INNOVATIONS FROM THE EDGE - KPIT

More documents

Recommendations

Info

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!” 40 TechTalk@KPITCummins, Volume 5, Issue 1, 2012
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, KPIT Cummins Info systems Ltd., Pune, India Areas of Interest Image Processing and Databases TechTalk@KPITCummins, Volume 5, Issue 1, 2012 41
Page 1 and 2: a quarterly journal of KPIT Cummins
Page 3 and 4: Contents Editorial Guest Editorial
Page 5 and 6: Editorial Dr. Vinay G. Vaidya CTO -
Page 7 and 8: Inspirations from the Edge About th
Page 9 and 10: Geospatial Technology During the da
Page 11 and 12: emained successful in the market. C
Page 13 and 14: Connecting to Future with Brain Mac
Page 15 and 16: parts. These neurons carry output i
Page 17 and 18: measured from different electrodes
Page 19 and 20: of the neural signals from the elec
Page 21 and 22: Add a Dimension by Cutting Edge Res
Page 23 and 24: overhangs or undercuts to be produc
Page 25 and 26: IV. 3D- Printers Market Survey 3-D
Page 27 and 28: Displaying the Edge About the Autho
Page 29 and 30: Open State - When in open state, th
Page 31 and 32: Book Review SUCCESSFUL INNOVATION:
Page 33 and 34: What is your Computer's DNA About t
Page 35 and 36: if each component finds its appropr
Page 37 and 38: iggest bio-chemical circuits made.
Page 39 and 40: Social Impact of Leading Edge Techn
Page 41: 1.2.1 Time-Resolved Transient Imagi
Page 45 and 46: Cross Domain Ideas for Sustainable
Page 47 and 48: had 114,000 square meters of new an
Page 49 and 50: CIETEP has identified that educatio
Page 51 and 52: Bringing the Moon Down About the Au
Page 53 and 54: The working principle of the sensor
Page 55 and 56: About KPIT Cummins Infosystems Limi

INNOVATIONS FROM THE EDGE - KPIT

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?