INNOVATIONS FROM THE EDGE - KPIT

a quarterly journal of KPIT Cummins Infosystems Limited 

INNOVATIONS 

FROM THE EDGE 

VOL. 5, ISSUE 1 

JAN - MAR 2012 

Inspirations from the Edge 

Connecting to Future with Brain Machine Interface 

Add a Dimension by Cutting Edge Research 

Displaying the Edge 

What is your Computer's DNA 

Social Impact of Leading Edge Technology - NETRA 

Cross Domain Ideas for Sustainable Living 

Bringing the Moon Down

Colophon 

TechTalk@KPITCummins is a quarterly journal of 

Science and Technology published by 

KPIT Cummins Infosystems Limited, Pune, India. 

Guest Editorial 

Dr. Akhlesh Lakhtakia 

The Charles Godfrey Binder (Endowed) 

Professor of Engineering Science & Mechanics, 

Pennsylvania State University, PA, USA 

axl4@psu.edu 

Chief Editor 

Dr. Vinay G. Vaidya 

CTO-Engineering, VP 

KPIT Cummins Infosystems Limited, 

Pune, India 

vinay.vaidya@kpitcummins.com 

Editorial and Review Committee 

Priti Ranadive 

Sudhakar Sah 

Charudatta Sinnarkar 

Sanjyot Gindi 

Pranjali Modak 

Aditi Athavale 

Designed and Published by 

Minds'ye Communication, Pune, India 

Contact : 9673005089 

Suggestions and Feedback 

crest@kpitcummins.com 

Disclaimer 

The individual authors are solely responsible 

for infringement, if any. 

All views expressed in the articles are those 

of the individual authors and neither the company 

nor the editorial board either agree or disagree. 

The information presented here is only for giving an 

overview of the topic. 

For Internal Circulation Only 

TechTalk@KPIT Cummins

Contents 

Editorial 

Guest Editorial - Dr. Akhlesh Lakhtakia 

Editorial - Dr. Vinay Vaidya 

2 

3 

Profile of a Scientist 

Book Review 

Articles 

‘Leonardo Da Vinci’ 


Successful Innovation: How To Encourage and Shape Profitable Ideas 

Mayurika Chatterjee 


Sudhakar Sah 

Connecting to Future with Brain Machine Interface 

Dheeraj Kumar Patel, 

Vishal Soni 

Add a Dimension by Cutting Edge Research 

Sachin Bangadkar, Pranali Dhane 


Smita Nair 


Nikhil Jotwani, Anuja M 

Social Impact of Leading Edge Technology - NETRA 

Dr. Ramesh Raskar 

Cross Domain Ideas for Sustainable Living 


Bringing the Moon Down 

Varun B, Neha Savur 

Profile of an Innovator 

‘Steve Jobs’ 

Ruchi Tewari 

28 

29 

4 

10 

18 

24 

30 

36 

42 

48 

41 

TechTalk@KPITCummins, Volume 5, Issue 1, 2012 1

Dr.Akhlesh Lakhtakia 

The Charles Godfrey Binder 

(Endowed) 

Professor of 

Engineering Science & 

Mechanics, 

Pennsylvania State University 

axl4@psu.edu 

Guest Editorial 

Cross Fertilization 

Taxonomy aims to bring order to chaos. Initial taxonomic success often is later enhanced but never brought to 

completion. Just look at various lists of breeds of the common dog. Distinctions between breeds made by the 

American Kennel Club are not always recognized by the Australian National Kennel Council, and apparently neither 

organization has bothered to classify the Indian breeds Rampur Greyhound and Rajapalayam. Every year, 

zoological taxonomists reclassify many species and subspecies in the wild, as more information about anatomical 

features and molecular genetics becomes available; several distinct species are combined into one, some genera 

disappear while new genera are formed, and so on. Ask several particle physicists the number of particles in the 

Standard Model zoo, and be prepared to receive several different answers. While essential, sustained practice of 

taxonomy does not always lead to pure taxons. 

And so it is with academic disciplines. Disciplinary purity was taken for granted when I was in grade school. My 

teachers, all armed with university degrees, ensured that physics and chemistry were as different from each other 

as chalk from cheese, algebra was algebra and geometry was geometry, and there could be no confusion between 

history and geography. In college, I learnt that we engineers must wait at the table of physicists (and, occasionally, 

chemists) for crumbs that we could transmute into mass-produced objects to be sold for the highest profit that the 

market would bear. 

Imagine my surprise when, during the first year of graduate school, I had to derive closed-form expressions for 

several integrals involving products of associated Legendre functions for a research paper, and I found out that 

certain types of chemists specialized in similar activities. How delightful! Soon I had opportunities to discuss 

microwave-assisted tomography with geophysicists and computer scientists. I met graduate students from 

molecular biology, chemical physics, and algebraic geometry. Occasionally, I attended seminars in the departments 

of geophysics, mechanical engineering, and radiology. Most importantly, I learnt that, motivated by desires to 

produce revolutionary devices, researchers in engineering departments themselves undertake deep research in 

mathematics and physics. For me, disciplinary boundaries began to crumble––not perhaps with the intensity of 

the collapse of the Berlin Wall, but even so. 

th 

th 

Disciplinary purity did not exist prior to the 20 century. Ibn Khaldoun, the 14 -century Tunisian historiographer, 

th 

wrote a muqaddimah on history, sociology, demography, economics, biology, and chemistry. In the 18 century, 

Denis Diderot single-handedly compiled an encyclopédie after personally verifying the truth of every entry. Not 

only was Benjamin Franklin an author, publisher, diplomat, postmaster, political theorist, and one of the founding 

fathers of USA, but he was also a first-rate technoscientific researcher with contributions to electrical and thermal 

sciences. One of my heroes, Jagadish Chandra Bose invented both artificial chiral composite materials and artificial 

structurally chiral materials, devised semiconductor hetero junctions to detect radio signals, and invented the 

cresco graph to identify the similarities of plant and animal tissue. 

th 

The disciplinary purity of much of the 20 century is breaking down at the technoscientific forefront. If you can 

deposit tiny amounts of matter in tiny spaces, you can work on implanting electrodes in the brains of patients 

suffering from Parkinson's disease, you can devise resorbable drug-eluting stents, you can construct an entire 

laboratory on a chip smaller than a 1-paisa coin, you can reduce the channel thickness in MOSFETs to a nanometer, 

you can visualize faint fingerprints of criminals, and so on. If you have mastered the Stürm-Liouville equation and 

the algebra of tensors, you can solve boundary-value problems in acoustics, electromagnetics, and 

elastodynamics, all of which have numerous applications in different “disciplines”. Cross-fertilization of ideas from 

different disciplines makes the world your oyster. 

While disciplinary boundaries are still needed for administration and guidance, many leading universities are hard 

at work to foster cross-fertilization. My own university, which pioneered in the mid-1950s an academic major 

called engineering science, has just finished construction of a building with two wings, one devoted to materials 

sciences and the other to life sciences, meeting in a common area to promote cross-fertilization. At MIT, a 

department of biological engineering has been set up. SPIE now organizes conferences on engineered biomimicry 

to draw in participants from more than a dozen different academic disciplines. 

Engineered biomimicry was the theme of this magazine's previous issue, which shows that leading industrial 

research laboratories too perceive benefits from cross-fertilization. Indeed, to design and manufacture as 

commonplace a device as a simple automobile, a team of mechanical engineers, chemical engineers, materials 

scientists, electrical engineers, civil engineers, fluid mechanicians, ergonomists, artists, stylists, and market 

researchers has to be assembled first. No wonder, fostering cross-disciplinarity is essential for any progressive 

company. 

Dr. Akhlesh Lakhtakia is the Charles Godfrey Binder (Endowed) Professor in the Department of Engineering Science 

and Mechanics, Pennsylvania State University, where he is also a professor in graduate programs in Materials and 

Forensic Science. He is also the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Nanophotonics, published by SPIE. 

2 

TechTalk@KPITCummins, Volume 5, Issue 1, 2012

Editorial 

Dr. Vinay G. Vaidya 

CTO - Engineering, VP 

KPIT Cummins Infosystems 

Limited, Pune, India 

The icon for versatility is none other than Leonardo da Vinci. He was a scientist, mathematician, 

engineer, inventor, cartographer, anatomist, geologist, botanist, painter, sculptor, architect, musician, 

and writer all in one. His knowledge of multiple fields certainly had a major impact on other fields. It is 

quite likely that while painting asymmetric smile of Mona Lisa, he was motivated to study how facial 

muscles work and while sketching a waterfall he was fascinated to study fluid dynamics. Such is the 

power of 'Innovations on the Edge'. 

As we unearth the secrets of universe, we are continuously surprised. Our knowledge of the universe has 

improved due to multiple factors. Telescopes have played a major role in it. Since Galileo's first 

telescope about 400 years ago, there has been a significant transformation in its design. In 1990, one of 

the most sophisticated instruments, the Hubble telescope, was launched. It allowed us to get an 

unobstructed view of the sky with no scattering of light previously seen due to light on the Earth. 

Advancements in radio telescope are another example where multiple disciplines are required to make 

things happen. To build the world's largest telescope, Square Kilometer Array (SKA), we have 

astrophysicists, physicists, electronics engineers, mechanical engineers, telecommunications 

engineers, software engineers, as well as geologists working as one team. 

Advancements in engineering have made a major impact in the medical field. Today the methods of 

diagnostics are way advanced, thanks to the advancements due to multi-disciplinary research. Medical 

field is replete with cross fertilization of ideas having a major impact. If one looks at the recent Noble 

laureates then one would notice that many of them do not practice medicine but they come from 

various other disciplines such as engineering, biochemistry, chemistry, molecular biology, microbiology 

and allied fields. Inventions coming out of cross boundary research have not only made ever lasting 

impact on the medical field but also on our lives. 

From innovation perspective, it is very important for researchers and innovators to look at the 

advancements in other fields and try to see how those might help in their own field. Today's researchers 

are confronted with multiple challenges. One of them is ensuring that there is no inadvertent patent 

infringement. Given a problem, there is always a risk that two researchers around different corners of 

the world think alike and come up with the same solution. This could potentially lead to a patent 

infringement. This is perhaps due to the fact that people are trained in the same field, in the same 

manner, and they read papers from the same conference proceedings or journals. There is no out-ofthe-box 

thinking. One way to overcome this issue is to read more about other disciplines and connect 

seemingly unconnected fields. Attending seminars and conferences in another field may be perceived 

as a waste of time and money, but who knows it might trigger a new idea. More one reads about other 

fields, higher is the chance that the solution would be richer in content, thereby reducing the chance of 

inadvertent patent infringement. 

In this series of issues we are addressing the issue of stimulating innovators. In the last issue we 

elaborated on nature inspired innovation. In this issue we are attempting to stress the importance of 

interdisciplinary knowledge. Common thread for tying all disciplines is undoubtedly mathematics. Our 

next issue, 'Math Matters', would cover the magic of mathematics. We hope that this trilogy would act 

as a catalyst in your research. 

Please send your feedback to : 

vinay.vaidya@kpitcummins.com 

TechTalk@KPITCummins, Volume 5, Issue 1, 2012 

3

4 TechTalk@KPITCummins, Volume 5, Issue 1, 2012


About the Author 

Sudhakar Sah 


5

1. Introduction 

Innovation seems to be a buzz word around all the 

industries. We understand the meaning of 

innovation very well but the question is do we 

really understand how innovation happens. 

Innovations could happen due to some necessity, 

or the person working on a problem is a creative 

person, or out of sheer luck, or just a combination 

of all of the above. Whatever the reason, 

innovations happen all around us. Innovations are 

of two broad types. One category of innovations 

is commonly referred as incremental innovations 

since they build on top of some other innovations. 

The other category of innovations, are what we 

call innovations that happen at the edge. In this 

article, we are going to discuss innovations 

resulting from the edge. We will discuss what we 

exactly mean by “edge” and why one should strive 

for such kind of innovations. 

II. Innovations from the Edge 

Edge is the boundary or a crossover between the 

organizations, domain, technology, market and 

geographical areas [10]. Edge is a place where, 

most disruptive innovations take place, many 

path-breaking solutions to customer's problem 

are found, and environmental friendly solutions 

are unearthed. Therefore, the next question could 

be “If there is a huge potential of innovations on 

the edges, what prevents people from working on 

the edge”. The reason behind this is high risk 

associated in working on the solutions using cross 

boundary technologies. It requires more 

investments without a fixed, proven path and 

there is no guarantee of success [11]. However, 

the magnitude of success out of the innovations 

from edge is very high and that is a motivation for 

researchers to think beyond the boundaries of 

company, beyond their comfort zone and most 

importantly beyond the technology areas. 

Jaipur Foot 

Let us take an interesting example of “Jaipur foot” 

which is the artificial limb for disabled people. One 

can visit their center for consultation in Jaipur, 

India. After giving necessary inputs, a person can 

walk out with an artificial limb in just few hours. 

How is it possible to make the process so simple It 

becomes possible because of the use of 

technologies from different domains and 

collaboration. This discipline is called as 

biomechanics. The process involves chemistry to 

select the right material, mechanical engineering 

to design coupling and screws, and last and the 

most important, human psychology to understand 

the needs and emotions of disabled people. 

Biomathematics 

During your high school days, when you were 

studying biology and mathematics, did you think 

that there is some relationship between these two. 

The two look like North Pole and South Pole and 

share no commonality at all. So, what is 

biomathematics Well, it is a branch that deals with 

biology, mathematics and computing all in one. 

Why do you need these fields to come together 

Well, biology consists of data rich information set 

like genomics, which becomes easier by using 

analytical tools. Mathematical tool like chaos 

theory can be used to model nonlinear concepts in 

biology, which was not possible earlier. Evolution of 

computing technology inspired to simulate 

complete biological systems for understanding it 

better and in less time. Hence, research of 

theoretical biology can go places by collaboration 

amongst mathematicians, engineers, biologists, 

physicists, geneticists, zoologists and other 

branches that are on edge of above-mentioned 

branches [14]. 

Ecosystem Modeling 

Ecosystem modeling [13] is the mathematical 

representation of ecological system. This 

mathematical model can further be used to 

simulate real system to produce more information 

about the ecosystem that otherwise is not possible 

without waiting for long duration. Such simulation 

can be used in other domains. Some of these 

domains include agricultural management, 

wildlife conservation, computer science, and 

mathematics. Ecological model is one of the finest 

examples of cross-domain innovations since it uses 

mathematics, modeling and simulation to solve 

problems in different disciplines. 

6 

TechTalk@KPITCummins, Volume 5, Issue 1, 2012

Geospatial Technology 

During the days of wired fixed line phones, who had 

thought of wireless mobile phones However, mobile 

communication started at the edge of wireless 

technology. Today, mobile technology has become 

core of communications technology.This is one of the 

major technology marvels of recent times and as 

usual today's wireless technology has evolved by 

merger of many discrete technologies. For example, 

GIS, GPS, location based services, AM/FM, navigation 

system were discrete concepts earlier but 

collaboration of all of these together evolved a much 

polished, efficient and flexible wireless technology 

that is being used by mobile technology and internet 

[15]. 

Construction Engineering 

Construction engineering is one of the oldest and 

significantly one of the major contributors to 

development. In 80s or even 90s less than 100 people 

used to be busy at a construction site. Which domains 

do you think were involved in construction It was a 

combination of civil engineering, mechanical 

engineering, and metallurgy. If you visit any 

construction site these days, you can easily 

understand the revolutionary changes that have 

happened. The transformation has been effectively 

catalyzed by involvement of other technologies in 

infrastructure development. For example, use of 

robotics has eased most of the manual tasks. 

Computer simulations give detailed information 

about the impact of using different mixtures based 

on chemistry and corresponding life of the building. 

Computer aided design (CAD) helps in creating 

design of building and making modifications in the 

software by looking at the visual model until it 

reaches to a satisfactory level. Additionally, 

geologists are required to understand the properties 

of soil and water in order to construct a durable 

structure.This virtually eliminates the possibility of 

error in construction. 

Automobile 

When we talk about automobiles, what comes to our 

mind Is it mechanical engineering, metallurgy, 

electrical engineering Well, it depends on your 

affinity towards one of these disciplines. 

Automobiles have come a long ways since the first car 

rolled out. Today's cars are equipped with many 

features that would have not been possible by 

continuing research only in the disciplines mentioned 

as above. Today we need to know different 

technologies such as electronic chips for replacing 

many mechanical parts, sensor technology to detect 

different scenarios and act based on the situation, 

vision systems for driver and pedestrian safety, 

ergonomics for better comfort, environmental 

engineering for pollution reduction, computer science 

for embedded systems and software simulations, 

chemistry for battery life estimation and super 

capacitor design. The list goes on. 

Vedic Mathematics and Processor design 

Vedic mathematics [2] is an ancient Indian technique 

for computation. It is fast and significantly different 

compared to conventional mathematics. According to 

the conventional thinking, the techniques used in 

Vedic mathematics suits best for manual calculation. 

However, researchers who believed that the concept 

could be utilized in other fields came up with the 

hardware multiplier designs for processors that are 

based on Vedic Mathematics. These multipliers are 

faster than conventional multipliers devised earlier. 

Quantum Computing 

Quantum computing is the outcome of intense 

research of combining computer science, physics and 

mathematics. Outcome of the research is a quantum 

computer that is multi-fold faster as compared to the 

conventional silicon based computer. Quantum 

computing concepts such as entanglement and nonlocality 

come from philosophy [3]. Later, 

mathematicians discovered that these concepts form 

the basis of efficient algorithm development. Further, 

the development of efficient quantum algorithms 

could bridge the gap between classical and quantum 

physics. Quantum computing also aids in 

understanding that the mathematical terms like 

complexity and tractability can be translated into 

physics[4]. Hence, relationship of physics and 

mathematics at the edge of computer science gave 

birth to quantum computing. Figure 1, shows qubits as 

the basic unit of quantum computing. Qubit is 

analogous to bits in 


7

conventional computing with a difference that 

bits are limited to only two states whereas qubits 

can take multiple states. Therefore, qubits are 

multi fold powerful compared to bits. 

photonics gave birth to bio photonics [5]. Photon is 

a quantum unit of light and photonics is the science 

that deals with photons. Photons for information 

technology are analogous to electrons in 

electronics. Bio photonics is related to the 

interaction of biological items and photons. Bio 

photonics finds its applications in life sciences, 

agriculture, environmental science, and medicine 

[13]. 

Figure 1: Qubits -The fundamental building 

block of quantum computers. 

Source:Wikipedia [4] 

Holographic disk drive 

We have seen enormous increase in storage 

capacity of disks right from the time of a floppy 

disk capable of storing 512KB of data to Blu-ray 

disk that can store data of the order of GB. Where 

will the storage technology go from here Well, 

again the answer is edge. Companies are working 

on the new concept called holographic disk [11] 

that can store 30 times more data compared to a 

Blu-ray disk. The reason for increase in storage 

capacity is that this uses holography concept for 

data writing. Instead of writing data using laser 

light, holography technique will make data writing 

possible in three dimensions. This increases the 

storage capacity. 

FigureII: Concept of holographic disk drive 

Source: Focus [11] 

Bio-Photonics 

Electrons are at the core of electronics or electrical 

engineering. In order to do something 

fundamentally different, researchers thought of a 

new concept from the edge of biology and 

photonics. The combination of biology and 

Colorful Eco Textiles 

Dye making industry uses chemicals and 

predefined processes for many decades. However, 

the chemicals involved in this process are toxic and 

sometimes explosive. Additionally, the process to 

provide safety to workers consumes large amount 

of energy. Both of these situations are not 

favorable and hence researchers at Catholic 

University of Louvain in Belgium use a novel 

technique to take care of the above problems. They 

have extracted the enzymes from fungi that 

produce eco dyes. 

III. Conclusion 

In this article, we have seen that most of the 

technology marvels came into existence because of 

using multi-disciplinary approach to come up with 

the solution. On one hand, it looks virtually 

impossible to think of products or innovations 

without knowledge or awareness of various 

branches of science, technology, commerce and 

arts. On the other hand, there are discussions 

about abolishing certain subjects from different 

curriculums. Reasoning is very simple; it is not 

useful so let us not overburden students. For 

example, why biology is taught in high schools 

when the student is aspiring to become an 

Engineer What is the relevance of mechanics in 

electronics engineering With the examples given 

in this article, it is clear that it is important to have 

knowledge of different domains. This is the key of 

path breaking innovations. The important point is 

that the problem lies at the core of one technology 

and one can often find its solution on the edge of 

other technology. It is also evident that the 


emained successful in the market. Core of 

technology is hardly bitten but there is lot of scope 

at the edges and the success lies in converting 

these edge technologies to the core technology 

and the process will go on. 

References 

[1]] Harun Yahya, “What we can learn from 

animals”, in Biomimetics: Technology Imitates 

Nature, 2006, pp- 116-120. 

puters.htm 

[10] John Hage, “Edge perspective”, Online 

Article, May 12, 2008 

http://edgeperspectives.typepad.com/edge_pers 

pectives/2008/05/innovation-on-t.html 

[11] John Hage and John Seely Brown, “Embrace 

the Edge -- or Perish”, Online Article Bloomberg 

Business week, Nov 2007. 

http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content 

/nov2007/id20071128_162890.htmchan=search 

[2] Jagadguru Swami Sri Bharati Krisna Tirthaji 

Maharaja, “Vedic Mathematics: Sixteen Simple 

Mathematical Formulae from the Veda”, Delhi 

(1965). 

[12] Focus Editors, “Quantum Computing vs. 

Paleofuture” 

http://www.focus.com/fyi/quantum-computingvs-paleofuture/ 

[3] Hagar, Amit, "Quantum Computing", The 

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 

2011 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = 

 

[4] Quantum Computers Wiki page: 

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

r 

[5] Bio photonics 

http://spie.org/documents/Newsroom/audio/M 

atthewsPresentation.pdf 

[6] Colorful eco-textiles thanks to nano-sized 

enzymes 

http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=2261 

8.php 

[7] Bio photonics 

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

[8] Leonard M. Adleman, “Computing with DNA”, 

Scientific American, August 1998. 

[9] DNA Computer: Future for All 

http://www.futureforall.org/computers/dnacom 

[13] Ecosystem Model Wiki pagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecosystem_model 

[14] Mathematical and Theoretical Biology – 

Wikipedia 

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

theoretical_biology 

[15]Prof. Mike Jackson, David Schell and Prof. D.R. 

Fraser Taylor “The Evolution of Geospatial 

Technology Calls for Changes in Geospatial 

This story is told about the mathematician 

A r n e B e u r l i n g : 

When PhD candidates he was supervising 

came to him with their finished theses he 

would read the last few pages of the thesis, 

then pull out a paper from his desk, look at it 

for a few moments and then say "Well, that 

seems to be the right answer, You can submit 

it". 


9


Connecting to Future with 

Brain Machine Interface 


Dheerajkumar Patel 

Member Technical Staff, 

Automotive and Allied Engineering, 

KPIT Cummins Infosystems Ltd., 

Pune, India 

Areas of Interest 

Automobile Subsystems Development, 

Communication Protocol Development, 

Industrial and Consumer Robotics 

Vishal Soni 

Software Engineer, 

Automotive and Engineering Business Unit, 


Pune, India 


Analog/Digital Electronics, 

Automotive Design and Concepts 


11

I. Introduction 

Inventions in machine interfaces have always 

increased comfort level of people. We have seen 

the development of push buttons, keypads, 

wireless controls, and the most talked touch 

screens. Some inventions are also seen in the area 

of non-touch screen interfaces where the user 

moves a detectable object in front of the screen to 

interact with the machine. In most of these 

interfaces, the user physically handles the 

interface device to make use of it. However, think 

of people with disabilities. Is it possible for them 

to control machines around them Let us consider 

an example of the high-tech wheel chair 

developed for physically challenged people. In 

spite of the intelligence we put in the wheel chair, 

the person has to touch the control panel to move 

the wheel chair and control its other parts. 

Developing just the high-tech devices for 

physically challenged people is not enough. 

Imagine if they could have been able to control the 

devices using their brain directly or imagine 

yourself controlling your mobile phones, 

television sets, fans, tube lights, any electronic 

device around you; just by your thoughts. Imagine 

talking to the person beside you without uttering a 

single word. It sounds interesting but is this 

possible The answer is yes! Research is being 

carried out to even control car using thoughts. 

This article provides an overview of this 

technology known as Brain Machine Interface and 

highlights some of its applications and recent 

developments. 

II. What is Brain Machine Interface 

With the advancements in the computing 

techniques and the study of human brain, 

scientists have claimed a possibility of interfacing 

human brain directly to machines or external 

devices. The direct communication between the 

human brain and machines is termed as Brain 

Machine Interface (BMI) or Brain Computer 

Interface (where brain controls the computer 

directly). The figure 1 shows a conceptual 

overview of a Brain Machine Interface system for 

Figure 1: Patient with Brain Machine Interface system 

Brain 

Brain takes part in each activity that we perform. It 

works like a processor that has input signals and 

generates output commands resulting in one of the 

activities we perform. Basic five senses, touch, 

smell, vision, taste and hearing, are inputs to the 

brain. Additionally, some other senses like 

temperature, pain, balance and acceleration, also 

act as inputs to the brain. The output can be any in 

terms of muscle movement, thoughts, speech etc. 

The transmission of information to and from the 

brain is carried out by the brain cells called neurons. 

There are billions of neurons present inside the 

brain. The neurons are electrically charged and 

transfer of the electric charge from one neuron to 

another enables the information transmission to 

and from the brain. There are three types of 

neurons present in the brain namely Sensory 

Neurons, Motor Neurons, and Inter-neurons. 

Types of Neurons 

l Sensory Neurons are neurons that carry 

information from the body parts to the brain. These 

neurons provide input to the brain, thus the 

information provided by our senses is carried to the 

brain by the sensory neurons. 

l Motor Neurons are neurons that carry 

information from the brain to the different body 


parts. These neurons carry output information from 

the brain. For example, some motor neurons carry 

information to the muscles and command them to 

move accordingly. 

l Inter-neurons are neurons that enable inter neuron 

communication. 

The transmission of information by the neurons 

inside the brain forms a pattern of electrical signal. 

This pattern is unique for each activity that we 

perform. For example, the activity of moving our arm 

in a particular direction from one position to another 

generates a pattern of electrical signals inside the 

brain. Studies have proved that the pattern 

generated when a person thinks of an activity is the 

same when he actually performs that activity. This 

study is the basis of entire Brain Machine Interface 

(BMI) development. 

BMI includes reading the patterns of neural activity 

generated by thoughts, processing those patterns 

using external Digital Signal Processors (DSP), 

decoding the command or action that is being 

transferred and giving this command to the external 

physical devices. The external devices can be any 

electro-mechanical system that can be used to assist 

the paralyzed person [1]. For example, prosthetic 

hand or prosthetic leg, wheel chair, a computer, etc. 

The figure 2 shows an outline of Brain Machine 

Interface system. 

Reading Neural Patterns 

The Neurons constantly exchange ions with the 

neighbouring neurons. These exchanges of electrically 

charged ions cause a wave of electrical energy 

(pattern of neural activity) which propagates in one 

direction. If a metal electrode is placed closed to the 

charged neurons, a potential difference is created 

which can be read by the measurement devices. A 

continuous measurement of this potential difference 

over duration of time gives the neural pattern which is 

being propagated in that part of the brain. The brain is 

divided into several parts depending upon the 

functions it performs. Therefore, the pattern picked 

up from different parts of the brain show differences. 

In addition, the neural pattern generated is a result of 

thousands of neurons communicating in that part of 

the brain. For this purpose, the acquisition of neural 

signals is performed using multiple electrodes placed 

at certain fixed locations. The placement of the 

electrodes for reading the neural signals leads to 

different techniques of BMI. This is explained in later 

sections. 

Neural Coding 

The pattern of neural activity is different for different 

tasks or thoughts. The information is coded in the 

generated pattern during the thought process or 

physical activity. Neural coding is the study of methods 

in which the information is coded into patterns [2]. It 

includes the analysis of how the information 

attributes like muscle movement direction, amount of 

force to be applied by the hands, various tastes, odor, 

etc. are coded in patterns of neural activities. The 

study is being focused in two directions, neural 

encoding and neural decoding. Neural encoding 

focuses on the methods of coding of the sensory 

information, which is transmitted to the brain by the 

sensory neurons. On the other hand, neural decoding 

Figure 2: Outline of Brain Machine Interface System 


13

on the methods of coding of output information, 

which is transmitted out from the brain to the 

body organs through the motor neurons and 

inter-neurons. 

III. Types of Brain Machine Interface 

captured, decoded and transmitted to the robot 

arm controller. The final robot arm movement is 

also visible to the monkey. Scientists at Duke 

University are carrying out this experiment [3]. The 

figure 4 shows an experimental setup of BMI for 

Robot control at Duke University. 

Depending upon the placement of electrodes for 

picking the neural signals, there are three types of 

Brain Machine Interface that are currently under 

development. 

Invasive Brain Machine Interface 

In this type of BMI, the electrodes are implanted 

deep inside the brain during neurosurgery. This 

type of placement produces the highest quality of 

neural signals. However, this also has the 

drawback of electrodes being damaged by the 

reaction of brain tissue to foreign material 

(electrode material). The figure 3 shows the 

placement of electrode in Invasive BMI type. 

Figure 4: Experimental Setup of BMI at 

Duke's University (Reference [3]) 

The development areas for this type of BMI include 

the development of implantable electrodes and the 

development of signal processing techniques for 

decoding neural signals picked by the implanted 

electrodes. 

Partially Invasive Brain Machine Interface 

In this type of BMI, the electrodes are implanted 

below the skull and outside the brain. The electrode 

array is spread out on the brain surface instead of 

penetrating inside the brain. The advantage of this 

type of BMI is that it eliminates the possibility of the 

electrode damage by the brain tissues. As the 

electrode stays beneath the skull, the signal damping 

due to the skull is reduced. However, this creates a 

permanent hole on the skull. Electrocorticography 

(ECoG) methods are utilized for the partially invasive 

BMI implementations [4]. 

Figure 3: Invasive BMI Electrode Placement 

This method of BMI is widely experimented on 

animals like rats and monkeys. A number of 

experiments are carried out for controlling a robot 

arm by thoughts. In these experiments, the 

electrodes are implanted in a monkey's brain and 

the monkey is trained to move a joystick. The 

signals from the monkey's brain, which are 

generated during the joystick movement, are 

Non-Invasive Brain Machine Interface 

In this type of BMI, the electrodes are placed on the 

s ku l l a t c e r ta i n d e f i n e d p o s i t i o n s . T h e 

Electroencephalography (EEG) measurements 

methods are widely used in non-invasive BMIs. There 

a r e o t h e r n o n - i n v a s i v e m e t h o d s l i k e 

Electromyography (EMG), Functional Magnetic 

Resonance Imaging (fMRI), etc. which are also used in 

the non-invasive BMIs. 

In methods utilizing EEG, the signals (neural signals) 


measured from different electrodes are of very low 

amplitude. These signals are thus amplified before 

they are transferred to the processor for decoding. 

The patients using EEG based BMI requires sufficient 

amount of training for generating particular patterns 

of neural activities. The human brain is a parallel 

processor that processes thousands of neural signals 

simultaneously. However, this simultaneous 

decoding of the complex neural signals using the 

external available analog or digital processors is yet a 

milestone to achieve. Thus, the patients are required 

to be trained to concentrate on one particular activity 

while using the EEG based BMI. Otherwise, the 

neural signal read will have a combination of 

different thoughts, which becomes difficult to 

analyze. 

IV. Applications 

Presently, the Brain Machine Interface is developed 

and is in use for assisting physically challenged 

people to restore certain lost abilities. Various 

universities and commercial companies are 

experimenting BMI for controlling objects like a robot 

arm using thoughts. BMI is also used in military 

applications that allow army persons to talk to each 

other directly through their brain. An example of this 

is the project called 'Silent Talk', which is under 

development at the Defense Advanced Research 

Project Academy (DARPA), USA. BMI is also used in 

tele-operations of unmanned vehicles like 

unmanned aircrafts and ground vehicles. 

BMI has gained popularity in virtual world. The 

gaming and entertainment industry has successfully 

developed great applications for which human mind 

acts as the input. The recent advancements in 

communication and computer technologies have 

made it possible to have hands-free virtual gaming. 

To be able to use the hands-free gaming device user 

needs to wear a cap or tape an electrode to their 

forehead. These caps have sensors embedded into 

them that use frequency modulated radio signals for 

communicating with the computer. Frequency 

modulation is used to avoid interference of the brain 

signals and those that come from the environment 

or power outlets in the room. 

Similar to the above application, the concept of 

controlling a car via ones thought seems ground 

breaking. Hopefully, this will soon be a reality. Few 

major automakers are conducting research in this. 

For example, if the driver thinks about turning left 

ahead, the BMI system in the car will prepare itself 

for the maneuver based on an appropriate correct 

speed and road position. 

Nissan is undertaking the pioneering work of Human 

Brain Interface to a Car in collaboration with the 

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in 

Switzerland (EPFL) [5]. EPPF scientists have already 

conducted research to help physically challenged 

people to maneuver their wheelchairs by their 

thoughts or BMI system. The next logical step would 

be to take BMI to car and drivers. Although, this 

application is exciting it has few challenges. For 

example, though controlling a system using 

thoughts or BMI is proven, the level of concentration 

needed for these experiments were high. Hence, the 

scientists in the Nissan/EPFL team are also using 

statistical analysis that would help to predict driver's 

intentions. Apart from the brain signals, the team 

also plans to use eye movements, environment 

conditions around the car and car sensor data for 

making decisions. 

German researchers [6] were successful to use 

drivers' brain signals to assist in braking a car. These 

electrical signals were seen 130 milliseconds before 

W h i l e m u s i n g u p o n t h e s u b j e c t o f 

thermodynamics one day, Lord Kelvin suddenly 

realized that his wife was discussing plans for an 

afternoon excursion. "At what time," he asked, 

glancing up, "does the dissipation of energy 

begin” 


15

drivers actually hit the brakes. The research 

results help to reduce the reaction times thus 

leading to reduced number of car accidents 

caused by human errors. In their study, they 

identified parts of the brain that are most active 

when braking and demonstrated their method 

using a driving simulation environment, as shown 

Figure 5: Simulation of Mind Control in Brake Assist 

In the experiments carried out by the researchers, a 

driver or subject were seated facing three monitors in 

a driving simulator. Each subject had to drive 18 

meters behind a computer-driven virtual car 

traveling at 100 kilometers per hour (about 60 mph). 

The simulation also included oncoming traffic and 

winding roads. When the car ahead suddenly flashed 

brake lights, the human drivers also braked. With the 

resulting EEG and EMG data, the researchers were 

able to identify signals that occurred consistently 

during emergency brake response situations. While 

false positives from the signal are possible, the 

combination of EEG and EMG data makes a false 

positive much less likely. 

In other experiments carried out by Ferrari 

engineers, in-car biometric and psychometric 

sensors are being used to measure and assess various 

human parameters like respiration, blood pressure, 

heart rates, eye blink rate, perspiration, 

temperature, and brain activities. These sensors 

would be mounted in the car (on the steering wheels) 

to monitor the driver's condition. The measured data 

would be useful for preventing car accidents. 

The application discussed above will see the light of 

the day only when fully developed, robustly 

tested and error free functioning are found. This 

application when successful can be integrated in the 

overall idea of Mind Control Car Driving. 

V. Challenges in Brain Machine Interface 

The present BMI has some limitations and majority of 

these BMIs are working under certain test 

environment. Some of the challenges for successful 

BMI development are given below: 

lReading error free brain activity code for the desired 

action 

lDeriving effective algorithms that represent the 

interaction of neural codes by learning the brain's 

neural coding process 

lDeveloping methods for accessing the neural codes 

non-invasively and with optimized signal to noise ratio 

lDeveloping biocompatible electrodes and external 

interfaces 

lIdentifying and developing new devices (sensors and 

actuators) which can be optimally controlled by the 

brain 

lCreating ethical guidelines for BMI research and 

development 

VI. Future Developments 

The present research and development in the BMI 

systems utilize the known clinical trials for accessing 

the neural signals. This area can be targeted to invent 

new methods for reading the brain signals. An 

example of development in this area is using the blood 

flow measurement through the brain arteries and 

veins. It is scientifically proven that there is specific 

blood flow variation when the person performs a 

specific task. Developing methods for reading this 

blood flow values will provide a better and alternate 

way of accessing the brain codes non-invasively. 

Secondly, the present systems use wired connection 

to the measurement electrodes. Person with BMI 

system has to carry the wired network on the head. To 

tackle this problem, wireless transfer 


of the neural signals from the electrodes to the 

processor should be developed. Alternatively, the 

measurement electrodes and the signal processor 

can reside on the person's head and the output 

commands can be wirelessly transferred to the 

external device under control. 

Further development area is the Brain Machine 

Brain Interface (BMBI) systems. BMBI is a system 

where the interfaced machine gives a feedback to 

the brain about its performance of the activities. 

An example of this type of system is a prosthetic 

hand developed as BMBI. Here the brain controls 

the hand directly utilizing the earlier discussed 

BMI techniques. In addition, the hand gives 

feedback of the objects that it handles so that the 

person can feel the object he is carrying using his 

prosthetic hand. Tackling the challenges 

described in earlier sections also provides an area 

of future development in BMIs. 

VII. Summary 

Brain Machine Interface has a wide scope for 

innovation and development. The knowledge 

requirements for developing BMIs include the 

study of biology, neuroscience, mathematics, 

control theory, biomechanics and material 

science. BMI has the potential in future where a 

person will be able to control his / her 

neighborhood through his thoughts. As discussed 

earlier, though brain signal measurement in lab 

conditions are possible, it may not be easy to 

measure such signals in the real world and hence 

before BMI based applications and systems are 

available to the public strong ethical guidelines 

should be created and followed. 

References 

[1] Stephen M. Stahl, 978-0-521-8570 2-4 - Stahl's 

Essential Psychopharmacology: Neuroscientific 

Basis and Practical Applications, Third Edition, 

C a m b r i d g e U n i v e r s i t y P r e s s . 

http://assets.cambridge.org/97805218/57024/ex 

cerpt/9780521857024_excerpt.pdf - last accessed 

on 23rd Nov 2011. 

[2] Dimitrov A.G., Miller J.P., “Neural coding and 

decoding: communication channels and 

quantization”, Network, 12 (4):441-72, Nov 2011. 

http://cns.montana.edu/~alex/publications/codin 

g.pdf - last accessed on 23rd Nov 2011. 

[3]http://www.esa.int/gsp/ACT/doc/ARI/ARI%20S 

tudy%20Report/ACT-RPT-BIO-ARI-056402- 

Non_invasive_brain-machine_interfaces_- 

_Pisa_E_Piaggio.pdf - last accessed on 23rd Nov 

2011. 

[4] Aarts, A.A.A. Bariatto, M. Fontes, A. Neves, H.P. 

Kisban, S. Ruther, P. Penders, J. Bartic, C. 

Verstreken, K. Van Hoof, C., 'Building the humanchip 

interface', IEEE International Interconnect 

Technology Conference 2009, pp 29-32, 2009 

[5] http://actu.epfl.ch/news/nissan-teams-upwith-epfl-for-futurist-car-interfa/ 

- last accessed on 

rd 

23 Nov 2011 

[6] Stefan Haufe, Matthias S Treder, Manfred F 

Gugler, Max Sagebaum, Gabriel Curio and 

Benjamin Blankertz, "EEG potentials predict 

upcoming emergency braking during simulated 

driving", Journal of Neural Engineering, 8 056001, 

2011 

In the period that Einstein was active 

as a professor, one of his students 

came to him and said: "The 

questions of this year's exam are the 

same as last years!" "True," Einstein 

said, "but this year all answers are 


17


Add a Dimension by 

Cutting Edge Research 


Sachin Bangadkar 

Research Associate, 

CREST, 


Pune, India 


Image Processing and Embedded Systems. 

Pranali Dhane 

Research Associate, 

CREST, 

KPIT Cummins Info systems Ltd., 

Pune, India. 

Areas of interest 

Image Processing and Embedded Systems 


19


Traditional methods of creating threedimensional 

models used methods such as 

woodcutting, engraving, and etching. Now a 

machine attached to your computer can print in 

three Dimensions. Future could be in which we 

can have machines that produce physical 

prototype of the real world object with some 

activities integrated. 

After decades of research, now a machine can 

print a 3D model of the virtual object. In the same 

way that 2D printers provide computer users with 

a 2D picture, 3D printers provide 3D CAD users a 

3D model. 3D printing is a form of additive 

manufacturing technology where a three 

dimensional model is built by laying down 

successive layers of material. 3D printer offers to 

create the model of the product made of several 

materials with different properties that help the 

designer to model multiple concepts. Following 

will provide you the technologies used in 3D 

printing, its applications in different fields, 

materials used for printing, and future of the 3D 

technology. 

solidifies the traced pattern and bonds it to the 

layer below. SL technology requires a support 

structure to prevent elevated platform from 

deflecting due to gravity. These support structures 

are created automatically while preparing the 3D 

CAD models used for SL and removed from finished 

product manually. 

3D models created by stereo lithography are strong 

enough to be machined and can be used in 

injection molding, thermoforming, blow molding, 

and metal casting processes. Stereo lithography 

has many common names such as 3D printing, 

optical fabrication, photo-solidification and solid 

imaging. Time taken by SL Machines to produce 3D 

models varies from hours to days depending on the 

complexity of the cross-section patterns of virtual 

models. Most SL machines can produce parts with a 

maximum size of approximately 50 cm x 50 cm x 60 

cm (20" x 20" x 24") [9]. 

Disadvantage 

SL process is expensive as the photo-curable resin 

costs anywhere from $80 to $210 per liter. SL 

machine costs ranges from about $100000 to more 

II. Technologies used in 3D Printing 

A large number of competing technologies are 

available for 3D printing. Their main difference is 

in the way they build layers to create parts. Some 

methods use melting or softening material to 

produce the layers, while others lay liquid 

materials that are cured with different 

technologies [6]. These different technologies are 

described below. 

Stereo Lithography 

The first 3D printer was invented by Charles Hull in 

1984 and was based on the technique called 

stereo lithography. Stereo Lithography (SL) is 

defined as a method and apparatus for making 

solid objects by successively “printing” thin layers 

of the ultraviolet curable “resin” material one on 

top of the other. Subsequently on the surface of 

each resin layer laser beam trace the cross-section 

pattern of the 3D model. Exposure of the UV rays 

Figure 1: stereo lithography Process 

Source: http://www.photochembgsu.com/ 

applications/stereolithography.html 

Fused Deposition Modeling 

Another well know technology used in 3D printing is 

Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM), invented by 

Stratasys. In this technology, the digital model (CAD 

model) is oriented horizontally and sliced in layers of 

different thickness. Disposable support structure is 

created based on position and geometry of object. 

Then the thermoplastics are liquefied and deposited 

by temperature controlled extrusion head, which 

follows a tool-path defined by the CAD file. During the 

build process, extra material called "support" may be 

added to part in order to allow 


overhangs or undercuts to be produced. The FDM 

machine builds support for any structure that has 

an overhang angle of less than 45° from 

horizontal. If the angle is less than 45°, more than 

one half of one bead is overhanging the slice 

below it, and therefore is likely to fall. This 

"support material" is a weaker plastic made up of 

a wax composition. A range of materials is 

available including ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene 

s t y r e n e ) , p o l y a m i d e , p o l y c a r b o n a t e , 

polyethylene, polypropylene, and investment 

casting wax [3]. 

The deposited material solidifies and creates a 

plastic 3D model. After creation of prototype 

support structures are removed and surface is 

finished. The FDM technology is faster than SL 

Figure 2: FDM Process 

Source: www.cs.cmu.edu/~rapidproto/students. 

03/rarevalo/project2/Process.html 

Advantages 

Figure 3: MJM Process 

Source:http://www.warwick.ac.uk/atc/rpt/ 

Techniques/3dprinting.htm 

l Build speed virtually independent of part size or 

quantity. This means that whether a person 

submits 1 part or 10, they will all print in almost the 

same time. 

l MJM also uses phase change material; this 

provides very high surface finish, accuracy, and 

precision. As heated material jets onto the build 

plate, it instantly freezes, and is cured with UV. 

Support structures are automatically generated. 

l The support structure used with this technology is 

wax, which has a much lower melting temperature 

than the part printed and hence wax easily melts 

out. This method of “hands free” support removal 

allows for highly complex, and delicate 

applications. 

Multi-jet modeling (MJM) 

Multi-jet modeling is a quick prototyping process 

used for concept modeling. In this technology, a 

plastic model is created using a print head with 

several linear nozzles. The wax-like thermoplastics 

are sprayed on as fine drops through a heated 

print head at a resolution of 300 dpi and higher 

and afterwards polymerized by means of UV light. 

For overhangs, a support structure of lowermelting 

wax is constructed that is removed later 

by being heated [7]. This system uses wide area 

TM 

inkjet technology based on the ThermoJet to 

deposit layers of photopolymer. Each layer is fully 

cured by a wide area lamp after deposition. The 

process is commonly used for creating casting 

patterns for jewelry industry and for other 

precision casting applications [8]. 

Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) 

In this technology, pulsed laser is used to solidify 

and fuse small particles of plastic, metal, ceramic, 

or glass powders into a mass that has a desired 3- 

dimensional shape. The laser selectively fuses 

powdered material by scanning cross-sections 

generated from a 3-D digital description of the part 

on the surface of a powder bed. After complete 

scan of cross-section, the powder bed is lowered 

and a new layer is applied on top of it. The SLS 

System pre heats the material below its melting 

point that helps the laser to increase the 

temperature of material in a short time. This way 

the laser does not need to be as powerful and can 

move quicker through each layer. SLS does not 

require support structures due to the fact that the 

part being constructed is surrounded by nonsintered 

powder at all times [2]. 


21

Advantages 

Source:http://www.lersintering.com/images/ 

services/sls_machine.gif 

Figure 4: SLS Machine 

l This method uses material similar to 

thermoplastic, so the models are rigid upon 

completion. 

l A major advantage is that the support structures 

are unnecessary. Until the model is finished, the 

non-sintered powder is not removed and thus it 

provides support. 

Disadvantages 

l This process is not as accurate as SL. Since it is 

difficult to control exactly how much powder is 

sintered, models often come out grainy or with 

excess plastic on them. 

l The models are also porous, so some sort of 

varnish is necessary to seal and strengthen them. 

l The workable area must be cooled down when 

the model is finished, which, according to some 

companies that use SLS technology, can take up to 

two days. 

3D micro fabrication technique 

3D micro fabrication is a photolithographic 

technique based on 2 photon polymerisation. The 

technique enables to generate ultra-small 

features. In this method gel block is cured to 3D 

solid object by tracing focused laser beam. Due to 

the nonlinear nature of photo-excitation, 

remaining gel is washed away leaving behind solid 

3D model. This technique is used for generating 

complex micro devices, such as MEMS, microfluidics 

and micro-optical components. The main 

advantage of this technique is it can easily 

produce an object of 100 nm size [6]. 

III. Applications Of 3D printing 

3D printing applications includes healthcare, 

prototyping, metal casting, Automobiles etc. 3D 

printers cannot produce Final Consumer product 

rather it helps to find flaws in design of product 

before production that leads to save time and 

revenue. 

3D printing finds many applications in medical 

field. Surgeons use 3-D printers to create practice 

models for complex surgeries. The models are 

designed based on images from CT scans and 

exactly replicate the bodies of specific patients. For 

the patients who may have trouble following 

technical jargon without a visual aid, generic 

models can be used to explain a specific procedure. 

3-D printing is even beginning to make inroads into 

the prosthetic industry. The University of Tokyo 

Hospital recently completed a small test project 

that created artificial bones using 3-D printing and 

plastic surgeons are using 3-D printers to create 

masks of faces requiring prosthetic noses or ears so 

patients do not have to endure plaster casting over 

their faces [10]. 

3D printing technology is used in tissue engineering 

applications where organs and body parts are built 

by depositing Layers of living cells onto a gel 

medium and slowly built up to form threedimensional 

structures. 

Rapid prototyping is used in producing trainers, 

jewelry, plastic toys, coffee makers, hearing aids, 

home decor and all sorts of plastic bottles, 

packaging, and containers. 

Industries are using 3D-printer for proof of 

concept, functional testing, component 

manufacturing, and product mockup. 3D printer 

creates incredibly complex in design, costly objects 

in very less time. It is also used by investigation 

team for recreating crime scene. 3D-models are 

used in education to demonstrate different design 

concepts. 

Figure 5: 3D models created from 3D printers 


IV. 3D- Printers Market Survey 

3-D printing has become more and more 

prominent in the past few years as new materials 

and processes have expanded the capabilities and 

lowered the cost to the point where different 

companies can now afford to create their own 3- 

dimensional objects. Price of these commercial 

printers' starts in ten-to-twenty thousand pound. 

The following table gives the details of 

manufacturer companies and their corresponding 

education and engineering. Today the 

manufacturing processes are not accurate due to 

manual intervention but with the advancement in 

the 3D printers, these processes will be automated. 

Today 3D Printing technology is serving many 

industrial applications such as custom parts 

replacement, customized consumer product and 

medical. With the rapid growth of 3D printing 

technology, it is hard to imagine what the future 

holds for us. 

3D technology [4]. 

References 

Sr. Manufacturer Technology 

No. 

1 Obiet Geometries Photopolymer 3D printing systems 

2 Stratasys Additive fabrication machines for machines 

for direct digital manufacturing 

3 3D Systems Rapid proto-typing machine, notable 

for STL file formats 

4 EOS GmbH SLS and DMLS laser sintering systems 

5 Z-corp Plastic prototypes 

6 Hewlet Packard (HP) FDM-based HP Design jet 3D printer 

7 Shapeways, Sculpteo, online 3D printing service 

Ponoko and QuickForge 

V. Resolution of 3D printer 

Resolution of the 3D Printer is given in layer 

thickness, X-Y in Dpi. Generally, layer thickness is 

100 micrometer and 3D dots is of 0.05 to 1mm in 

diameter. 

VI. Conclusions 

3D printing Technology converts the virtual design 

into reality. 3D models created from 3D printer 

purely depend on one's imagination and 

brilliance. Converting the idea into reality by rapid 

prototyping will lead to intense competition in the 

market. As cost and size of 3D printer is reducing, it 

1. ROBERT A. GUTH, “How 3-D Printing Figures To 

Turn Web Worlds Real”, the Wall Street Journal, 

December 12, 2007; Page B1 

2. A. Michael Berman, '3D Printing: Making the 

Virtual Real', EDUCAUSE EVOLVING 

TECHNOLOGIES COMMITTEE, October, 2007 

3. Gaurav Tyagi, “3D printing technology”, NIC- 

Muzaffarnagar, UP 

4. http://www.ptonline.com/articles/3d-printerslead-growth-of-rapid-prototyping 

5. “3D printing”: 

http://www.explainingthefuture.com 

6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_printing 

7. http://www.gwpag.com/en/services/prototyping/rapidprototyping/multijet-modeling/index.html 

8. http://metals.about.com/library/weekly/aa-rpmjm.htm 

9. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereo lithography 

10.http://thefutureofthings.com/articles/11106/t 

he-future-of-3d-printing.html 

will be very helpful to create models for concept 

analysis, understanding design in the field of 


23




Smita Nair 


25


Introduction: 

Display technology has come a long way from the 

Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) screens to the recent 

advancement in Organic Light Emitting Diode 

(OLED) technology that has made its presence felt 

in current LED TV's. 

Imagine a display technology inspired by Mother 

Nature's most beautiful colors, visible in the 

butterfly's sparkling wings or in the vivid colors of 

a peacock's feather. Qualcomm incorporates the 

same radiance in it’s flat panel displays (Mirasol) 

with the iMOD technology [1], invented by Mark 

W. Miles, a MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical 

Systems) Researcher. 

Figure 1: Mother Nature's Colors 

iMod Technology 

iMOD or the 'Interferometric Modulator Display' 

is a MEMS technology used in electronic displays, 

wherein the basic display element replicates the 

structure of the butterfly wings [Ref: Figure 2]. 

Figure 3a and b: Building Blocks for iMOD pixel 

The top conducting plate is a thin layer of partial 

reflective material while the lower plate is a 

movable reflecting mirror. The two plates are 

separated by an air gap. In the open state, the air 

gap spacing differs with elements of different color. 

For e.g. the air gap spacing for the red element is 

different from the corresponding air gap spacing 

for the blue element (Ref: Figure 3b). When in a 

closed state, every element will have a minimum 

fixed air gap distance thereby generating a black 

color. The working principle of the display element 

is explained in the following section. 

Figure 4: Building Blocks for iMOD pixel 

Figure 2: Replicating the structure of butterfly wings 

in the IMOD display. Source: [3] 

Figure 3a shows the basic iMOD building element. 

Each element in the iMOD pixel display operates in 

two stable states: 

a) open state where the element reflects a 

particular visible color, 

b) closed or collapsed state where the element 

does not reflect color in visible range and hence 

appears black. The iMOD display pixel is made up 

of many such elements, each switching between 

the two states to generate a range of colors. Each 

iMOD element is made up of two conducting 

plates placed within a glass enclosure. The glass 

enclosure absorbs all incident light falling on the 

element and prevents loss of energy. 

Working Principle: 

The color generated by an iMOD element is based 

on the principle of light interference, wherein two 

waves combine to generate a resultant wave of 

greater or lesser amplitide. 

Figure 5: iMOD structure showing color generation 

due to interference. Source [4] 


Open State - When in open state, the voltage 

applied between the two conducting plate is zero 

(v=0). As shown in figure 4, the incident light wave 

on the two surfaces are reflected back generating 

two rays L1 and L2. Based on the air gap distance, 

ray L2 will be shifted in phase with respect to ray 

L1. The two rays interfere with each other 

resulting in a color of particular wavelength. The 

concept is explained in figure 5. Consider light 

incident on the pixel element. A light source has 

RGB (Red, Green and Blue) components in its 

visible range (380nm-780nm). The light reflected 

from the two surfaces are R1, G1, B1 and R2, G2, 

B2 that interfere with each other causing 

constructive (addition of waves) and destructive 

(cancellation of waves) interferences. As shown in 

figure 5, red wavelengths (R1, R2) are in phase 

causing constructive interference, whereas the 

green (G1, G2) and blue (B1, B2) wavelengths are 

out of phase, cancelling each other. As a result of 

the above phenomenon, the human eye perceives 

Red color. 

Collapsed State - When a voltage greater than 

threshold value (v>v ) is applied between the 

th 

conducting plates, the lower reflective surface 

switches to move closer ('collapse') to the upper 

plate. The light reflected from both these surfaces 

generate wavelength in the ultraviolet range (not 

visible to the human eye). This creates the 

perception of Black color. Likewise, a full color 

range can be obtained by arranging the elements 

reflecting in Red, Green, Blue and Black 

wavelengths [4]. 

The current input required to maintain each 

element in the two states (open/collapsed) is very 

low. Also, since it uses an ambient light source 

under day light conditions and requires an 

external light source (backlight) only in dark 

environment, iMOD displays are very power 

efficient (as compared to the LCD displays which 

by the way are more power efficient than the 

CRT's). 

Conclusion 

With the basic technique of light interference and 

by using MEMS devices for fast switching, the iMod 

technology is capable of replicating vibrant colors 

of nature. The iMOD technology has been recently 

introduced in the handheld display market and is 

comparable to the latest OLED technology. It 

supports the multimedia applications with very low 

power consumption, fast switching and daylight 

viewability [5]. 

References 

1] 'iMoD TECHNOLOGY—A REVOLUTION IN 

DISPLAYS - Qualcomm', White Paper 

Source: 

www.qualcomm.co.kr/common/documents/.../iM 

oD_Display_Overview.pdf, Last accessed on 21st 

Nov 2011 

2] 'Qualcomm Pushes IMOD Technology', 

Uberzigmo, May 21, 2008 

Source:http://www.ubergizmo.com/2008/05/qual 

omm-pushes-imod-technology/, Last accessed on 

21st Nov 2011 

3] Steven Volynets, 'Breakthrough Qualcomm 

IMOD Display Imitates Butterfly Wings, Uses less 

Energy than LCD', GoodCleanTech (GCT), Nov 06, 

2007. 

4] 'iMoD TECHNOLOGY—A REVOLUTION IN 

DISPLAYS - Qualcomm', White Paper, May 2008 

5] Ana, Londergan, Evgeni Gousev and Clarence 

Chui, 'Advanced Processes for MEMS-based 

Displays', Proceedings of the Asia Display 2007, 

SID, Volume 1, pp 107 – 112, 2007 


27

Profile of a Scientist 

Can you imagine a world without innovations From times 

unknown, innovations across various domains have served 

mankind to evolve, develop and grow, to where it is today. Today, 

the need for innovations from the edge has been universally 

accepted. While we talk about innovations from the edge, can one 

envision ideas centuries before the technology to build them could 

actually exist Such innovations have happened by a prolific 

scientist, Leonardo da Vinci, who seamlessly integrated arts with 

science to innovate from the edge. He was an Italian polymath: a 

painter, a sculptor, an architect, a musician, a scientist, a 

mathematician, an engineer, an inventor, an anatomist, a geologist, 

a cartographer, a botanist and a writer! 

Leonardo di serPiero da Vinci (April 15, 1452 – May 2, 1519), known 

as 'The Renaissance Man',was born in the Tuscan hill town of Vinci, 

Italy. Leonardo received an informal education in Latin, geometry 

and mathematics. In 1466, Leonardo was sent to a workshop of the 

artist Verrocchio, in order to learn the skills of an artist. At the 

workshop, along with painting and drawing, he was also exposed to 

a wide range of technical skills such as drafting, set construction, 

plaster working, paint, chemistry, metallurgy, mechanics and 

carpentry. Leonardo spent seventeen years in Milan working for the 

Duke, as a painter and engineer, conceiving an endless stream of 

innovative and daring ideas. During his lifetime, he was employed 

for his engineering and skill of invention. Leonardo was a master of 

mechanical principles. He conceptually invented a helicopter, a 

tank, the use of concentrated solar power, a calculator, a 

rudimentary theory of plate tectonics and the double hull. In 

practice, he greatly advanced the state of knowledge in the fields of 

anatomy, astronomy, civil engineering, optics, and hydrodynamics. 

In natural sciences, Leonardo exhibited unique approaches and 

observations in the fields of light, anatomy, botany, geology, 

cartography, astronomy and alchemy. 

A non-exhaustive list of his proposed inventions and projects 

include - leverage and cantilevering, water lifts, catapult, ball 

bearings, parallel linkage, lubrication systems, bridges and 

hydraulics, war machines (machine guns, giant crossbow, triple 

barrel cannon), parabolic compass, aerial screws, flying machines 

(parachute and Ornithopter -a device that would theoretically have 

allowed humans to soar through the air like birds), landing gears, 

diving suits, scuba gear, self propelled carts, a robotic knight, a clock 

which could track minutes, hours and also phases of moon, moldmaking 

techniques, shoes for walking on water, an ideal city (a 

planned city) and musical instruments (viola organista- a first 

bowed keyboard instrument). Some of the models based on his 

drawings include that of a parachute, a single span bridge (Golden 

Horn, Instanbul) and a flywheel. 

As an inventor, Leonardo was not prepared to tell all he knew, “How 

by means of a certain machine many people may stay 

Leonardo da Vinci 

sometime under water. How and why I do not describe my method of 

remaining under water; and I do not publish nor divulge these by reason 

of the evil nature of men who would use them as means of destruction at 

the bottom of the sea”. 

Leonardo's training was primarily as an artist. However, he exhibited great 

curiosity and interest in scientific knowledge. He was profoundly 

observant of nature. As he did not have any formal education as a 

scientist, his scientific studies were largely ignored by other scholars. 

Leonardo's approach to science was that of intense observation and 

detailed recording. Leonardo drew sketches and diagrams of his 

inventions, which he preserved in his notebooks. His journals provide an 

insight into his investigative processes. It has been quite difficult to say 

how many or even which of his inventions passed into the general public 

use making a profound impact over people's life. 

Unfortunately, Leonardo's inventions never became as famous as his 

artistic works- like the 'Mona Lisa' and 'The Last Supper', during the early 

time frame. Leonardo conceived ideas that were spectacularly ahead of 

his own time. The technology available during his time frame was not 

advanced enough to bring his ideas into practice. Due to this, almost none 

of his inventions could be built during his lifetime. Working models were 

th 

built based on the diagrams in his journals and papers, during the late 19 

century. Looking at the great ideas conceived by Leonardo despite the 

lack of technology during his time, one can only wonder what amazing 

inventions Leonardo would have contributed to the world, had he been 

present in our modern world with unlimited technology at his service. 



Jr. Scientist 

CREST, 

KPIT Cummins Infosystems Ltd, 

Pune, India 


Intellectual Property Rights, 

Patents 


Book Review 

SUCCESSFUL INNOVATION: HOW TO ENCOURAGE AND SHAPE 

PROFITABLE IDEAS 

A Book by Michel Syrett and Jean Lammiman 

Of late innovation is considered as the latest core capability without 

which business cannot prosper and even may not survive. Hence, 

new ideas and adaptability to new ideas are crucial to success. This 

book pinpoints and describes the processes and capabilities 

required by organizations to foster creative thinking and equally 

important to capture and shape the resulting output. 

This book is the result of an extensive research conducted by the 

authors on a long term basis. The book is divided into three major 

parts described later. As we go through each chapter it becomes 

evident that creating an environment of free flowing ideas and 

shaping those into a profitable venture is a long process and reading 

this book takes us through a captivating journey. 

Part1, Chapter 1 highlights the research carried out by the authors 

into innovation, in which they asked hundreds of managers and 

professional staff some basic questions, as in what exactly inspires 

and informs basic idea. Further, in this chapter different 

management gurus share their experiences and talk about various 

sources of inspiration such as professional activities outside work, 

networking etc. They further add that 'creativity' and adaptation are 

born out of tension, passion, and conflict. 

As we read the chapter 2 of Part1, the role of champions and teams 

in getting ideas off the ground is substantiated. The main five roles in 

idea development are put forth to the reader viz., the sparksomeone 

who comes up with the idea, the sponsor-who promotes 

the idea, the shaper-who makes the idea real, the sounding boardan 

outsider whose objectivity and broader knowledge can be drawn 

on to inform and validate the premise and lastly the specialistsomeone 

who shapes the idea and uses the opportunity to break 

new ground in the field. 

Part 2, chapter 3 specifies the need of the recruiters to hire a more 

diverse workforce and providing a workspace that encourages staff 

to share information, consulting with each other. As we read on, 

various company policies are discussed to achieve various aspects 

like information sharing, helping staff find creative space etc. Next 

chapter takes us to the next level by emphasizing on the need to 

create a variety of means to capture the thoughts so that they can be 

worked on and shaped collectively. Basically, the authors' research 

highlights the methods by which staff can be encouraged to focus on 

specific creative challenges, both financial and public by educating 

them about the importance of intellectual property and so on. 

However, the above covers only start of the process, chapter 5 effectively 

describes the importance of team based brainstorms, from selection 

of the team, budget, choosing the right consultant to opting of 

academics as an independent shaper or involving non-executive 

candidate to provide an external perspective has been discussed. 

Chapter 6 brings out the debate on the likely impact of new technology 

on developing new ideas, i.e. whether or not electronic media provide 

a creative medium for new ideas as powerful as face-to-face 

exchanges. Additionally, different opinions of executives belonging to 

varied age groups are taken, and a mixed conclusion is drawn. It is 

argued that even though internet and emails have released creativity 

from constraints of time and place, it is invading the individual privacy 

by linking the employees 24 by 7 to the company and it limits creative 

space that makes inspiration possible. 

Part 3 discusses the crucial role of finding creativity as an individual. 

Trusting one's instinct, creating conditions that would trigger original 

thoughts, 

making the connections between work and 

leisure, family's insights and work and so on, thus highlighting the 

importance of perspective are some of the points noted. This section 

further explains that an individual needs to have a detailed 

understanding of specific market needs and an insight into how to 

deliver a product. In totality, making an idea happen is a long process of 

which every individual plays a very crucial role. 

Strategy today is nothing without the passion of the people 

implementing and building it. How people see the future of 

organization, individually and collectively, will determine whether it 

achieves its goal. 

This book not only highlights the purpose of innovation but also 

articulately explains the involvement of whole body of executives 

starting from individual level to the highest level. Thus, this book is a 

must for a beginner whose creativity is all about trusting ones instincts 

and also for someone at a managerial level who has to tap the best idea 

from the whole lot and convert it into a profitable venture. 

Mayurika Chatterjee 

Research Trainee, 

CREST, 


Pune, India 


Mechatronics and Control Systems 


29




Anuja M 

Nikhil Jotwani 


31

Introduction 

Have you ever thought of using DNA, which is 

present inside your body to perform calculations 

Out of question, isn't it Can you imagine that 

probably DNA can be used to perform a square 

root operation or can be used to compute roots of 

a polynomial We all know DNA defines the 

characteristic of a person and contains the genetic 

instructions to perform the development and 

functioning of the person. So maybe we can relate 

this operation similar to a system, which has 

predefined instructions on how to operate. The 

term computer brings to our mind an image of a 

monitor with a keyboard, RAM, ROM and so on. 

The present computers perform computations 

digitally on silicon-based microprocessors. What if 

there is a computer that does not have any 

particular shape nor does it have any hardware 

but still performs computations more efficiently 

than the present day computers Yes, such kinds 

of computers are in development. They are called 

DNA machines and the phenomenon is called DNA 

computing. 

History 

In early 1950s, the physicist Richard Feynman first 

proposed the idea of using living cells and 

molecular complexes to construct submicroscopic 

computers. Adleman was the first to 

demonstrate the ability of DNA to perform 

computations and form a bio-molecular machine. 

DNA shows the ability to perform parallel 

computing and DNA machines could be used for 

solving hard computational problems, which 

could be solved in minimum amount of time. DNA 

machines can be logically made because the DNA 

has a double helical structure and can be 

connected on the desired sequence. Adleman first 

computed the Hamiltonian path problem with this 

bio-molecular machine and followed it by 

computing similar problems. He also put 

tremendous efforts in finding ways in efficiently 

implementing these algorithms on these biomolecular 

machines. The practical feasibility of 

these DNA computers looks tough as of now, 

however we cannot deny the computational 

ability shown by these DNA molecules and there is 

definitely a huge potential of research in this area. 

32 TechTalk@KPITCummins, Volume 5, Issue 1, 2012 

In 2002, researchers in Weizmann Institute of 

Science in Rehovot, Israel developed a molecular 

computer composed of enzymes and DNA 

molecules instead of silicon chips. In April 

2008,Yaakov Benenson and team announced in the 

journal NATURE that they developed a DNA 

computer coupled with input and output module 

which is capable of diagnosing cancerous activity 

within a cell. 

The proposed DNA model computer shows its 

advantage over the conventional silicon based 

computers due to the following reasons. 

l Perform millions of operations simultaneously 

(parallel programming ability), 

l Generate a complete solution set for the given 

problem statement, and 

l Efficient handling of large memory. 

However, these machines have disadvantage also 

such as: 

l It takes many hours or even days for these 

machines to complete the computation, and 

l Generating solution set for simple problems may 

require large amount of memory 

These days DNA computers are being developed to 

solve real life problems e.g. data encryption 

standards (DES). These algorithms have already 

been solved using the conventional computers in a 

shorter time; however, the DNA based machines 

are much flexible and cost effective. 

Storage and Memory 

Baum has proposed a method to make a large 

addressable memory using DNA. The structure of 

this proposed model is quite simple. DNA, 

Deoxyribonucleic Acid of which genes in human 

body is made up of, is where information is stored. 

DNA molecules are composed of nucleotides. The 

nucleotides are purines –adenine (A) and guanine 

(G) and thymine (T) and cytosine(C) are 

pyrimidines. According to Watson - Crick Model of 

D N A , e a c h o f t h e components h a d a 

complementary component- T is the complement 

of A and vice versa. Similarly, C is the complement 

of G and vice versa. Under appropriate conditions, 

a single strand of DNA can become double 

stranded

if each component finds its appropriate 

complement components in the vicinity using 

DNA polymerase. Storing a word could be done by 

assigning a specific DNA subsequence. Now, to 

retrieve this information closest to the input we 

would need to introduce a complimentary 

subsequence in the storage medium and choose 

the molecule that has the closest match to the 

input. This technique could further be used to 

improve the associate capabilities of the human 

brain. Baum also proposed that memory could be 

made such that a part of it is content addressable 

and the other can be addressed associative to the 

portion of entry. 

The First DNA Computation-hamiltonian Path 

Problem 

Adleman demonstrated DNA computing by 

solving a special case of Hamiltonian Path Problem 

called Travelling Sales Man Problem. The problem 

is as follows: 

Consider a map of cities connected by certain 

flights. The goal is to determine whether a path 

exists that will commence from the start city and 

end at the final city, passing through all the other 

cities exactly once. 

Fig 2: Reduced Hamiltonian problem [5] 

Building a DNA computer requires some essential 

tools. The following tools are required: 

1. Watson-Crick Pairing 

In molecular biology, the linking between the two 

nitrogenous bases on opposite DNA strands, which 

are connected by hydrogen bonds, is called base 

pair. Every strand of DNA has its Watson-Crick 

complement. In Watson-Crick pairing Adenine (A) 

forms a pair with Thymine (T) and Guanine (G) 

forms a pair with Cytosine(C).In a solution if a 

molecule of DNA meets its Watson-Crick 

complementary then the two strands anneal to 

form a double helix. 

Fig 1: Hamiltonian problem [5] 

The directed edges represent non-stop flights 

between cities in the map. For illustration, in DNA 

computing the problem is being reduced to four 

cities-Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, and Detroit. In 

DNA computation, each city is assigned a DNA 

sequence. For example, Atlanta is assigned the 

sequence ACTTGCAG that can be thought of as 

first name-ACTT and last name-GCAG. DNA flight 

numbers are then defined by concatenating the 

last name city of origin and the first name of 

destination city. 

Fig 3: Watson-Crick annealing [5] 

2. Polymerases and ligases 

DNA polymerase is an enzyme that catalyzes the 

polymerization of the DNA deoxyribonucleotides 

into a DNA strand. 


33

Fig 4: 3D structure of the DNA binding in human polymerase [6] 

Ligases bind molecules together. They are used to 

bind two strands of DNA in proximity into one 

single strand. 

3. Gel electrophoresis 

Electrophoresis is the movement of charged 

molecules in an electric field. In gel 

electrophoresis, a solution of heterogeneous DNA 

molecules is placed at one end of slab of gel and 

current is passed. The DNA molecules are 

negatively charged and hence when they are 

placed in an electric field they tend to migrate 

towards positive charge. This process separates 

the DNA molecules by length. 

4. DNA Synthesis 

Now it is possible to synthesize new DNA 

molecules for required DNA sequence.The DNA 

molecules are delivered dry in a small tube and 

appear as a small, white and amorphous lump. 

For his experiment, L. Adleman had chosen a 

problem with seven cities shown in Fig 1. For 

simplifying the discussion, it was reduced to four 

cities connected by six flights shown in Fig 2. He 

assigned a random DNA sequence to each city. 

Then he assigned DNA flight number by 

concatenating the last name of the start city and 

the first name of the destination city. Adleman 

took a pinch of each of different sequences in a test 

tube and then he added water, salt, ligase and 

some other ingredients to approximate the 

conditions inside a cell. Any of the flight number 

would meet the complementary of any of the four 

cities, for example, Atlanta-Boston flight number 

(GCAGTCGG) would meet the complementary of 

the city Boston (AGCCTGAC). Here the former ends 

with TCGG and the latter starts with AGCC. Since 

these were complementary, they stuck together. 

The resulting complex would have met Boston- 

Chicago flight number and formed longer complex 

in a similar manner. The solution for the map shown 

i n t h e F i g 2 h a d o n l y o n e s o l u t i o n 

GCAGTCGGACTGGGCTATGTCCGA. 

Research and Applications 

DNA computer finds its main applications in 

applied sciences. One such field is combinatorial 

chemistry. Combinatorial chemistry involves 

construction of enzymes, other molecules and 

generating sequences of RNA (Ribonucleic acid), 

particularly used in bio-molecular engineering and 

medicines. Adleman stated that combinatorial 

chemistry is similar to DNA computation as it 

involves generating sequence of RNA and 

searching for molecules with desired properties. 

Another area where these bio-molecular machines 

find application is nanotechnology and majorly in 

nano-fabrication where both the computational 

ability of DNA is used along with the manufacturing 

ability of RNA. 

We can look at DNA models to play potential role in 

the field of computers. With the natural storing ability 

along with the computational ability, they definitely 

stand a chance to prove a point in this field. A group in 

California has done significant research in the field of 

DNA computing and has made up a structure of 74 

DNA molecules to perform square root computation. 

This is one of the 


iggest bio-chemical circuits made. According to 

Eric Winfree, this could be a huge step forward 

and could lead to tiny biosensors. Winfree used 

strands of DNA to make a “see-saw” type gates 

w h i c h p ro d u c e d o n - o ff s i g n a l s w h i l e 

communicating with other DNA molecules. These 

gates are analogous to the electronic gates. 

Forming this molecular calculator took a lot of 

time and effort to realize. The computation by 

each molecule took a lot of time i.e. around 30 to 

60 min and the entire operation of finding the 

square root took almost 10 hrs. However, the goal 

of Winfree was not the amount of time taken, but 

he was concentration on building the correct 

structure so that in the future other such circuits 

could follow. In a research going on in Nanyang 

technical university, Prof. Shu and his team 

manipulated strands of DNA in a test tube and 

found out that they could fuse them together and 

mould them in such a manner that DNA could be 

used to store information. They also stated that 

these computing molecules could perform better 

than silicon based computing machines for some 

special classes of problems. DNA computing can 

be used to perform operations on fuzzy data and 

not just on digital data. 

situations. Therefore, application specific DNA 

machines may be first developed and then later on 

generic machines may come into existence. 

Looking at the inherent properties of DNA 

machines like flexibility, parallel programming etc., 

we may be able to develop true fuzzy logic systems. 

The possibilities are endless. It is only we who can 

explore and develop them. 

References 

[1] Discoverynews.com – DNA computers get 

scaled up, Future computers may be DNA based. 

http://news.discovery.com/tech/dna-transistorcomputer-technology-110602.html 

- ;ast accessed 

on 5 Dec 11 

[2] Wikipedia - DNA machines 

[3] “On the application of DNA based 

computation” – Joel C. Adam - University of 

Western Ontario 

[4] Wikipedia 

–DNAhttp://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/Compu 

ting_with_DNA.pdf - Last accessed on 5 Dec 11 

[5] Wikipedia – DNA polymerase 

Conclusion and Future Scope 

The concept of DNA computing and DNA 

machines is distinct in the field of science. We 

have already seen the computing ability of biomolecular 

machines and with the developments 

in this field we may be able to see these machines 

in potential applications replacing the 

conventional computers. There is a lot of research 

going on in the field of DNA computing and with 

further developments; we may also see hybrid 

structures involving conventional and DNA 

machines. There are many difficulties in 

translating DNA computing model into real life 

Albert Einstein (1879-1955) [German 

physicist] Albert Einstein, who 

fancied himself as a violinist, was 

rehearsing a Haydn string quartet. 

When he failed for the fourth time to 

get his entry in the second 

movement, the cellist looked up and 

said, "The problem with you, Albert, 


35


Social Impact of 

Leading Edge Technology - NETRA 


Dr. Ramesh Raskar 

Associate Professor 

MIT Media Lab 

Leader, Camera Culture Group 

Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A. 


37

Computational Light Transport: Ramesh Raskar, 

Camera Culture, MIT 

Can we photograph objects that are not in the 

direct line of sight Can we build portable 

machines that can see inside our body Can we 

provide diagnostic care in remote parts of the 

world by converting mobile phones into scientific 

instruments Our research goal is to create an 

entirely new class of imaging platforms that have 

an understanding of the world that far exceeds 

human ability, to produce meaningful 

abstractions that are well within human 

comprehensibility. To achieve this super-human 

vision, our contributions are in new theories and 

instrumentations for solving challenging inverse 

problems in computational light transport. To 

tackle these inverse problems, we create a 

carefully orchestrated movement of photons, 

measure the resulting optical response and then 

computationally invert the process to learn about 

the scene, so that the new imaging platforms can 

achieve seemingly impossible goals. 

1.1 Computational Photography 

Computational photography is an emerging and 

multi-disciplinary field that is at the intersection of 

optics, signal processing, computer graphics and 

vision, electronic hardware, visual arts, and online 

sharing in social networks. At MERL and in the last 

few years, we created new trends as well as original 

rigorous theories by inventing unusual optics, 

programmable illumination, modern sensors and 

image analysis algorithms (Figure 2). With our 

collaborators, we made a generalizing and 

unanticipated observation that, by blocking light 

over time, space, angle, wavelength or sensors, we 

can reversibly encode scene information in a photo 

for efficient post-capture recovery. We published 

an important paper, flutter shutter camera 

(Siggraph 2006), that used a binary sequence to 

code exposure to deal with motion blur. This paper 

(along with Fergus et al [2006]) opened a new trend 

at Siggraph in papers that deal with information 

loss due to blur, optical techniques and deblurring. 

Our further work generalized this concept for 

powerful algorithmic decomposition of a photo 

into light fields (Siggraph 2007), deblurred images, 

global/direct illumination components (Siggraph 

2006), or geometric versus material discontinuities 

(Siggraph 2004). Along the way, we also created a 

new range of intelligent self-ID technologies: RFIG 

(Siggraph 2004), Prakash (Siggraph 2007) and 

Bokode (Siggraph 2009). 

Figure 1: Our work explores creative new ways 

to play with light by co-designing optical 

and digital processing. 

1. Towards Computational Light Transport 

We have been fascinated with the idea of superhuman 

abilities to visually interact with the world 

via cameras that can see the unseen and displays 

that can alter the sense of reality. 

At MIT, we have invented two novel forms of 

imaging that show immense potential for research 

and practical applications: (a) time resolved 

transient imaging that exploits multi-path analysis 

and (b) angle resolved imaging for displays, 

medical devices and phase analysis. 

1.2 Computational Light Transport 

At MIT, we have undertaken ambitious efforts in 

creating super-human visual abilities – often 

combining previously disparate fields to do things 

that people thought were unattainable. New 

directions include a camera that can look around 

corners, portable machines that can see inside the 

body and low cost sensors that can transform 

healthcare around the world. We describe these in 

the next section. 


1.2.1 Time-Resolved Transient 

Imaging: “Looking Around a 

Corner” 

Transient imaging allows the seemingly 

impossible task of photographing objects beyond 

the line of sight. Due to multi-path reflections, 

light from occluded objects can indirectly reach 

the camera. How can we record and analyze these 

indirect reflections Pioneering work in computer 

vision has analyzed inter-reflections. But transient 

imaging exploits the fine-scale time-dimension 

(Figure 3) by using ultra-fast illumination and 

ultra-fast sensing to record a 5-D light transport. 

We analyze the light scattered after multiple 

bounces using strong scene priors and model the 

dynamics of transient properties of light transport 

as a linear time state space system. We developed 

a system identification algorithm for inferring the 

scene structure as well as the reflectance. 

However, scenes with sufficient complexity in 

geometry (volumetric scattering, large distances) 

or reflectance (dark surfaces, mirrors) can pose 

problems. Transient imaging has tremendous 

future potential in many areas: avoiding car 

collisions at blind spots, robot path planning with 

extended observable structure, detecting 

survivors for fire and rescue personnel and 

performing endoscopy and scatter-free 

reconstruction in medical imaging. 

Figure 3: Can we see around a corner (Left) 

Transient imaging camera exploits multi-path analysis. (Right) 

Ultra-fast illumination (femtosecond lasers) and ultra-fast 

sensing (picosecond-accurate streak cameras) 

capture 5D light transport. For illustration, the occluder is shown 

as a transparent overlay. We analyze a sequence of the 

raw streak camera photos to reconstruct hidden shape and BRDF. 

3. Future of What Humans can See 

and Envision: Our approach to 

research 

We are interested in the future of what people are 

capable of seeing: with modern imaging 

technology and with sophisticated visualization. 

Why should the physical constraints of human 

vision limit what the human mind can think, 

conceive and envision To create super-human 

visual abilities and make the invisible visible, we 

must explore varied directions, bring disparate 

ideas together and see what bears out. With a deep 

theoretical understanding and mental modeling, 

our work often starts with a goal that – to others – 

appears impossible, then becomes merely 

improbable and then finally, inevitable. We feel this 

distinctive approach fuels our research: 'to create 

advanced technology that is indistinguishable from 

magic’ [Arthur C. Clarke]. Our approach achieves 

fusion of the dissimilar: computational techniques 

that have rarely been combined with physical 

devices. Our work aims to make the invisible 

visible. The empirical nature of this research is 

important. Rather than focusing on one narrow 

field, we deliberately cast feelers in many 

directions as it is usually unclear which direction 

will bear fruit. Frequently, our inventions are a 

result of dabbling in new things that are slightly 

beyond our expertise. Among seemingly scattered 

efforts, we are actually focused on our deep-seated 

passion of creating tools for super-human vision. 

New Directions and Goals 

We are highly motivated to pursue a research 

agenda that will spawn new research themes, 

entirely new application domains and new 

commercial opportunities. For this, we must create 

entirely new fields with new questions (e.g., 

transient imaging), redesign and make current 

approaches obsolete with new insight (e.g., CATscans) 

and find new purpose for disruptive massuse 

technologies to create broad social impact 

(e.g., NETRA). We plan to be at the forefront of the 

future of what humans are capable of seeing to 

improve health, productivity, entertainment and 

education. 

The basic design of a rotating CAT scan machine has 

not changed for decades. How can we build one 

that fits in a portable, always-on head or chest 

band Motion-free CAT scan (based on spatial 

heterodyning) is a very challenging endeavor that 

will require methodical joint exploration of 

computational and physical designs. Scattering is a 

big problem for wavelengths less harmful than X- 

rays. Our initial work in inverse scattering (CVPR'10, 

ECCV'10) shows promise. We plan to model 

forward and backward diffractive scatter with an 

augmented light field (ALF) to support inversion in 

volumes. 


39

We are creating unusual scientific and medical 

instruments out of mass-use devices that are now 

crammed with microscopic resolution cameras, 

displays and other sensors. These widespread 

devices will provide a wonderful platform for 

broad social impact in remote parts of the world. 

But providing any new functionality requires 

serious research in underlying optics, 

mathematics, hardware and processing. Eye 

health is a mirror of general health and ocular 

manifestation of a systemic disease is very 

common. Preventable visual impairment is a 

major cause of poverty worldwide. So, Project 

NETRA has inspired us to rethink the design of 

devices that diagnose the health of human eyes. 

Our newer prototypes show that we can analyze 

cataract, cone-color and retinal diseases. We will 

strive to research new purposes for low-cost 

devices for health and education, and with our 

NGO partners, work towards worldwide 

deployment. 

Outreach 

We have deliberately chosen research projects 

that are not just academic curiosities but also have 

the potential for large scale impact in the real 

world. We are motivated to do that in part 

because we are a world citizen. I come from India 

and understand the tremendous role absence or 

presence of technology can play. Two recent 

projects in this space are NETRA and VisionOnTap. 

Advanced imaging can revolutionize health, 

especially in poor areas where existing solutions 

are far too expensive or impractical. It dawned on 

us that the current pixel pitch of mobile phone 

displays (26 micrometers) is approaching the 

limits of scientific instruments. NETRA, the 

mobile-phone based eye refraction test device is 

already being spun out in a non-profit effort in 

several developing countries via our NGO 

collaborators. NETRA is being considered as a tool 

on international space station by NASA. In India, L 

V Prasad Eye Institute has already run IRB 

approved trials on patients with good validation of 

NETRA accuracy. Eyeglasses cost as little as $3 to 

manufacture, but there are no easy diagnostic 

tests. As a result, half a billion people worldwide 

have uncorrected refractive error, leading to 

illiteracy (and poverty). Education is the key to 

living a decent and humane life. The fact that 

modern solutions may provide corrective vision 

and provide students a fighting chance for better 

education is a new dimension and is incredibly 

rewarding for us. 

The project VisionOnTap is a real time computer 

vision service, for the masses and produced by the 

masses. Inspired by the Scratch platform at Media 

Lab, we have created a new form of a visual social 

computing ecosystem to empower amateurs and 

the underprivileged to perform programmable and 

automated tasks on video streams. 

5. Conclusion 

The devices, algorithms and visualizations for creating 

super-human vision will exhibit strikingly different 

forms and abilities in the future. The challenge is in 

converting elegant optical and mathematical insights 

into revolutionary cameras, displays, medical tools 

and future devices. The research and development in 

coming years requires a rigorous exploration of new 

algorithms, development of hardware prototypes and 

applications with broad research, commercial, 

educational and social impact. 

George Danzig, while studying in 

college, was bored by his math 

classes. He walked up to the 

professor and said, "My classes are 

too easy!" The professor looked at 

him, and said, "Well, I'm sure you'll 

find this interesting." Then the 

professor copied 9 problems from a 

book to a paper and gave the paper 

to Danzig. A month later, the 

professor ran into Danzig, "So how 

are you doing with the problems I 

gave you" "Oh, they are very hard. I 

only managed to solve 6 of them." 

The professor was visibly shocked, 

"What! But those are unsolved 

problems!” 


Profile of an Innovator: STEVE JOBS 

On October 5, 2011, the world grieved the demise of Steve Jobs, 

the co-founder of Apple Computers. He was a true innovator and 

an inspirational icon. He has revolutionized the computer 

industry and has changed the way we work on the internet and 

listen to music. 

Steve Jobs or the word 'Apple' reminds us of the first personal 

computer. With his vision, he changed the hardware industry by 

reducing the size of the computers and making them available to 

the masses. He understood the customer better than any other 

contemporary competitor did. It would not be an exaggeration to 

say that even the customers themselves did not know what they 

needed. Products designed and developed by him, became the 

need for customers. His success and people's adoration for his 

products can be attributed to his delivering more than the 

promise, being a perfectionist, and his being a marketing genius. 

With such attributes, it left no room for competitors. 

Jobs was born in San Francisco in 1955 and moved to the Santa 

Clara Valley at the age of five. Talking about his childhood days 

Jobs once said with a hint of pride, "You should have seen us in 

third grade. We basically destroyed the teacher." 

One 

interesting story that goes about Jobs is that he had once called 

the co-founder of Hewlett-Packard (HP) to discuss about a part 

missing from an electronic component he was assembling. This 

th 

incident happened when Jobs was in his 8 grade. The discussion 

eventually won him a summer internship at HP. Steve Jobs very 

much appreciated another electronic genius Steve Wozniak. The 

duo raised a $6000 capital by building a blue-box that could allow 

users to make free calls to any part of the world using their 

phones. 

In 1972, he attended Reed College in Portland, Oregon, for a 

year but dropped out. While studying in college he 

attended the calligraphy classes, which later influenced 

the typography of Macs. In 1974, he returned to California 

and worked at Atari. In 1976, Wozniak and Jobs started 

Apple with a vision to make computers approachable. The 

name 'Apple' depicts Jobs' favorite fruit and the 

incorporation of 'byte'. Jobs left Apple in 1985 and 

rejoined in 2000 as permanent CEO. In the meanwhile, 

Steve Jobs co-founded Pixar, the Academy-Awardwinning 

computer animation studios. Pixar's first feature 

film 'Toy Story' released in 1995 is one of the most 

successful animated films of all time. 

Since Apple's focal point was personalized customer 

delight, every product was named with the added 'i' to 

signify inspiration, individuality and internet connectivity. 

The mouse based user interface in Mac was essentially a 

resurrection of Xerox's concept that later became an 

universal standard for UI. Today every operating systems 

manufacturer has practically copied the Macintosh 

interface. 

Though his most celebrated work remains as iPad, iMac and 

iPhone, he is also the inventor of Apple series. In July 1976, 

Apple sold its first PC for $700 that had no casing, power 

supply, keyboard or monitor. In 1977, Apple introduced 

Apple II, the first mass-marketed personal computer with 

color graphics. 

Steve Jobs was a strong believer in intersection of multiple 

disciplines. He talks about the intersection of humanities 

and science in his biography. He says, “There's something 

magical about that place (intersection).” He further adds, “In 

fact some of the best people working on the original Mac 

were poets and musicians on the side. In the seventies, 

computers became a way for people to express their 

creativity. Great artists like Leonardo Da Vinci and 

Michelangelo were also great at science.” 

Be it innovation or customer service he was in true terms a 

master of all; the iPhones and Apple Stores says it all. According 

to Jobs, “People don't want to just buy personal computers 

anymore. They want to know what they can do with them, and 

we're going to show people exactly that.” No wonder this 

philosophy has made Apple stores one of the best retailers. Steve 

Jobs believed to figure out the needs of the customer before they 

do .According to him, “Innovator's task is to read things that are 

not yet on the page.” He never relied on market research. 

A long list of inventions and patents adds up to his credentials. 

Steve Jobs has 43 US patents issued to his credit and another 342 

odd US patent applications filed related to computer and 

peripherals technology. His groundbreaking work in technology 

has won him the National Technology Medal by President 

Reagan and the Jefferson Award for Public Service in 1987. 

Ruchi Tewari 

Intern 

CREST, 


Pune, India 


Image Processing and Databases 


41


Cross Domain Ideas 

for Sustainable Living 




43

Introduction 

We all feel the need to have better cities and 

better planning to make our lives easy to work and 

socialize. Each one of us would have different 

opinions about how to make our cities better. This 

is primarily because we have different 

understanding of the social, political, and 

economical problems. Every city is unique and 

facing unique challenges based on its historic, 

political, social and cultural background. The 

economic growth of every city is driven by how 

sustainable and innovative it's planning is. 

Sustainability means consume less and produce 

more, Innovative and sustainable urban planning 

expedites the technological innovations and 

increases the chances of further development. 

Urban planning is in itself a vast area of study and 

includes other studies like geography, statistics, 

economics, sociology, and politics to name a few. 

In this article we will not learn about urban 

planning but we will see case studies that are 

considered innovative since they address the 

challenges in urban design and planning to make 

cities sustainable and better places to live in. 

These examples address different scales of 

geographies, different resources and capitals of 

economic wealth and of coursedifferent people 

and places in those cities. 

Background – The challenges faced in the field of 

st 

urban planning in the 21 century are different. 

After the recent recession wave in 2007-8 cities 

are being planned so that they are not dependent 

on the economic bubbles. Urban planning is 

revised to make sure that planned cities consume 

less and produce more. Today's urban planning is 

focused on people and the place. One such people 

and place centric concept is of clusters. Clusters 

are “geographic concentrations of interconnected 

firms and supporting and coordinating 

organizations”[7]. Clusters are one such attempt 

to get around the bubble economy of financial 

engineering, real estate spikes and consumption. 

Clusters are being developed to encourage new 

partnerships and improve their efficiency. Every 

region or city has specific needs and circumstances. 

Urban planning should address these for economic 

success. Studies have shown that clusters have a 

positive effect on new firms. This implies that a 

cluster of similar industries or competitors had 

better survivals, higher job creation rates, high tax 

payments and highly salary payments thus 

accelerating the economic growth of not only the 

new firms but also the cities in which such clusters 

are created [1]. Similarly, other studies [2] show 

unique differences in local productive economies, 

the different dynamics, and driving forces for the 

exchanges and interactions that lead to new jobs. 

Thus, the cluster paradigm embarks upon the facts 

that each neighborhood, city, region or place has 

unique circumstances and unique actors that drive 

economic growth. Sustainable growth of cities 

creates new markets for sustainable products and 

creating new job opportunities and on the other 

side educates consumers of green practices. This 

means that today's urban planning should create 

opportunities such that both economy and climate 

protection are simultaneously addressed. The 

following two case studies help us to understand 

how this can be made possible. 

Case Study 

22@ Barcelona District Cluster, Spain – The 

22@District was founded to improve and increase 

the local and international interactions in 

Barcelona, Spain. It was observed that before the 

22@district project the international community in 

Barcelona was not engaged with the city or the 

locals. Thus the district had unique challenges to 

address. The challenge was to change Barcelona 

from merely being a stopping point on their path 

for business persons and international firms. 

The unique project has transformed the downbroken 

cotton district of Sant Martí into a booming 

knowledge center. In 2010, this innovative district 


had 114,000 square meters of new and green 

space, 7,000 companies, businesses, and shops 

[3]. The district has experienced a 23% increase in 

residents and now has 90,000 employees working 

there [3]. 

The design is such that it brings together the local 

and international communities thus increasing 

the knowledge sharing process among the two 

communities. It has been found that international 

and local interfaces in the same city are not 

sufficient for economic growth. Hence it is 

required to capture the overflow of the 

knowledge shared and generated. Leon [4] shows 

that for cities to benefit from the highly educated 

people in the city, it must engage in both local and 

new international communities. 

The 22@District has five clusters: Information and 

Computer Technology (ICT), Media, Bio-Medical, 

Energy, and Design and has created new jobs, 

housing and live-work spaces. The five clusters are 

strategically placed near each other right in the 

center of the city. This ensures good interactions 

among them. The district is also designed to be 

attractive to live in with new public facilities, green 

spaces and social housing. The project included 

4600 dwellings in the area and 4000 new statesubsidized 

housing units [3]. 

The district connects various hi-tech companies, 

universities, research centers and training centers 

to improve interactions and collaborations among 

them [3]. It has unique programs like 22@Staying 

in company program to employ students from 

u n i vers i t i e s f ro m t h e d i st r i c t at t h e 

22@companies, thus retaining talent and 

knowledge. The cluster model ensures that 

different companies work together thus fostering 

sustainability in their business and the district. 

This helps to increase economic growth of the city. 

Since the 22@District's creation 1000 new 

companies were incubated, about 31,000 new 

employments created [5]. This is a perfect 

example of how innovative ideas implemented in 

the field of urban planning have made an impact in 

the fields of economics and politics. 

The 22@District improves social interactions 

through the professional spaces with companies 

that have innovation and knowledge as driving 

forces of their business. This social network has 

approximately 66 members. They host a monthly 

22@Update Breakfast to give a chance for 

professionals to exchange ideas and their 

innovative experiences [3] in the form of a formal 

networking session. Another event called the 

22@Urban Cluster Day symposium also brings 

together different company executives that work 

for the cluster. 

To create and foster a sense of community, the 

22@Volunteer program allows members of the 

22@Network to help each other through volunteer 

work. These are informal interactions for example 

to teach Spanish to newcomers. This ensures larger 

interconnected communities. Other informal 

interactions at the 22@District include Virtual 

Memory in Elderly, Net Multimedia classrooms, 

Computer recycling, Education Project, 

22@CreaTalent and Family Network. These 

programs have been designed to reuse the 

available resources within the district and to 

maximize the productivity and sustainability. Most 

all of these programs in some way reuse the 

resources available within the district to maximize 

productivity. 

Sustainability or climate concerns are addressed by 

centralized heating, centralized air-conditioning, 

electricity distribution, waste disposal, 

telecommunications infrastructure, and smart 

traffic management systems [4]. Interconnect 

among areas is strengthened by the proximity of 

public places and transportation to connect the 

district with the city. The centralized heating and 

cooling system use alternative energy sources, gas 

or electricity that is supplied to other parts of the 


45

city using hot and cold water conduits. This system 

is 40% more energy efficient than traditional 

systems and saves 10% cost. 

Case Study 

Innovation Center in Curibita, Brazil–The Center of 

Innovation, Education, Technology and 

Entrepreneurship (CIETEP) was formed to control 

human, social and environmental capital so as to 

address the issues of climate change, economical 

instability, gap between the rich class and the poor 

etc. The innovation center in Curibita is set to 

change the mentality of “take-make-waste” 

towards sustainability with a perspective of 

people, planet and profit (3-P paradigm). 

The CIETEP business model is based on five 

axioms. All these axioms are focused on 

sustainability through social interactions. The 

axioms are as follows [6] – 

1. Changes emerge from the social domain to gain 

the technological domain, not the contrary. 

2. Technology means more than hard techniques, 

it also mean soft social engineering. 

3. Sustainable innovations are those which can 

effectively integrate themselves in the current 

social transition. 

4. New sustainable soft social technologies 

emerge from new networked knowledge creation 

among society. 

5. To grow is not an imperative anymore. 

The first axiom highlights that social changes lead 

to and enable new technologies. The second 

axiom stresses on the fact that technology is not 

only in the form of gadgets but it is the social 

arrangements of stakeholders. The importance 

fostering a new complex social equilibrium that is 

different from the hierarchical linear network is 

put forth by the third axiom. The fourth axiom 

reiterates that knowledge cannot be generated in 

isolation and extended social networks are a must 

for new technologies to emerge. The last axiom is 

somewhat contradictory to the classical vision that 

business owners have. It says that business can 

now live without efforts for growing it. 

The concept of sustainable knowledge stems from 

these axioms. It proposed shared visions rather 

than self sufficient competitiveness and profits 

based on the 3-P paradigm. CIETEP believes that 

knowledge and innovation are spread through 

collaborations and networking of people. The 

portal of Sustainable Knowledge and Innovation 

facilitates such networking to encourage 

innovation. The portal includes different actors like 

government, public organizations, private 

companies, u n ivers ities, researc h a n d 

development centers and non-government 

organizations. It is a forum where people can freely 

debate and access e-library. The portal is an 

attempt to spread best practices and innovative 

ideas. 

Through a program called Technopark, CIETEP also 

leverages national and state laws to incentivize 

innovation, research and technological 

enterprises. The program is funded but also 

generates revenue through educational services 

and product sales. From the year 2006 to 

2010,US$17 million were invested in this the 

CIETEP. From the above two facts it can be deduced 

that funding and regulations were not the primary 

issues faced but there were cultural challenges 

faced by the CIETEP. The cultural challenge was that 

people still believe that innovations are expensive 

and only MNCs can afford such huge investments to 

create R&D labs. To change this mentality 

incentives are provided to companies of any scale. 

So any idea that is converted to sustainable 

business value is incentivized by getting access to 

partners and innovation networks. These help 

innovators to start quickly and convert their ideas 

to reality. 


CIETEP has identified that education plays an 

important role in innovation and business 

development. Hence, specialized institutes like 

Industrial Design Center, Mathematical Industrial 

Institute and Creativity and Innovative 

Environment Laboratory and University of 

Industries were formed. A diverse range of 

specialized degrees are provided. It ensures that 

the interaction between the academic and private 

sectors which helps in knowledge transfer, 

collaboration and innovation. 

Thus, the CIETEP brings together all kinds of 

businesses, in all kinds of contexts that live 

together on the edge of new clients, new needs, 

new technologies, new crises and new risks [6]. 

Conclusion 

From the presented examples we can see that 

modern day urban planning involves sustainability 

and innovation. Modern urban designs are 

influenced by social sustainability and help find 

the “work-life” balance by not only attracting 

innovators but by creating innovators in the very 

city they live in. These designs also help to 

accelerate economic growth of the city with an 

export-oriented drive. The 21st century 

challenges demand not only technical innovations 

but also innovations in business models and social 

relationships. 

References 

[1] Karl Wennberg and GöranLindqvist, “How do 

entrepreneurs in clusters contribute to economic 

growth”, SSE/EFI Working Paper Series in 

Business Administration No 2008:3, 2008 

[2] Mark Muro and Bruce Katz, “The new Cluster 

Moment: How Regional Innovation Clusters Can 

Foster the Next Economy”, Metropolitan Policy 

Programs, Brookings, 2010. 

[3] http://www.22barcelona.com/index.phplang=en 

, Last accessed on 22 nov 2011. 

[4] Leon, Nick. “Attract and connect: The 

Barcelona innovation district and the 

internationalization of Barcelona business.” 

Innovation: management, policy, and practice 

(2008) 10: 235 – 246, 2008 

[5] Sabata, MartíParellada and 

ElisabetViladecansMarsal. “Study of Economic 

Activity in the 22@ Barcelona District.” January 

23, 2008. 

, Last Accessed 22 Nov 2011. 

[6] Dauscha, Ronald, Ramiro Wahrhaftig, and Filipe 

Cassapo. “The CIETEP- Paraná's Center of 

Innovation, Education, Technology and 

Entrepreneurship- Development and 

Implementation.” August 17, 2009. 

http://www.rededeinovacao.com.br/LeiturasRec 

omendadas/Forms/DispForm.aspxID=15 – last 

th 

accessed 29 Nov 2011. 

[7] Kevin Hollenbeck andNancy Hewat, 

“Evaluation of Regional Collaborationfor 

Economic Development”, Report, W.E. UpJohn 

Institute for Employment Research, 2010 

On one occasion, Erdös met a mathematician 

and asked him where he was from. 

"Vancouver," the mathematician replied. 

"Oh, then you must know my good friend 

Elliot Mendelson," Erdös said. 

The reply was "I AM your good friend Elliot 

Mendelson.” 


47


Bringing the Moon Down 


Neha Savur 

Varun B 


49


"That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for 

Mankind" 

-Neil Armstrong, July 20, 1969 

Directly or indirectly, space technology has been 

beneficial to all of us since its inception. One can 

certainly say that our lives would not have been 

the same if it were not for the advancements we 

have made in space exploration. Organizations 

like ISRO, NASA, etc, carry out extensive research 

to come out with innovative technology to assist 

their space programs. These innovations have 

found several secondary applications, commonly 

termed as Spin-offs. This article highlights a few 

interesting spin-offs that have resulted from space 

technology. 

Pixel Sensor (CMOS-APS) in which an active 

amplifier accompanies each pixel, find their 

application in most of the imaging solutions, with 

over 1 million sensors shipped daily. Our cell phone 

cameras, webcams, and many other embedded 

imaging applications are based on this technology. 

CMOS-APS are also used in the endoscopes for 

minimally invasive medical procedures due to their 

miniature size. 

II. CMOS Image Sensors 

Although the first digital camera was built by the 

Eastman Kodak in 1975, the concept of digital 

camera was first proposed by Eugene Lally, of Jet 

[1] 

Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in 1960s . Images and 

Space missions have a very strong connection. 

Images of Eagle Nebula, the rocky Martian 

landscape or even the panoramic view of the 

Earth from outer space have always made an 

impact on our imagination and scientific thought 

in addition to expanding our view of the Solar 

System. 

With a view to miniaturize cameras for 

spacecrafts, NASA came up with Complementary 

Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) image 

sensors having an array of photo detectors that 

make up the individual pixels. Each pixel is 

responsible for converting the incident photons 

into electrical signals. A processor then creates 

the complete picture using the combination of all 

pixels. Compared to the Charge Coupled Device 

(CCD), which were customary to digital cameras, 

CMOS image sensors have lower manufacturing 

costs, reduce power consumption by a factor of 

100 and can be fabricated on a single chip. But one 

of the drawbacks of CMOS image sensors is that 

they are more susceptible to noise. 

Figure 2: CMOS Image sensor Source: Wikipedia [9] 

III. Wireless Fluid-Level 

Measurement System 

Measuring some of the vital parameters of an 

aircraft such as the amount of fuel becomes a 

challenging task owing to the risk involved in 

handling combustible materials. Most fuel 

measuring systems are intended to measure only 

certain liquids, and are vulnerable to electrical 

arcing and sensor corrosion. Also, Bulky wiring for 

powering and connecting parts of the circuit 

hinders portability. 

NASA's Langley Research Center was developing a 

measurement system to monitor the health of 

aging aircrafts. This technology later turned into a 

spinoff when Dr. Stanley E. Woodard and Bryant D. 

Taylor developed a novel wireless fluid-level 

measurement system to overcome most of the 

above stated drawbacks. 

Figure 1: Eagle Nebula and Martian Landscape 

Source: NASA Spinoff 2010 [1] 

50 TechTalk@KPITCummins, Volume 5, Issue 1, 2012 

Figure 3:Wireless Fluid-Level Measurement System. 

Source: NASA [4]

The working principle of the sensor is that, two 

parallel-energized conducting materials in a liquid 

respond with a harmonic magnetic field through 

an inductor. The handheld magnetic field 

response recorder first transmits a signal that 

energizes the sensor and then changes to 

receiving mode to record magnetic responses of 

the sensor. Since the frequency of the received 

signal varies with the liquid level, the system can 

be calibrated to measure amount of fluid in the 

tank. The system is not fluid specific and is 

powered wirelessly eliminating electric arcing and 

bulky wiring. The highly accurate sensors are 

completely encapsulated and are insensitive to 

the liquid movement inside the tank. 

Tidewater Sensors LLC, have licensed the novel 

fluid-level measurement system from NASA for 

marine applications. The TS1500, a Tidewater 

product, not only gives accurate fuel levels but 

also detects water in the fuel tank and alerts the 

operator. 

numerous space missions. It is used aboard the 

Genesis spacecraft and others as well as for 

building a drill that will search the Maritain terrain 

[10] 

for water . 

Figure 5: Liquidmetal in everyday life. 

Source: NASA Spinoff 2001 [10], [11] 

The technology combines metal-like properties 

and the non-crystalline composition of glass, 

producing a mixture unheard of in nature. This gave 

the alloy elasticity of a polymer, high resistance to 

deformation and virtually no weak spots. 

Liquidmetal demonstrated such mammoth 

strength that an inch-wide bar could lift 300,000lbs 

[11] 

, which is nearly twice the weight that a similar 

sized titanium bar could carry. 

Liquidmetal now finds its way into a huge array of 

sporting equipment like tennis racquets, golf clubs, 

baseballs bats, bicycle frames etc. and consumer 

goods, from cell phone cases to USB sticks. If not 

already, this alloy will find many opportunities in 

medical instrumentation, aerospace, defense, 

automotive industries. 

IV. Liquid Metal 

Figure 4: Tidewater's Fluid levelSensor 

Source: Tidewater Sensors 

® 

Liquidmetal alloy is a result of California Institute 

of Technology (CalTech) and NASA'sJet Propulsion 

Laboratory's search for new materials that have 

industrial strength, were fictile(moldable) and did 

not need any cooling. Like plastic, this alloy has 

revolutionized the way we perceive vitrified 

metals. 

® 

Liquidmetal alloy or Vitreloy is a new kind of 

vitrified metals and was designed for NASA's 

V. Artificial Denture 

Material 'ACRAMID' 

Would you believe that rocket science is what helps 

the less dentally endowed among us 'Polyaramid 

reinforced plastic', a composite material that 

I n d i a n 

Space Research Organization (ISRO) uses to build 

its launch vehicle applications like rocket motors 

has literally managed to put a smile back on faces. 

Liquidmetal® is a registered trademark of 

Liquidmetal® Technologies and Liquidmetal® Golf. 

Vitreloy® is a registered trademark of Liquidmetal® 

Technologies. 


51

ACRAMID is a composite made of Polyaramid fibers 

and Poly Methyl Methacrylate Resin and is used as 

a prosthetic fixture when the patient loses his 

natural teeth. Pre-ACRAMID denture fixtures were 

largely gold, silver and ceramics that cost patients 

nearly Rs. 3000. The ACRAMID prosthesis not only 

cost 5% that of gold but also look deceptively real, 

are light weight, easy to produce and repair, 

needing minimum lab equipment. The fiber 

reinforcement structure is such that it avoids 

hairline cracks that help to withstand the daily wear 

and tear. Clinical trials have also proved the 

longevity and safety of ACRAMID dentures. 

VI. Conclusion 

[4] NASA Langley's Fluid Measurement Sensor 

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/langley/business/tgdetail-wirelessfluidsensor.html: 

Last accessed on 

16/11/2011 

[5] “NASA helps keep Boat owners from running 

out of gas”, NASA Technologies News Feature, Apr, 

2010. 

[6]Active Pixel Sensor 

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

Last accessed on 16/11/2011 

[7]”Teeing off with a New Material”, NASA Spinoff 

2001, Consumer, Home and Recreation, page 76, 

2001 

We use space technology in our daily lives, from 

edible toothpastes, bar codes to pace makers, 

without realizing the driving force behind these 

innovations. These technology transfers have not 

only made life easier in zero gravity but have more 

than proved their worth back on earth, reiterating 

the impact of space research. Next time you are 

shopping online or wearing disposable contact 

lenses, consider yourself to be a part of 

innovations and solutions that truly came from 

the 'edge' and the one that brought the moon 

back on earth. 

References 

[1] “Image Sensors Enhance Camera 

Technologies”- NASA Spinoff 2010, Consumer 

Goods, page 90, 2010 

[2] “Wireless Fluid-Level Measurement System 

Equips Boat Owners” – NASA Spinoff 2008, 

Consumer Goods, page 90, 2008 

[3]Tidewater Sensors- How it works: 

http://tidewatersensors.com: Last accessed on 

16/11/2011 

[8]Liquidmetal: Redefining Metals for the 21st 

Century, NASA Technologies News Feature, Oct, 

2005 

[9] ISRO Technology Transfer Group, Space Spin 

Offs 

http://www.isro.gov.in/ttg/spinoffs.html: Last 

accessed on 16/11/2011 

Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937), 

New Zealand physicist. 

One student in Rutherford's lab was 

very hard-working. Rutherford had 

noticed it and asked one evening: 

“ Do you work in the mornings 

too” 

“ Yes”, proudly answered the 

student hoping that he would be 

commended. 


About KPIT Cummins Infosystems Limited 

KPIT Cummins partners with global automotive and semiconductor 

corporations in bringing products faster to their target markets. We help 

customers globalize their process and systems efficiently through a unique 

blend of domain-intensive technology and process expertise. As leaders in our 

space, we are singularly focused on co-creating technology products and 

solutions to help our customers become efficient, integrated, and innovative 

manufacturing enterprises. We have filed for 38 patents in the areas of 

Automotive Technology, Hybrid Vehicles, High Performance Computing, Driver 

Safety Systems, Battery Management System, and Semiconductors. 

About CREST 

Center for Research in Engineering Sciences and Technology (CREST) is focused 

on innovation, technology, research and development in emerging 

technologies. Our vision is to build KPIT Cummins as the global leader in selected 

technologies of interest, to enable free exchange of ideas, and to create an 

atmosphere of innovation throughout the company. CREST is now recognized 

a n d 

a p p r o v e d 

R & D Center by the Dept. of Scientific and Industrial Research, India.. This 

journal is an endeavor to bring you the latest in scientific research and 

technology. 

Invitation to Write Articles 

Our forthcoming issue to be released in July 2012 will be based on “Sensors, 

Signal Processing, and Applications.” We invite you to share your knowledge by 

contributing to this journal. 

Format of the Articles 

Your original articles should be based on the central theme of “ Sensors, Signal 

Processing, and Applications” The length of the articles should be between 1200 

to 1500 words. Appropriate references should be included at the end of the 

articles. All the pictures should be from public domain and of high resolution. 

Please include a brief write-up and a photograph of yourself along with the 

article. The last date for submission of articles for the next issue is March 15, 

2012. 

To send in your contributions, please write to crest@kpitcummins.com . 

SM 

KPIT Cummins 

Infosystems Limited 

Innovation for customers 

You can make a difference 

initiative

y 

TechTalk@KPITCummins January - March 2012 

" People don't know what they want until you show it to them.... 

Our task is to read things that are not yet on the page.” 

Steve Jobs 

(1955 - 2011) 

“….humanities and science. I like that intersection. 

There's something magical about that place... 

Great artists like Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo 

were also great at science.” 

35 & 36, Rajiv Gandhi Infotech Park, 

Phase - 1, MIDC, Hinjawadi, Pune - 411 057, India.

INNOVATIONS FROM THE EDGE - KPIT

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