialists in the country. And for a long time now we have been struggling to make healthcare services affordable but without success. With experts betting big on 5G technology to enhance connectivity, we can expect to address this grave issue soon. Rajan Mathews, director general, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), says, “The latest iteration of mobile broadband technology, 5G, will bring in new unique network and service capabilities.” “It will be a thousand times faster than 4G and will provide Internet access in areas that have yet not been tapped because of various roadblocks,” he adds.

What went wrong with 4G Vertica Asthana is a technical journalist at EFY

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At present, India is struggling with 4G technology. 4G technology is supposed to use orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) instead of timedivision multiple access (TDMA) in order to minimise interference and cross-talk.

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According to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), a 4G network should enable a mobile device to exchange data at 100Mbps as against 3.84Mbps in 3G. The main aim of graduating to 4G from 3G was to offer long-range, highspeed wireless communication. Interestingly, of the 2355MHz spectrum auctioned across the seven bands, only 40 per cent was sold with no buyers for 700MHz and 900MHz bands. There are only a handful of companies in 2300MHz, while majority is operating in the 1800MHz band. It should be noted that telecom operators bid selectively to fill gaps in the network coverage and enhance spectrum portfolio, especially for 4G services. Despite being rolled out by telcos, 4G is still in the nascent stage. So what really went wrong? Telcos have been doling out 4G despite giving a miss to 3G stage of broadband mobile communications. While this is not completely true, it is worth noting that telcos’ reluctance to invest in the requisite infrastructure for 3G is the prime reason behind 4G’s failure. www.EFymag.com

tech focus The poor and limited coverage even in metros is because the country still doesn’t have adequate number of 3G-enabled towers. According to a report, of the 350,000 towers, only 60,000 are 3G-enabled, which means that the promised speed is not available to everyone. The inconsistency in the speed as well as quality can be attributed to lack of a fibre-optic system which would have supported high bandwidth of the 3G technology—a must for high-bandwidth networks. To deploy 3G and 4G, telcos have been using microwave links to support the towers. And while 3G network was supposed to offer data speed of 3Mbps to at least 21Mbps, the actual speed was lower than 1Mbps, blurring the line between 2G and 3G. At best, 3G was used to stream audio and videos at an agonisingly low speed. This explains why 4G failed to take off in India. The jump from 2G to 4G without working on the requisite infrastructure, i.e., fibreoptics base for 3G, did hamper 4G with quality of service and data speed remaining disappointingly low. However, network providers have now realised that in order to successfully implement the next generation of wireless communication, i.e., 5G, they would need to address this gap. And thus, they have started investing in fibreoptic communications extensively. As per industry experts, currently, India is installing only 15 million kilometres of fibre every year, as against 50 million kilometres of fibre required for efficient and effective implementation of both 3G and 4G services. Reliance Infotel is setting up its own fibre-optic base for not only inter-city communication but intra-city services as well. Nevertheless, installing the fibre-optic base is not an easy process as it 48

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means digging at several places to put fibre ducts across the city. This could be one plausible reason why telcos did not switch to fibre-optics backbone earlier.

5G: Taking it to the next level The next-generation wireless broadband technology will make the world smarter. From multimedia messaging to video streamlining, from connected vehicles to autonomous driving, from Nano IoT to implantable wearable—every application is expected to move to the next level. 5G is hopping to a new level where innumerable devices can be connected to each other using D2D standard and where security breach is extremely difficult. This D2D technology would be beneficial even when the network is out of range. A wide array of sensors network can be used for home security systems, energy grids and entertainment. Basically, 5G is 4G technology integrated with Worldwide Wireless Web. Currently, in terms of bandwidth, it offers more than 1Gbps as against 200Mbps offered by 4G. Communications sector is going to see a massive increase in demand once 5G takes shape. Therefore to supersede the existing technology, 5G needs to lower its bit rate value. While we have discussed data speeds of both 3G and 4G earlier in the article, 5G is expected to be at least ten times faster than 4G, i.e., at least 10Gbps. In order to support such high bit rate, the latency (the time taken to stream a video or any other function) needs to be very low at around one millisecond. However, a few telco players have ambitious expectations as far as 5G is concerned. According to a report by 5G.co.uk, experts project that 5G networks will be capable of data transfer at speeds of up to

20Gbps. Similarly, Nokia expects 5G to enable streaming of an 8k video in 3D. Experts suggest that 5G will provide ultra-fast, ultra-reliable and ultra-high-capacity transmission at low latency, making communication and streaming faster.

The current scenario Globally, work has started on 5G. The US is one of the first countries to usher in 5G by opening up the high-band spectrum for the technology. According to reports, the Federation Communication Commission (FCC) in the US has already started work in the area. Samsung Electronics America along with Cisco partnered with American telecom major Verizon to announce 5G trials in eleven cities of the US back in February this year. The multi-vendor end-to-end 5G trial was the first in the field that was launched in Michigan. Trials for at least five cities in the US are scheduled by the second quarter of FY18, while a total of eleven pilot trials will be carried out by the end of 2017. The trial network has a 5G virtualised packet core as part of the Cisco Ultra Services Platform with Cisco Advanced Services and Samsung virtual RAN (vRAN) solutions. It has been paired with Samsung’s 5G radio base stations and 5G home routers, which will deliver broadband services to Verizon’s customers who have signed up for the trials. The three companies have followed Verizon’s 5G Technical Forum specifications—a series of network vendor interoperability tests to demonstrate seamless inter-working between core network, radio edge and user devices to exhibit next-generation network virtualisation via multivendor support. “We’re very excited about the possibilities this opens up in www.EFymag.com

tech focus terms of network architectures, particularly in view of 5G’s aim to connect new industries and empower unique service scenarios,” said Woojune Kim, vice president and head of Next Generation Strategy, Samsung Electronics, in a press release. He added, “A shift towards network function virtualisation creates new opportunities in the industry value chain, enabling collaboration with pioneering industry leaders to bring greater value to consumers and businesses.” Sharing a similar sentiment, Sathya Atreyam, research manager, 5G and IoT Infrastructure, IDC, notes that the success of 5G depends on developing a framework that is both robust and also offers a frictionless end-to-end convergence of radio access and packet core 5G architecture. Experts note that these trials have thrown light on the readiness of key 5G technologies, thus paving way for commercial deployment of 5G networks. It also highlights that network operators can deploy 5G networks as per their market’s needs by selecting individual network infrastructure components from a variety of vendors. In the UK, the University of Surrey’s 5G Innovation Centre has conducted trials and claims to have achieved higher speeds of about one terabit per second (1Tbps)—which is over 60,000 times faster than the 4G speeds offered. With such an enormous speed, users would be able to download a file around a hundred times larger than a full movie in just three seconds. However, whether this speed can be achieved in real time is still questionable. Chinese smartphone maker 50

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Huawei too has tied up with the university to explore 5G technology along with other interest areas. South Korea aims to release its 5G technology during the 2018 Olympics, using high data transmission frequency of up to 3.2Gbps. Japan too plans to deploy 5G mobile services by 2020 and has already started field trials in Tokyo

and remote areas as well. The first trial, carried out on motorsport racing circuit in Shizuoka, achieved data speed of over 2.5Gbps in a vehicle moving at a speed of 150kmph. The trial was conducted by NTT Docomo in partnership with Samsung Electronics. The Japanese telecom giant also partnered with Huawei for a trial using 23 connected devices, which achieved a cumulative 11.29Gbps of data throughput with a latency level below 0.5 millisecond in October 2016. The government aims

to see if 5G network can be used in high-speed trains as well.

Offering boundless possibilities 5G is touted as the next big revolution in the wireless network. There are huge expectations from this technology as it is expected to offer solutions and enhance not just plain-vanilla communications but also connectivity. Thus, in addition to faster video streaming, 5G will find three key application areas. According to draft recommendations of ITU-Radio communication Standardization Sector (ITU-R), 5G will be widely used for enhanced mobile broadband, massive machine-type communications and ultra-reliable, lowlatency communications. 5G technology will enhance mobile broadband by including Gbps data rates for applications like virtual reality while also supporting extensive growth in data traffic. As far as ultrareliable communications are concerned, 5G’s low latency will ensure faster communication with fewer glitches, thus increasing the efficiency and reducing the lag time in several industries. Sectors such as healthcare, automotive (where smart cars and intelligent mobility concepts are highly dependent on 5G) and the Internet of Things (IoT) stand to benefit significantly from this technology. Mathews shares, “5G will be a key enabler for the IoT by providing a platform to connect a massive number of sensors and rendering devices. It will help service providers overcome present limitations of bandwidth, capacity and infrastructure.” www.EFymag.com

tech focus Earlier this year, Ericsson, in partnership with SK Telecom and BMW, disclosed the 5G outdoor mobility trial in South Korea. This included the first multi-vehicular 5G trials. The trials were conducted on a 5G test network that was installed in the car test track of German auto giant BMW in Yeongjongdo city. The South Korean wireless communication major, SK Telecom, along with Ericsson, deployed network slicing and 5G radio network infrastructure to completely cover trial tracks in the BMW driving centre. The trials were completed successfully and showed that 5G can support V2X (vehicular connectivity) services that require low latency and consistently high bidirectional throughput. The trial also highlighted new key 5G capabilities with multi-site, multi-transmission points with multiple devices operating in the millimeter-wave frequency band. In terms of machine-type communications, 5G will support massive low-cost IoT connections and with wide coverage, providing connectivity in inaccessible areas as well. This is useful for industries that involve exchange of large amount of data. For instance, in fleet management, a 5G network will ensure smooth connectivity by sending updates on engine performance, total miles driven and faults identified in the vehicle. Thus, it would obviate unnecessary costs, optimise drive time as well as maximise fuel efficiency. Besides, experts suggest that 5G will soon become the underlying fabric of our ecosystem, connecting all industries with each other. Robotics and automation, artificial intelligence, avionics and agriculture are just a few other industries that will certainly enjoy what 5G has to offer.

Where India stands Currently, telecom players in India are exploring different upgraded ver52

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sions of 4G, such as 4.5G, 4.5G Pro and 4.9G, to improve coverage and add capacity to the existing network. Moving on to 5G, while this technology is set to be launched in 2020, both the government and the private sector have already started work on it. According to a report, the government has created a research team to do the ground work on 5G in a bid to understand the technology better. It has already filed 100 patents so far. These patents will

A market report suggests that 5G-enabled digitisation revenues in India will be around $26 billion by 2026. Domestic operators can earn an additional $13 billion revenues if they go beyond their traditional roles and serve as service enablers enable India to generate indigenous intellectual property (IP), thus giving bargaining power to the country. Apart from this, telecom giant Ericsson has signed an MoU with IIT Delhi to jointly dole out ‘5G for India’ programme. The company will set up an incubation centre as well as a 5G test bed to work on the technology. In line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Digital India initiative, the programme will help in application development for startups and industries. Other telecom majors such as Airtel and BSNL have joined hands with Nokia to roll out 5G network in India. The MoU signed between them also covers related infrastructure development. Similarly, Reliance Jio has partnered with Samsung to bring

5G network to India as well as enhance its existing LTE network. A market report suggests that 5G-enabled digitisation revenues in India will be around $26 billion by 2026. Domestic operators can earn an additional $13 billion revenues if they go beyond their traditional roles to serve as service enablers. However, all this can be achieved only if India successfully overcomes the many challenges in implementing 5G. Significant investment is required to upgrade the existing infrastructure to 5G. Security and privacy too are major concerns. Increasing the connectivity is yet another challenge. According to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), India had 391.5 million subscribers at the end of December 2016 and a lot of work needs to be done in order to bring everyone into the system. This also implies that consumers will have to upgrade to new smartphones in order to enjoy 5G as this technology is not compatible with previous versions of phones. Lastly, the biggest concern is the availability of spectrum. 5G requires a new high-frequency band to achieve the desired data speed.

What’s next Experts forecast that once 5G is successfully deployed, it will be upgraded with satellite networks that include telecom satellite, earth imaging satellite and navigation satellite networks. There are proposals floating around that suggest installation of nano antennae at different geographical locations such as roadsides, villages, malls and hospitals to broadcast high-speed electromagnetic signals. High-speed optical fibres will be introduced to carry high-speed broadband signals. And it seems like sea to space connectivity would be possible once 5G is deployed completely! www.EFymag.com

embedded

Heterogeneous ArcHitectures And ProgrAmming models

H V.P. Sampath is a senior member of IEEE and a member of Institution of Engineers India. He is currently working as technical architect at AdeptChips, Bengaluru. He is a regular contributor to national newspapers, IEEE-MAS section, and has published international papers on VLSI and networks

Fig. 1: SISD architecture

Fig. 2: MISD architecture

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eterogeneous computing refers to systems which use more than one kind of processor or cores to maximise performance or energy efficiency. The processors incorporate specialised processing capabilities to handle particular tasks. Heterogeneous architectures break away from the traditional evolutionary processor design path, posing new challenges and opportunities in high-performance computing. Heterogeneous computing will continue to add many cores and hardware features such as transactional memory, random number generators, scatter/gather and wider single-instruction multiple-data/advanced vector extensions, ensuring synergies with big data, mobile and graphics markets. It has the potential to achieve greater energy efficiency by combining traditional processors with unconventional cores such as custom logic, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) or general-purpose graphics processing units (GPUs). Instead of using just a single CPU or GPU, heterogeneous architectures add an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) or FPGA to perform highly dedicated processing tasks. Heterogeneous architectures achieve performance gain by parallelism instead of clock frequency.

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Parallelism There are four levels of parallelism in hardware: single-instruction single-data (SISD), single-instruction multiple-data (SIMD), multiple-instruction single-data (MISD) and multiple-instruction multipledata (MIMD). SISD. In SISD, there are tens to hundreds of data paths, which all run by one instruction stream. General-purpose host CPU executes the main application, with data transfer and calls to the SIMD processor for compute-intensive kernels. SIMD has dominated high-performance computing (HPC) since the time of Cray-1 supercomputer. SIMD. SIMD performance depends on hiding random-access memory latency, which may be hundreds of cycles, by accessing data in big chunks at a very high memory bandwidth. Data-parallel feedforward applications are common in HPC. Large register files are provided in data paths to hold large regular data structures such as vectors. MISD. It is a type of parallel computing architecture where many functional units perform different operations on the same data. Pipeline architectures belong to this type, though a purist might say that the data is different after processing by each stage in the pipeline. There is a sequence of data transmitted to the set of processors. Each processor executes a different instruction sequence. MIMD. MIMD class of parallel architecture is the most familiar and possibly most basic form of parallel processor. MIMD architecture consists of a collection of ‘n’ independent, tightly-coupled processors, each with a memory that may be common to all processors, and/ or local and not directly accessible by the other processors. Two subdivisions of MIMD are singlewww.EFymag.com

embedded (SPEs). For example, a GPU with 30 highly multithreaded SIMD accelerator cores in combination with a standard multicore CPU. The GPU has a vastly superior bandwidth and computational performance, and is optimised for rerunning SPMD programs with little or no synchronisation. It is designed for high-perforFig. 3: MIMD architecture mance graphics, where data throughput is the key. CPU + GPU Co-processing FPGA scan also incorporates regular CPU cores on-chip, making it a heterogeneous chip by itself. FPGAs can be viewed as user-defined ASICs that are reconfigurable. These offer fully deterministic performance and are designed for high throughput, for example, in telecommuniCPU GPU cation applications. 48 GigaFlops (DP) 665 GigaFlops (DP) Accelerator cores are deFig. 4: Heterogeneous computing with GPUs signed to maximise performance, given a fixed power or transistor budget. These use fewer program multiple-data (SPMD) and transistors and run at lower frequenmultiple-program multiple-data cies than traditional CPUs. (MPMD). Single-chip cell broadband Algorithms such as finite-state engine architecture consists of a machines and other intrinsically traditional CPU core and eight SIMD serial algorithms are most suitable accelerator cores. It is a very flexible for single-core CPUs running at architecture, where each core can high frequencies. Parallel algorithms run separate programs in MPMD such as Monte Carlo simulations, fashion and communicate through on the other hand, benefit greatly a fast on-chip bus. Its main design from many accelerator cores runcriteria has been to maximise perning at a lower frequency. Most formance whilst consuming minimal applications consist of a mixture power. It defines a new processor of such serial and parallel tasks, structure based upon the 64-bit and ultimately perform best on Power Architecture technology, heterogeneous architectures. but with unique features directed toward distributed processing and Mobile heterogeneous media-rich applications. computing The cell broadband engine architecture defines a single-chip multiMobile systems are more intelligent processor consisting of one or more than ever. As users demand more power processor elements (PPEs) functionality, designers are conand multiple high-performance tinually adding to a growing list of SIMD synergistic processor elements embedded sensors. Image sensors www.EFymag.com

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embedded To address this problem, a growing number of developers are adopting mobile heterogeneous computing (MHC) architectures. One of the primary reasons why system designers are moving to MHC is the ability it gives developers to move repetitive computation tasks to the most efficient processing resources so as to lower power consumption. For example, one key distinction between GPUs, CPUs and FPGAs is how they process data. GPUs and CPUs typically operate in a serial fashion, performing one calculation after another.

Designers’ approach

Fig. 5: Mix of programming models

support functions such as gesture and facial recognition, eye tracking, and proximity, depth and movement perception. Health sensors monitor the user’s EKG, EEG, EMG and temperature. Audio sensors add voice recognition, phrase detection and location-sensing services. Consequently, major silicon vendors now spend their transistor budget on symmetric multi-core processors for the mass market. This evolutionary path might suffice for two, four and perhaps eight cores, as users might run that many programs simultaneously. However, in the foreseeable future we will most likely get hundreds of cores. This is a major issue: If silicon vendors and application developers cannot give better performance to users with new hardware, the whole hardware and software market will go from selling new products to simply maintaining existing product lines. Today’s multi-core CPUs spend most of their transistors on logic and cache, with a lot of power spent on non-computational units. 60

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Processor design has always been a rapidly evolving research field. Many of these same devices now offer ‘context-aware’ subsystems that allow the system to initiate highly advanced, task-enhancing decisions without prompting the user. For example, temperature, chemical, infrared and pressure sensors can evaluate safety risks and track a user’s health in dangerous environments. Precision image sensors and ambient light sensors can boost image resolution and display readability automatically as environmental conditions change. These new capabilities significantly impact system design. To optimise decision-making, these devices must collect, transfer and analyse data as quickly as possible. The faster the system responds, the more accurately it can adapt to rapidly changing conditions. Furthermore, since ‘context-aware’ systems must be ‘always on’ to track changes in the environment, these new capabilities significantly drain system power.

If designers want to reduce system latency to respond to sensor inputs in real time, they must accelerate the system clock and, in the process, increase power consumption. FPGAs, on the other hand, enable a system to perform calculations in parallel, which, in turn, reduces power consumption, particularly in compute-intensive repetitive applications. The fact that FPGAs have thus far been used sparingly for these tasks can be attributed to a common misconception—many designers think of FPGAs as relatively large devices. However, this is not necessarily the case. Low-density FPGAs offer a number of other advantages in the current generation of intelligent systems. The rapid proliferation of sensors and displays in today’s mobile devices presents new challenges from an input/output (I/O) interface perspective. Designers must integrate sensors and displays with a growing diversity of interfaces, including legacy systems using proprietary or custom solutions. In many cases, designers can use low-density FPGAs or programmable application-specific standard products built around an FPGA fabric to aggregate data from multiple sensors onto a single bus or www.EFymag.com

embedded CUDA vs OpenCL CUDA

OpenCL

Use compiler to build kernels

Build kernels at runtime

using special application programming interfaces (APIs).

OpenMP

‘C’ language extensions—also API only; no new compiler a low-level driver-only API

OpenMP (Open MultiProcessing) API supports Buffer offsets allowed API calls to execute kernel multi-platform shared Pointer traversal allowed Buffer offsets not allowed memory multiprocessing programming in C, C++ and Fortran. It consists of a set of combridge between multiple disparate piler directives, library routines and interfaces. With reprogrammable environment variables that influence I/Os, these FPGAs are capable of run-time behaviour. supporting a wide variety of bridging, buffering and display applicaOpenACC tions. The recent emergence and rapid adoption of low-cost Mobile OpenACC (for open accelerators) is Industry Processor Interfaces (MIPI) a programming standard for paralsuch as CSI-2 and DSI has helped lel computing developed by Cray, to simplify this task. By utilising CAPS, Nvidia and PGI. The standard the latest advances in I/O from the is designed to simplify parallel promobile computing market and MIPI gramming of heterogeneous CPU/ together with the inherent advanGPU systems. The programmer can tages of low-density programmable annotate C, C++ and Fortran source logic in MHC architectures, designcode to identify areas that should be ers can optimise their systems’ abilaccelerated using compiler directives ity to collect, transfer and analyse and additional functions. this key resource. The four steps to accelerate the code include: Identify parallelism, CUDA approach express parallelism, express data locality and optimise. CUDA architecture enables generalpurpose computing on the GPU Selection of CUDA and retains traditional DirectX/ OpenGL graphics. The dominance The selection of CUDA as the of multi-core systems in all domains programming interface for FPGA of computing has opened the door programming flow offers three to heterogeneous multi-processors. main advantages: Processors of different compute 1. It provides a high-level API for characteristics can be combined to expressing coarse grained paraleffectively boost the performance per lelism in a concise fashion within watt of different application kernels. application kernels that are going to GPUs and FPGAs are becoming be executed on a massively parallel popular in PC-based heterogeneous acceleration device. systems for speeding up compute-in2. It bridges the programmabiltensive kernels of scientific, imaging ity gap between homogeneous and and simulation applications. GPUs heterogeneous platforms by providcan execute hundreds of concuring a common programming model rent threads, while FPGAs provide for clusters with nodes that include customised concurrency for highly GPUs and FPGAs. This simplifies parallel kernels. However, exploiting application development and enables the parallelism available in these efficient evaluation of alternative kerapplications is currently not a pushnel mappings onto the heterogeneous button task. Often the programmer acceleration devices without timehas to expose the application’s fine consuming kernel code rewriting. and coarse grained parallelism by 3. Wide adoption of the CUDA www.EFymag.com

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embedded FPGA can provide the processing power (via numerous embedded micro-CPUs) and logic capacity for both software and hardware implementations of CUDA kernels.

FASTCUDA approach

Fig. 6: CUDA programming model

programming model and its popularity render a large number of existing applications available to FPGA acceleration. Even though CUDA is driven by the GPU computing domain, CUDA kernels can indeed be translated with FCUDA into efficient, customised multi-core compute engines on the FPGA.

CUDA programming CUDA enables general-purpose computing on the GPU (GPGPU) through a C-like API which is gaining considerable popularity. The CUDA programming model exposes parallelism through a data-parallel SPMD kernel function. Each kernel implicitly describes multiple CUDA threads that are organised in groups called thread-blocks. Thread-blocks are further organised into a grid structure (Fig. 6). Threads within a thread block are executed by the streaming processors of a single GPU streaming multiprocessor and allowed to synchronise and share data through the streaming multiprocessor’s shared memory. On the other hand, synchronisation of thread-blocks is not supported. Thread-block threads are launched in SIMD bundles called ‘warps.’ Warps consisting of threads with highly diverse control flow 62

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result in low performance execution. Thus, for successful GPU acceleration it is critical that threads are organised in warps based on their control flow characteristics. The CUDA memory model leverages separate memory spaces with diverse characteristics. Shared memory refers to on-chip SRAM blocks, with each block being accessible by a single streaming multiprocessor (Fig. 6). Global memory, on the other hand, is the off-chip DRAM that is accessible by all streaming multiprocessors. Shared memory is fast but small, whereas global memory is long-latency but abundant. There are also two read-only off-chip memory spaces, constant and texture, which are cached and provide special features for kernels executed on the GPU.

FASTCUDA FASTCUDA platform provides the necessary software toolset, hardware architecture and design methodology to efficiently adapt the CUDA approach into a new FPGA design flow. With FASTCUDA, CUDA kernels of a CUDA-based application are partitioned into two groups with minimal user intervention: those that are compiled and executed in parallel software, and those that are synthesised and implemented in hardware. An advanced low-power

Today’s complex systems employ both software and hardware implementations of components. Generalpurpose CPUs, or more specialised processors such as GPUs, running the software components, will routinely interact with special-purpose ASICs or FPGAs that implement time-critical functions in hardware. In these systems, separation of duties between software and hardware is usually very clear. FASTCUDA aims to bring software and hardware closer together, interacting and cooperating for execution of a common source code. As a proof of concept, FASTCUDA focuses on source codes written in CUDA. Source code example follows: //kernel __global__ void vectorAdd (float *A, float *B, float *C) { int i = threadIdx.x; C[i] = A[i] + B[i]; } # define N 100 #define M N*sizeof (int) //host program main() { int A[N], B[N], C[N]; ... //copy input vectors from host memory to device memory cudaMemcpy( d_A, A, M, cudaMemcpyHostToDevice); cudaMemcpy( d_B, B, M, cudaMemcpyHostToDevice); // kernel invocation vectorAdd<<<1,N>>>(d_A, d_B, d_C); //copy output vectors from device memory to host memory cudaMemcpy(C, d_C, M, cudaMemcpyDeviceToHost ); ... } www.EFymag.com

embedded

Fig. 7: FASTCUDA block diagram

Fig. 8: FASTCUDA toolset

Threads within a thread-block are synchronised, and executed by a single streaming multiprocessor inside a GPU. These share data through a fast and small private memory of the streaming multiprocessor, called ‘shared memory.’ On the other hand, synchronisation between threads belonging to different thread-blocks is not supported. However, a slow and large ‘global memory’ is accessible by all thread-blocks. Similar to a GPU, FASTCUDA employs two separate memory spaces (global and local) as well as a similar mapping of the blockthreads onto the FPGA resources. www.EFymag.com

Bringing software and hardware close together, FASTCUDA accelerates execution of CUDA programs by running some of the kernels in hardware. A state-of-theart FPGA will provide all the required resources; multiple embedded micro-CPUs for the host program and software kernels, and logic capacity for hardware kernels. Fig. 7 shows the block diagram of the overall FASTCUDA system. A multi-core processor, consisting of multiple embedded cores (configurable small processors), is used to run the host program serially and software kernels in parallel. Threads belonging to the same CUDA thread-block are executed by the same core. Hardware kernels are partitioned into threadblocks, and synthesised and implemented inside an ‘accelerator’ block. Each thread-block has a local private memory, while the global shared memory can be accessed by any thread following the philosophy of the CUDA model. The FASTCUDA toolset (Fig. 8) is responsible for automating most of this process, thus minimising user intervention.

Design space exploration The first step is to decide how to make the best use of the available FPGA resources for a given CUDA program. The next is to know what percentage of the FPGA real estate should be allocated to the multi-core processor for software kernels, and what percentage should be allocated to the accelerator for hardware ElEctronics For you | July 2017

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embedded kernels. This is followed by the information on which kernels are to be run in software and which in hardware, area-speed tradeoff best for each of the harware kernels and optimal configuration (number of cores, cache sizes, memory banks, etc) for the multi-core processor. This is done by carefully examining through several simulation and synthesis runs. The simulation tool provides runtime estimates for Fig. 9: Multi-core processor execution of each kernel in software, for several configurations of the multi-core processor (with varying cache sizes, memory banks, etc). The synthesis tool provides latency estimates for execution of each kernel in hardware, with varying hardware footprints (trading area for speed).The design space exploration tool uses these area and performance estimates, along with its full knowledge of the underlying platform’s resources and availFig. 10. CUDA kernel porting process using MCUDA able configurations, to heuristically search for the best answers to the questions listed above. User experience can be used to guide the tool, e.g., by restricting the search to a smaller set with the most ‘interesting’ multi-core configurations.

Multi-core processor The CUDA host program as well as software kernels, i.e., the subset of kernels determined by the design space exploration tool, run in software on the multi-core processor (Fig. 9). It uses Xilinx Microblaze soft cores with separate instruction caches and a shared data cache, all communicating through two AXI4based buses. FASTCUDA follows a similar mapping of the threads with a GPU. Each core executes thread-block, which can use the core’s scratchpad memory as a private local memory. All the threads from any thread block can access 64

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Fig. 11: CUDA kernels in hardware

the global shared memory, which can also be accessed by the hardware accelerator. The AXI4_Lite bus is used for communication between the multi-core processor and the accelerator block that is running hardware kernels. A simple handshake protocol is employed to pass the arguments and trigger a specific hardware kernel to start running, which will then respond back when it has finished running. Lastly, the timer and mutex blocks on the AXI4_Litebus are a requirement for symmetric multiprocessing support of the runtime on the processor.

Implementing CUDA kernels on the multi-processor The OS-level software running on the multi-core processor here is a modified version of the Xilinx kernel ‘Xilkernel.’ Xilkernel supports POSIX threads, mutexes and semaphores, but was meant to run on a single core, thus having no support for an SMP environment like the one here. We consequently had to add SMP support to Xilkernel. CUDA kernels are supposed to run on SIMT devices (GPUs), which are drastically different from multicore processors. Thus, the next step is to port the CUDA kernels, using MCUDA, to run on top of the multicore multi-threaded environment provided by modified Xilkernel. MCUDA transforms the CUDA code into a thread-based C code that uses MCUDA library in order to create a pool of threads and coordinate thread operations as well as provide the basic CUDA runtime functionality for kernel invocation and data movements. Xilkernel provides the mutex support required by MCUDA library and the thread-based support required by multi-threaded software kernels. In CUDA the host program is usually run on a chip separate from the CUDA kernels; the first is run on a general-purpose CPU and the latter on a GPU. Thus the CUDA programming model assumes that the host and device maintain their own separate memory spaces, referred to as host memory and device memory, respectively. The execution of a kernel involves: 1. Memory transfers of input vectors from the host memory to the device memory, 2. Kernel execution, which uses input vectors in order to generate output vectors and www.EFymag.com

embedded 3. Memory transfers of output vectors from the device memory to the host memory. Addresses of input and output vectors are passed as arguments to the CUDA kernel. In contrast, FASTCUDA runs everything on the same chip, thus favouring a different memory model where all the threads of a kernel and the host program can share a single global memory. In this model, hardware kernels inside the accelerator have direct access to the memory in order to read their input vectors and write output vectors.

Implementing CUDA kernels in hardware In FASTCUDA, the code of hardware kernels is preprocessed before synthesis. To aid in this preprocessing the programmer is required to use ‘#pragma’ directives in order to specify which

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ones among the kernel arguments are inputs and outputs, as well as their sizes. The result of translation from CUDA to SystemC is given below: //SystemC module\ SC_MODULE (addMod) { sc_in A, B, C, threadIdx_x; sc_port sMem, gMem; sc_in clk, start; sc_out done; SC_CTOR(addMod) { SC_CTHREAD(add, clk); reset_signal_is(start); } // kernel void add() { int i = threadIdx_x; gMem.writeFloat (C+i, gMem.readFloat(A+i) + gMem.readFloat(B+i)); }

SystemC interface called ‘fcMem’ is provided, like in latest GPUs,

to better exploit the AXI interface bandwidth.

Potential applications Heterogeneous systems use advances in computing architectures to deliver improvements in power efficiency, performance, programmability and portability across computing devices. However, with heterogeneous architectures, care is required by the programmer to fully utilise hardware. Potential applications include smartphones, wearables, drones, high-end cameras, human-machine interfaces, industrial automation platforms, and security and surveillance products. The architecture has the potential to accelerate design of mobile and IoT edge devices, as it can easily handle features like voice, gesture and image recognition, haptics, graphics acceleration and signal aggregation.

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design

Developer BoarD TrenDs For Industrial Applications

H Vertica Asthana is a technical journalist at EFY

rishikesh Kamat, CEO, Shalaka Technology, recalls the challenges faced by one of his clients due to their machine operators’ lack of understanding of a machine. The CNC machine, which cost over ` 100,000, broke down and plant administrators and operators could not figure out the fault in time. Unfortunately, the company had to replace the costly CNC machine. Had there been an industrial board instead of the regular board in the CNC machine, it would have indicated to the administration specific breakdown points, ensuring long-term efficient functioning of the machine with no room for errors. Industrial boards are regular design boards that embed multiple functions in one single unit or board, allowing users to interface smoothly with any application as per their needs.

Understanding the need for industrial boards From robotics to embedded systems, factory automation to building automation,

smart grid to motor drives, smart lighting to space, avionics and defense, industrial developer boards are significant in almost every aspect. These are quite handy for designers as they need not rework the PCB layout for different applications, with just the controller programming serving the purpose. Industrial developer boards are customer-centric as against regular developer boards, which are more productcentric in design. For instance, a regular power supply has inbuilt over-voltage, over-current and over-load protection. But if an industrial application demands an alarming signal along with blinking of an LED to indicate over-voltage, over-current or over-load conditions, there will be a specified industrial developer board to serve this purpose. This board will then be modified by either using a microcontroller circuit to program the IC or by making changes in the components based on the calculations done. In microcontroller-based industrial boards, functions can be added by

(Image courtesy: booksigma.com)

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www.EFymag.com

design changing the controller program. Industrial developer boards reduce the bill-of-material and space requirements as these can handle SMD components. Pallav Aggarwal, engineering manager, Toradex systems India, says that factors like longevity, warranty and flexibility make industrial boards a preferred option compared to normal boards. He adds that industrial temperatures may range from -40 degrees to +80 degrees centigrade from industry to industry. Interestingly, existing industrial developer boards are all geared up for innovation in the year 2017. We bring to you the latest trends in industrial boards used in some of the most dynamic and fastgrowing industries.

Moving on from silicon to gallium nitride Earlier, industrial developer boards used silicon technology field-effect transistors (FETs) for power electronics applications in automotive electrical and electronic systems, and commercial, industrial or residential utilities. However, these have now graduated to gallium nitride as it can support higherfrequency-driven systems like boost LED drivers of higher wattages and systems utilising higher voltage output (up to 1kV). GaN FETs are commonly used in servers and LED drivers. The design of these FETs improves thermal dissipation, providing much better efficiency as well as high-speed switching.

Equipped with RF transmitter One of the major changes in industrial boards has happened in the robotics segment. Keeping up with the latest trends, industrial developer boards have now been revamped with both hardware and software upgrades. Earlier, robots were manually controlled to avoid unnecwww.EFymag.com

essary power consumption by them. To address this issue, the design of industrial developer boards used in these robots has been upgraded. According to Akshat Garg, analogue application engineer from Texas Instruments, manufacturers have now equipped these boards with an RF-based detector that uses antenna instead of optics. In order to make the board compact, the antennae are embedded in the system. This has not only condensed the board but also reduced the processing time. Besides, the industrial developer board software has been completely transformed from normal image processing to focus more on XYZ coordinates in order to enable robots to easily identify objects in 3D space. These developer boards are now being used by designers in heavy automation segments like conveyor belts, pick-and-place machinery, oil drilling rigs (which go very deep and impossible to operate manually), and placement of gems or diamonds on jewellery.

Better connectivity One of the major changes in industrial developer board design is the transition from Bluetooth 4.2 to the latest version Bluetooth 5.0. Earlier, the lighting application (primarily in sectors such as lighting, automotive and aviation) used Bluetooth 4.2, which did not have mesh facility in the developer board. Thus, the connectivity between different systems was limited. Nevertheless, with advancement to Bluetooth 5.0, systems are now interconnected with each other and can be accessed by a single remote. This has further enhanced the exchange of data exponentially as the speed of data transfer has increased and the time reduced.

This facility is embedded in the microcontroller on the development board itself.

Multipurpose boards Prahlad Supeda, senior application engineer, Texas Instruments, adds that till recently, customers were provided with different industrial boards for different applications. However, this is changing as the demand for a compact and complete industrial board is rapidly growing. For instance, aviation and automobile manufacturers used separate developer boards for dashboards incorporating features for telematics control, radar, body electronics and lighting. From the dashboard of the vehicle to the cockpit of the plane, all have a control panel that consists of speedometer, accelerometer, fuel indicator and many such instruments. These were all controlled through different industrial developer boards. But now, automobile manufacturers are producing cars that are usually well equipped with Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, indicators, odometer, fuel indicator, theft alarm and many such features. And all this is being done using a single board and a controller that is equipped with all these features. Similarly, infotainment system, cluster, automotive and advanced driver-assistance systems are integrated on a single MCU. This reduces the wire harnessing, simplifying the anatomy of cars while making these safer as well as far more efficient.

Last but not the least Industrial developer boards are constantly evolving. However, be it a replacement for components upgrade or protocol upgrade, manufacturers and customers always go for a combination of low cost and best in technology. ElEctronics For you | July 2017

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lighting

How Type ‘A’ LED TubEs Make Business Sense

I Paromik Chakraborty is a technical journalist at EFY

n an enlightening customer story, Philips on its website shares the experience of State Bank of India, Agra Branch, which recently switched to LED lighting. The bank was looking for a lighting solution that would decrease energy consumption and save costs while also creating a soothing ambiance. LED lighting provided the bank with an efficient, longlasting, ambient, high-output solution and consequent energy saving of 50 per cent. LED lighting solutions come in various form factors, including bulbs, tubes and floodlights. Here we talk about LED tubes only. LED tubes were introduced in the market in the early 2000. Currently, the retrofit LED tubes market can be divided into three categories—Type A, Type B and Type C. Type A being the most popular of the lot, here we discuss their benefits and challenges.

Benefits of Type A LED tubes A Retrofit LED tubelight

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Type A LED tubes replace the existing fluorescent tubes, keeping the ballast and fixture unchanged. Thus, the installation cost of LED tubes is nearly negligible. Other benefits of Type A retrofit LED tubes are mentioned below.

July 2017 | ElEctronics For you

Slash electricity bill by 50 per cent. Type A LED tubes come with three of the most sought-after features that reduce expenses in the long run. These include high efficiency, long usable lifespan and less maintenance requirements. LED tubes significantly cut down the energy consumption, and thus, your electricity bill. On an average, genuine-quality LED tube lights can help users to lower electricity consumption by 50-80 per cent compared to CFLs and incandescent. Unlike the 360-degree emission pattern of fluorescent tubes, Type A LED tubes emit light in a single direction, avoiding unwanted loss of energy. Lower energy wastage also implies lower power consumption. Therefore LED tubes consume less power than CFLs and incandescent light bulbs but deliver brighter output. The light efficiency of LED tube lights is represented in lumens per watt. Type A LED tubes with a genuinequality driver can run for more than 50,000 hours in suitable conditions, while the lifespan of fluorescent or incandescent tubes is limited to within 10,000 hours. That means there is no need to frequently replace or fix damaged tubes. Easy installation. Type A retrofit LED tubes don’t require rewiring or reconfiguration of the setup. Users just need to www.EFymag.com

lighting replace the old fluorescent tube with the new LED tube, keeping the fixture, ballast and all other pre-existing components intact. The tube itself comes with an integrated driver that co-exists with the ballast. This helps to reduce labour costs and efforts, injury risks as well as installation time. “The installation cost of Type A LED tubes depends on a few factors such as the existing ballast’s compatibility with the LED tube,” says Rajeev Kr Rohatgi, director, Binay Opto Electronics. Environment-friendly. LEDs are devoid of mercury or any other harmful chemical, which makes them very safe for use. LED tube lights also substantially reduce the emission of carbon dioxide, ultraviolet rays and other pollutant elements compared to conventional lighting products. Incandescent lights waste 90 per cent of the electricity they consume as heat, producing carbon dioxide in the process. Fluorescent lights, on the other hand, contain mercury— a hazardous liquid metal that can cause some serious health problems if released into the atmosphere. According to the National UJALA Dashboard website maintained by Energy Efficiency Services Limited and the Ministry of Power, India, as of April 2017, over 1.8 million LED tube lights were distributed throughout India. This initiative resulted in reducing carbon dioxide emission by over 67,000 tonnes and energy consumption by almost 82.4 gigawatt-hours. Cooling and calming effect. LED tube lights have a high colour rendering index range, which reduces stress on the eyes while working. Additionally, LED tube lights are dimmable, allowing users to set the ambiance in their home or office environment. The various colour temperature options determine the intensity of the light output, ranging from reddish, orange, yellow, white up to bluish-white. Colours emitted by LED tube lights have a very significant effect on the human health and productivity. Bright www.EFymag.com

bluish-white LEDs have an energising effect on users, while warm yellowish light has a calming effect. “The colour of white is used for human productivity. The ideal lighting system is one which changes in consonance with the sun’s colour. In many offices abroad, when you first enter the office, you find very bright bluish-white lights. This level of brightness at the start of the day acts as your first cup of coffee to kick-start your brain. During lunch hours, the brightness of this light is reduced to warm yellowish colour, to allow the staff to relax. This whole concept of controlling the brightness of light is called ‘Human-Centric Circadian Lighting,’” explains Rohatgi.

Challenges Dependence on ballast. Ironically, the ballast itself becomes a redundant part of the Type A LED tube system. The ballast causes an additional power drainage through the system simultaneously with other components, thus decreasing the tube’s efficiency substantially. Plus, the ballast doesn’t last as long as the tube, leading to early repair or replacement costs of parts (or even the entire system). Tube replacement is strictly subject to ballast compatibility. Before replacement, users need to ensure that their new tube is compatible with the existing ballast. Voltage and temperature sensitivity. LEDs require a stable temperature range—a voltage above the threshold value and a current below the indicated rating. Proper heat-sinking setup and electronically controlled voltage passage along with external regulation of voltage and temperature are required for proper functioning of the device. This calls for precision engineering using good-quality driver and fixture components. While LED tubes seem like a huge capital expenditure, benefits in the long run far surpass the initial investment made. After all, at the end it is all about making your business smarter. ElEctronics For you | July 2017

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test & measurement

Network ANAlysers Moving To Lasers For Increased Effectiveness

B Saurabh Durgapal is working as technology journalist at EFY

enchtop network analysers have seen huge design changes in the last few years, mostly to ensure an integrated approach to measurements on active devices such as amplifiers and frequency converters. With the growing popularity of dual-source network analysers, measurements can be done with a single instrument. These are also much faster as the sources and receivers are on the network analysers. But more on that later; let us first look at the changes in network analysers over the past few years.

Requirement influencing design Vector network analysers (VNAs) have proven themselves to be accurate, owing to their sophisticated test set design and the kind of applications these are used in. Changes in these systems are concentrated on developing innovative calibration algorithms, measurement applications and digital signal processing techniques. These techniques, for example, are applied once the signal is down-converted and digitised by an analogueto-digital converter. Popular equipment System design has  R&S ZNrun for multi-port device under test changed to accommodate  Anritsu MTA1000 Network Master Pro for advanced measurements LTE network testing like built-in pulse genera Calpods from Keysight for multi-port tors and modulators that microwave spectrum analysis up to 110GHz help characterise radio  R&S SMW200A vector signal generator for 5G testing frequency or microwatt  Anritsu Shockline VNA for S-parameter and components in pulsed time-domain measurement mode. There is a lot of  VNA test cables for operations up to 40GHz development in new confrom Pasternack cepts in millimetre range for a range of applicaOperating laser in a waveguide tions, especially related to RADAR. A pump beam is used to excite a photoconductive With two-source netswitch integrated in a planar waveguide, causing work analysers having a voltage pulses to propagate along the planar built-in combiner, these waveguide. Using Pockels electro-optic effect, the probe beam detects the electric field in the measurements can be waveguide. Shape of the voltage can also be more done very easily. Built-in accurately measured by varying the time delay second source and combetween the two probes. biner networks help with 70

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accurately measuring and calibrating intermodulation distortion (IMD) for amplifiers and frequency converters. Special low-noise receivers are being used for source-corrected accurate noise figure measurements for low-noise amplifiers and receivers. True-mode stimulus allows for fast and fully error-corrected mixed-mode S-parameter measurements. Pulsed measurements. Pulsed measurements for devices such as transmitter and receiver modules, and pulse amplifiers, and noise figure measurements on converters and amplifiers, are some of the recent features being focused on for the design of network analysers. Harmonic specifications of sources improve with the use of filters in more advanced network analysers to enable better mixed measurements and IMD measurements. Third-order IMD in amplifiers requires two sources and a spectrum analyser with traditional approach. But it is not just the feature sets that are changing. Analysers are going through physical changes, too. Aiming for a better handheld device. Connectivity with the network analyser is simpler, and measurements over a wide frequency range can be made much faster. Vendors now aim for smaller, lightweight devices. “Smaller the size, easier the usage and lower the power losses,” is how one vendor succinctly puts it. This has led to an increase in field testing equipment as well. Handheld VNAs cover up to 50GHz range, and integrate full two-port VNAs, spectrum analysers, vector voltmeters, power meters and channel scanners, among other measurement devices. Field testing equipment are being used by engineers, but these have a frequency limitation. Designing handheld equipment means reduction in size, which causes removal of fans, resulting in reduced frequency range. Cabling with focus on quality. Field equipment needs to be rugged and should www.EFymag.com

test & measurement not give in to wear and tear easily. Not only are the test equipment being ruggedised, but also test cables are being improved for better operation. Test cables for improved measurements are a necessity but are often forgotten. Of late, cables are being ruggedised and being made safe for operation at high frequencies up to 40GHz. VNA test cables from Pasternack can withstand production testing for 50-ohm communication systems. Torsion-resistant connector heads are directly attached to the steel conduit cycle to ruggedise the design for up to 75,000 flexure cycles. A word of caution for optoelectronics. With the optoelectronics time-domain measurement method, scattering parameter measurements on planar waveguides up to 500GHz with 500MHz frequency spacing are easily achievable. In addition to high-frequency measurements, this could also be used to characterise high-frequency coaxial devices and to help realise a precise voltage pulse standard. You need to ensure that you remove the effects of the optical to electrical converter of the photo diode by de-embedding these. This is done after the traditional calibration at the network analyser reference plane to remove the effects of RF cables and connectors. USB testing made easy. Windows based operating systems have enabled development of applications for automated gain-compression measurements, mixer measurements, IMD measurements and measurements on balanced device architectures. Also, with the advent of USB based power sensors, network analysers can be used with USB sensors as power meters as well. More recently, femtosecond lasers are making a major difference. Network analysers today offer a higher dynamic range with tuned measurements and excellent receiver linearity. This makes femtosecond lasers a viable option for use in network analysers.

Femtosecond lasers are here For accurate characterisation of a high-frequency device, a directional coupler is used to separate forward and backward propagating signals. After research showed that a frequency-resolved scattering parameter could also be realised using laser based measurement techniques, the femtosecond laser began to be utilised. But, how? The femtosecond laser uses a relatively less complex and less expensive femtosecond laser source to generate short, precise voltage test pulses, which travel along a short gold strip built on a gallium arsenide chip. The pulse’s electric field changes the gallium-arsenide’s refraction index, so that another laser beam can track and measure phase and amplitude as the signal travels down the strip. It can resolve signals travelling both up and down the conductor, to measure the signal reflected by the material in the circuit. www.EFymag.com

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test & measurement Major contributors to this report

Asish Jain application engineer, Keysight Technologies India Pvt Ltd

Marwin Coutinho Nisarg Trivedi engineer, Rohde & application engineer, Schwarz Keysight Technologies India Pvt Ltd

N.S. Mahesh technical director, VigVen Tech Mark Pvt Ltd

New releases focus on higher bit rates Due to an increase in broadband services supporting 4K/8K video streaming, there has been an expansion in optical access networks using passive optical network technology. These are rapidly moving towards higher speeds, while moving to newer standards at the same time, thus, the development of optical line terminal and optical network units for passive optical network systems that require wideband performance and precise measurement. MP1800A from Anritsu, for example, is a plug-in modular bit error rate tester for measuring multichannel interfaces up to 32Gbps. MX180014A software controls MP1800A to generate two-channel test-signal burst patterns and set skew. OLT evaluation input sensitivity and timing tests can be performed using the GUI by setting test signal pattern length and timing. R&S TS-5GCS test setup combines channel-sounding software with the signal and spectrum analyser and the vector signal generator. The setup supports development of applications requiring multichannel scenarios up to 40GHz, allowing measurement of channels in 5G frequency bands in centimetre and millimetre ranges. Very recently, Huwin has introduced a new USB 3.1 Type C test solution. The test fixtures have been designed to measure USB 3.1 Type C connectors using a commercial network analyser.

Analysing future networks Over the past couple of decades, VNAs have increased in popularity over scalar network analysers due to their capability to measure magnitude and phase-over widefrequency sweeps. The latest generation of VNAs can also measure non-linear behaviour of active devices, like gain and phase compression, IMD, AM-AM and AM-PM conversion, and spurious response. Advanced technologies like automotive RADAR, 5G and Wi-Gig, and applications like THz imaging and material measurements at millimetre-wave, mandates designers and researchers to characterise components beyond 67GHz. Add that to the ever-growing list of features in instruments and we come up with the possibility that network analysers may not even be recognisable soon. www.EFymag.com

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test & measurement

Signal and Power integrity: Let Your Product Be In Harmony

A Vertica Asthana is a technical journalist at EFY

n LED light manufacturing unit was working on a 150-watt streetlight project wherein the engineering design team had to rack their brains for a long time over an issue. Their LED supply boards were malfunctioning because the controller ICs would burn out within a few seconds. Later the team realised that the ICs were faulty. The IC manufacturer had to confess about the signal losses arising from the use of poor-quality controller IC. The internal built of the IC was not reliable and had issues with the layout. The entire issue came to light only after the ICs were tested on a signal integrity (SI) measurement instrument. Likewise, designers have reported component failures when these were not tested with power integrity (PI) measurement tools.

Need for signal and power integrity

Fig. 1: Ringing effect in the coil (in magenta colour) due to signal integrity issues (Image courtesy: http://jeelabs.org)

While measuring critical parameters like drain-to-source voltage of MOSFETs, design engineers face frequency fluctuations or varying time-periods as a result of signal integrity issues. These occur due to ground bounce or poor signals, or due to signal losses and power supply noise. Similarly, each electrical system has its own impedance, which can be

impacted due to power integrity issues. Thus, to get the benefits of clean data, time saving and more reliable products, signal and power integrity instruments become a necessity.

Market overview In late 1990s signal integrity issues were common, so designers focused on traces and path of the PCB design too. And now the power supplied to circuits has also become a matter of concern as it gives rise to power integrity issues. Today, designers work on high-speed designs, where signal integrity and power integrity analyses are equally important. Power integrity issues in a design can actually occur as signal integrity issues. As designs become increasingly compact, design engineers are facing far too many integrity issues, which has created a demand for constant upgrades in measurement tools.

Troubleshooting with MSO Signal integrity issues in analogue domain include impedance mismatch, crosstalk and transmission-line effects, while digital issues are setup and hold violation. As analogue signals are responsible for digital signal mismatch, mixed-signal oscilloscopes (MSOs) have been introduced in the market that give a combined result of analogue and digital signals. Thus, a designer can monitor several points in a design simultaneously. MSOs are a powerful tool for troubleshooting signal integrity problems.

Enhancing probes to increase the accuracy Companies have also introduced low-current probes in oscilloscopes to improve the measurement accuracy. These upgrades focus on low-current measurements for small applications such as LED drivers and now feature 1GHz frequency. 74

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www.EFymag.com

test & measurement Ultra-low-capacitance probes have also been introduced with wide bandwidths at probe tips, while the size of the probe tip has been reduced to avoid shorting between components in denselypacked circuit boards. Thus, these provide signals to the acquisition system correctly.

Measuring SI with VNA using frequency multipliers Due to the demand for higherdata-rate devices, signal integrity (SI) test has become more important nowadays. Earlier, vector network analysers (VNAs) were only used to measure ‘S’ parameters (input-output relationship between terminals in an electrical network) in telecom instruments, but now these have been upgraded to cover signal integrity also. These VNAs work in frequency domain and have now been upgraded to 120GHz. VNAs are used for micro-level applications like PCB analysis, where these can point out problems like crosstalk, track discontinuity and copper trace width. There may also be instances of signal fluctuations, called jitters, which mainly occur in clock circuitry but can also arise from power supply noise, crosstalk or even phase-locked loop circuits. Madhukar Tripathi, senior manager, marketing and channel sales, Anritsu India, says that to increase the frequency bandwidth of vector network analysers, external frequency multipliers are added as per the application requirements, like an antenna that needs to operate beyond 100GHz. Thus, testing of high-speed digital circuits or high-bandwidth devices becomes easy for designers, saving their precious time to innovate for future. Tripathy notes, “VNA upgrade has brought about just 20-40 per cent increase in existing prices.” www.EFymag.com

Fig. 2: Image illustrating the crosstalk effect

Standby power measurement using power analysers Power integrity device players too have introduced upgrades, though at a small scale, to measure voltage and current parameters responsible for power integrity. Traditionally, power analysers have been used to measure only the input parameters of a line property, when connected on the input side. However, now these have been upgraded to measure power integrity as well. These are placed on the output side of the product to measure output parameters and check power integrity. Nitin Nigam, application engineer, Tektronix, tells that the bandwidth of power analysers has been increased to use them for PI measurement and also meet application requirements. He adds that power analysers are now coming with an additional functionality of standby power mode. This has been introduced following the government’s directive to save power when devices are not in use. Like mobile chargers, all systems consume a small amount of power even when there is no load but the mains supply is ‘on.’ A power analyser as a PI instru-

ment measures the system’s power consumption in standby mode. So, products that are tested for power integrity, give consumers the benfit of power saving. Monetarily, it is a huge benefit to the manufacturers as well. In power integrity measurement, oscilloscopes with limited bandwidth are preferred as these produce less noise. If a measurement does not require the bandwidth to be extended, the bandwidth is limited to reduce the noise produced.

The way forward Earlier, designers used post-layout analysis, which didn’t guarantee design success. But now by using high-speed design, analysis and verification techniques early in the design phase, designers can eliminate layout iterations and deliver products on time. As SI and PI issues will continue to remain a big concern, the measurement market will evolve and merge to make it easier for designers. But, at present, a more practical approach to measure power integrity and signal integrity is to have instruments that measure them separately. ElEctronics For you | July 2017

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buyers’ guide

How Online UPS Can Save You Money

A Paromik Chakraborty is a technical journalist at EFY

logistics enterprise recently switched to an online UPS system after experiencing regular equipment failures. The company had upped its production, which significantly increased its power consumption. While the company did use lineinteractive system for power backup, constant voltage fluctuations and overload hampered operations, resulting in unnecessary delays. Understanding the limitation of line-interactive systems to deal with frequent voltage fluctuations and higher loads, the enterprise switched to online UPS system. Since then, it has been a smooth sail for the company with very few hiccups.

The underlying technology UPS systems can be divided into three categories—online UPS, offline UPS and lineinteractive UPS. While offline UPS are mostly used in households to offset power cuts, line-interactive UPS are used in offices for power backup. There is technically no hard-and-fast limit of the online UPS power capacity. However, generally, online units have capacities between 1kVA and 500kVA due to high-power requirements of industrial equipment and critical devices. In comparison, line-interactive systems are rated below 1kVA, more commonly within 500VA range. Line-interactive systems can also be scaled to support highpower devices, but the increase in price and size and, more importantly, the lack of effective current-correction provision (something we will discuss later) keep the motive of large-scale backup unattended. As line-interactive UPS systems cost much less, these are sold more—even at enterprise level. However, largesize companies using expensive and sensitive (Image courtesy: www.eliteinfo.in) 76

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devices require higher and cleaner power backup, which makes line-interactive UPS unsuitable for them. Industry-level devices usually require at least 5kVA power capacity, with general requirements ranging above 25kVA, which can go much beyond even 100kVA. Thus online UPS systems are suggested for large enterprises. These systems can again be divided into two categories— online double-conversion and online delta-conversion. Online double-conversion UPS systems have two paths for power flow: inverter and bypass. The main power path of this topology is inverter, which means backup power is provided to the inverter—wasting no time in switching in the event of a power cut. Bypass route is used in case the inverter fails to switch on for some reason. Waiting time for switching to the bypass power path is negligible. There is an internal two-step current conversion (AC to DC, followed by DC to smooth AC) that helps in the rectification and smoothening of the inconsistent input voltages before powering the connected device— saving the device from power surges, sags, brownouts or any other kind of power fluctuation. This is the greatest benefit of the online UPS topology for consumers. However, this is also associated with extra energy dissipation, and therefore reduced system efficiency. Online delta-conversion UPS systems have a comparatively new set of architecture that overcomes the shortcomings of double-conversion mode. While bypass remains the secondary power flow path, just as in double-conversion systems, the delta conversion setup has an additional delta transformer and a delta converter (replacing the battery charger) inserted in the power flow path. Hence, this topology makes direct load connectivity and simultaneous load isolation (in case of any harmful power flow) possible. It also avoids unnecessary power dissipation, increasing the system efficiency. Durwww.EFymag.com

buyers’ guide ing unavailability of AC mains power, the battery kicks in to run the inverter.

Benefits Keeps your devices safe. An online UPS system completely isolates the connected devices from the source by placing itself directly in the power path. The main power route being the rectifier-inverter path, disproportionate DC current and voltages are rectified, removing all sorts of voltage inconsistencies, and thus providing a uniform smooth output to the connected device. This saves sensitive high-end equipment from possible damage. Eliminates waiting time. Since the battery and the inverter are both connected to the main power path of the device, when input current cuts off during power failure, the battery immediately powers up the inverter, keeping the system running without any pause whatsoever. No transfer of power path is required, essentially eliminating the waiting time for the backup to kick in. Mission-critical activities and data centres, where down-time elimination is very essential, stand to benefit greatly from this feature. Long lifetime and easy installation. Online UPS systems, if used under suitable conditions, can go a long way. Batteries may need to be replaced every three to four years, but rest of the device remains functional for a long time. Also, the device installation is simple, requiring only the connection of power grid and devices to the UPS.

Drawbacks High price. Online UPS cost more than double the line-interactive UPS, that too at the basic level. While proper usage can avoid unnecessary repair costs, the initial cost of investment is quite high, making many medium-size businesses prefer other UPS systems. 78

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Why delta-conversion UPS systems are not popular Because of the extra transformer and other components added to the architecture, deltaconversion UPS systems cost 30 to 40 per cent more than their double-conversion counterparts. Consumers in India are not willing to spend extra. To survive in this costconscious competitive market, manufacturers produce only a limited stock of such systems. However, big companies and multinationals, who are well informed, go for delta-conversion models. —Sachin Mittal, branch manager, SPOC Power Solutions

B.N. Mohapatra, purchase manager at DHN Technologies, shares, “Online UPS are most suited for critical applications like healthcare, data centres and any other sector where continuous power supply is most important.” An entry-level 3kVA online UPS can cost anywhere between ` 20,000 and ` 30,000. Higher-rating 60kVA systems cost up to ` 600,000, while mission-critical UPS (such as the ones used in data centres) cost even more. Loss of efficiency in doubleconversion. As stated before, the two-step AC-DC conversion process in online double-conversion systems causes significant loss of energy, lowering the system efficiency down to 89 per cent. Delta-conversion online architecture solves this problem. Unfortunately, there is not much awareness about this benefit of delta-conversion UPS. Nevertheless, industry players are hopeful that the market for delta-conversion UPS will pick up in the future. Kunwer Sachdev, managing director of Su-Kam, explains, “Delta-conversion online UPS are available in the Indian market. As all motor applications in manufacturing units use delta-conversion online UPS, the market for their application is huge.”

What’s the ROI? Annual servicing is a major operational cost, accounting for almost 12 to 15 per cent of the original price of the UPS. Therefore it is important to check service centres and after-sales policy of the UPS manufacturer. An online UPS system’s return

on investment (ROI) is based on the amount of load used, application and purpose, downtime and efficiency of the UPS. Rajesh Manocha, owner of Aropower Technologies, says, “An online UPS can start giving ROI after one or two years if there is a considerable use of the UPS with no downtime. It will take longer to realise the ROI if the UPS suffers a large downtime. Since the UPS architecture can be customised to users’ requirements, the chances of downtime can also be controlled likewise. But the cost of the UPS will vary accordingly.” Any equipment can start giving ROI if the firm is able to utilise its full potential. Mittal explains, “Say, every day there is a cumulative power cut of 30 minutes. The work saved in those 30 minutes, which could have been lost without the UPS, becomes the ROI. For a BPO, for example, saving 30 minutes worth of time and work can save a huge amount of data and finance for the company.”

Solar is the future In the future, customers can expect higher-efficiency online UPS along with lower maintenance costs. “The UPS technology is gaining steam in the Indian market and solar is the future with respect to power backup industry. However, there are many places that have a shortage of installation space and hence the people in those areas are bound to purchase normal online UPS,” says Kartik Sachdev, marketing head, Solar, Su-Kam. www.EFymag.com

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Design, simulate And automate With open source software The following software, besides other, can be found in the DVD accompanying EFY Plus edition of this magazine Pinguino v1.7.1.4 Arduino is a common hardware used for ATMEL microcontroller based projects. Pinguino is an Arduino-like open hardware but based on Microchip’s PIC microcontroller with built-in USB hardware feature. Pinguino IDE is written in Python, while Arduino is written in Java. So, Pinguino is compatible with both 8-bit and 32-bit Microchip microcontrollers. One of its biggest advantages is that it is almost fully compatible with Arduino language and libraries. Bootloader is an important feature of Pinguino. Basically, it is a software running inside the Pinguino microcontroller which helps in transferring the user program from the computer to Pinguino’s microcontroller program memory. Pinguino-based projects can be easily accessed on Windows, Linux and MAC OSX.

PCB artist 3.1 PCB artist is an open source PCB design and simulation software that is becoming popular among designers and hobbyists. Compared to other software, it also provides the facility to upload and send files and gerber for direct PCB manufacturing. So, designers need not whack their brain to search for a PCB manufacturer. PCB artist has a comprehensive component library of five million parts.

Rapid SCADA v5.1.1 (For Windows) Rapid SCADA is a free, open source software to create home automa82

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tion systems, industrial automation systems, energy accounting systems, security and fire alarming systems or any other system that consists of relays, sensors and controllers. The ease of learning this technically efficient software makes it beneficial for end users and integrators. Using Rapid SCADA, one can deliver costeffective solutions and enjoy transparency in implementation phase itself. Above all, users get qualified support and consulting services.

Winlog Lite Winlog Lite is another free and opensource SCADA software for web application development and execution. It allows automatic creation of dataacquisition applications, significantly reducing the development time.

PCB 123 v5.5 It is a one-stop solution that lets users design, layout and move ahead with the manufacturing of the board itself. It also helps with real-time design error reporting, so the user gets an errorfree PCB in one go. Access to component library, devices and layout is very easy. Above all, there is a 3D display, so users can visualise the boards while designing. Support for accurate design for manufacturing or design rule check is another advantage.

Clonezilla As the name suggests, Clonezilla can clone disk partitioning. This free and open source software also allows system deployment, backup and recovery. It can be used for mass deployment in up to 40 computers in a row. It is available for both 32-bit and

64-bit processors. The EFY DVD includes x64 bit version, which requires 194MB of system memory to run. The software supports file systems such as FAT16, FAT32, FAT64, ext2 and ext3.

BioSig v2.82 BioSig is an open source freeware for biomedical signal processing. It allows analysis of biosignals such as ECG, EEG, ECoG, EOG, EMG and respiration. BioSig finds its major application in neuroinformatics, brain-computer interfaces, neurophysiology, psychology, cardiovascular systems and sleep research. It supports research with tools for data acquisition, artifact processing, quality control, feature extraction, modelling, classification, data visualisation, etc.

Deeds 2017 Digital Electronics Education and Design Suite, or Deeds, is an open source freeware for designing logic networks using simple electronic gates, encoder-decoders, multiplexers and demultiplexer. Besides, it can support sequential logic networks from flip-flops to registers and counters, finite-state machine design and microcomputer programming at Assembly level.

Yosys Open SYnthesis Suite Register transfer level (RTL) and Verilog go together as Verilog is the coding language that describes the data transformation performed between registers through combinational logic. Yosys is a free framework for RTL Verilog synthesis. So, users can design, simulate and synthesise using Yosys. www.EFymag.com

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Fritzing: Design Your PCBs With Ease

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ritzing is a CAD software that lets users design as well as simulate. It helps users to build connections between the components and the PCB. This is the basic concept which differentiates Fritzing from other design software. Here is an overview of Fritzing features and the latest updates.

Easy-to-use open source software Fritzing is an open source freeware with prototyping tools to lay out breadboards, create schematics and finally get the PCB manufactured from the design expert itself. It eases the work of designers, hobbyists and makers who are looking forward to work on Arduino, BeagleBone and Raspberry Pi. Fig. 1 depicts how with the help of Fritzing, a designer can connect an Arduino board with its supplementary circuit visible on breadboard. Now, the designer can visualise the placement of components and connections between components. Simulation helps the designer understand accuracy of the circuit and make changes accordingly in the breadboard itself. Thus, it helps the designer to obtain an error-free module, saving time and money. You can see the screen of fritzing and tools in the component library in the right-hand corner.

Fig. 1: Illustration of Fritzing through Breadboard view (Image courtesy: http://fritzing.org)

Fig. 2: Fritzing workbench (Image courtesy: http://blog.frtzing.org)

Fritzing 0.9.3b: Latest version Upgrades included in the new version, Fritzing 0.9.3b, are listed below. Updated component library. The

THE COMPLETE MAGAZINE ON OPEN SOURCE

Fritzing part library is now stored online on GitHub and automatically checked for updates. Thus any upgrade in the software is automatically available to users. This opens

The latest from the Open Source world is here.

OpenSourceForU.com Join the community at facebook.com/opensourceforu Follow us on Twitter @OpenSourceForU

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Fig. 3: IC and its connections (Image courtesy: http://fritzing.org)

Fig. 4: Fritzing parts library (Image courtesy: https://howto-ubuntunew.blogspot.in)

the path for direct user contributions—as described in the Design for Manufacture article being carried elsewhere in this issue, where a small change in Valor tool is done universally without messing up with the perfection of the tool. No more bugs. Earlier, bugs in the complex PCB traces used to mess up with other existing tracks in the layout, making it difficult for the designer to find errors in the circuit. The software supports high-DPI display, making it easy to see. Self-handling of customised tools. Earlier, customised parts used to be stored in a hidden location, which made it difficult for designers to edit them with an external tool. But now, these parts can be conveniently located in the /Documents/ Fritzing folder, making the work much easier for users. Load or save uncompressed Fritzing file. Designers can now use an uncompressed set of compatible files like git or SVN. New file types and shiny icons suitable for MAC OSX platforms have been released in the market. Fritzing is compatible with MAC OSX, Windows and Linux platforms. The source code of Fritzing is written in C++ language. It is available in both 32-bit and 64-bit Linux packages. As with Pad2Pad, users can order the PCB to manufacture on Fritzing Fab itself. This saves them time and money on developer boards from other manufacturers.

Goals of Fritzing

Fig. 5: Schematic view of Fritzing (Image courtesy: http://blog.Fritzing.org)

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There are various licensed and open source design and simulation tools available for PCBs. A complete solution that provides design, simulation and manufacturing is a lucrative offer for designers. Above all, they can visualise their circuits and errors, and rectify simultaneously to validate the design. It is like a box of wonders, which makes the life of designers much easier. www.efymag.com

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Creating Solid Geometry Using BRL-CAD

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nything that happens in real time is easier to conceptualise. This can be well illustrated by 3D games where users find simulation adventurous. It is the thrill of real-time effects that makes these games a hit amongst the masses. 3D simulation can also be a boon for designers who may find designing PCBs pretty boring with a black-and-white screen and 2D images. So simulation designing tools are taking the market by storm. BRL-CAD is one such open source freeware.

3D solid modelling made possible by BRL-CAD BRL-CAD is like AutoCAD in many aspects. It supports 2D and 3D imaging and runs on Windows, Mac OS and Linux platforms. 3D solid modelling using BRL-CAD software can accelerate design, thus saving time and boosting productivity. 3D view helps designers to conceptualise real-time objects. BRL-CAD is a constructive solid-geometry and solid-modelling CAD tool that can be used

Fig. 1: BRL-CAD work page (Image courtesy: www.upubuntu.com)

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in a variety of engineering and graphics applications. It includes geometry editor, ray tracing support for graphics rendering and geometric analysis, computer network distributed frame buffer support, scripting, image processing and signal processing tools. It is mainly used for ballistic and electromagnetic analyses.

Features Geometry editor. BRL-CAD includes features of solid shapes from arbitrary convex polyhedral to ellipsoids, cones, cylinders. Apart from designing solid shapes, it also lets users animate designs without requiring a separate software for visualising 3D solid figures. Designers can add different curve shapes and deformities in a 3D structure. Apart from assembly modelling, BRL-CAD offers advanced surface features such as curvature analysis, draft analysis, thickness analysis and symmetry check analysis. It also includes tools to calculate area and volume of the shapes. Thus, users can be assured that the results are precise. After making various 3D parts, combining them to make one perfect product is possible through 3D. Ray tracing support for graphics rendering and geometric analysis. BRL-CAD uses ray tracing technology to produce a very high degree of virtual realism. This technique can be used in designing where images can be rendered slowly ahead of time, but it cannot www.EFymag.com

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Fig. 2: Mesh network for a 3D figure (Image courtesy: www.abclinuxu.uz)

CAD provides tools to visualise signals and images in 3D modelling system.

BRL-CAD 7.26 version

Fig. 4: Optical effects for 3D modelling (Image courtesy: Wikipedia)

Fig. 3: Ray tracing support for graphics rendering and geometric analysis (Image courtesy: www.cs.utah.edu)

be used for pure animation where speed is the requirement. Thus, it is capable of optical effects like reflection, refraction, scattering or dispersion required in 3D modelling for proper visualisation. Scripting is easily possible for writing programs in special run-time environments that can be operated manually one by one. BRL-CAD uses Doxygen source code to change or move the commands on screen. www.EFymag.com

View angle in BRL-CAD. The viewing angle in BRL-CAD is set as per parameters like azimuth, elevation, twist and amount of zoom. And the image capture can be carried out even when the solid shape is rotating at 360-degree angle. The shape is viewed in MGED and saved by BASH script. The BRL-CAD screen can be skipped directly, but the user needs to follow MGED command window to come out of the tool completely. MGED is the geometry editor. Image processing and signal processing tools. BRL-

NURBS. NURBS provides interoperability with other CAD systems, allowing reduced model sizes. GCV and ICV. These plugin architecture tools for geometry and image conversion are intended to replace all BRL-CAD conversion and process functionality with an easy universal interface for users and application developers. FASTGEN and DATUM. The new FASTGEN exporter implements extensive compatibility feature mapping for round-trip geometry conversion. Datum objects provide new modelling support for reference points.

System requirements BRL-CAD 3D modelling and solid work tool requires a system with multi-core processor. Else, the system might hang or slow down due to heavy files. ElEctronics For you Plus | July 2017

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Fly High With SU2

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he plane in the sky flies high and people looking at it marvel at its design. The complexities in designing the streamlined body of an aircraft are many. To make the designers’ lives easier, we present here SU2 software that helps to simulate the design free of cost.

tions can be simultaneously carried out using SU2. SU2 is conceptualised for supersonic aircrafts too. Not only simulation but also optimisation during aircraft design is monitored by SU2, where free-form deformation (FFD) control point variables keep a check on 3D area for shape deformation.

SU2 5.0.0 The Raven

Within a year of upgrade, SU2 5.0.0 version has come up with special features that were not included in 4.3.0 cardinal. SWIG with high-level API. Now developers can wrap C++ functions for scripting languages. So if you have some C++ funcSU2—an open source suite tions, you can wrap them up in Python using SWIG No one ever ventured into accompanying high-level partial differential equation application programming problems until it was realised interface (API). how optimisation of probInterpolation and lems through multi-physics transfer functions. Samstrategy is possible via compling and experimentation putational analysis. And that give innumerable data, is where SU2 is introduced. which might be discrete. It is penned down in the Introducing another indeeasiest platforms like C++ pendent variable into the and Python. Being an open data to estimate the value source freeware, it beats all of a function is called interthe proprietary, unavailable polation. And this techand expensive software used nique has been introduced over the years for designing for the first time in SU2, aircraft systems. Fig. 1: Large-scale aircraft design using SU2 (Image courtesy: www.pointwise.com) enabling designers to creAnalyse, optimise ate impeccable designs. and design Free form deformation technique. SU2 is a simulaThe streamlined body of an tion software for solid geoaircraft can be optimised metric models using FFD using SU2 software. Each technique. So if you have a wing is optimised from upper deformed object and want to the lower end as per the to re-objectify from that hull requirement, while the rightobject, you can do so using hand side coloured column the FFD technique. index on computer screen Harmonic balance flow indicates pressure coeffiand more feedback to user. cients on each point. Thus, High-frequency oscillator it carefully iterates the wing circuits and complicated thickness and lift constraints signal circuits can now be in the aircraft as per calcustabilised in SU2 software. lations through differential For instance, in an ampliequations. fier, to gain steady state, the Similarly, flow solution, capacitor may be simulated adjoint solution, gradient cal- Fig. 2: Aircraft design—stream-wise pressure gradient hundreds to thousands of culations and mesh deforma- (Image courtesy: www.pointwise.com) www.efymag.com

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Fig. 3: Supersonic aircraft simulation using SU2 (Image courtesy: www.pointwise.com)

Fig. 4: FFD control point variables keep a check on 3D area for the shape deformation (Image courtesy: www.pointwise.com)

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times to remove transients. The lesser the transients, the greater the efficiency and perfection in the design. Also, feedback increases the efficiency through continuous improvements in input and output techniques. These

additions to SU2 software help to fix bug issues and improve the system’s stability. Besides, boundary conditions help achieve accuracy. Algebraic transition model implementation. Aircrafts are streamlined in order to handle turbulence. Hence this transition can be well calculated using algebraic transition model. From wheel rotation to turbine movement to wing movement, everything can be monitored. And SU2 does it perfectly.

The SU2 boon SU2 is developed to enhance the stability and efficiency of aircrafts. The fluid mechanism and dynamics is itself a wide area that needs to be explored more on mathematical concepts and design basics, thus creating a constant demand for simulation software such as SU2.

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innovation

Real InnovatIon SolveS Real PRoblemS Janani Gopalakrishnan Vikram

AirBar is a discreet device that fits below your laptop display and transforms it into a touchscreen

Transform any laptop screen into a touchscreen Price, glare and battery drain are three reasons that could discourage you from buying a touchscreen laptop. Neonode has developed a simple but innovative USB-powered device that can transform any ordinary laptop into a touchscreen one at a fraction of the cost. A CES 2017 Innovation Awards Honouree, AirBar is a sleek matte-finished strip that attaches to the bottom of your laptop screen using magnets, and plugs into the nearest USB port. That’s it— no calibration or software installation required. Now, AirBar starts projecting an invisible light field on the surface of your display that makes it possible to use it like a touchscreen. You can interact with your laptop using Windows gestures like pinch, swipe, zoom and scroll. Unlike regular touchscreen laptops, you can use AirBar ‘touchscreen’ with anything—bare hands, gloved hands, a pen, a paintbrush, stylus or whatever. This is because the light field reacts to any disturbance without requiring any minimal touch activation force. AirBar does away with glare too. Light transmission is 100 per cent as nothing is built atop or inside your screen. There is just an invisible light field being emitted from the bar. AirBar comes in three different sizes to suit different screen sizes: 33.8cm (13.3-inch), 35.6cm (14-inch) and 39.6cm (15.6-inch). It works on all Windows 10 laptops. There is also a version compatible with MacBook Air 33.8cm. Currently, AirBar does not work with some devices like MacBook Pro because it requires at least 17mm of space below the display to snap on. However, the company has just revealed to EFY that they are planning to expand their suite of products to fit additional laptops such as MacBook Pro. Company: Neonode; Country: Stockholm, Sweden; Website: www.air.bar 84

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One charger for your Android and Apple devices If a project gets 617 per cent funding on Indiegogo, it must solve a real problem for people! Magbine is one such interesting product—a charger that works for Android and Apple devices, as well as other devices with a Micro USB port. It reduces the cable clutter at home and on-the-go as you need just one charger for your many devices. The charger’s patent-granted multi-device connector comes with a reversible tip, so Apple users need not bother about identifying the correct side to push in their charger! Made with a special material, it is durable and tangle-free. Plus, the right-angled design makes Magbine easy to plug in without bending the cable—one of the causes for wear-and-tear and breakage. Magnetic caps at both ends of the cable further minimise the tangled mess: You can just snap the two ends together and hang the cable wherever you want. Looks like the developer team is so proud of this feature that they named Do away with your cable clutter using Magbine the charger ‘Magbine’ after a combina(Image courtesy: Magbine) tion of ‘Magnetic’ and ‘Combine’! Company: Magbine; Country: Hong Kong, China; Website: https://www. indiegogo.com/projects/magbine-first-magnetic-cable-for-all-devices-iphone-android--2#/

True wireless charging Experts who witnessed the demo of Energous Corporation’s WattUp claim it to be the future of wireless charging. With WattUp, there are no constraints like the need to place the product on a mat. You can wear your devices or keep them in your bag as they get charged. This revolutionary radio frequency (RF) based charging solution works by delivering intelligent, scalable power to devices via radio bands, similar to a Wi-Fi router. Depending on the variant you choose, WattUp can charge devices at distances between a millimetre and 4.6m (15 feet). It can charge multiple battery-powered devices in its proximity, including smartphones, tablets, wearable devices, cameras, keyboards, headsets, sensors, toys and remote controls. The WattUp transmitter sends energy through RF transmission signals upon request. The amount of power delivered and transmission distance are determined by the size

WattUp enables you to charge multiple devices in a truly wireless fashion (Image courtesy: Energous Corporation)

of the transmitter and the number of transmitter ASICs and antennae used in the design. WattUp receivers installed in the devices convert signals into battery power. The entire system is controlled by a software, which lets you decide which devices are to be charged, in which order and at what times. If you do not want to get into the details, you can just let the software intelligently manage the charging of all your WattUp enabled devices. Company: Energous Corporation; Country: United States of America; Website: http://energous.com/ www.EFymag.com

InnovatIon

Affordable 3D printer for fun da Vinci Mini is a compact and productive 3D printer that anybody can use. Weighing around 10kg, it measures just 39×33.5×36cm3 with a 15×15×15cm3 print bed. Its price, less than $300, makes it even more attractive for designers, small-business product development teams, hobbyists, learners, casual home users and, even kids. With a single-button print capability, da Vinci Mini is as easy to use as any normal desktop 2D printer. LEDs of different colours indicate the printer status, such as standby, printing and errors. The functionality is controlled through a PC, to which the printer is connected through USB or Wi-Fi. The printer has on-board memory. So once you have uploaded the print designs, you can unplug the computer or move it out of the wireless home network without the printing getting interrupted. Wi-Fi connectivity allows sharing of the printer by multiple users. The software’s slicing precision and computing efficiency shorten the preparation time required before printing. Although the printing speed is slower than costlier 3D printers, it is pretty fast for a sub-$300 model. The printer da Vinci Mini is an affordable, compact and easyto-use 3D printer (Image courtesy: XYZprinting) is eco-friendly and safe for use by the entire family as the filaments are made using polylactic acid (PLA) plastics derived from corn starch, and are guaranteed to be free of heavy metals and di-(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate or DEHP. However, some users complain that da Vinci Mini works only with XYZ’s filaments and no other generic brands. Company: XYZprinting; Country: United States of America; Website: http:// us.xyzprinting.com/us_en/Product/da-Vinci-Mini

Modular, customisable drone The modular design trend has invaded the world of drones too. Makeblock has created a drone that can be assembled and programmed in minutes. Winner of Red Dot Award 2017, Airblock comprises magnetic parts that can be fitted together instantly to create various forms like hexacopter drone, triangle hovercraft, spider and spinner. You can even combine the blocks of this drone with other toys or blocks (like Lego) to build your own innovative automobiles and aircrafts! Made of a Styrofoam material, the drone does not damage walls or objects it dashes on. The blades are concealed within the blocks, so it is safe to fly even for kids. If the assembly is as easy as saying snap, the drag-and-drop programming is even easier. Even those with no experience in programming can make their drone do amazing stunts! You can control Airblock using a smart device, customise its features including speed and colour of the LED, watch its movements, and get it racing with www.EFymag.com

Airblock is a set of modular blocks that let you build and program your own drone (Image courtesy: Makeblock)

another Airblock in ‘versus mode.’ Airblock owes its effectiveness to the smart use of aerodynamic principles. According to the team, “The lift from the four propellers allows Airblock to do a number of stunts, and by selecting two propellers from either side, it can generate specific movements.” All that said, what people seem to love most about Airblock is that, for once, it is fun to watch your drone crash and break apart—because you can rebuild it and watch it fly again! Company: Makeblock; Country: Unites States of America; Website: www.makeblock.com

Scan and edit 3D objects in real time using this advanced PC (Image courtesy: HP)

Computer with built-in 3D scanner The Sprout Pro G2 computer by HP is a dream come true for designers as it can capture and render 3D objects in a jiffy. No clutter, no fuss, but the job gets done. You can scan a 3D object by just rotating it in front of the screen, edit the content in real time using a special pressure-sensitive active pen, and also create visual, hands-on experiences for collaboration, shopping, learning, etc, using the computer’s dual multi-touch displays, unique 20-point Touch Mat and highresolution cameras. The high-resolution, full high definition (HD) projector projects on the 2.2mm thick horizontal Touch Mat. The mat’s 20-point capacitive surface lets up to four hands work at the same time. It can work wonders together with the active pen, which has 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity to enable intuitive, precision digital inking. When you write on the Touch Mat with this pen, it feels as if you are writing on a paper with a pen. Software tools like the WorkTools suite and HP 3D Scan Software Pro v5 help you harness the capabilities of the innovative hardware. You can capture objects in real time, create precise 360° 3D models using enhanced structured-light scanning technology, manipulate content in 2D and 3D through an interactive clipboard, manage how the displays appear on a third monitor, and so on. The Professional Software Development Kit (SDK) also gives you advanced hardware access to create apps for this specialised PC. For those tasked with 3D object handling, Sprout Pro is a product worth considering. Company: HP; Country: United States of America; Website: http:// www8.hp.com/in/en/products/ workstations/product-detail. html?oid=10912419 ElEctronics For you | July 2017

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AurAssure: Air Quality Monitoring To Keep Environment Clean

D Paromik Chakraborty is a technical journalist at EFY

elhi, Mumbai, Varanasi, Patna, Gwalior, Amritsar—what unites all these cities is the problem of pollution. Delhi has consistently ranked as one of the most polluted metros in the world. The aggressive urbanisation and industrialisation have elevated the pollution level even further. Thus, taking note of the situation, Odisha-based Phoenix Robotix came up with Aurassure—an innovative environment monitoring device that helps industries know the level of their pollutant emission.

The journey: From idea to oeuvre With the market having only a handful of bulky and highly expensive devices to do the job, Amiya Kumar Samantaray, founder and CEO, Phoenix Robotix, saw an opportunity in it. He realised that the proposed solutions were ineffective as the analysis itself was incomplete. And so, the company designed Aurassure—a device that captures different air quality parameters from widely distributed locations and showcases in a web platform with mobile app to visualise and analyse the ambient air quality. Its USP lies in the fact that it is both userfriendly as well as affordable. Initially aimed as a solution for industries, keeping in mind

Fig. 1: The Aurassure device with solar panel

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the mandated Central Pollution Control Board guidelines of ambient air quality monitoring by the industries themselves, Aurassure found a bigger application scope with the inception of smart cities.

The science behind the innovation Aurassure is a cloud-connected ambient air quality monitoring solution for smart cities and industries. Released in January 2017, it aims at helping cities and municipalities to frame better environmental policies to reduce the impact of outdoor air pollution through real-time location-based air quality information. Aurassure can create a pre-warning system by bridging the gap between the government and people. The Aurassure system arrangement starts with the sensors. Wireless portable wall- or pole-mountable sensors are installed around the perimeter of the intended premises. The sensors can be driven by batteries that are charged using solar power or run on mains AC power supply lines. In a solar setup, 7.4V Li-ion batteries, charged by a 12V 10W solar panel, store renewable solar energy to provide necessary uninterrupted power to the sensors to work. Parameters of ambient air condition within and around the perimeter, including critical air pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide,

Fig. 2: Aurassure system architecture www.EFymag.com

InnovatIon ozone, ammonia, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, PM1.0, PM2.5 and PM10, and weather conditions such as ambient temperature, relative humidity, barometric pressure, wind direction, wind speed, noise and rainfall, are measured by the sensors in real time. The measurement data is digitised and logged, then sent wirelessly, through a cellular IP GPRS modem, to a cloud server via GPRS gateways. The connection can also be made using Wi-Fi or a LoRa network. The transmitted data is secured through AES 256-bit encryption. Data acquisition and analytics is performed on cloud using computational and predictive algorithms, and the results visualised on Aurassure’s web interface in the form of charts, graphs, tables and other data representation methods. Aurassure also offers a mobile application that enables individual users to connect wirelessly to the cloud through their smartphone and check the data on-the-go. The system can work in the temperature range of -20°C to 55°C and relative humidity capacity between 5 per cent and 95 per cent. Aurassure, when integrated with the web platform, provides a complete solution with features like remote device configuration and calibration. It can also be easily integrated with any third-party platform through standard API. The company has plans for further upgrades such as addition of more sensors and software features.

Hitting the market with a bang Launched earlier this year, Aurassure is currently in the initial marketing phase. Since the product is customised, it is priced on ‘per device’ basis. Usually, the pricing includes sensor requirements of the customer and subscription model for the online software platform. The product otherwise can cost up to one million rupees. The company claims to have been receiving enquiries about Auwww.EFymag.com

Fig. 3: The Aurassure online dashboard

The Aurassure team of Phoenix Robotix

rassure from different municipalities as well as companies across sectors. In fact, PSU major Steel Authority of India has implemented Aurassure in its Rourkela plant after it received several complaints from neighbouring townships and villages about emission of harmful pollutants. With permission from the regional office of State Pollution Control Board, Odisha, and Rourkela Steel Plant, Aurassure was installed near the fencing of the plant to enable fenceline monitoring. Installed for three months till date, the system continuously measures pollutant emission from the plant. The collected data provides detailed insight into the operations that are majorly responsible for pollution and should be controlled. Acting on the data, the plant authorities were able to cut down chances of further emission. The solution also provided

a pollution trend analysis, helping the plant authorities to plan their operations so as to minimise pollution to neighbouring residential places.

The way forward Phoenix Robotix is primarily targeting municipalities of different cities, which invest heavily in the air quality monitoring infrastructure, along with different industries and environment consultants. The developers claim that, with Aurassure, industries will be able to perform fence-line monitoring of the environmental conditions of their work premises and around their locality. “Aurassure has already undergone several successful POCs in different smart cities. It will significantly boost the number of deployments in various cities and provide a platform for accurate and useful micro-environmental data,” claims Samantaray. ElEctronics For you | July 2017

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software

A Guide To Programming In Perl, PHP and PytHon

P Maulik Parekh has an M.Tech degree in cloud computing from VIT University, Chennai

erl, PHP and Python are three very popular and easy-to-learn programming languages, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. Newbies venturing into the field of programming will find this guide interesting. To be a good programmer, mastering one programming language is not enough. In fact, it is very important to understand a customer’s requirements and choose the best available language for the task. It’s easy to shift from one programming language to another if you know them very well. But there are so many programming languages in the world. By leveraging all the advantages of different languages, a programmer can build a robust application. There are different factors which need to be considered, such as the functionality of the application, support for new features, the platform on which the application will run, performance, security, code size, community and support. Today, let’s examine the three P’s: Perl, PHP and Python. All these three languages are dynamic and powerful in their own way and can be used in different scenarios, but they are most commonly used to build Web applications and for scripting.

Perl Perl is a general-purpose, high-level, dynamic programming language. Currently, Perl 5 is its most popular version, while the latest version is Perl 6. Perl is derived from different languages like C, AWK, Sed and Shell Script. Perl is most powerful in string manipulation and regular expressions. It is very useful while parsing huge amounts of data, line by line or based on specific regex. It is

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also useful for Web development, systems administration, network programming and game development. The biggest advantage of Perl is that there are many ways to do the same thing. But, sometimes, this advantage creates problems like non-structural or bad code style. Advantages. • Perl is very good at handling regular expressions. Hence, it is preferred when there is a lot of work on regex. • Perl code is very short and there is a whole set of one-line code available, which shows the power of Perl. • It should be used depending upon the use case. It can be used as a functional language, sometimes object-oriented, procedural or imperative. How you want to use it depends on you. It handles almost every use case. • Perl’s CPAN provides a huge number of modules and tested code, most of which are completely free. • Since Perl is a very old language, it has vast community support. • Perl is portable and available for all platforms. Disadvantages. • Since Perl’s syntax is complex, sometimes new programmers find it difficult to understand it, because the same code can be written in many different ways. For example, print 11+12+13 !=print (11+12)+13 • It has poor documentation for objectoriented paradigms compared to Python. • In Perl, there are many ways to do the same thing. Sometimes, this creates a problem. • It is slow compared to other scripting languages. Popularity. Though Perl has been around for a long time, its growth has been slow compared to some other www.EFymag.com

software languages. Huge community support and built-in modules make it very popular. Popular frameworks. Catalyst, Dancer and Mojolicious are some of the frameworks that use Perl. Syntax. Shown below is the basic syntax for Perl: #!/usr/bin/perl $abc = 10; print “Value of abc = $abc\n”; print ‘program is over’;

The extension for Perl files is .pl or .pm, which is based on a file or module.

PHP PHP is also a general-purpose language but it is mainly used for Web development. It’s a server-side scripting language designed by Rasmus Lerdorf. It is very popular for smallor medium-level website development compared to other languages. It is also used by some giant firms like Facebook, YouTube and Yahoo! Nowadays, there are a lot of frameworks built on PHP which compete with Python and Perl. Though demand for Python is increasing, PHP is still very popular in both small and large organisations. The current version of PHP is 7.1.2. Advantages. • Most people prefer PHP when it comes to creating dynamic Web pages, because it’s easier to set up in local host and most of the hosting providers offer built-in PHP support. • It’s easy to use. The syntax is mostly the same as that of C language. Anyone can easily adopt it. • There are lots of frameworks available for PHP and it has immense community support. • PHP is stable. Since it’s used by many developers, code maintenance is very quick. • PHP has strong database support and provides native session management. • PHP 7 is much faster than any other version of PHP. www.EFymag.com

Disadvantages. • Some of the libraries written in PHP are procedural, so it’s difficult for programmers from an object-oriented background. • Since it is open source, security is a major challenge. As the code is available to all, intruders can easily find weaknesses in the code. • It becomes slow after a certain scale. Therefore large-scale organisations use their own customised frameworks to increase performance. • PHP is not suitable for desktop applications. Besides, its error handling capabilities are poor. Popularity. PHP is still very popular and one of the top-10 languages used by Web developers to create dynamic websites. Web developers should definitely learn PHP to kickstart their careers. Popular frameworks. Laravel, Symfony, CodeIgniter and Phalcon are some of the popular frameworks. Syntax. PHP scripting code is written using the end tag:
?>

The file extension is .php, and usually contains PHP scripts and HTML code.

Python Python is a general-purpose and high-level programming language designed by Guido van Rossum in the late 1980s. It’s very elegant and easy to learn. Nowadays, a beginner’s first priority is to learn Python. It supports multiple paradigms— functional, imperative, procedural and OO (object oriented). Python is an all-round language. Since it’s often a first choice, it can be found everywhere. It can be used in testing, automation, Web development, data analytics, cloud computing, mobile development and game development. Python uses indentation to identify the block, which eliminates the need for curly brackets ElEctronics For you | July 2017

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software and the colon. Python’s philosophy is different, which is, “There is only one way to do the things and it’s called the Pythonic way.” The current version of Python is 3.6.0. Advantages. • One of the best things about Python is that it is well documented. • Python is used in 3D animation and game development, which differentiates it from other languages. • In school, students learn Python quicker than C or C++ because it is easier. • Python uses white space indentation, while others use curly braces. Comparatively, Python code is neater and cleaner. • Code written in Python is very short compared to other languages, which demonstrates its power. • Python also supports JVM so code written in Python can easily work with some of the Java objects/APIs. • If you are new to programming, learn Python because by learning this one language, you can easily jump into any field of interest, whether it’s automation, Web development, game development or data analytics. Python is everywhere. Disadvantages. • Indentation is the biggest issue in Python. The code will not work and sometimes people get irritated because of it. • Python forces programmers to follow a particular convention. • It’s slower than older languages like C and C++. It is also an interpreted language. • It doesn’t perform multi-processor/multi-core work efficiently. Popularity. Python was bestowed the TIOBE Programming Language of the Year award in 2007 and 2010. The TIOBE index measures the growth and popularity of the language over a period of one year. 90

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Popular frameworks. Django, TurboGears, Web2py, Bottle, CherryPy, Flask and Pyramid are some of the popular frameworks. Syntax. Python syntax is very neat and clean: #!/usr/bin/python print “Hello! Welcome to the world of Python!”

The extension of the file is .py.

So which is the best programming language to learn and use? There is no specific answer to this question because you can perform almost all tasks with any of the three languages. It depends on what you want to do and how you can do it efficiently. If Web development is the first priority, then PHP is the first preference. For test automation and scripting, Python and Perl are very popular. There are lots of frameworks available in all three languages, and since community support is good, you will never be stuck with a particular problem. PHP has lots of popular CMS frameworks available like WordPress, Joomla and Drupal. Any newbie can deploy websites easily using these frameworks. There are lots of plugins available for these frameworks and almost all the major functionalities are covered. Similarly, Python has the Django framework, which is very popular and most Python lovers use it for Web development. My advice would be to learn all three languages and use them based on the situation. Beginners can start with Python as it is very easy, and later jump into learning PHP and Perl, in that order. The basic logic for all the programming languages is the same and the only difference is in terms of the syntax. Usually, the person who knows one language can easily migrate to another language very quickly.

There are never ending discussions on all the forums about which is the best programming language for career growth. My advice would be to learn one language very well. Pick the one you feel comfortable with and slowly venture into exploring the other two.

My preference I will go with Python as it is evolving very fast and is easy to learn. The use cases of Python cover a very broad range. It is used in almost every IT segment and, by learning this language, you can do wonders in all those segments. The most important thing is to learn the Pythonic way of writing a code. Here are a few examples: Example 1. The ‘non-Pythonic’ way of writing a code is: def test(a, b): a[0] = 2 b[0] = 7.5 abc = [0] xyz = [0] test(abc, xyz) abc = abc[0] xyz = xyz[0]

The Pythonic way of writing the same code is: def test(): return 2, 7.5 alpha, beta = foo()

Example 2. The non-Pythonic way of writing code is: i = 0 while i < mylistleng: do(mylist[i]) i += 1

The Pythonic way of writing the same code is: for i in range(mylistleng): do(mylist[i])

Another Pythonic way of writing the same code is: for item in mylist: do(item)

Example 3. A short program for reversing a string is shown below: ‘Hello Python’[::-1]

This article first appeared in EFY’s Open Source For You May issue www.EFymag.com

career

Your Engineering Skills Won’t Go Waste In FIeld ApplIcAtIon engIneerIng

I Rahul R. is senior technical journalist at EFY

f you have completed your undergraduate degree in engineering and are keen to get a job away from the conventional engineering disciplines whilst utilising (and gaining) technical skills, then industry experts believe that you could work as a field application engineer (FAE). In this role, your communication skills, along with soft skillsets, play a vital role. So if you are an engineer who can communicate well, you are cut out for a career in FAE. There are many companies hiring FAEs, ranging from factories to large-scale corporate firms. However, one major reason that discourages potential candidates to join this field is labelling of field application engineering as a ‘salesman’s job.’ We spoke to experts with both domain knowledge and expertise in FAE, to bust associated myths and decode the success mantra of a field application engineer.

Is it purely a ‘sales job’? “Field application engineering is not exactly a sales job. Here, acting as an engineer, you give correct explanations and solutions for the clients to understand the product,” shares Utsava Rathi, a manager at job search engine Neuvoo, who closely analyses the FAE industry. According to Utsava, the best thing about being an FAE is that you get to debug errors, alongside influencing clients technologically. You may also need to offer technical support to prospective clients so that they become customers of your company. So, in a way, you would be remotely influencing www.efymag.com

“Don’t be fooled by myths; in FAE you are a pure engineer and consultant, not a travelling salesman.”

clients’ purchase decisions. Fundamentally, when you start working as an FAE for a project, you are seen (by clients of your company) as a pure engineer with effective communication. Good communication skills are important as you would interact with people to impart knowledge on the products of your firm; products here could range from machinery hardware to software offerings. “As an FAE, the onus is on you to help clients understand technically what your company offers. You are also responsible for delivering technical solutions through your skills. On completion of this, you will intimate the post-sales team so that they can close the business deal with the clients,” shares a field application engineer working with Micron Semiconductor India.

The technical side As you possess a BE/B.Tech degree, you also get to work on technical aspects of products, including testing, design, research & development (R&D), and in certain cases re-engineering. “It is always good to study the company and its machinery or product before taking up the job,” suggests Utsava. With you acting as a technical consultant, there is always scope to develop more knowledge and skills. Even if you land a job in a manufacturing firm, you will have plenty of opportunities to utilise your technical skillset, which could extend to your business skills as well. “Technical solutions are vital for any technology product development company. Upon introducing yourself electronics for you | July 2017

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career as an FAE or a technical sales and solutions consultant, your skills horizon immediately expands,” says a senior application engineer at Altair Engineering.

Prerequisites for the job With field application engineering now recognised globally as a white-collared job, it is vital that you possess below-mentioned technical skills along with general ones: 1. As stated above, the primary requirement to work as an FAE (often referred to as technical sales engineer) is an engineering degree, irrespective of the discipline. However, elementary technical skills are a must-have. Some companies even seek a master’s degree in VLSI or embedded systems. 2. As per job listings on Naukri. com, the common skillsets for field application engineers include (but not limited to) System Verilog, technical support skills, VLSI, embedded systems, HDL, C, product designing (both hardware and software), software testing and technical sales. 3. Effective communication skills. In addition, there are skills depending on the sector and the company you choose to work in.

Career progression and pay packages Experts opine that a career in field application engineering or technical sales is not suited for fancy job title seekers, but rather those looking at utilising their technical talent in sales. To start with, fresh engineers are hired as trainees or offered designations such as application engineer, field application engineer and technical sales executive. There is a possibility that you could be offered business-oriented job titles like project manager and account manager based on your experience level. “With experience, you improve your business skills as you work with clients closely. There are many 92

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opportunities to travel in this job as you may need to meet clients or manufacturers personally,” shares Utsava. Making the right decisions throughout the course of your career could fast-track your progression and even lead you to the CEO level. Business qualities and talent are the deciding factors in such scenarios. The more positive business that you generate, the faster your career progression. As far as pay packages are concerned, fresh engineers can expect pay packages starting at around ` 240,000 per annum. This again depends on your area of expertise, job requirements, work profile and the company’s reputation. Experienced candidates can expect anywhere between one and two million rupees per annum. “With new products and technologies popping up in the market every other day, the demand for field application engineers is increasing and there is a good scope for engineers to start their career in this field. Apart from attractive compensation, the job comes with advantages of learning business, travelling, meeting lots of people, continuous learning, challenging professional environment and a lot more,” says Utsava. The applications engineer at Altair Engineering advises FAEs to remain optimistic about their remuneration. In case they stick to one company over an extended period of time, their pay package would be directly proportional to the amount of effort put in.

It is a level-playing field Unlike core information technology enabled services, field application engineering domain is less competitive. However, your interview would still be challenging as you will play a critical role in the success of your prospective employer organisation with the combination of your technical and sales skills. www.efymag.com

smart world

1. Virtual Reality for first mover advantage 94

2. How big data analytics can go wrong 95

3. Navigating to success with Google Maps 97

4. Deep Learning for employee engagement 98

virtual reality: Get The First Mover Advantage

Virtual reality is being used by brands at their events to engage better with their target audience (Image courtesy: wikimedia.org)

 Virtual reality market in India is forecast to grow at nearly 56 per cent between 2016 and 2021.  Sectors such as healthcare and military stand to benefit greatly from virtual reality apps.

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irtual reality has been around for quite some time now. With every other brand rushing to use virtual reality and augmented reality in its marketing efforts, this market is bound to grow by leaps and bounds. An IDC report estimates the revenues for augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) market to grow to $162 billion in 2020. Another report expects the virtual reality market in India to grow at nearly 56 per cent between 2016 and 2021. So where does the opportunity lie in this market? Clearly, virtual reality has 94

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far more to offer than just viewing. And thus, we list down a few business opportunities in this market in India that can be explored by those who wish to rake in the moolah.

App development It’s a booming business and the key to the market. Developing customised apps for different industries can be a great business opportunity. In particular, sectors such as healthcare and military can really benefit from VR. In military, VR and AR can be used to train defence forces. The

US-based Imaginate Technologies is already developing AR for the Indian army. Its ShootAR augmented reality simulator for soldier training lets soldiers see and interact in an environment that is an amalgamation of both real and virtual worlds. For instance, soldiers using ShootAR can see virtual terrorist attacks in 3D against the backgrop of real-world surroundings, thus getting equipped to handle a real battle in a better manner. This sector definitely offers some high-revenue business opportunities to VR players www.EFymag.com

smart world in India as defence forces would be looking at affordable solutions. The cost of developing an AR or VR app starts from a few hundreds of thousands and can run into several million, depending on client requirements.

Consultancy To reap benefits of VR or AR, enterprises need specialised professionals who know how to use VR intelligently. Thus, they will look to hire either a full-time VR professional or consultants project-wise. To make money in this business, you need to be extremely well-versed not only in this technology but also other related technologies such as 360 degree and augmented reality. A good knowledge about different industries and the market dynamics is a bonus. This includes VR for marketing as well. VR app development can fetch you $40-$240 per hour in a country like the US, while in India the rates come down to $5-$70 per hour. The cost of investment runs into a few hundred thousands, depending on whether you develop the app or outsource the job.

Low-cost headsets Virtual reality is of no use if there are no devices to support this technology. Unfortunately, at the moment, the headsets available are hardly affordable to make VR accessible. Reports suggest that India has a large smartphone user base of nearly 200 million, which will soon surpass that of the US. Thus, India offers a huge untapped market for quality low-cost VR headsets compatible with low-cost smartphones.

Manufacturing VR and AR can really boost the manufacturing industry in India. By using VR, manufacturers can interact with their design, basically through digital simulation. www.EFymag.com

Developing affordable solutions for manufacturing is a sure-shot way of earning big bucks using VR. Developing customised solutions for manufacturing industry can cost you just a few hundred thousands while updating the solution is an additional cost.

Marketing Marketers have been using VR and AR to connect with their audience for quite some time now. However, it is not yet a common practice. Brands have been using this technology, especially in their events, in order to create a larger impact on their customers. “Virtual and augmented reality are two of the hottest trends in event tech for 2017. In fact, with the launch of more accessible and affordable devices from the likes of Google, Samsung, Sony, Oculus, HTC and Microsoft in recent months, altered realities have become one of the most fast-paced emerging technologies in the industry today,” says Ashish Chaudhary, director, Martech Asia. He adds that event management companies can use sponsored AR and VR attractions to generate revenue and attention for their events. “Experiential AR exhibits such as branded ‘magic mirror’ kiosks and Kinect-powered video walls stop people in their tracks, generate co-branded social shares and convert leads, following attendees to home with mobile versions. Organisers can also use 360 pano (VR) technology to deliver interactive and immersive views that attract attendees to a special venue or extend the reach of their events in some amazing ways. AR and VR can also help brands differentiate themselves at exhibitions and conference-style events.” Thus, the business of using VR for marketing promises some great revenues for startups. The cost of

investment in this business is a few hundred thousand rupees only.

Word of advice The VR and AR market in India is still at a nascent stage as enterprises continue to remain wary of using technology in their business. However, to survive and disrupt the market, adopting innovative technology such as VR and AR is inevitable. —Purba Das, senior business journalist, EFY

3 Ways Big Data Analytics Can Go Horribly Wrong  Big data analytics can prove fatal for your business if the algorithms entered are incorrect.

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ig data analytics is the new fad in technology when it comes to growing your business efficiently. In June issue, we discussed how big data analytics can take your marketing efforts many notches up. And while most of you probably know the definition of the technology, you may not be aware of the technology itself. Big data analytics is all about reading and analysing the data generated by various sources, understanding your requirements and using the right kind of data analytics to achieve the desired results. However, applying big data analytics to your business is not ElEctronics For you | July 2017

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smart world The results were based on search queries with common words like cold and fever, which eventually gave disastrous results.

BeIng LAzy WIth BIg dAtA reSuLtS Believing big data blindly can be dangerous for your business.

Case Study: target retail

always the next best move for your business. You may end up losing more money and, in worst case, closing down your business if you implement this technology recklessly. This is apart from the investment made in the technology. Here we list down three ways big data analytics can go wrong.

CoLLeCtIng the Wrong InforMAtIon Let’s elaborate with an example. If we recall, the later half of the last decade was marred by flu and thus, seeing the perfect business opportunity, Google launched Google Flu Trends—a program that provides real-time monitoring of flu cases around the world, based on Google searches that match terms with flurelated activity.

compared with the frequency of flu outbreaks in a particular region to get the desired results. Result. It could not predict H1N1 virus and in 2013, when the world recorded the highest number of flu cases, GTF grossly failed to predict the same, giving a result wrong by 140 per cent. The grossly incorrect results led to the search engine giant shutting down the GTF and losing out a huge amount of money. What they did wrong. While Google did use big data analytics, it failed to understand that this technology can be fruitful only when right algorithms are in place, which was not the case with GTF.

Target Retail used big data analytics to understand its customers’ buying behaviour, shopping trends and personal information such as anniversaries, marital status and birthdays for target marketing. Result. The father of a teenage girl stormed into a Target store to question the staff about sending preand post-natal offers to his daughter. Though he later found out that his teenage daughter was indeed pregnant, Target suffered a serious blow to its brand reputation as customers realised that their sensitive data was not kept private and instead shared with the marketing team. What they did wrong. Those using the data did not bother to check the age bracket or verify whether the target customers were the right set. They ended up embarrassing their customers by disclosing sensitive data, thus paying a huge price for their error.

uSIng Wrong ALgorIthMS Big data analytics can prove fatal for your business if the algorithms entered are incorrect. This is ex-

Big Data Analytics

Case Study: google flu trends Launched in 2008, Google Flu Trends (GFT) used big data analytics to gather data through search queries to predict flu outbreaks in around 25 countries. Algorithms were used to mine data (keywords like cold and fever were used to collect data), which was then 96

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Descriptive Analytics

Predictive Analytics

Prescriptive Analytics

Collects the data generated to tell what has happened

Collects the data generated to tell what will happen

Collects the data generated to tell what should be done

Simplifying the big data analytics jargon www.EFymag.com

smart world actly what happened with Amazon when one of its sellers used big data analytics in its products.

Case Study: Amazon/Solid gold Bomb In 2012, T-shirts with quotes like “Keep Calm and Rape A Lot” and “Keep Calm and Punch Her” were sold by e-tailer Amazon on its website. Result. The brand had to suffer the wrath of its customers for selling such offensive products on its site. The supplier too apologised for the error and blamed it on the analytics. What they didn’t know. Using wrong codes and not paying attention to their results can be hazardous for the brand. —Purba Das, senior business journalist, EFY

Navigate Your Way To Success With Google Maps  google Maps helps to reduce logistics costs by cutting down on inefficient driving through longer routes.

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n a busy office day, while rushing to work, most of us use Google Maps to know the estimated time of arrival (ETA) and the fastest route available. But a Google Map offers much more than just helping you with your travel time. In fact, reports suggest that Google Maps have improved busi-

www.EFymag.com

ness efficiency by 37 per cent while the productivity of customers has gone up by 40 per cent. Check out the various ways Google Maps has been helping businesses across the globe.

for routing and logistics solutions Logistics and delivery enterprises need to keep a constant tab on their fleets of vehicles to ensure that correct products are delivered to customers within expected time. In addition to timely delivery, they need to reduce logistics costs by cutting down on inefficient driving through longer routes. Australia-based Fleetminder is one such tracking solution company, which integrated Geo coding and Street View applications programming Google Maps is making life easier for enterprises interfaces (APIs) to its made it easier for the operators to system for strict fleet monitoring build efficient routing solutions and with location, fleet and vehicle restocking schedules. The solution attributes. The system provides achieved 15 per cent more revenue insight into the most optimised through improved stocking, 15 per route and accurate location of the cent expense reduction through destination. It also provides drivroute scheduling and 20 per cent ing style attributes, giving analytoperator margin (as against indusics for driver safety. The applicatry average of 2.5 per cent). tion has helped to reduce inefficient driving by 50 per cent and expand customer reach cut down fuel costs and employee overtime by 25 per cent while Google Map’s capabilities of locatensuring timely delivery with an ing a specific store or building can overall 20 per cent reduction in be used to further enhance the cusincorrect deliveries. tomer reach. For instance, Doctor Another example is USA-based On Demand app uses Google Map Vagabond Mobile Vending OperaAPIs to help users locate nearby tions, which utilised Google Maps physicians and healthcare centres to create a web-based application accurately based on the location to get information on each vendentered. It also allows users to set ing machine on a map interface. up a video call with the healthAll the collected data like targeted care specialist. More than 65,000 geographic location, stock level healthcare centres are listed in and cash collected by the machine the application. ElEctronics For you | July 2017

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smart world Yet another example is from Australia-based Infoxchange, a non-profit enterprise which has integrated Google Map systems to create the Ask Izzy mobile application. Census reports suggest that one in every 200 citizens of Australia is homeless, while 80 per cent of them own smartphones. The application locates the nearby vital service available, including food, shelter, employment opportunities, legal and financial help, Wi-Fi, charging stations and so on. Presently, over 350,000 services are listed on the map, while 500 users login to the application daily. Enterprises engaged in development or corporate social responsibility work can use Google Maps innovatively to make their initiatives effective as well as efficient with minimal costs.

Visualisation and monitoring to increase revenue Organisations need to properly visualise business challenges in resource and material movement, etc. This helps them devise better strategies to improve their services and avoid losses. Google Maps provided a data visualisation solution to Indiabased Madras Cements, which wanted to leverage the data through interactive graphics generated by the Ramco ERP system. The service resulted in up to 70 per cent cut in losses and penalties, 40 per cent faster consignment clearance, and 20 to 30 per cent market share. Airberlin made an example of its own by integrating Google Maps API in its web-based application to provide users an informative interface on flight routes and other details, weather conditions and flight bookings. The implementation saw 40 per cent increase in booking via map interface and 50 per cent increase in website traffic. 98

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Local tracking services Be it parcel delivery or local cab tracking, this feature is the most widely used by enterprises. Popular applications like Gobasket and Swiggy use Google Maps APIs to receive customer orders, calculate availability, distance and cost, and allow customers to track delivery. Cab services like Grab and GoOpti use the scalability and advantages of Google Maps to provide satisfying experience to their customers and easy work for their drivers. All over the globe, there are many such enterprises that utilise Google Maps for local tracking services.

to sum up These instances show how different offerings from Google Maps can be customised to the needs of organisations. Enterprises can leverage the intelligence provided by Google Maps services to effectively streamline their expenses management while multiplying their profits through upgraded business strategies. —Paromik Chakraborty, technical journalist, EFY

Deep Learning For Deeper Employee Engagement  tools like voice analysers and text analysers help decode an employee’s communication to the management.

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or a recruitment consultancy, the biggest task is finding the right match to both the

Arjun Prathap, CEO and Founder, Edge Networks

recruiter and the job seeker. So one of the leading staffing agencies in India approached Bengaluru-based artificial intelligence firm EdGE Networks for a solution to create a large comprehensive database of resumes and find the right profiles for its clients. EdGE Networks suggested the use of its artificial intelligence (AI) solution HIREAlchemy, which included natural language processing, AI and predictive analytics. The outcome was outstanding. When the consultancy implemented the AI solution in its recruitment system of updating resumes from e-mails, job portals, etc, it recorded a 500 per cent increase in its resume matching capabilities. In the process, it also managed to register a whopping 2000 per cent increase in its database size. Artificial intelligence is increasingly being recognised as an inevitable concept the world over. And while it is creating waves across industries, the human resources (HR) industry has silently started using it for substantial gains. And deep learning plays a pivotal role in it. “We are testing the waters before AI implementation. Globally, it may have taken off in a big way but India will follow suit soon,” www.EFymag.com

smart world says an HR industry player who requested anonymity.

What’s deep learning in hr? Currently, the most popular implementation of deep learning in HR is natural language processing. It is an intelligent system that performs tasks using natural languages of humans, including speech and texts in English. This process is extremely useful as it helps employers analyse, understand and better engage with their employees through communication.

recruiting the right talent Recruiters often end up hiring the wrong talent despite putting in their best efforts. Faced with a similar situation, a global IT giant based out of Bengaluru implemented deep learning systems in its HR processes. The company, which has a massive workforce and growing number of jobs, was finding it difficult to get the right candidate both externally as well as internally. Once deep learning solutions were put in place, the IT major witnessed a whopping 96 per cent reduction in the cycle time because the candidate visibility had increased by four times. “A recruiter is expected to identify specific parameters to hire a potential employee. If the recruiter hires without a complete understanding of the core competencies of a candidate, the recruiter will not get 100 per cent quality within the time taken. Also, there will be a lack of consistency in the job role,” says Arjun Prathap, founder and CEO of EdGE Networks. “Deep learning understands different parameters such as domain, location, certification and competency to know and select the best suited candidate for the proposed job role,” adds Prathap. Currently, recruiters often tweak the available job description to find a candidate that best www.EFymag.com

Deep Learning in HR can help improve employee engagement within the organisation (Image courtesy: jasmin-infotech.com)

fits the job requirements. However, doing so only gives them half-baked results and often results in wastage of time, money and resources.

changes in the organisation affected the employee satisfaction quotient. The system used both data analytics as well as deep learning to deliver the desired results.

enhancing employee engagement

reduction in the cost to company

Deep learning helps organisations understand their employees’ mindset better. Tools like voice analysers and text analysers help decode an employee’s communication to the management. For instance, US based Madison Reed, a hair-care startup, wanted to understand whether it offered a conducive work environment to its employees, which included engineers, colourists, stylists and remote staff. So it reached out to Glint, an HR technology company, to understand the needs of its workforce. Glint’s system provided Madison Reed with real-time data, enabling its team leadership to address issues quickly and effectively. It also established a user-friendly mechanism that allowed employees to give direct and honest feedback. Monthly analytics helped the management to understand what

Deep learning mechanisms, when implemented in human resource functions of an organisation, considerably reduce expenses incurred on employees. For instance, the IT major we discussed above, witnessed a whopping 58 per cent reduction in its hiring costs. The company was also able to find the right candidate internally, thus cutting down its external hiring by almost 35 per cent. To summarise, deep learning is a fairly new concept in the global HR industry. So you are likely to gain a first mover’s advantage by implementing machine learning in your organisation’s HR functions to make it a better workplace. After all, people are the biggest asset of any company. —Purba Das, senior business journalist, EFY If you want to share with EFY readers such case studies, please contact us at [email protected] ElEctronics For you | July 2017

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Industry News Make in india

Bluetooth Smart used the most for device connectivity The Bluetooth Smart and Smart Ready market is expected to be worth $5.34 billion by 2023, growing annually at 2.23 per cent between 2017 and 2023—according to a report by MarketsandMarkets. Factors driving the growth of this market include rising demand for Bluetooth Smart and Smart Ready in consumer electronics such as smartphones and PC peripherals, growing Internet of Things (IoT) applications, and cost-efficient devices that consume less power.

Consumer electronics is the biggest market for Bluetooth technology with a multitude of Bluetooth Smart Ready devices. Different technologies, such as ZigBee, Wi-Fi, NFC, ANT+ and Bluetooth, are used by consumers to connect their devices such as smartphones, tablets and desktops. Among these technologies, Bluetooth LE, marketed as Bluetooth Smart, is the most widely used as it is simple and secure, and consumes less power.

India: electronics demand-supply gap to touch $300 billion by 2020 The demand of electronic products in India is expected to grow annually at 41 per cent during 2017-20 to reach $400 billion by 2020. The domestic production, which is currently growing annually at 27 per cent, may touch $104 billion, leaving a huge gap for import to the extent of $300

billion, according to a joint study brought out by ASSOCHAM and NEC. The investments in electronics manufacturing, which were just ` 110 billion in June 2014, increased exponentially to ` 1278.80 billion in 2016—due to the government’s efforts to

On The Move JSW Energy appoints Jain as CEO JSW Energy has appointed Prashant Jain as its joint managing director and chief executive officer. A resultoriented professional with an experience of over twenty-five years and a strong passion for innovation, Jain will be responsible for developing and executing strategic and business planning activities and overseeing all aspects of the company’s business.

create an enabling policy ecosystem through initiatives like Make in India and Digital India, and special focus to schemes like the Modified Special Incentive Package Scheme and Electronic Development Fund. However, even though there are signs of promising growth, the local production of electronic products needs to be increased significantly to meet the domestic demand.

Video surveillance market to grow 13 per cent annually India’s video surveillance market will grow annually at nearly 13 per cent during 2017-23— forecasts Research and Markets. The Northern region registered the highest revenue in 2016 with states of Delhi NCR, Haryana, Punjab, Uttaranchal and Uttar Pradesh being the major contributors. 100

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India’s electronics security and surveillance market has grown considerably over the last few years due to rising security concerns and sustained growth of infrastructure in the country. The constant threat of terrorist attacks post Mumbai attack in 2008 as well as attack on the Indian Parliament has necessitated

the deployment of surveillance systems in both public- and private-sector buildings. Although analogue based surveillance systems have accounted for majority of market revenues, growing awareness along with declining prices is likely to drive IP-based surveillance system sales over the coming years. www.EFymag.com

Industry news Calendar of Forthcoming Electronics Fairs/Exhibitions/Seminars/Events Name, Date and Venue

Topics

Contact address for details

SES 2017 July 6-7, 2017 Bangalore International Exhibition Centre

8th edition of strategic electronics summit with focus on military, aerospace, homeland security and naval systems

ELCINA [email protected]

KE Show 2017 July 11-14, 2017 Huaqiao International Expo Centre, Kunshan, Jiangsu Province, China

Event on intelligent automation and robotics

Taiwan Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers’ Association (TEEMA) Website: www.TEEMA.org.tw

IFA 2017 September 1-6, 2017 Berlin, Germany

Meeting place for key retailers, buyers, and experts from the consumer electronics industry and the media

The German Association for Entertainment and Communications Electronics and Messe Berlin Website: http://b2b.ifa-berlin.com

National Seminar on Inverterization for Energy Efficiency: Technology, Applications and Opportunities September 6 or 7, 2017 New Delhi

Seminar highlighting the potential of energy saving in India by adoption of inverterisation in residential and commercial spaces, the need for policies, standards and regulatory framework that will support energy-efficient ecosystem, reduction in the total cost of ownership, and sharing industry knowledge and fostering collaboration between government, technology developers and OEMs

Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.cii.in

World Robot Olympiad India National Championship 2017 September 9-10, 2017

Robotics competition in India for students between the age group of 9 to 25 years

India STEM Foundation, and National Council of Science and Museum. Website: https://indiastemfoundation. org/wroindia/

AI World 2017 September 18-20, 2017 Boston, USA

Artificial intelligence (AI) world conference and expo

AI World 2017 Website: https://aiworld.com

TechXLR8 Asia October 2-4, 2017 Marina Bay Sands, Singapore

Festival of technology that brings together Asia’s telco and tech ecosystem to discover technologies that are enabling and shaping our connected future

TechXLR8 Asia Website: https://tmt.knect365.com/ techxlr8-asia/

Innovate! and Celebrate 2017 October 9-11, 2017 InterContinental San Francisco

3-day global conference celebrating innovation & entrepreneurship

Website: https://www.innovatecelebrate.com/

Taitronics Taipei October 11-14, 2017 Taipei, Taiwan

International trade fair for electronics and electronic components

Taiwan External Trade Development Council Website: http://www.taitra.org.tw/

Open Source India October 13-14, 2017 NIMHANS Convention Center, Bengaluru, India

Asia’s annual convention to celebrate open source computing

Open Source India Website: http://opensourceindia.in/ osidays/

Hong Kong Electronics Fair (Autumn Edition) October 13-16, 2017 Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre

World’s leading electronics marketplace

Hong Kong Trade Development Council Website: www.hkelectronicsfairae.com

Assocham Green Energy Summit 2017 November 9-12, 2017 Bangalore International Exhibition Centre

World expo and conference on renewable energy

ASSOCHAM India

Big Data London November 15-16, 2017 Olympia, London, UK

The UK’S largest data and analytics event

Big Data London Website: http://bigdataldn.com/

CeBIT INDIA 2017 November 30-December 2, 2017 White Orchid Convention Centre, Hebbal, Bengaluru

Digital innovation show

Hannover Milano Fairs India Pvt Ltd Website: www.cebit-india.com

India offers Apple tax sops to expand production India has offered to let Apple import mobile handset components for use in local manufacturing tax free. The tax concessions will be subject to the condition of increasing local value addition over a period of time. Apple wants to expand its contract manufacturer Wistron’s facility in Bengaluru as it seeks a bigger share in one of the world’s biggest smartphone markets. The company has just recently started making iPhone SE in Bengaluru. Among a set of tax concessions, Apple had initially sought a 15year tax holiday on the import of all components. A panel of ministries rejected that demand and has instead offered tax exemptions on components that cannot be manufactured in India.

Samsung to double mobile phone production in India Samsung Electronics plans to double the production capacity for mobile phones and fridges at its main factory in India. The South Korean electronics major would spend ` 49 billion over three years to expand the factory on the outskirts of New Delhi. It also manufactures TV sets at the plant. “Samsung would want to reduce their dependence on manufacturing in Vietnam and shift more operations to India,” said Tarun Pathak, associate director at technology research firm Counterpoint. “India looks like a promising manufacturing hub in the coming years and Samsung could make it their base for exports.”

ELEXCON 2017 Annual expo for the electronics industry based December 21-23, 2017 in Shenzhen Shenzhen Convention & Exhibition Center, China

ELEXCON 2017 Website: www.elexcon.com/elexcon/en

Panasonic eyes 10 per cent TV panels share by year-end

CES 2018 January 9-12, 2018 Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

World’s gathering place for those who thrive on the business of consumer technologies and where next-generation innovations are introduced to the marketplace

Consumer Technology Association Website: www.ces.tech

NEPCON Japan January 17-19, 2018 Tokyo Big Sight, Japan

Asia’s leading exhibition for electronics design, R&D and manufacturing technology

Reed Exhibitions Japan Ltd Website: http://www.nepconjapan.jp/en/

Panasonic India is aiming to capture 10 per cent market share in the TV panel segment by the year-end. The company, which has recently expanded its high-resolution 4K TV lineup by adding EX 750 Series and

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Industry news

Snippets

G+D Mobile Security, Murata and STMicroelectronics join hands for IoT solutions

level transportable radar and ship-borne electronic warfare system (Varuna).

G+D Mobile Security, Murata and STMicroelectronics have teamed up to integrate cost-effective security features into IoT devices. Available now for a wide range of applications and vertical markets, the joint solution aims to ensure integrity and confidentiality of the data exchanged and allow distribution of LPWAN keys in a fully secure manner.

Samsung SMT renamed as Hanwha Techwin

ESG, Diehl Defence and Rohde & Schwarz cooperate for protection against drones Drones pose a serious security risk at major public events and also to high-risk infrastructure and facilities such as airports, industrial test sites and military sites. With this in mind, ESG Elektroniksystem und Logistik-GmbH, Diehl Defence and Rohde & Schwarz plan to coordinate their efforts and provide fully customised, bundled solutions based on their proven expertise in the fields of radar, radio monitoring, electromagnetic countermeasures, command and control information systems, and position mapping.

Adani Group commissions 50MW solar plant in UP Adani Group, a global integrated infrastructure conglomerate, has commissioned a 50MW solar PV plant in Mahoba, Uttar Pradesh, under the National Solar Mission Scheme, with an investment of ` 3150 million. The plant uses string inverter technology, which is said to be the first of its kind in UP with crystalline silicon modules that allows miniature-level control of solar power generation.

BEL’s report card for 2016-17 Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) has registered a turnover growth of 17 per cent to reach ` 88,250 million in 201617 over previous year’s ` 75,410 million. Of this, turnover from indigenous technology is 87 per cent. The PSU’s other major accomplishments during the year included induction of weapon locating radar to army and supply for major projects like integrated air command and control system, handheld thermal imager with laser range finder, electronic fuse, low-

Samsung SMT, known as Samsung C&T India, has recently changed its name to Hanwha Techwin Automation India and its office location has changed to Aerocity in New Delhi, India.

Intel investing ` 11 billion in India Intel Corporation is investing ` 11 billion in India to set up a new R&D centre in Bengaluru. The new R&D facility will also have a computer software development and hardware design services facility. The fresh investment is in addition to $2 billion the chip maker had invested in India till 2016. The company’s Indian subsidiary houses about 7000 techies to design and power semiconductor chips for its global customers.

Videocon Telecom eyes ` 16.58-billion revenues this year Videocon Telecom plans to generate ` 16.58 billion revenues in the current financial year 2017-18, from its existing, newly setup and upcoming business lines. The existing business lines include broadband and FTTH business in Punjab, Haryana & Himachal Pradesh; wholesale international long-distance carrier business; smart solutions; tower business and security and surveillance. Among the new business lines that the company is venturing into include retailing of CCTV cameras, smartphone accessories, smart homes and city solutions, and mobile VAS. These verticals are expected to add ` 3 billion revenues during the year.

HP to focus on premium segment, small towns HP Inc. plans to accelerate its personal computers (PC) business with focus on the brand’s premium segment and smaller towns in India. The company will expand its retail footprint with 1000 HP Exclusive retail stores (HP World), up from 490 stores now, by December 2018, with focus on tier II, tier III and tier IV towns.

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Calendar of Forthcoming Electronics Fairs/Exhibitions/Seminars/Events Name, Date and Venue

Topics

Contact address for details

Electronics West February 6-8, 2018 Anaheim Convention Center, California, USA

North America’s largest annual design and manufacturing event

Electronics West Website: http://electronicswest. designnews.com/

Embedded World 2018 February 27-March 1, 2018 Exhibition Centre, Nuremberg, Germany

Trade fair for IT security for electronic systems

NürnbergMesse Website: www.embedded-world.de/en

ELCERAMA March 10-14, 2018 India Expo Mart, Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh

Flagship showcase of the Indian electrical industry ecosystem and the largest congregation of power sector ecosystem in the geography; brings together the complete spectrum of solutions that powers the planet

IEEMA Website: http://elecrama.com, http://ieema.org

Since this information is subject to change, all those interested are advised to ascertain the details from the organisers before making any commitment.

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EX 600 Series, also eyes similar 10 per cent share in this segment. “Out of 100 TV sets, we are selling around three 4K sets. Our intention is to sell around six or seven 4K sets out of 100,” Panasonic India and South Asia president and CEO Manish Sharma said. “This means that so far we are not doing enough in the 4K category,” he added. The 4K market is 4.5-5 per cent of the total TV market in terms of value and 2-2.5 per cent in terms of volume. The Indian TV market is around 12 million sets, growing by over 17 per cent. www.EFymag.com

design

The Art Of DESIGN For MANUFACTURE

H Vertica Asthana is a technical journalist at EFY

When should you start the design for manufacturing process (Image courtesy: http://svv.io)

www.efymag.com

ave you ever met with designers who were in stress when their prototypes failed? Or have you seen the production team’s anxiety when they were facing manufacturing challenges at production line? Or have you met designers who have had to face wrath of the buyers when their product failed and were questioned for the material used and the product’s quality? In most such cases, it is found that a reliable design for manufacturing (DFM) was not used, by using which problems could have been avoided at the design stage itself. DFM makes a product reliable, sustainable and feasible after production. Vikas Saxena, general manager - quality at MYBOX Technologies, cites an incident in 2005, when his company almost lost a deal with Ford Motors. During the time, he worked for an electronics manufacturing services (EMS) house in Milwaukee, USA. They were executing an order of Ford’s engine control unit boards, which started failing soon after production. They had joint meetings with Ford executives to find out the problem. They realised that since DFM was not used during the design stage, there was a fault in the circuit board where the layers had interchanged, causing a shorting in the boards. The EMS house had to abort the product’s development, losing tons of money. Most electronics giants and auto firms use DFM while their product is in design stage. And DFM is usually done by using certain

tools. The companies have their tools defined as per their own rulebooks. For example, IT giants Cisco and Jabil use Valor, which is an expensive tool but very important for them. According to experts, DFM should be carried out where the production is to be done, as surface mount technology (SMT) machines differ from company to company. Saxena recalls an instance when a throughhole capacitor started coming out from its pad area during wave soldering, and hence the production had to be stopped immediately. It was found that, since the production centre was in Penang (Malaysia), there was a difference in the SMT machine used and its working, and hence the disaster. Multinational companies (MNCs) like Jabil, Nokia, Cisco, Apple and GE follow DFM religiously. Jabil uses automatic machines, even for rework, for a perfect result.

Valor: For error-free design Valor, the most popular DFM tool used by MNCs, provides a PCB manufacturing solution. PCB is the heart of electronics hardware and embedded systems. Valor is a seamless end-toend ‘all-in-one’ tool. It helps minimise errors, so that in the long run the designing and manufacturing teams do not have to waste time, labour and cost in fault detection and rectification. The design, after completion, is checked using Valor or a similar tool. Companies like Cisco have made the use of this DFM tool mandatory as it manufactures up to 24-layer complex printed circuit boards. Valor has a long checklist that includes boards getting checked on printed circuit boards assembly, layer by layer, including signal check and pattern check on-component basis, count of components, Gerber files, impedance on the PCB, copper layers, copper pads, drill check and through-hole pads. Other than these, quality check of PCBs is done as per application, and thickness, routing, punching, stencil check and stencil paste are also taken into consideration. After the test, Valor differentiates between the hot points and the electronics for you | July 2017

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design cold points. The hot points are rectified first, followed by the cold points. Valor does calculations, too. DEK, a manufacturer of screen printing machines for SMT PCBs, needs to know precisely how much solder paste should be applied on the stencils; the transmission rate should be 70 per cent or more. Valor takes 24 to 48 hours to calculate, depending on the size of the project. Similarly, there are calculations required for some other processes, too. Valor always has scripts running, and if a user wishes to add any process to it, a programmer will be required to modify the script. As per Saxena, Valor for electronics is a set of sophisticated DFM tools, but it does not have revised versions yet. However, if on-the-air changes are made in the software, it gets updated elsewhere simultaneously. Valor users need to convert the SAP or ERP, CAD, PCAD files, or other PCB design and simulation files, into ODB++ format, which is a readable format for Valor.

Some other tools A tool called Apriori provides a distinctive platform for manufacturers to manage their product’s cost at all stages of its development and manufacture. This starts right from design stage to manufacturing stage. Apriori focuses on how the project cost can be made feasible and enables quick iterations as per changing market, material cost and availability. The tool called Project Tracker is a software that updates tracking of tasks, assignments, events and activities related to a project. This helps project managers in consistent project execution, improved resource utilisation, reduced resource gaps and operational efficiency. It facilitates communication and decision-making, so you can manage the project efficiently and deliver on time—making the whole process hassle-free and budget-friendly. While Cisco considers Valor as mandatory, some other electronics 104

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manufacturers carry out DFM using such PCB designing and simulation software as PCAD, CAD, PRO-E for electronics, or Solidworks for mechanical assemblies for sheet-metal checking, injection moulding, plastic mould filling, checking drafts, undercuts and thickness, etc. New DFM tools such as Should Cost Analysis, Cost-Out Analysis and Fast Works for sourcing and purchase are being used by some established American electronics conglomerates.

Monitoring cost during design stage According to an industry expert, Fast Works is useful for the development of new products in a company. It helps in getting close to the customer, increases chances of success, speeds up marketing and makes it easy to get things done. Usually, companies use Fast Work for costing during new product development followed by the launch of prototype in the market. There are stages of this methodology which define team work, focusing on the customer’s weak points, finding solution to it and documenting the whole process. After all, early learning and validation hypothesis is the key to success. Besides, the team needs to reduce the ‘build-measure-learn’ time loop. Above all, experiments and quick iterations as per customers’ requirements also need to be done.

Cost saviors during running of product Should Cost Analysis sets an accurate benchmark for cost negotiation. Designers get the clarity of vendor pricing through this tool, thus helping them make an informed decision regarding the cost of components. This helps the designer to cut down the cost during the design stage itself. Apriori and SAP are the two tools that can be used for Should Cost Analysis. Should Cost Analysis covers technology and quality, customer satisfaction, price and serviceability. Companies use either Should Cost

Analysis or Cost-Out Analysis for a product. After the analysis, the designer may suggest the customer to forget the existing solution and undertake a new project, or may propose an additional feature for the product. This is how design for manufacturing is managed from the initial to its final stage.

DFM sans tools While you may think that these tools are essential for the success of DFM, fortunately that is not the case. According to industry experts, tools like Valor, Apriori, SAP and Project Tracker are very useful, but some of these are actually very demanding, and require a huge one-time investment and rigorous training. Not all small-scale manufacturing units or startups can afford to purchase these. But a third-party testing is always an option. As an alternative, a rulebook for DFM can be made by a panel of experienced designers and manufacturers, which can be used by the design engineers. Apart from using Valor, Cisco has a handy rulebook that it follows. Similarly, all other electronics manufacturing MNCs also, besides using DFM tools, follow their handy rulebooks that are prepared in-house.

The Indian story We have all heard horror stories related to Indian manufacturing sector. Most companies have been using certain DFM tools without complete knowledge about them. In some other companies design engineers are unaware that they have been using DFM tools, thus being unable to realise their full potential. This is happening because of lack of requisite training. Many small and medium enterprises do not use DFM because they do not realise its importance. Thus, they lose crucial time for design and manufacture. A company should always be ready to keep its design team on toes with new techniques, trainings and software. Perfect design and proper costing is like the heart and soul of a perfect product. www.efymag.com

IntervIew Computing

“Roof Computing With Standard Interfaces Harmonises The iot ECosystEm” Syam madanapalli

director - iot delivery, ntt data

In order to ease the efforts of building applications over Roof platform, a unified interfacing and functional model is required. This is where Roof Computing, also known as IEEE P1931.1, comes in. Syam Madanapalli, Director - IoT Delivery, NTT DATA, talks about this technology in a conversation with Dilin Anand from EFY

Q. What is ieee p1931.1?

and gateway devices and provides various application interfaces to interface A. IEEE P1931.1 is a federated networking and computational paradigm for with devices, cloud, service providers the Internet of Things (IoT). It is always and users while preventing the intruders. The southbound interfaces allow available for real-time on-site operation facilitation including next-hop connectiv- the Things to be put under Roof in a secure manner and build trust with ity for Things (IoT products), real-time other Things under Roof. The northcontext building and decision triggers. ern interface helps in establishing a It provides efficient data connectivity to Cloud/service providers and always-‘on’ secure channel to Cloud and service providers to protect information and security for Things under Roof. privacy, while feeding Cloud-based IoT applications. The horizontal interfaces Q. How is it deployed? help manage Things, and security and A. Roof is implemented as a softprivacy. Security functions include ware platform on various devices that proxy IoT products and their IoT servic- authentication, authorisation and es to the rest of the world. The devices secure key establishment for exposing on which Roof is implemented include, IoT services under Roof, while privacy but not limited to, mobile phones, home function helps these manage access routers and other computing platforms. rights for data and IoT services. Roof is placed a few metres away from Things and far below Fog and Cloud. Q. What do you feel about compa-

Q. How does it help engineers working with the iot? A. Today, IoT ecosystem is vertically segmented, raising the entry for small players. Roof segments the IoT networks horizontally with standard interfaces between the physical and cyber-world. This enables the engineers and companies to play at their strengths and innovate. Device vendors, Cloud service providers and platform builders can focus on innovating with their products and services instead of working on end-to-end solutions.

Q. How does the technology work? A. Roof is a platform for the edge www.efymag.com

nies using iot label for any internetconnected device?

A. Most businesses depict the IoT and its value depending on the product or service they offer. The IoT deals with the physical world, and is deployed for a mission that requires it to function autonomously over a period of time, irrespective of what is happening elsewhere. For example, an IoT deployment in a factory should continue to function if there is a fibre cut outside the factory that disrupts Cloud connectivity. Things in the IoT should operate and cooperate in a secure and independent manner within the context of a local environment such as a

home or factory. These need to connect to Fog or Cloud only for added value.

Q. What is roof’s biggest benefit to an engineer building iot systems? A. Ability to provide autonomous operations, secure communications and privacy by design are the fundamentals of Roof architecture. Roof with standard interfaces harmonises the IoT ecosystem and allows building more generic IoT gateways and Cloud services so that one can choose devices from any vendor and get the services from another vendor.

Q. How can it be used to securely manage devices? A. Roof avoids exposing IoT devices directly over the Internet. It provides multilevel security, analyses threats and requires two-factor authorisation for suspected activities. It also supports authentication for multiple service providers securely to manage data access and privacy.

Q. How does it reduce the implementation barrier? A. Roof can harmonise the IoT ecosystem by allowing individual components of the IoT system to evolve independently. This allows development of devices and other solutions, and taking these to the market. In addition, Roof enables rapid development of innovative services based on existing devices by allowing access to multiple service providers. It provides the ability to choose and switch to any equivalent service provider. electronics for you | July 2017

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IntervIew M2M Communications

“IntegratIon Is A Big Issue In Iot DevIce Deployment” Ashish GulAti country mAnAGer, telit

Q. What trends do you observe in wireless technologies for m2m? A. For IoT modules, we have different cellular technologies. Today, Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology accounts for half of our customers. The other half of the demand is mostly for 3G, with 2G accounting for almost none. This was not the case in 2012.

Q. is india network-ready for iot deployment? A. Usually, it takes 18-24 months for a cellular operator to launch a commercialised cellular network. In June last year, 3GPP body finalised the narrow-band IoT (NB-IOT) and Cat-M1 specifications. Operators in North America try to commercialise network services in 6-12 months (instead of 24 months). Given that, they are hard pressed on timelines to offer this network as Cat-M1 is still under field trials in North America. In India, most LTE operators have their networks compliant to Cat-1. And they have started

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Telit is an enabler of machine-to-machine (M2M) communications worldwide providing wireless module technology, services and connectivity. It offers integrated products, platforms and services to support and enable IoT deployments from things to apps. Ashish Gulati, country manager for Telit, speaks to EFY’s Dilin Anand about how cellular technologies are evolving with the Internet of Things (IoT) and growth of connected devices

working towards NB-IOT and Cat-M1 even before Cat-1 becomes widespread.

Q. What’s the cost impact of wireless evolution? A. If the module is going to change, you have to change the antennae as these are different for 2G, 3G and LTE. Then there are some minor changes in the power supply. The rest of the changes are on the software side. So overall bill-of-materials (BOM) cost is more or less the same.

Q. how easy is it for product teams to switch their designs from one module to another? A. Customers must share the application or product that they are using right now. Our modules are AT command driven. When a customer tells us what product they are using, we compare AT commands that are different. While most are common, some proprietary commands may differ. We review these and tell our customers the changes that they need to make to straightaway use our modules.

Thus, it becomes very easy for customers.

Q. What are the issues faced in deployment of iot solutions? A. I see more of integration issues because in certain cases it is difficult to integrate IoT devices with the conventional equipment/machinery in a manufacturing plant. For instance, sometimes there are older equipment that have no relevant data outlet, so we must create one in such cases.

Q. What help do you provide to independent design houses? A. We go much beyond supporting independent design houses (IDHs) on their design initiatives. In some cases we help them showcase their product solutions to global market through industry exhibitions. We sign up agreements with IDHs, whereby we work with them exclusively for an application and promote it to prospective clients. We also introduce them to our distribution partners for joint promotional campaigns.

www.EFymag.com

make in india Market Survey

Are ‘Made In India’ Mobile Phones In The Growth Phase?

T

% Local Value Addition

Total Value of Components (US$, Millions)

he Indian mobile handset market, including smartphones and feature phones, is booming. According to a Morgan Stanley research report, India will overtake the US next year as the second-largest smartphone market in terms of units sold. It will register nearly five times faster growth than the world’s largest smartphone market, China, where growth has decelerated. Sudeshna Das is The report also indicates that the Indian senior executive editor at EFY smartphone market will grow annually at 23 per cent through 2018, accounting for 30 per cent of the global growth during the period. Around 192 million smartphones (11 per cent Total Components Value Total Local Components Value % Local Value Addition of global units) will be shipped to India. 35% $25,000 The burgeoning mobile handset market 32.1% in India presents an attractive opportunity 30% to $20,073 $20,000 manufacturers. Most of the global corpora$18,212 25% tions are looking at India24.0% as a regional hub $15,712 for manufacturing and sales—to cater not $15,000 $13,765 20% only to the Indian market but to the SAARC, $11,670 the Middle East16.6% and African markets as well. 15% $10,000 The government of India’s recent notification on the Phased Manufacturing Programme $6,442 10% 9.5% (PMP) to promote indigenous manufacture of $4,363 $5,000 Fig. 1: The 5.6% $2,608 has provided a fresh impecellular handsets 5% changing $653 mobile phone tus $1,305 to this sector. buying pattern 0% $0 This report provides an insight into India’s in India: Locally 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 manufactured mobile handset manufacturing ecosystem, Phase I Phase II Phase III vs imports focusing primarily on opportunities, domestic (Source: IIM-B and Counterpoint value addition and policy framework. Research)

Imports

Domestic Manufacturing

300

120%

83% Units in Mn

200

88%

93%

80%

67%

150

60%

100

38%

32%

28%

50 0

100%

2011

2012

www.efymag.com

2013

40%

31% 19%

2014

20%

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

0%

%age contribution

250

96%

“India can potentially be a world leader in the mobile phone manufacturing ecosystem and this has to be done in a phased manner.” —Aruna Sundararajan, secretary, Ministry of Electronics & IT (MeitY), Government of India

Methodology Inputs from six senior industry experts and members across India’s mobile manufacturing ecosystem were taken for this report. The ecosystem includes: 1. Mobile brands/original equipment manufacturers 2. Electronic components manufacturers 3. Electronics manufacturing services providers 4. Academia and the industry research fraternity

Market opportunities India’s large domestic market is a big attraction for global manufacturers looking for an alternative market. In China, the widespread design and manufacture of low-end electronics seems to be drawing to a close as engineering and labour costs rise steadily. On the other hand, India has a high availability of skilled manpower at much lower wages. Mobile manufacturing in India is growing. According to a study conducted by IIM Bangalore (IIM-B) and Counterpoint Research, there was a sharp increase in the total number of mobile manufacturing facilities in the country, to almost 50, with a combined production output of 180 million units in 2016. The market share of locally manufactured mobile phones (versus imported) increased from 14 per cent in 2014 to 67 per cent in 2016. It is further estimated to reach 96 per cent by 2020 (Fig. 1). The government has introduced various incentives under the PMP to increase domestic value addition (local sourcing, assembly, etc) from 6 per cent to more than 30 per cent over the next few years. The PMP scheme (covered in detail later in the article) aims to promote domestic manufacture of mobile phones by providing tax relief and electronics for you | July 2017

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make in india other hand, complete localisation of the major sub-components of chargers, batteries and cameras can be possible soon. From a technology perspective, true value addition will be defined by emerging trends such as: 1. Advanced devices enabled with 5G, Internet of Things (IoT) and augmented reality 2. Automated manufacturing processes utilising real-time analytics and robotics 3. Digital product design and advanced production using innovative casing materials through 3D printing These trends have the potential to take the Indian market to the next level.

Benefits of the Phased Manufacturing Programme 1. Domestic value addition in the manufacturing of feature phones will go up from about 15 per cent to 37 per cent. 2. Domestic value addition in the manufacturing of smartphones will go up from about 10 per cent to 26 per cent. 3. Around 50 new mobile handset manufacturing units and 30 mobile components and accessory manufacturing units were started during the last two years, providing direct employment to over 100,000 people. 4. Rise in indirect employment by creating work opportunities for an estimated 200,000 people. —Source: MeitY

other incentives on components and accessories used for these devices.

Value addition Huge domestic consumption and policy reforms, such as effective duties on key components along with attractive incentive structures, will drive domestic value addition through component sourcing as well as create a demand for electronics manufacturing services in India. The IIM-B and Counterpoint joint study estimates that more than $15 billion worth of components will be sourced locally over a period of five years through 2020. This will not only lead to significant savings in foreign exchange and creation of over a million direct and indirect jobs but also boost the entire ESDM ecosystem. However, manufacturing in India is still restricted to manual semiknocked-down (SKD) level assembly. In 2016, true local value addition in manufacturing and sourcing components was less than 6 per cent of the total $11 billion worth of components used in making around 267 million phones. This figure is far below that of other countries. To transform into a global manufacturing hub, India needs to move to the 108

next level of manufacturing (beyond assembly) in a phased manner. In the next five years, local sourcing of level-A components and sub-components, as well as localisation of assembly/manufacturing services, will result in greater value addition—more than 30 per cent by 2020, with a potential to grow to as much as 50 per cent thereafter (Fig. 2). Greater investments in industrial design, PCB design and SMT line assembly would help drive this growth, though many of the major silicon components will continue to be sourced from overseas. On the Total Components Value

Policy boost in phases The PMP will be rolled out in a phased manner, aided by appropriate fiscal and financial incentives to promote indigenous manufacture of phones and various sub-assemblies. This, in turn, is likely to provide an impetus to related industries including the sub-assembly and components industry. The phased programme has already been in place for the last two years. The Union Budget 2015-16 introduced a differential excise duty for domestic mobile manufactur-

Total Local Components Value

% Local Value Addition

$25,000

35% 32.1%

30%

$20,073

$20,000

$18,212

$15,000

25%

24.0%

$15,712 $13,765

20%

$11,670

16.6%

15%

$10,000 $6,442

9.5%

$5,000

10%

$4,363 5.6%

$2,608

5%

$1,305

$653 $0

% Local Value Addition

China: Almost 70 per cent South Korea and Taiwan: Over 50 per cent Vietnam: Around 30 per cent Brazil: Below 20 per cent

“The mobile phone segment itself has the potential to drive electronics manufacturing to the tune of over $250 billion” —Ajay Kumar, additional secretary, MeitY, Government of India

Total Value of Components (US$, Millions)

Mobile Component Localisation: Global scenario

2016

2017

2018

Phase I

2019 Phase II

0%

2020

Phase III

Fig. 2: Forecast on total local value addition under the phased manufacturing programme (Source: IIM-B)

July 2017 | electronics for you

Imports

Domestic Manufacturing

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300

120%

96%

make in india ers. Under this, a countervailing duty (CVD) on imports at 12.5 per cent and excise duty at 1 per cent without input tax credit (or 12.5 per cent with input tax credit) were levied on domestic mobile phone manufacturers. This differential duty provided the necessary impetus to the assembly, programming, testing and packaging (APTP) model in the sector and provided domestic manufacturers a level-playing field. Earlier, imported mobile components or finished goods provided stiff price competition to domestic players as India is a signatory to the World Trade Organisation’s Information Technology Agreement (ITA-1). As a result, the value of handset manufacturing in 2015-16 increased to ` 540 billion from ` 190 billion in 2014-15—according to data compiled by the Indian Cellular Association (ICA), the industry association representing mobile phone brands. In the current financial year (FY 2017-18), PMP covers domestic manufacture of components related to mechanics, die-cut parts, microphones and receivers, keypads and USB cables. In the next financial year (FY 2018-19), it will cover printed circuit board assemblies, camera modules and connectors, while in FY 2019-20, it will provide incentives for local production of display assemblies, touch panels/ cover glass assemblies, and vibrator motors or ringers. However, the current notification lacks detailed information on tax benefits, incentives, etc for different components and products. Availability of a detailed guideline would help the industry.

Expert’s view The Phased Manufacturing Programme (PMP) is a three-year-old initiative and the Indian government is consistently announcing tax differences on import vis-a-vis domestic manufacturing of mobile phones and their parts. With GST coming on the scene, differential duty benefits provided through CVD difference will not be effective. Now local manufacturing of mobile phones may be encouraged only by providing direct fiscal incentives to manufacturers and/or reengineering of BCD rates on import of finished mobile phones and their parts, accessories and sub-parts, etc. Recently, Ministry of Electronics & IT notified fiscal incentives for manufacture of mobile phones, their parts and sub-parts, spread over a timeline of four years. However, there is not much clarity on the indicative list of items and incentives. The industry welcomes PMP announcement but wants clarity on its modalities and applicability. The industry and even the government is not very clear about the GST implementation issues and all stakeholders are in a wait-and-watch mode. As mentioned above, the government needs to come clear on the advantages to manufacture mobile phones in India rather than import in the upcoming GST regime. Currently, GST on mobile phones is 12 per cent, which is considered to be low. At the same time, some components, parts and accessories of mobile phones attract 18 or 28 per cent GST. This will create an inverted duty structure in mobile phone manufacturing, ultimately blocking a heavy amount as credit overflow. It is significant to mention that mobile phone parts and accessories are being manufactured in India on a significantly greater scale. This industry will be adversely impacted. All parts, sub-parts, components and parts for the manufacture of sub-parts should be confined to 12 per cent GST. —Electronics Industries Association of India (ELCINA)

GST: Good or bad?

Goods and service tax (GST) is a ‘one nation one tax’ policy, which may leave little room for industry-specific sops like differential benefits for domestic mobile phone manufacturing. Mobile brands that have already set up assembly or manufacturing units in India, and rely on various tax concessions from central and state governments, may face some challenges once the GST regime is introduced. Since GST is a destinationbased tax on consumption, it will not be possible for states to continue to provide the current VAT exemptions. Since GST will subsume all taxes, the excise/CVD advantage given by the Centre to local manufacturers will also be difficult to retain. Clarity on GST rates may help interim Major contributors to this report business plans but  Anil Bali, vice president, Deki Electronics creating the neces Chirantan Chatterjee, professor, IIM Bangalore (IIM-B) sary duty differential  Deepak Kabu, CEO, Ziox Mobiles (through basic cus Rajoo Goel, secretary general, ELCINA toms duty or BCD) to  Sasikumar Gendham, CEO, Salcomp Manufacturing India safeguard local mobile  Shashin Devsare, executive director, Karbonn Mobiles phone manufacturing

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initiatives is a critical responsibility of the government. After GST implementation, mobile phones will fall under 12 per cent tax bracket. The additional price burden due to the GST rate fixed at 12 per cent will have to be passed on to the consumers to sustain profitable growth for the business. Industry members feel that, in keeping with the objectives of ‘Digital India,’ the ideal GST rate should have been 5 per cent.

Moving forward Mobile manufacturing sector in India suffers from a host of problems, including stringent labour laws, poor infrastructure and inefficient supply chain. These factors are hindering the growth of this sector, leading to sub-optimal profit levels for local manufacturers. Favourable government intervention may help. There is also a need to focus on research and development, including intellectual property creation in sync with emerging technology trends, to help manufacturers become innovators and explorers rather than imitators and assemblers. www.efymag.com

New Products Make in india

test & measurement Microwave motion sensor BlackT Electrotech has introduced a lighting automation device that saves electricity. Basically, a microwave motion sensor, this device works by detecting any movement more accurately than PIR sensors. It can easily connect with existing lighting. The device has a wide operating range, and can detect outside glass or other thin material. BlackT Electrotech www.blackt.in

Voltage testers The three models in Testo 750 voltage tester family have an all-round LED display. The display can be seen from any position, thanks to its unique fibre optics. All the models meet the latest voltage tester standard EN 61243-3:2010 and CAT IV safety specification. These are capable of voltage testing, continuity testing and rotating magnetic field measurement. Model 750-2 is also suitable for singlepole voltage testing, while model 7503 is fitted with an L-C display to show the current reading.

HVAC professionals. The multimeter has a built-in worklight, non-contact voltage detector, and intuitive and simple-to-operate user interface. It includes functions for DC voltage, AC voltage, DC current, AC current, resistance, type-K thermocouple contact temperature, capacitance, frequency, diode and continuity.

2Ah to 100Ah, including SLA, GEL or flooded type batteries. Its digitally controlled test process instantly shows the battery voltage, internal resistance and, most importantly, the remaining balance of the stored battery energy (Ah capacity) as the percentage of its Ah rating. The robust 100A rated battery clamps have four- terminal test capability to provide highly accurate testing.

FLIR Systems India www.flir.in

Aplab Limited www.aplab.com

Bare board testers

Digital thermo anemometer

MSB Electronics has introduced UTRON high-speed bare board testers (UT8000HV6 and UT8008HV) for all types of PCBs. The testers include 1024 to 12,288 test points, and allow continuity and leakage testing with 250V test

Kusam Electrical has introduced a lowcost, portable digital thermo anemometer (model KM909) that simultaneously displays wind speed and temperature, and stores maximum, minimum and average values. The meter can measure temperatures from –20°C to 60°C (with a speed of one measurement every second), and wind velocity in the range of 0 to 30.0 m/s. Kusam Electrical Industries www.kusamelectrical.com

PV insulation earth tester

Testo India www.testo.in

voltage, maximum 20mA test current and 2048 points/second test speed.

True RMS multimeter

MSB Electronics Kalyan, Maharashtra

The FLIR DM90 is an affordable true-RMS digital multimeter with a type-K thermocouple. Equipped with features like LoZ, VFD mode and μA current measurement, it is ideal for electricians, service technicians and 112

July 2017 | ElEctronics For you

Kyoritsu 6024PV is a 4-in-1 tool that can do PV insulation, insulation and earth testing as well as voltage

Battery capacity analyser Automatic battery analyser BCA 6/12 from Aplab enables instant analysis of any 6V or 12V lead-acid battery from www.EFymag.com

New Products measurement. It also has a timer for PV insulation testing, and logging and PC interface for record keeping. Waterproof design (IP54 standard) enables measurement in bad weather conditions. The tester has on-board memory logging for up to 1000 datasets.

historical data, and external U disk storage. Interfaces include USB device, USB host and LAN.

Kyoritsu KEW India Instruments www.kew-ltd.co.in

SMD LEDs

Handheld thermal imaging camera Meco’s handheld thermal imaging camera TIC300 combines both surface temperature measurement and real-time thermal imaging functions. Unlike traditional thermal imaging cameras that measure components one by one, TIC300 does it together, thus saving users’ time. The meter has a 6cm (2.4-inch) colour display with a resolution of 60x60. Temperature range is -20°C to 300°C. The meter comes with various colour palettes like iron red, rainbow, rainbow high contrast, grey scale (white glow) and grey scale (black glow). Meco Instruments www.mecoinst.com

Digital multimeter Siglent’s SDM3065X is a 6½-digit (2,200,000-count) multimeter with dual display. Suited for high-precision, multifunction and automatic measurement, it has a powerful testing engine, 1Gb NAND flash size, mass storage configuration files and data files,

The MAX20078 synchronous buck, high-brightness LED controller from

Siglent https://www.siglent.eu

Components LEDChip Indus has released 1W, 150mA SMD LEDs with 145 lumens/ watt output that deliver exceptional brightness, thanks to their specially designed lead frame profile and improved heat dissipation. The KLSL2835W LEDs are claimed to be the world’s lowest priced LED types for a given wattage; lower than the 5630/5730 SMD LEDs.

Maxim Integrated Products provides both fast response and low electromagnetic interference (EMI) for exterior LED lighting and improved safety applications. Ideal for matrix lighting designs, it allows designers to achieve high performance, ease of design and fast time-to-market. While eliminating the need for external compensation components, it also features a wide dimming ratio, and integrated fault protection and monitoring circuitry.

LEDChip Indus Pvt Ltd www.LEDChip.in

Maxim Integrated https://www.maximintegrated.com

Surface-mount fuse

Surface-mount low-power modules

Littelfuse, Inc. has introduced an encapsulated surface-mount fuse for intrinsic safety protection of equipment used in or near hazardous locations and explosive atmospheres. During over-current and short-circuit conditions, the 1mm-thick encapsulation around the body of the PICO 304 series surface-mount fuse minimises the amount of heat produced and contains any sparks or arcs inside the fuse assembly, preventing them from being exposed to potentially explosive gases or dust in the environment. This encapsulation eliminates the need to pot or coat printed circuit boards or assemblies, saving production time and money. Littlefuse, Inc. www.Littelfuse.com

www.EFymag.com

Automotive LED controller

STMicroelectronics has added five space-saving surface-mount intelligent power modules to its SLLIMM-nano family, giving the choice of IGBT or MOSFET outputs for in-motor or other space-constrained drives all the way from very low power ratings up to 100W. The new modules deliver high conduction and switching efficiency, especially in hard-switching circuits at frequencies up to 20kHz. The integrated gate-driver circuitry minimises EMI by managing switching voltage and current slopes. STMicroelectronics www.st.com

Fuse holders SCHURTER has introduced FUS series dust- and water-proof fuse holdElEctronics For you | July 2017

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New Products ers with IP67 ingress degree of protection for rough applications. The snap-in fuse holders guarantee fast and tool-free assembly. The carrier is available in both versions with slot and fingergrip and can accommodate 5×20mm2 or 6.3×32mm2 fuse sizes. SCHURTER Electronics (India) www.schurter.co.in

FRAM chips Fujitsu has unveiled two new FRAM chips that work over extended operating temperatures of up to 125°C and comply with industry standard AEC Q100. The MB85RS128TY and MB85RS256TY FRAMs allow instant and continuous data storage in applications such as air bag data storage, event data recorders, battery manage-

converter. It keeps leakage current, conducted emission and radiated emission low. The power supply is suited for noise-sensitive applications like equipment used in advanced hyperfine measurement, testing, and medical and biotechnology fields.

motor, eight LEDs, four switches, two 5V relays, seven-segment display, and software support for RIDE and Willar Programmer.

Brilliant Electro-Systems www.brilliantelectronics.com

LED drivers

Output power supply Mornsun has introduced HO1 series of high-voltage output power supply for portable ultrasonic devices like ultrasonoscopes, pile test instruments, ultrasonic thickness gauges, and nonmetallic ultrasonic testing detectors. These power supplies feature 12V fixed input voltage, 0-600V continuous output with linear adjustable function, operating temperature ranging from -40°C to +85°C without any derating, and temperature coefficient up to ±0.01%/°C, time coefficient up to ±0.05%/hour, and output ripple as low as 15mVp-p (typically). Mornsun Guangzhou Science & Technology www.mornsun-power.com

ment systems, automatic driving assistance systems, and navigation and infotainment systems. Fujitsu Electronics Pacific Asia www.fujitsu.com

Ultra-low-noise switching power supply Brilliant Electro-Systems has introduced Japan-based Daitron make LFS150A series AC/DC switching power supply. This compact, lightweight power supply provides clean DC power with a complex resonant 114

July 2017 | ElEctronics For you

tools & equipment Intel 8051 kit ARTech Electronics has introduced an Intel 8051 kit that covers complete peripheral solutions for embedded processor 8051. Other features include easy replacement of faulty ICs or components, reprogrammable zip socket facility, separate 5V and 12V supplies, RS232 serial communication, DC motor, stepper

ARTech Electronics www.artechlabs.in

Brisker’s new LED30W-D series constant-current drivers are designed for use with standard 0-24V dimmers.

These drivers feature a less than 10 per cent to 100 per cent dimming range and universal 100-277V input. IP66 thermal-advantage plastic housing makes them suitable for use in damp locations. Brisker Systems Electronics & Services www.briskersystems.com

Fixed VoIP gateway Matrix has added a new variant to its VoIP gateways category ‘SETU.’ The VFX844 fixed gateway supports up to eight VoIP channels, four FXO ports and four FXS ports. Tailored mainly for the international market, it offers features like caller ID on analogue stations, emergency dialing and hotline extension setting. SETU VFX844 is based on TLS and SRTP protocols, ensuring security of communication routed on the platform. Matrix Telecom Solutions www.matrixtelesol.com www.EFymag.com

Price ` 121,990

First Look estyle

EFY BuREau

Price

165cm Smart TV Enjoy four times the clarity of a full HD TV Europe-based Truvison has launched a premium 165cm (65-inch) TV with 4K panoramic ultra HD screen. The TV displays pictures that are denser with fine details. Also, you can access numerous apps and 4K HD channels. An inbuilt Miracast feature along with the in-built WiFi lets you stream your favourite shows, photos, music and movies via multiple gadgets at a single touch. Adding to the fun is the Air fly mouse—a compact gadget adding ease to your gaming experience. You can use it directly by shaking and moving it in the air or by using its keyboard feature.

4G Android Smartphone Featuring 12.7cm (5-inch) IPS display with Dragon Trail glass Ziox Mobiles has added yet another variant to its Astra series, the VIVA 4G smartphone. Its 12.7cm (5-inch) display with Dragon Trail tough glass guards against scratches and breakage, while the wide-screen IPS technology allows viewing from any angle without distortion. The phone runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow operating system, and includes 1GB RAM and 8GB ROM with 1.3GHz quad-core processor. It has a 5MP selfie camera along with a 5MP rear camera with Flash, which gives clear and bright pictures even in low light. Powered by a 2500mAh battery, the phone is perfect for those who keep travelling and are always on their toes. It comes in two colours of champagne gold, and Price black` 5593 and-grey. www.efymag.com

OLED TVs WITH DOLBY TECHNOLOGY

` 3,25,000 up to ` 30,00,000

For a cinematic experience at your home LG Electronics India has unveiled its 2017 range of OLED TVs that feature self-lighting pixels, which enhances the picture quality. Colour science expertise by Technicolor reproduces accurate colours. Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos deliver the perfect blend of superb picture and sound quality. All the TVs in the range support the full palette of HDR formats, including Dolby Vision, HDR10 and HLG (Hybrid Log Gamma). This versatility is compounded by the new HDR Effect feature, which processes standard definition content frame-byframe to improve brightness in specific areas, enhance contrast ratios and render more precise images. The latest webOS user interface provides seamless, intuitive navigation with Magic Remote’s scroll, gesture and voice commands. The LG 2017 OLED TV lineup consists of models 77/65W7, 77G7, 65/55E7, 65/55C7 and 65/55B7.

2.1-channel Speakers With Bluetooth connectivity, Karaoke and FM radio Zebronics’ newest 2.1-channel speaker system, Tornado 2, comes with massive sound output of 12-watt RMS. Its cuttingedge sound technology with digital audio processing ensures high-quality sound. The system comprises two satellites and a subwoofer in a wooden cabinet that facilitates natural sound flow. Each satellite comes with dual 7.6cm drivers and a single 1.5cm tweeter. Other key features include LED display, Bluetooth, karaoke function, USB port, SD-memory card slot, inbuilt FM radio and fully functioned remote control.

Price ` 11,111

electronics for you | July 2017

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first look Price ` 1399

Amkette Pocket Portable media speaker fit for travellers Amkette Pocket speaker has built-in MP3, FM radio, USB/SD card playback, rechargeable and replaceable battery with 12-hour backup, and LED digital clock. The in-built torch will be your guiding light on a trek or when there’s a blackout. If you’re a radio fanatic, worry no more because this speaker allows you to type in the number of your favourite radio channel directly without getting into the hassle of scanning other channels. Amkette Pocket also happens to be the perfect companion to laptops and PCs, so you can listen to playlists uninterrupted.

Bluetooth smart watch Asus Android Tablet Make and receive calls, and get Whatsapp notifications

a fusion of latest technology and stylish design

PTron has launched its new Bluetooth smartwatch, Sporty S1, which is available exclusively on LatestOne.com. The smartwatch has a 5x4.8x1cm3 dial, with band made up of silica gel. It is powered by a built-in 380mAh rechargeable polymer battery, which takes up 30-60 minutes to charge completely. The battery supports standby of seven days and talk time of eight hours. Featuring Bluetooth 3.0 and touch screen, the smartwatch supports phonebook, SMS and Whats App notifications, call answering and dialling, pedometer, remote camera and music. It supports both iOS and Android.

ASUS has announced a premium 25.6cm (10.1-inch) Android tablet, ZenPad 10 (Z301ML/MFL). The tablet features a fashion-inspired design with clean lines, embossed woven texture and polished metallic frame. The expansive Full HD (Z301MFL) or HD (Z301ML) IPS display features ASUS Tru2Life and ASUS TruVivid technology for comprehensive visual optimisation. Dual front-facing speakers, with support for DTS-HD Premium Sound and DTS Headphone:X virtual 7.1 surroundsound, render enhanced audio experiences. The tablet is powered by a highcapacity, 4650mAh battery, which delivers up to 13 hours of video playback. Reversible USB-C port provides easy connections and convenient charging.

Price

Not announced yet

Price ` 12,999 Price ` 1299

GizMo ByTes Google to make file backup much simpler Google is launching a new tool called Backup and Sync, which will help users to easily backup all their important files and photos to the cloud. The tool will be compatible with Macs and PCs and is said to be the latest version of ‘Google Drive for Mac/PC,’ which is integrated with the Google Photos desktop uploader. The backed-up photos and videos can be found in Google Photos and Google Drive.

Snapchat launches locationsharing feature ‘Snap Map’ Snapchat’s new Snap Map feature lets you share your current location, which appears to friends on a map and updates when you open Snapchat. The feature was rolled out recently to all iOS and Android users globally. You can choose from three visibility options: share your location with all your friends or a few ‘select’ friends, or disappear from the map by going into Ghost Mode or not opening Snapchat for a few hours.

AI-enabled health coach app for fitness wearables An Indian start-up, Boltt, has developed a range of fitness wearables such as ‘smart’ shoes and bands, integrated with an artificial intelligence (AI) app that provides users a personalised feedback, based on their real-time performance and training. The app uses statistics and data captured from the connected devices to help make better training and running decisions. The Siri-like voice provides real-time coaching and in-ear dynamic audio feedback.

Microsoft Pix can now turn your iPhone photos into art Microsoft is rolling out an update to its AIpowered photo editing app, Microsoft Pix, which allows you to transform your photos into works of art, and use other effects. For example, one effect will make the picture look like it’s on fire. These are not photo filters, to be clear—the styles actually transfer texture, pattern and tones to the photo, explains Microsoft. The app has been launched with eleven styles included, but more will be added soon.

The prices, features and specifications are based on information provided to us, or as available on various websites and portals. EFY cannot vouch for their accuracy.

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www.efymag.com

do-it-yourself estyle

How to Install A Wireless speaker system Paromik Chakraborty

T

o make your whole house or office swing to melodies through a common control device without the cable clutter, Wi-Fisupported speakers are the way to go. Here we have referred majorly to the setup process of Bose SoundTouch 30 wireless speakers, but worry not! Most wireless systems abide by similar installation procedures. Essentials in the whole setup include speaker units, an interface device to connect the system, Wi-Fi (or ethernet) network in the premises, power inputs, an application software provided by the manufacturer and, finally, your ears!

Get started To start the setup, turn on your speaker units. Place all the speakers you have in the positions you want and plug them into the nearest power points and press power button on the apparatus or the remote (if provided). Usually, a small indicator light or a small display screen on the speaker indicates that the device is ‘on.’ Joining the dots. Speakers can be connected using your smartphone, tablet or even computer. Tablets and smartphones will have the same set of actions while your computer will be a tad different. Make sure that the Wi-Fi network at your place is ‘on,’ your smart devices or computers are connected to the network, and the Wi-Fi indicator on your speakers is glowing.

Using your smartphone or tablet Download the mobile application developed by the vendor and install it in your device. This application allows users to connect the sound system with the Wi-Fi network, choose multiple speakers available within the www.efymag.com

vicinity, parallely engage with them, maintain an audio library and play audio through the selected speakers. The main condition is that all the connected systems including the speakers and the device should be connected to the same common Wi-Fi network. Speakers generally contain inbuilt Wi-Fi systems, so these can readily connect to your home network. The process flow is easy: 1. Turn on Wi-Fi of your device and connect to intended Wi-Fi connectivity. 2. Download the vendor application and run it. 3. Next, select options equivalent to ‘Setup.’ To remind you, we had Wi-Fi signal on speakers blinking beforehand. Once you select ‘Setup’ in the application, connect to the speaker Wi-Fi network. 4. From your device, go to the WiFi option, open the list of Wi-Fi networks available and choose the Wi-Fi network of the speaker. The network is usually open and not code-protected, so you can directly connect to it. 5. Once your device is connected to the speaker network, go back to the application and continue. You will be taken to a screen to connect the speaker to your home network. 6. From the interface, select the Wi-Fi network name of your home which you wish to connect to, provide a password if asked for and confirm. You have successfully connected one speaker to your Wi-Fi network. 7. You can now proceed to add other speakers. Once again, ensure the Wi-Fi networks for these speakers are ‘on.’ You will either get an option to add more devices directly from the confirmation window or you can find it

from a separate option in the application. The steps from here on will be the same as for the speaker you first added. 8. Once the setup is done, you will have the option to view your connected speakers and the source from where you want to play the audio— be it the device, in-app library or even the Internet. Here onward, you will be able to select the audio file and speakers. You may also get the option to play different audio files through different sound boxes—depending upon the application.

Using a Mac or a Windows PC 1. Your computer system will also utilise the vendor application to connect and control your speakers. However, you will need to link the speaker to your system through a USB cable to install the necessary drivers. Here is how you do it: 2. Connect USB cable properly between your Mac/Windows computer and the first speaker. 3. Open the vendor application via web or via the process mentioned by the vendor. In case of a first-time login, you may be asked to create a user account. 4. Next, simply connect the speakers to your home Wi-Fi network through the application. Choose your desired WiFi network from the window display. 5. Once you get the message of a successfully established connection, you can remove the USB cable and go wireless. You can now proceed to add another speaker. 6. The following steps are the same as for the mobile application. Paromik Chakraborty is a technical journalist at EFY electronics for you | July 2017

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Buyers’ Guide estyle

What To Look For In LED BuLBs

T Paromik Chakraborty is a technical journalist at EFY

hink of lighting and one cannot ignore LED products, especially LED bulbs which have gained immense popularity in the last few years. And while you may think you know it all while buying an LED bulb, there are many crucial aspects that you may be unaware of. So you end up purchasing poor-quality LED bulbs. Here we give you a lowdown on all the related factors so that you make a well-informed decision before you part ways with your money.

The technical checklist Lumens, watts, efficacy and power factor are common LED lighting terms. A good-quality LED bulb is one that consumes less wattage of electricity. Lumens, which are a measure of brightness, should be high, and the consequent efficacy, i.e., lumens per watt, should be greater than 100. Power factor indicates the power fraction actually utilised. It should be 0.9 or higher. While you may be aware of these basics, there are a plethora of other factors to consider when buying an LED bulb. LED chipset. The quality of the chipset used highly influences the performance of any LED product. LED bulbs using a high-quality chipset will provide better output and last longer, but cost more. Among a selection of chipset types, the most commonly used chipset is based on the surface-mount device (SMD) technology. SMD has its own set of reliability factors, but not without challenges like comparatively lower efficacy (50 to 80 lumens per watt) and complex circuit design. This makes chip-on-board (COB) a better proposition for the chipset. The circuitry of COB simplifies the installation and space utilisation of components. The manufacturing cost of COB chipsets is 5-10

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Understanding LED bulbs An LED bulb consists of an LED chipset and a driver, which is the main power management system that drives the input voltage and current to the LED chip in utilisable form. Additionally, there is a heat-sink, which channels the heat generated by the chip during light production away from the internal components. There is also a lens, which directs the emitted light towards the intended area.

per cent less than of SMD chipsets, which decreases the cost of the end product. Additionally, COB brings higher efficacy (70 to 110 lumens per watt), thus it is used for high lumen output in LED bulbs. However, one drawback of COB technology is the unavailability of colour changing options, which can be achieved through SMD chipsets with upgradations. But then this will result in an increase in the price of the LED bulb. The latest to hit the market is multiple chips-on-board. The architecture offers even higher efficiency and colour rendering index (CRI), with better heat management. However, at present, this technology is not used much in the Indian market, except for low-wattage LED bulbs. Surge protection. Inconsistent voltage supply and frequent surges and spikes may overheat and damage the LED circuitry. Surge protection is a blockage mechanism against a power input over a specific threshold, ensuring voltage safety limit for the device. The bulb itself should have a voltage range within 130V-270V, and an in-built surge protection level of at least 1.5-2kV. CRI. CRI is a measure of the ability of a lighting equipment to reproduce colours of light as close as possible and is marked between 1 and 100. Higher CRI helps in better colour distinction and visuals while decreasing strain on the eyes. Typically, LED bulbs have a CRI of over 82. Correlated colour temperature (CCT). It is an identification of the colour of light emitted by an LED equipment. Colours are measwww.EFymag.com

buyers’ guide Deciphering the jargon General-purpose LED bulbs are termed as A-line bulbs, where ‘A’ indicates the bulb’s shape (usually pear-like). One-eighth of the number following the letter ‘A’ denotes the bulb width. So, A19 implies a bulb with a width of 19/8=2.375 inches. The width is variable (A19, A21, etc). The base of the bulb has different notations depending on the screw type. Generally, Indian standard bulbs have a B22 base, meaning a ‘B’ (bayonet) type screw with 22mm diameter base. Standard North American screw type is E26, i.e., ‘E’ (Edison) type screw with 26mm diameter base. Standard European screw type is E27. There are other bulb categories as well, including flood lights, spot lights and candle lights—all having separate application areas.

Power ConsumPtion (watts) of Conventional BulBs and equivalent lumens in led BulBs watts

lumens

20

200

40

450

60

800

75

1100

100

1600

ured based on temperature notations in Kelvin (K). LED bulbs can emit different ranges of light colour—warm white (2700K to 3300K), neutral white (4000K to 5000K) and cool white (above 5000K). Unicolour bulbs can emit light only at a single CCT, and thus need to be selected accordingly. LED bulbs can also be dimmed based on the circuitry, subject to compatibility of the bulb with the available dimmer switch.

Market checklist The Indian market is flooded with cheap LED products of less-thanstandard quality. Buying the wrong product leads to losses in the long run. Here are a few pointers to ensure you choose the right LED bulb. Buy lumens, not watts. The ageold assumption is that the higher the consumption wattage marked on a bulb, the higher is its output. Well, that might have been true for the old incandescents but for LEDs that concept is history. In reality, higher lumens output and lower consumption wattage is the ideal combination to look for in a bulb. Thus, a bulb www.EFymag.com

marked to produce a certain lumens output by consuming, for example, 7 watts, is better than a bulb producing the same lumens consuming 10 watts of power. If you intend to replace your incandescent bulb or CFL with an LED bulb, you can use the table given here to choose the LED bulb’s correct lumens in accordance with your existing bulb’s wattage. Warranty period. Good-quality LED bulbs come with a warranty period of at least three years. Anything less than that should raise concerns about the fairness of the deal. Certifications. According to Vinay Mahendru, director, Eon Electric, “It is essential for the customer to check for BIS certification while purchasing an LED bulb to be sure about the product quality.” BIS certification for a product is awarded by the Bureau of Indian Standards as a guarantee of its safety, quality and reliability. About the average price of an LED bulb, Mahendru confirmed, “In the Indian market, a 9W LED bulb costs around ` 150 to the end users.”

The final advice LED bulbs are costlier than conventional bulbs and return on investment depends completely on their extent of use. Bulbs installed in offices run for nine to ten hours every day or even longer, ensuring full utilisation of the bulbs and a consequent return on the investment made. If you want to install LED bulbs in your home or temporary office, anticipate first the extent of LED bulb use. ElEctronics For you | July 2017

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Voting Machine Using AVR Microcontroller Ankush AggArwAl

P

olling by electronic voting machines (EVMs) has become a norm during elections. Unlike paper ballot systems, EVMs are safe and reliable as these rule out the possibility of invalid voting.

Fig. 1: Author’s prototype

1

IC1 7805

R1 220E C2 10u 16V

R2

LED1

10

S1

S2

R4

FOR 9V

LED3 GND LED4

S3

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 11

XTAL2

S4

R6 − R9 = 220E

13

S5 RESET C3 22p

Vss

K

LCD1

VO

16

16X2 LCD A/VEE

VDD D7

32

14

AREF Vcc PB0 PA0 PB1 PA1 PB2 PA2 PB3 PA3 PB4 PA4 PB5 PA5 PB6 PA6 IC2 PB7 PA7 RST ATMEGA16A PC7 PD7 PC6 PD6 PC5 PD5 PC4 PD4 PC3 PD3 PC2 PD2 PC1 (TXD)PD1 PC0 (RXD)PD0 AVCC GND GND

R5 R9

3 2

R3

R8

1

VR1 10K

10K

R2 − R5 = 10K

R7

LED2

R10

LED5 POWER

R6

CON1

As shown in Fig. 2, the circuit of the electronic voting machine is built around ATmega16A microcontroller (IC2), IC 7805 (IC1), a 16×2 LCD (LCD1) and other associated components. The controller used here operates off 5V DC supply. So a 7805 voltage regulator IC is used to step 9V DC down to 5V. Capacitors C1 and C2 are used to reduce ripples. ATmega16A has 32 general purpose input/output (I/O) pins. An external 8MHz crystal oscillator is used to provide the timing pulse. Four switches (S1 through S4) are connected to Port B (PB0, PB1, PB2 and PB3) of IC2. The LCD (LCD1) operates in 4-bit

3

2

C1 100u 25V

Circuit and working

These are more economical and efficient too. Their compact size saves transportation costs. Here we describe the design of an electronic voting machine based on ATmega16A microcontroller. To cast a vote, users need to press the key against the name of the candidate of their choice. The vote is automatically saved in the microcontroller, and simultaneously the LCD shows the message “Thank You.” The author’s prototype is shown in Fig. 1.

D6 13

D5 12

D4 11

D3 10

D2 9

D1 8

D0 7

EN R/W 6

5

RS

15

4

40 39 38 37 36 35 34 33 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 30 31

XTAL1 12

XTAL1 8MHz

C4 22p

S1 = FOR FIRST PARTY i.e. AAP S2 = FOR SECOND PARTY i.e. KKK S3 = FOR THIRD PARTY i.e BJP S4 = FOR RESULT D5 = FOR RESET

Fig. 2: Circuit diagram of the electronic voting machine using ATmega16A microcontroller

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www.EFymag.com

Do-it-yourself fuse bit settings. Low fuse bit value is E4 and high fuse bit value is D9.

Construction and testing An actual-size PCB layout for the voting machine using AVR is shown in Fig. 3 and its components layout in Fig. 4. Connect LCD1 to the PCB as shown in the figure. Now, mount all the switches (S1 through S5) and LED1 through LED5 on the front panel of this cabinet.

Software

Fig. 3: Actual-size, single-side PCB layout of the voting machine using AVR

The software is written in ‘C’ language and compiled using Keil software. You can use any suitable software for programming the ATmega16A microcontroller. ProgISP programmer was used for programming at EFY Lab.

Assembly and testing

Fig. 4: Components layout for the PCB

Parts List Semiconductors: IC1 - 7805, 5V voltage regulator IC2 - ATmega16A microcontroller LED1-LED5 - 5mm LED Resistors (all 1/4-watt, ±5% carbon): R1, R6-R9 - 220-ohm R2-R5, R10 - 10-kilo-ohm VR1 - 10-kilo-ohm preset Capacitors: C1 - 100µF, 25V electrolytic C2 - 10µF, 16V electrolytic C3, C4 - 22pF ceramic disc Miscellaneous: - 2-pin terminal connector CON1 S1-S5 - Tactile switch LCD1 - 16×2 LCD XTAL1 - 8MHz crystal oscillator - 40-pin IC base for ATmega16A - 9V battery

www.EFymag.com

After assembling the circuit on the PCB, check it for proper connections. Now, burn the program (voting code.hex) into the microcontroller using the programmer. Insert the microcontroller into the IC base and connect 9V battery. LCD1 will show “press any key” message. This circuit has provision to cast votes for three candidates as it uses switches corresponding to three candidates only (S1 for AAP, S2 for KKK and S3 for BJP). Switch S4 is pressed to calculate the results. When you press any of switches S1 through S3, the corresponding mode. Its data pins (D4, D5, D6 and D7) pin of the microcontroller gets pulled up to Vcc and it operates as per the are connected to Port A (PA2, PA3, PA4 and PA5) of IC2. Control pins RS and EN programmed logic. The LCD1 will show a “Thank you” message. The reare connected to pins PA0 and PA1 of spective LED (LED1-LED3) must glow IC2, respectively. to indicate that voting is successful. The LCD displays each character in a Press switch S4 to get results like 5×7 pixel matrix. You can adjust the contrast of the LCD using a 10-kilo-ohm preset. the winner and its share of the votes. While programming ATmega16A, note the In case two or more parties get equal votes, press switch S4 again to get further details.

efy Note

The source code of this project is included in this month’s EFY DVD and is also available for free download at source. efymag.com

Ankush Aggarwal is an electronics hobbyist Kit of this project is available at www.kitsNspares.com ElEctronics For you | July 2017

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Countdown Timer Fayaz Hassan

S

ometimes there is a need to switch on or off electrical appliances or gadgets after a predetermined time. The circuit pre-

sented here can switch on/off any electrical appliance (load) through a relay switch after the specified time set in minutes or seconds.

R9 1K 1 3 2

C1 0.1u

Vss

K

LCD1

VO

16x2 LCD D6

14

13

D5

D4

12

11

D3 10

D2

D1

9

D0

8

7

EN R/W 6

5

RS

R15 1K

15

7

4

1

XTAL1 3.6864MHz N/O

CON5 FOR 230V AC

N/C RL1

T1 BC547

PC5/SCL

28

PC4/SDA

27

PC3 IC1 ATMEGA8A PC2

26

PD0/RXD PD2 PD3

R5 10K

CON2 FOR 5V

R6 10K

PD4

PC1

24

9

PB6/XTAL1

PC0

23

14 8

PB5/SCK

19

PB4/MISO

18

PD6

PB3/MOSI

17

PD7

PB2

16

PB0

PB1

15

AGND

22

PB7/XTAL2 PD5

GND

S2 START

C5 0.1u

S3 MIN/SEC S4 HUNDS S5 TENS GND

C4 0.1u

CON3 FOR SJ1

5V

SCK MISO MOSI

R14 1.5K

CON4 FOR ISP PORT

LED1 BLINKER GND

S6 UNITS

R12 3.3K

RST

R11 4.7K

RL1 = 12V, 1C/O RELAY

R4 10K

25

6

13

C3 22p

21

PD1/TXD

5

12

C2 22p

20

PC6/RESET

4

11

D1 1N4007

AVcc AVREF

Vcc

3

10

CON1 12V

R10 3.3K

R3 10K

S1 STOP

2

CON6 FOR LOAD

R2 10K

R1 10K

R7 S7 RESET 10K

16

A/VEE

VDD D7

R8 1K

The timer can be easily set with four switches (S3 through S6) to select minutes/seconds, hundredths, tenths and units. Two more switches

SJ1 = SHORTING JUMPER

PZ1 R13 4.7K

T2 BC547 PZ1 = PIEZO BUZZER

Fig. 1: Circuit diagram of countdown timer

are used to start (S2) and stop (S1) the timer.

Circuit and working

Fig. 2: Screenshot of the fuse bits settings; ‘1’ means ‘unprogrammed’ and ‘0’ means ‘programmed’

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Circuit diagram of the countdown timer is shown in Fig. 1. ATmega8A (IC1) from Atmel is at the heart of the circuit. Associated components include a 16×2 liquid crystal display (LCD1), two BC547 transistors (T1 and T2), a piezobuzzer (PZ1), a 12V single-changeover (1C/O) relay and a few other components. The system works in three modes: started, stopped and setting. Started means the countdown is under process and settings are not allowed. Stopped means the countdown has stopped and the user can change settings to start the countdown timer afresh. In setting mode, www.EFymag.com

Do-it-yourself

efy Note

The source code of this project is included in this month’s EFY DVD and is also available for free download at source. efymag.com

Parts List

Fig. 3: Actual-size PCB layout of the countdown timer

Semiconductors: IC1 - ATmega8A microcontroller - BC547 npn transistor T1, T2 LED1 - 5mm LED D1 - 1N4007 rectifier diode Resistors (all 1/4-watt, ±5% carbon): R1-R7 - 10-kilo-ohm R8, R9, R15 - 1-kilo-ohm R10, R12 - 3.3-kilo-ohm R11, R13 - 4.7-kilo-ohm R14 - 1.5-kilo-ohm Capacitors: C1, C4, C5 - 0.1µF ceramic disk - 22pF ceramic disk C2, C3 Miscellaneous: CON1, CON2, CON5, CON6 - 2-pin terminal connector CON3 - 2-pin berg strip male connector - 6-pin berg strip male connector CON4 XTAL1 - 3.6864MHz crystal oscillator - Piezobuzzer PZ1 S1-S7 - Tactile switch LCD1 - 16×2 LCD module - 12V, 1C/O relay RL1 - 5V DC regulated power supply SJ1 - Shorting jumper - 12V DC regulated power supply - 28-pin IC socket

Construction and testing

Fig. 4: Components layout for the PCB

the input switches (S3 through S6) are enabled for countdown timer settings. When start switch (S2) is pressed, relay RL1 energises and the countdown starts. The timer stops automatically when the countdown reaches 000 or stop button (S1) is pressed. The status of countdown is shown on LCD1. A beep is generated by the piezobuzzer when the countdown reaches below ten seconds and stops when the countdown reaches 000. Jumper J1 can be disconnected if the buzzer is not required. The power supply to relay RL1 depends on the coil voltage of the relay (like 5V, 6V or 12V). www.EFymag.com

An actual-size, PCB layout for the countdown timer is shown in Fig. 3 and its components layout in Fig. 4. After assembling the circuit, enclose it in a suitable box. Here, we used 12V DC at CON1 for Insert the programmed MCU in the relay. the IC socket on the PCB. Connect In stopped or setting mode, LED1 an electrical load (say, 100W bulb) blinks every ten seconds. When start across CON6, and 230V AC mains (S2) button is pressed, LED1 blinks across CON5. every second. Now, power on the circuit by connecting a 5V DC supply at CON2. Software LED1 will glow and the buzzer will sound for about one second, followed The software is written in ‘C’ lanby display of ‘countdown timer’ mesguage and compiled using an AVR sage on LCD. The system is now ready Studio 4 software. You can use any suitable software to burn the hex code to use, waiting for the user input. into the microcontroller through ISP port. At EFY Lab, we used ProgISP programmer for the purpose. Fayaz Hassan is a manager at Visakhapatnam Steel Before programming, set fuse bits Plant, Andhra Pradesh. His for the 3.6864MHz crystal option as interests include MCU projects, mechatronics and robotics shown in Fig. 2. ElEctronics For you | July 2017

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Low-Cost 3.7V To 5V-6V DC-To-DC ConverTer Petre tzv. Petrov

T

his article presents a simple, low-cost DC-to-DC converter that converts 3.6V-3.7V battery input into three outputs of 6V, Parts List Semiconductors:

IC1

D1, D4 D2, D3 LED1, LED2

- MC34063A DC-to-DC converter control circuit - 1N5819 Schottky diode - 1N4007 rectifier diode - 5mm LED

Resistors (all 1/4-watt, ±5% carbon):

R1 R2 R3 R4 R5, R6 R7

Capacitors:

C1 C2, C4, C6, C8 C3 C5, C7, C9

-

0.33-ohm/0.47-ohm 180-ohm 10-kilo-ohm 2.7-kilo-ohm 3.3-kilo-ohm 470-ohm

-

470µF, 16V electrolytic 100nF ceramic disk 470pF ceramic disk 100µF, 16V electrolytic

Miscellaneous:

CON1-CON4 - 2-pin terminal connector F1 - 1A fuse with holder - 100µH, 1A inductor L1 - 3.7V Li-ion battery or 3×1.2V NiCd batteries

5.3V and 5V. These voltage outputs can be used simultaneously or separately. The converter is useful for digital and analogue audio equipment including portable audio amplifiers and MP3 players, and for experiments with digital and analogue electronics. 3.7V and 3.6V (3x1.2V) rechargeable batteries are widely available at low cost. But most equipment operate off 5V or 6V. So you cannot use 3.7V and 3.6V batteries even if you use two 3.7V batteries (3.7x2=7.4V) or four 1.2V batteries (1.2x4=4.8V). Hence you need a small DC-to-DC converter to get 5V, 6V or both of these, depending on the intended application. The converter described here provides a simple solution using an MC34063A IC.

Advantages of MC34063 MC34063A is ideal for small projects like DC-to-DC converters as it offers the following advantages:

1. Low cost 2. Easy-to-use DIP8 package 3. Operating input voltage of 3V40V DC from NiCd, NiMH or Li-ion rechargeable batteries 4. Low quiescent current 5. Current limiting feature for the input voltage 6. Output adjustable with the help of a simple resistor divider network or trimmer potentiometer 7. Typical operation frequency of around 45kHz, which can be increased to around 100kHz 8. Built-in reference voltage of 1.25V 9. Internal output transistor capable of switching up to 1.5A

Circuit and working Fig. 1 shows circuit of the 3.7V to 5V-6V DC-to-DC converter. It is built around switching regulator MC34063A (IC1), two 1N5819 Schottky diodes (D1 and D4), two 1N4007 rectifier diodes (D2 and VOUT1 = 6V

F1 1A FUSE

R3 10K L1 R1 0.33E / 0.47E

CON1 3.7V BATTERY

C2 100n

100u, 1A

6 8

R2

C4 100n

R5 3.3K

D2 1N4007

CON2 FOR 6V

LED1

1N5819

7

C1 470u 16V

R4 2.7K

D1

C5 100u 16V

5

SC

Vcc DRI

IC1

SE

MC34063A

IPK FB

TC

GND

1 2 3

VOUT2 = 5.3V D3 1N4007

C6 100n

4

D4 1N5819

180E C3* 470p

C8 100n

C9 100u 16V

C7 100u 16V

CON3 FOR 5.3V VOUT3 = 5V R6 3.3K R7 470E

CON4 FOR 5V

LED2

GND

Fig. 1: Circuit diagram of low-cost 3.7V to 5V-6V DC-to-DC converter

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July 2017 | ElEctronics For you

www.EFymag.com

Do-it-yourself D3), two 5mm LEDs (LED1 and LED2) and a few other components. Input DC voltage of 3.7V is applied to connector CON1. Fig. 2: Actual-size PCB layout of the DC-to-DC converter The circuit works with DC voltage in the range of 3.0V to 40.0V. IC1 works as a step-up converter to produce 6V output voltage (VOUT1), which is available at connector Fig. 3: Components layout for the PCB CON2. For Schottky diode D1, you can use The circuit does not need any any of 1N5817, 1N5818 and 1N5819 adjustment. But you need to check variants. input and output voltages, currents Diode D3 reduces the 6V output and frequency of operation of IC1. It voltage to around 5.3V (VOUT2), which is also good to control the current of inductor L1. is available across connector CON3. The circuit can be tested with Schottky diode D4 further reduces a 3.7V Li-ion battery or with three 5.3V to around 5.0V (VOUT3), which is 1.2V NiCd or NiMH batteries. You available across connector CON4. can also use any regulated power The total maximal output current supply source producing 3.7V. from all outputs at CON2, CON3 Note. 1. The output voltage and CON4 is around 100mA, which without load depends on the value can be adjusted with the help of of resistor R7 (between 270 and 470 components in the circuit. The DCohms). to-DC converter also outputs around 2. You should always have a load 15mV ripples, which can be reduced connected at CON4, at least 10mA, to some degree with the help of in order to allow normal operation capacitor C3 and additional LC or of the circuit. RC filters. 3. Current sensing mainly deConstruction and testing pends on resistor R1. An actual-size PCB layout for the 3.7V to 5V and 6V DC-to-DC convertPetre Tzv Petrov was a researcher er is shown in Fig. 2 and its compoand assistant professor in nents layout in Fig. 3. After assemTechnical University of Sofia (Bulgaria) and expert-lecturer in bling the circuit on the PCB, enclose OFPPT(Casablance), Kingdom of it in a suitable box. Fix connector Morocco. Now he is working as an electronics engineer in the CON2 through CON4 and LED1 and private sector in Bulgaria LED2 on front side of the box. www.EFymag.com

ElEctronics For you | July 2017

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3W Audio Amplifier Using TDA7056 Pamarthi KanaKaraja

A

tional). You also need to connect a 3W, 16-ohm (or 1W, 8-ohm) speaker at the output of the circuit. So when an audio signal is applied to the input, you can hear the amplified output from the speaker. The author’s prototype is shown in Fig. 1. The main features of TDA7056 include: 1. Bridge-tied load working principle 2. Supply voltage range of 3V to 18V 3. Gain of 40dB

udio amplifier circuits commonly use single-chip audio ICs like LM384 and LM386. These circuits look very easy to assemble but require additional components like resistors, capacitors and sometime inductors. Here we present the circuit of a 3W singlechip audio amplifier using TDA7056 that only requires two capacitors for biasing and one potmeter for volume control (and that’s also op-

2

0V

IC3 UM66

3

GND

12V D2 1N4007

1

IC1 7805 2

C1 1000u 25V

1

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

3

R1 470E

R2 330E

Fig. 2: Circuit of 3W audio amplifier using TDA7056 July 2017 | ElEctronics For you

9

2

VR1 100E C2 220u 25V

X1 = 230V AC PRIMARY TO 12V − 0 − 12V, 500mA SECONDARY TRANSFORMER

126

NC

IC4 TDA7056

3

12V

230V AC 50Hz N

IC2 7812

NC VCC INPUT(+) S GND NC OUTPUT(+) P GND OUTPUT (−)

1

X1 L

No external components required No switch-on or switch-off clicks Good overall stability Low power consumption Working on bridge-tied load principle, the circuit can output 1W power into an 8-ohm load with a power supply of 6V, and 3W power into a 16ohm load with a power supply of 12V.

Circuit and working Fig. 2 shows circuit of the 3W audio amplifier using TDA7056 (IC4). It has two sections: power supply and amplifier. Power supply. Here the AC mains power supply is stepped down using transformer X1, rectified by a fullwave rectifier comprising diodes D1 and D2, filtered by capacitor C1 and fed to 5V voltage regulator 7805 (IC1) and 12V voltage regulator 7812 (IC2) to maintain constant +5V DC supply for melody generator UM66 (IC3) and +12V DC supply for audio amplifier TDA7056 (IC4), respectively. Amplifier. The amplifier section is built using two chips: melody Parts List

Fig. 1: Author’s prototype D1 1N4007

4. 5. 6. 7.

C3 0.1u

LS1 16−ohm 3W SPEAKER

Semiconductors: IC1 - 7805, 5V regulator IC2 - 7812, 12V regulator IC3 - UM66 melody generator IC4 - TDA7056 audio amplifier D1, D2 - 1N4007 rectifier diode Resistors (all 1/4-watt, ±5% carbon): R1 - 470-ohm R2 - 330-ohm VR1 - 100-ohm potmeter Capacitors: C1 - 1000µF, 25V electrolytic C2 - 220µF, 25V electrolytic C3 - 0.1µF ceramic disk Miscellaneous: X1 - 230V AC primary to 12V-0-12V, 500mA secondary transformer LS1 - 16-ohm, 3W loudspeaker - Heat-sink for IC1, IC2 and IC4 - Mains power cord

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Do-it-yourself

Fig. 3: Actual-size PCB layout of the 3W audio amplifier

generator UM66 and audio amplifier TDA7056. Melody generator chip UM66 (IC3) is used to provide audio input to the amplifier. It requires around 3V input. So a voltage divider network using resistors R1 and R2 is used to derive 3V from 5V output of the power supply. The output of IC3 is connected to the positive input of TDA7056 through a 100-ohm potmeter used for volume control. Vcc pin of IC4 is connected to 12V supply along with two ca-

www.EFymag.com

Fig. 4: Components layout for the PCB

pacitors as shown in Fig. 2. The 3W, 16-ohm loudspeaker is connected to output pins 6 and 8 of IC4.

Construction and testing An actual-size, single-side PCB layout for 3W audio amplifier using TDA7056 is shown in Fig. 3 and its components layout in Fig. 4. After assembling the circuit on the PCB, enclose it in a small box. Place transformer X1 and speaker inside the box. When you switch on the mains

power supply, UM66 chip gets activated and it generates a melody tone, which is fed to TDA7056 through potmeter VR1. TDA7056 chip amplifies the melody sound to around 3W, which can be heard from the speaker. By varying VR1, you can adjust the volume of the output tone. Pamarthi Kanakaraja is an assistant professor in Usha Rama College of Engineering and Technology, Andhra Pradesh

ElEctronics For you | July 2017

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Do-it-yourself

hi Nid ria u h t Ka

Arduino Based Digital iC tester Using MATLAB Saikat Patra and Shibendu Mahata

T

esting of digital electronic systems generally involves applying a set of test stimuli to inputs of the device-under-test (DUT) and analysing responses of the system using a response analyser. If the DUT generates correct output responses (also called the golden response) for all the input stimuli, the DUT is regarded as fault-free. Those DUTs that fail to meet the golden response are regarded as faulty or defective. Block diagram for testing a device is shown in Fig. 1. This project describes testing of 74xx series digital ICs using a MATLAB graphical user interface

Fig. 1: Block diagram for testing a device

Fig. 2: Authors’ prototype of the digital IC tester

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(GUI) drop-down menu based approach. MATLAB acts as the test stimuli generator to the IC, which is the DUT. The GUI initiates communication with the Arduino and provides a user-friendly and interactive approach to conduct the test. The MATLAB source program (ic_tester.m) acts as the response analyser and displays test results on the front panel of the GUI. Authors’ prototype of the Arduino-based digital IC tester and the MATLAB-based GUI front panel are shown in Figs 2 and 3, respectively.

whether the device is faulty or not. For a digital IC, the correct response is given in the form of a truth table. Acting as a response analyser, the MATLAB verifies each and every possible outcome according to the truth table of a particular IC. 74xx series ICs that can be tested by this project are 7400, 7402, 7404, 7408, 7432 and 7486. Truth tables for these ICs are shown on the next page.

Software

Circuit and working

1. Arduino IDE 1.6.5 is used to program the Arduino. The GUI application program has been developed in the R2014a version of MATLAB.

Circuit diagram of the Arduino-based digital IC tester is shown in Fig. 4. As mentioned earlier, MATLAB is used to apply stimuli to the DUT (74xx series digital ICs) and also record the response of the DUT to stimuli. It then compares the response of the DUT with the correct/ golden response to test

Fig. 3: MATLAB-based GUI for testing the ICs

Fig. 4: Circuit diagram of the digital IC tester www.EFymag.com

Do-it-yourself TruTh Tables for 74 series DigiTal iCs 7400 Quad Two-input NaND gate

7402 Quad Two-input Nor gate

a 0 0 1 1

a 0 0 1 1

b 0 1 0 1

Y 1 1 1 0

b 0 1 0 1

Y 1 0 0 0

7404 hex inverter a 0 1

Y 1 0

7408 Quad Two-input aND gate

7432 Quad Two-input or gate

7486 Quad Two-input Xor gate

a 0 0 1 1

a 0 0 1 1

a 0 0 1 1

b 0 1 0 1

Y 0 0 0 1

b 0 1 0 1

The procedure to install the ‘Legacy MATLAB and Simulink Support for Arduino Package’ is described in ‘Controlling a Robotic Car Through MATLAB GUI’ DIY article published in Oct. 2016 issue. 2. After correctly setting up the path for the package, open source

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Y 0 1 1 1

b 0 1 0 1

Y 0 1 1 0

code files (ic_tester.m) of this project. Keep both the source code files in the same folder. Edit COM port (in the line a=arduino (‘COM19’)) with the port number in your PC where the Arduino Uno board has been installed. Run the file and click ‘Connect’ button to establish

efy Note

The source code of this project is included in this month’s EFY DVD and is also available for free download at source. efymag.com

connection between MATLAB and Arduino Uno board. After successful communication is established, select proper IC from the drop-down menu and click ‘Test’ button in the GUI to test the IC.

Saikat Patra is passionate about electronics and MCU-based embedded system applications Shibendu Mahata is an M.Tech (gold medallist) in instrumentation and electronics engineering from Jadavpur University. Currently, he is pursuing Ph.D from NIT, Durgapur. He has keen interest in MCU-based real-time embedded signal processing and process control systems

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Do-it-yourself

i San o The

Design Your Own Li-Fi DongLe And Speaker Dr J. ManikanDan, Shiva kuMar P. anD SyeD haSSan ali

L

benefits of both the worlds. Also, LED bulbs use 85 per cent less energy than incandescent bulbs and last up to 20 times longer, whereas majority of Bluetooth modules are battery powered and generally last a year or two only before they need replacement. Hence the proposed system is energyefficient over Bluetooth version. 2. You can receive Li-Fi data as long as you are in the range of the light being emitted by the LED light source. Hence, the range depends on the strength of the light being emitted. 3. Connectivity needs to be established between the Bluetooth transmitter and the receiver, SPEAKER SOLAR PANEL whereas with Li-Fi any MOBILE AUDIO LIGHT PHONE CABLE user can receive data and LI−FI DONGLE CIRCUIT play music on his speaker LED WHITE by simply keeping the receiver in the range of RECEIVER TRANSMITTER Fig. 1: The proposed Li-Fi based audio system LED light source. 4. The proposed system can be used with any audio system by just connecting the Li-Fi dongle to its audio output jack, with no pairing and connectivity requests. This overcomes the problem Fig. 2: Author’s prototype of Li-Fi transmitter and receiver for audio applications of connecting a Bluetooth

ight Fidelity (Li-Fi) is a new paradigm in wireless communication. In this article, we describe the design of a Li-Fi dongle (transmitter) and speaker (receiver) for audio and music applications. The proposed system is a replacement for wired speakers that plays audio signals received through light. The dongle can be designed for less than ` 350. This Li Fi system scores over Bluetooth speakers as follows: 1. The LED light in a room is used not just to light up the room but also to play music, thus giving

R3 4.7k

R1 4.7K

R5 4.7K

R7 2.2E 1W

LED1 1W WHITE

BATT.1 9V R8 1K

JACK C1 2.2u

R2 1K

T1 BC337 C2 2.2u

CON1 FOR AUDIO IN

Fig. 3: Circuit of the Li-Fi dongle

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R9 1K R4 1K

T2 BC337 C3 2.2u

R10 1K R6 1K

T3 BC337

speaker to audio systems that do not have USB port and Bluetooth support, which is otherwise a tougher task. 5. The proposed Li-Fi dongle and speaker costs lower than a Bluetooth dongle and speaker. The proposed concept is illustrated in Fig. 1. It uses a Li-Fi dongle to transmit audio signals from a source such as mobile phone, and a Li-Fi speaker with solar cells at the receiver end to receive audio signals without wires. The proposed Li-Fi dongle is connected to the audio jack output available on mobile phones. It has an LED through which audio/music signals are transmitted as light signals. These light signals are captured by the Li-Fi speaker through the solar cell array. The authors’ prototype is shown in Fig. 2.

Circuit and working Fig. 3 shows the circuit of the Li-Fi dongle. It uses three common-emitter (CE) amplifiers connected in parallel to amplify the input audio signal. The Li-Fi speaker is designed by connecting the output of a 3V, 200mA solar cell array to a speaker’s audio input. For this, Parts List Semiconductors: T1-T3 - BC337 npn transistors LED1 - White LED, 1W Resistors (all 1/4-watt, ±5% carbon, unless stated otherwise): R1, R3, R5 - 4.7-kilo-ohm R2, R4, R6, R8-R10 - 1-kilo-ohm R7 - 2.2-ohm, 1W Capacitors: C1-C3 - 2.2µF, 25V electrolytic Miscellaneous: CON1 - 2-pin connector BATT.1 - 9V battery - Stereo/mono audio jack* - Li-Fi speaker* - 3V, 200mA solar panel* - Audio source (like MP3 player or mobile phone)* *Not shown in Fig. 3

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Do-it-yourself

Fig. 4: Actual-size PCB layout of the Li-Fi dongle

Fig. 5: Components layout for the PCB

connect the terminals of the solar panel to a 3.5mm female audio socket. Then, connect the 3.5mm audio jack from the speaker to the female socket. During testing, Boom KBS M2 speaker was used. It is available on Flipkart at the following link: https://www.flipkart.com/boomkbs-m2-portable-mobile-tabletspeaker/p/itmesykcngmzayz6?pid=AC CESYKC8T6NUZTQ&otracker=pp_productCard_productRecommendation/ browsingHistory_5 However, you need not buy the exact speaker or Li-Fi speaker. Any speaker with inbuilt amplifier will do the job. You can modify the same to work as a Li-Fi speaker by interfacing a solar panel to it. After adjusting the band equaliser in the audio source and the distance between the solar panel and the light source, you can get almost noise-free sound from the speaker. The maximum distance/range between the transmitter and receiver depends on the number of amplifier stages. For a three-stage CE amplifier, the maximum distance is about two metres with LED illuminance of 13,842.00 lux at the receiver side. For a five-stage CE amplifier, the distance can be up to 2.6 metres with LED il-

luminance of 17,382.00 lux. It was observed that as you increase the number of CE amplifier stages connected in parallel in the transmitter circuit, the intensity of LED light also increases, which, in turn, increases the maximum distance up to which the sound is audible from the Li-Fi speaker. This circuit finds following applications: 1. Stream music from a mobile phone, MP3 player, laptop, tablet or other mobile audio system wirelessly to Li-Fi speakers. A camera flashlight can be used for the purpose. 2. Transmit audio signals from a microphone on the dais to speakers in an auditorium using pre-installed LED lights. 3. Use reading lights in buses, trains, cars and airplanes to play melodious music wirelessly on Li-Fi speakers. The system can be used in offices, hotels, auditoria, etc, where bright lighting is required throughout the day.

Construction and testing An actual-size PCB layout for the Li-Fi dongle is shown in Fig. 4 and its components layout in Fig. 5. After assembling the circuit on the PCB, enclose it in a suitable box and mount LED1 on front panel of the box. Connect the dongle to an audio source like mobile phone. When you play the song, the white LED (LED1) will start blinking. Focus the LED light towards the solar panel. You should be able to hear the song from the speaker. Adjust the distance between the light source and the solar panel until you hear clear sound from the speaker. Dr J. Manikandan is a professor in the department of electronics and communication engineering, Crucible of Research and Innovation, PES University, Bengaluru. Shiva Kumar P. and Syed Hassan Ali are electronics hobbyists

Kit of this project is available at www.kitsNspares.com www.EFymag.com

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Do-it-yourself

i San o The

Centre-of-Mass extraCtion Using MATLAB Vikas Goel

E

versa. In digital image processing, black is represented as ‘0’ and white as ‘1’ in binary form. In MATLAB integrated development environment (IDE), image dimensions are expressed as number of rows x number of columns. The pixel at (0, 0) location is on the top left corner of the image (refer Fig. 1). An example pixel at location (3, 7) is shown as F(3, 7). A grey-colour pattern of size 7x5 is shown in Fig. 2. It is converted into binary pattern as shown in Fig.

xtracting the centre of mass of a binary pattern is an important task in pattern recognition area of digital image processing domain. The pattern’s shape and size can be estimated using the radii profile that is computed around the centre of mass. The centre of mass of the binary pattern is computed using first-order moments of the pattern pixel’s Cartesian coordinates. First, the pattern is converted into a binary class, i.e., pattern in black on a white colour background or vice F(0,0)

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

0 1

7

8

9

Column F(3,7)

2 3 4 5 6

3. The grey pattern can be binarised using Otsu’s algorithm. The equivalent binary pattern is shown in Fig. 3. The binary image pattern is scanned from left to right, and top to bottom, i.e., in row x column manner. This is also called as ‘raster scan.’ This task is performed by using the imread( ) function in MATLAB. The imread( ) function enables binary image pattern in row x column matrix of ‘0’ and ‘1’ as black and white pixels, respectively. In Fig. 3, the matrix size is number of rows x number of columns=15x15. As stated before, the centre of mass of the pattern under test is computed using first-order moments of Cartesian coordinates of the pattern’s pixels, i.e., black pixels or matrix elements with ‘0’ value. Firstorder moments are computed using the following equations:

7 RCoM =

8 9 Row Fig. 1: Image as a matrix of rows and columns 0 1

2

3 4

5

6 7

8

9 10 11 12 13 14

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Fig. 2: Grey pattern

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1 N

N

∑

i=1

Ri and

CCoM =

1 N

N

∑

Ci

i=1

where (RCoM, CCoM) are row and column coordinates of the centre of mass of the pattern under test, (Ri, Ci) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 are coordinates 0 of the pattern’s ith 1 2 pixel, i.e., matrix 3 elements with ‘0’ 4 value, and ‘N’ is 5 6 the total number of 7 pixels on the pat8 tern body, i.e., the 9 number of matrix 10 11 elements with ‘0’ 12 value. 13 From Fig. 3, the 14 centre of mass is as Fig. 3: Binary pattern follows: www.EFymag.com

efy Note

The source code of this project is included in this month’s EFY DVD and is also available for free download at source. efymag.com

Do-it-yourself RCoM=(4+5+6+7+8+ 4+5+6+7+8+ 4+5+6+7+8 +4+5+6+7+8 +4+5+6+7+8 +4+5+6+7+8+ 4+5+6+7+8)/ 35 = 210/35 = 6 CCoM=(5+6+7+8+9+10+11 +5+6+7+8+9+10+11+5+6+7

+8+9+10+11+5+6+7+8+9+ 10+11+5+6+7+8+9+10+11)/35 = 280/35 = 8 Here, N=35 (total number of pixels on the pattern’s body) Therefore (RCoM, CCoM)=(6, 8) The centre of mass for the test pattern (Fig. 3) comes out 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 to be at location (6, 8), 0 marked as white in Fig. 4. 1 (6,8) Using the centre of 2 3 mass, the pattern’s shape 4 and size can be estimated 5 by computing the radii 6 profile. 7 8 Some examples of 9 centre-of-mass (marked 10 with ‘+’) extraction are 11 shown in Fig. 5. 12 13 Code listing for centre14 of-mass extraction using Fig. 4: Binary pattern with centre of mass at (6, 8) MATLAB is given alongside: Binary Pattern

Binary Pattern with CoM

close all, clear all, clc, ProjectPath = pwd; PatternPath = strcat(ProjectPath,’\ Pattern_3.jpg’); Orig = imread(PatternPath); Gray = rgb2gray(Orig); Threshold = graythresh(Gray); BinaryPattern = im2bw(Gray,Threshold); subplot(1,2,1); imshow(BinaryPattern); title(‘Binary Pattern’); [row col] = size(BinaryPattern); Row_CoM=0; Col_CoM=0; Count=0; for r=1:row for c=1:col if(~BinaryPattern(r,c)), Row_CoM = Row_CoM + r; Col_CoM = Col_CoM + c; Count = Count+1;

Binary Pattern

end

Binary Pattern with CoM

end end Row_CoM = Row_CoM/Count; Col_CoM = Col_CoM/Count; subplot(1,2,2); imshow(BinaryPattern); title(‘Binary Pattern with CoM’);

Binary Pattern

Binary Pattern with CoM

j = imline(gca,[Col_CoM Col_CoM], [Row_CoM-10 Row_CoM+10]); j = imline(gca,[Col_CoM-10 Col_CoM+10], [Row_CoM Row_CoM]);

Fig. 5: Snapshots of centre-of-mass extraction

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Vikas Goel is a senior project manager at Center for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Mohali, Punjab

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Hicotronics Devices Pvt Ltd. .................................................................... 11 Hind Electronika India Private Limited (www.hindelec.com) ..................77 HK Wentworth (India) Pvt Ltd ...............................................................155 IED Communications Ltd (www.iedcommunications.com) .....................47 India Electronics Week 2018 ................................................................154 infineon.....................................................................................................39 INGUN India Pvt. Ltd. ............................................................................147 Key Operations & Electrocomponents Pvt Ltd. .....................................127 Keysight Technologies India Pvt. Ltd. (www.keysight.com) ......................5 Kits N Spares .................................................................................131, 133 Kufra International..................................................................................149 KUSAM Electrical Instruments LLP .......................................................137 Kyoritsu KEW India Instruments Pvt. Ltd. ...............................................69 LWI Electronics Inc. (www.livewireinfo.com) ...........................................23 Martin Electronic Devices & Instruments...............................................147 Matrix Comsec Pvt. Ltd............................................................................25 Max Electronics (Delhi) ..........................................................................148 Max Technology & Co. (www.maxtechnoloindia.com) ............................37 Meco Meters Pvt Ltd (www.mecoinst.com) .................................59, 61, 63 Microchip Technology Hong Kong Ltd. (www.microchip.com) ................49 Montu Electronics LLP ...........................................................................148 Mornsun Guangzhou Science & Technology Co. Ltd. ............................15 Mouser Electronics (India) Private Limited ................................................7 MSS Powertech Pvt Ltd .........................................................................149 National Controlling & Equipments ........................................................148 NI Systems India Pvt Ltd .........................................................................51 NMTronics India Pvt Ltd. (www.nmtronics.com)......................................13 OSRAM Opto Semiconductors (China) Co. Ltd. .....................................79 Pasternack .............................................................................................156 Persang Entertainment Pvt. Ltd.........................................................80, 81

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PHOENIX MECANO................................................................................65 PI-Tech Services ....................................................................................136 Qingdao Ainuo Intelligent Instrument Co Ltd., China ..............................29 Rajguru Electronics ................................................................................139 REBUTOR Electronics Pvt Ltd ..............................................................143 RECOM Asia Pte Ltd ...............................................................................53 Rohde & Schwarz ....................................................................................31 ROHM Semiconductor .............................................................................93 Sakthi Accumulators Private Ltd ............................................................149 Sancon India Pvt. Ltd. ............................................................................140 Sealed Energy Systems ..........................................................................55 Shavison Electronics Pvt. Ltd. (www.shavison.com)............................. 119 Shivalik Bimetal Controls Ltd. ................................................................138 Shrey Plastic Moulders (www.shreyplasticmoulders.com)....................148 SIGLENT Technologies Co. Ltd.............................................................109 SINPRO Electronics Co. Ltd (www.sinpro.com)......................................83 Smec Electronics India Pvt Ltd .............................................................140 ST Microelectronics Marketing Pvt. Ltd ...................................................41 Suresh Enterprises ................................................................................140 Systellar Innovations (www.systellar.in)...................................................35 Testo India Pvt. Ltd. (www.testo.in).....................................................71-73 Transcom Instruments .............................................................................33 Tunwal E Vehicle .....................................................................................57 Universal Electronic Agencies (www.easternradio.co.in) ......................138 Upsinverter.com (www.upsinverter.com) ...............................................141 Virson Corporation .................................................................................148 World Robot Olympiad India 2017.........................................................153 Zhaoqing Beryl Electronic Co. Ltd. ........................................................ 111

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MSS Powertech Pvt Ltd ................................... 149

Materials (Including Chemicals & Consumables)

Telecom Products

Dynalog (India) Ltd ......................................... 9, 89

Pasternack ....................................................... 156

HK Wentworth (India) Pvt Ltd ........................... 155

Matrix Comsec Pvt. Ltd. ..................................... 25

PHOENIX MECANO .......................................... 65 Batteries & Power Supplies

ROHM Semiconductor ....................................... 93

Optics & Optoelectronics

Test & Measurement Equipment (Including

Brite Systems .................................................. 148

Sancon India Pvt. Ltd. ...................................... 140

Binay Opto Electronics Pvt Ltd ........................... 43

Indicators & Monitors)

Fusion Power Systems ..................................... 145

Shivalik Bimetal Controls Ltd. ........................... 138

OSRAM Opto Semiconductors (China)

Future Hi-Tech Batteries Limited ....................... 55

ST Microelectronics Marketing Pvt. Ltd ............. 41

Co. Ltd ............................................................ 79

Hind Electronika India Private Limited ................ 77

Green Vision Technologies .................................. 3 Martin Electronic Devices & Instruments ......... 147 Montu Electronics LLP ..................................... 148 National Controlling & Equipments ................... 148 RECOM Asia Pte Ltd ......................................... 53 Sakthi Accumulators Private Ltd ...................... 149 Sealed Energy Systems .................................... 57 Shavison Electronics Pvt. Ltd. ...........................119 SINPRO Electronics Co. Ltd............................... 83 Upsinverter.com ............................................... 141 Cabinets, Enclosures & Accessories PHOENIX MECANO .......................................... 65 Suresh Enterprises .......................................... 140 Universal Electronic Agencies ......................... 138 Components (Including Active & Passive) Analog Devices................................................... 27 Elcom International Pvt Ltd .............................. 136

Elsys Technology ............................................... 45 FLIR Systems India Pvt. Ltd. ...................... 53, 145

Consumer Electronics & Appliances BlackT Electrotech ........................................... 148 Persang Entertainment Pvt. Ltd.................... 80, 81 EDA Tools (Including Designing & Drafting Aids) NI Systems India Pvt Ltd .................................... 51 Educational Training Kits Eita Technologies ............................................ 149 HARISON Micro System .................................. 148 Electric Vehicle Tunwal E Vehicle ............................................... 57 Industrial & Manufacturing Equipment Kyoritsu KEW India Instruments Pvt. Ltd............ 69

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Max Electronics (Delhi)..................................... 148

Meco Meters Pvt Ltd .................................... 59, 63 Testo India Pvt. Ltd. ...................................... 71-73

Plugs, Sockets & Connectors Harwin Asia Pte Ltd ........................................... 21

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Element14 India Pvt Ltd. ...................................... 1

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Hicotronics Devices Pvt Ltd. ................................11 Key Operations & Electrocomponents Pvt Ltd 127

Training and Certification Institutes CADD Centre Training Services Private

LWI Electronics Inc. ............................................ 23

Limited ......................................................... 135

Mouser Electronics (India) Private Limited ........... 7

World Robot Olympiad India 2017.................... 153

PI-Tech Services .............................................. 136

IED Communications Ltd .................................... 47

Max Technology & Co. ....................................... 37

Rajguru Electronics ......................................... 139

Transformers

infineon .............................................................. 39

NMTronics India Pvt Ltd. .................................... 13

REBUTOR Electronics Pvt Ltd ......................... 143

Anant Enterprises ............................................. 136

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Virson Corporation..................................................

Smec Electronics India Pvt Ltd ......................... 140

GT Magnetics Pvt. Ltd. ..................................... 138

Meco Meters Pvt Ltd .......................................... 61

IT Products

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Microchip Technology Hong Kong Ltd. ............... 49

HARISON Micro System .................................. 148

Kufra International ............................................ 149

AN Wireless Solutions .......................................111

KUSAM Electrical Instruments LLP .................. 137

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EFY Magazine Attractions During 2017 Month

tEchnologY Focus

ElEctronics DEsign

MArkEt survEYs

January

Computer Vision

Lowering Power Consumption

Electronic Component Manufacturing

February

Smart Fabrics

Improving Wireless Signal Performance

Electronics Manufacturing Services

March

Exciting Technologies Powering the IoT

Building More Reliable Printed Circuit Boards

Industry Outlook for 2017-18

April

Virtual and Augmented Reality

Developer Boards: DIY and Hobbyist Applications

Printed Circuit Boards

May

Smart Robotics

Fight of the Processors: Ultra-Low-Voltage Computing The Internet of Things (Mobile and Portable Devices)

June

Artificial Intelligence

How to Get the Best Design for Manufacturing

Strategic Electronics

July

5G and Beyond

Developer Boards: Industrial Applications

Mobile Handset and Telecom Device Manufacturing

August

3D Printing

Improving Thermal Dissipation

LED Lighting

September Industrial IoT

Which Input Technologies Should You Use

Solar

October

The Brains of Mobile Devices

Ruggedising Hardware

Electronics Manufacturing Equipment (Both SMT and Non-SMT Categories)

November

Security of the IoT

Fight of the Processors: High-Performance Computing Test and Measurement

December

Implantable and Edible Electronics

Which Output Technologies Should You Use

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Materials and Chemicals

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