Tag: #techtuesday

Bio Chips

A biochip is a bio-microarray device that has been extensively developed and studied for enabling a large -scale analysis of genetics and proteomic and functional genomic experiments. 

They refer to a set of diminished microarrays which are placed on a substrate. This substrate allows various experiments to be executed at the same time. Biochips are devices that contains millions of sensors and sensor elements.

The greatest advantage of DNA arrays is its high speed, throughput and the fact that they are useful in various genomic applications such as nucleotide polymorphism analysis (SNP), disease classification, gene expression studies, prediction of function, development of new drugs, clinical diagnosis, toxicological studies etc.

Like other methods of detection which are molecular – based, such as PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction), microarrays also target genes which are specific to pathogens for detection. They allow large – scale screening of multiple targets because of their high speed and throughput power.

Digital biochips have become one of the most powerful and promising technologies in many fields of biomedicine. In a digital biochip, a group of cells which are adjacent to each other in a microfluidic array can be configured in order to work as storage and functional operations as well as for transporting fluid droplets in a dynamic form.

These biochips are not same as microchips. Microchips are electronic devices, but biochips are not electronic. These biochips can be considered as a microreactor which can detect enzymes, proteins, DNA and antibodies.

The primary function of biochips is performing many biological reactions in less time.  

The steps of working of biochips are:

  1. A low power electromagnetic field is generated through radio signals by the operator.
  2. The biochip turns on. The fixed biochip gets turn on
  3. The identification code is transmitted by the activated chip. It is transmitted reverse to the operator by radio signals
  4.  The received code is strengthened by the reader in order to change it into a digital form and finally to exhibit it on LCD.

Biochips have two components:

1)TRANSPONDER: Transponder can be of two types which are active and passive transponder. Passive transponders have no charge on its own whereas active transponders have charge when the operator activates it by giving a low electrical charge. Transponders have 4 parts which are antenna coil, glass capsule, tuning capacitor and computer chip.

2)READER: The reader consists a coil called an “exciter”. Through radio signals, this coil forms an electromagnetic field. It provides the energy that is needed to activate the biochip. The receiving coil is carried by the reader in order to receive the ID number or the code which was transmitted and was sent back from the excited or activated biochip.

TYPES OF BIOCHIPS:

There are 3 types of biochips:

  1. DNA Microarray:

DNA microarray is a set of small spots of DNA that are fixed to a strong surface. 

  1. Microfluidic Chip:

These are a choice to usual biochemical labs and are transforming several applications like DNA analysis, proteomics and molecular biology procedures which are known as the study of proteins and diseases that are diagnosable. 

  1. Protein microarray:

The method of protein microarray is used for following the actions as well as the connections between proteins. Along with this they are used to find out the functions of the proteins on a large scale. The main advantage of these chips is the fact that a large number of proteins can be tracked parallelly.

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ADVANTAGES OF BIOCHIPS:

1)They are small in size, faster and powerful.

2)Bio chips can be used for identifying people individually.

3)Bio chips are useful in finding people who are lost.

4)Bio chips have the ability for performing several thousands of reactions in a few seconds.

DISADVANTAGES OF BIOCHIPS:

1)Bio chips are very expensive.

2)They can raise problems of individual privacy.

3)These chips can be fixed into human bodies without any interference from them.

4)There is a chance of turning every individual into a controlled individual. 

APPLICATIONS OF BIOCHIPS:

There are a wide range of applications using biochips:

1)A bio chip leads to e-commerce systems that are safe.

2)These chips can be used for locating or tracing a person or animal anywhere in the world.

3)Biochips are very effective in restoring the records related to cash, passports, medical files etc.

5)They are used for storing and updating the information of a person such as demographics, financials, medical etc.

6)They can be used in the medical field in the form of BP sensors, oxygen sensors, glucose detectors etc.  

Android Security

Android incorporates industry-leading safety options and works with developers and device implementers to stay the mechanical man platform and scheme safe. a robust security model is crucial to change Associate in Nursing spirited scheme of apps and devices engineered on and round the mechanical man platform and supported by cloud services. As a result, through its entire development lifecycle, mechanical man has been subject to a rigorous security program.

 mechanical man is supposed to be open. mechanical man apps use advanced hardware and code, conjointly as native and served information, exposed through the platform to bring innovation and worth to customers. to grasp that worth, the platform offers Associate in Nursing app setting that protects the confidentiality, integrity, and convenience of users, data, apps, the device, and conjointly the network. 

Securing Associate in Nursing open platform needs a durable security design and rigorous security programs. mechanical man was designed with multi bedded security that is versatile enough to support Associate in Nursing open platform whereas still protective all users of the platform. For info regarding news security problems and conjointly the update method, see Security Updates and Resources. 

Android is meant for developers. Security controls were designed to chop back the burden on developers. Security-savvy developers will simply work with and rely upon versatile security controls. Developers less reception with security area unit protected by safe defaults. 

In addition to providing a stable platform to make upon, mechanical man provides further support to developers throughout style of the method. The mechanical man security team appearance for potential vulnerabilities in apps and suggests ways in which to repair those problems. For devices with Google Play, Play Services delivers security updates for essential code libraries, like OpenSSL, that is employed to secure app communications. mechanical man security discharged a tool for testing SSL that helps developers notice potential security problems on whichever platform they are developing. 

 mechanical man is meant for users. Users area unit provided visibility into the permissions requested by every app and management over those permissions. This style includes the expectation that attackers would attempt to perform common attacks, like social engineering attacks to convert device users to put in malware, and attacks on third-party apps on mechanical man. mechanical man was designed to each scale back the chance of those attacks and greatly limit the impact of the attack inside the event that it had been successful. mechanical man security continues to progress when the device is inside the user’s hands. mechanical man works with partners and conjointly the final public to supply patches for any mechanical man device that is continued to receive security updates. 

More info for finish users may even be found inside the Nexus facilitate centre, pel facilitate centre, or your device manufacturer’s facilitate centre. 

This page outlines the goals of the mechanical man security program, describes the basics of the mechanical man security design, and answers the foremost pertinent queries for system architects and security analysts. It focuses on the protection options of Android’s core platform and does not discuss security problems that area unit distinctive to specific apps, like those associated with the browser or SMS app. 

Background

 mechanical man provides Associate in Nursing open supply platform and app setting for mobile devices. The sections and pages below describe the protection options of the mechanical man platform. 

Figure one illustrates the protection parts and issues of the varied levels of the mechanical man code stack. every part assumes that the parts below area unit properly secured. With the exception of a tiny low quantity of mechanical man OS code running as root, all code on top of the UNIX operating system kernel is restricted by the appliance Sandbox. 

The main mechanical man platform building blocks are:

 Device hardware:

 mechanical man runs on Associate in Nursing honest vary of hardware configurations together with mobile phones, tablets, watches, vehicles, smart TVs, OTT diversion boxes, and set-top-boxes. mechanical man is processor-agnostic, however it takes advantage of some hardware-specific security capabilities like ARM execute-Never.

 Android operating system:

 The core package is made on prime of the UNIX operating system kernel. All device resources, like camera functions, GPS data, Bluetooth functions, telecom functions, and network connections area unit accessed through the code.

 Android Application Runtime: mechanical man apps area unit most frequently written inside the Java language and run inside the mechanical man runtime (ART). However, many apps, together with core mechanical man services and apps, area unit native apps or embrace native libraries. each ART and native apps run inside the identical security setting, contained inside the appliance Sandbox. Apps get an infatuated a part of the organisation throughout that they will write personal information, together with databases and raw files. 

Android apps extend the core mechanical man code. There area unit 2 primary sources for apps: 

Preinstalled apps:

 mechanical man includes a gaggle of preinstalled apps together with phone, email, calendar, browser, and contacts. These perform as user apps that they provide key device capabilities which is able to be accessed by alternative apps. Preinstalled apps may even be a part of the open supply mechanical man platform, or they will be developed by a tool manufacturer for a selected device. 

User-installed apps: 

Android provides Associate in Nursing open development setting that supports any third-party app. Google Play offers users several thousands of apps

UV Light

With the enduring COVID-19 Pandemic people have become more self- aware of what they touch on a day to day basis. Due to this, there has been an surge in the public claim to sanitize everything that they come in commerce with, but using a liquid sanitizer or soap is not always a practical choice. UV-light is such a thing that can be used to sanitize products, without having a concern about the spoilage. 

Scientists have known about the fumigation proficiencies of ultraviolet (UV) light for decades. But there is a lot of questions like. What is UV-C? How does it work? Is it safe? Etc. so let me try and explaining the answers to those questions and more. UV-C also known as germicidal UV, Products tout pathogen kill rates higher than 99.9%. Because of their efficiency, they’re extremely useful for hospitals, medical labs, senior care centers, fire and police stations, airports, transit stations, schools, government buildings, office buildings, and hotels

What is UV-C light?

Ultraviolet (UV) light is a component of the electromagnetic range that falls in the region between visible light and X-rays. This invisible radiation embraces the wavelength range of 100nm to 400nm. UV light can be extra segmented and categorized into four separate regions:

  • 100 nm to 200nm 

        Far UV or vacuum UV 

  • 200nm to 280nm

       UVC- beneficial for fumigation and detection

  • 280nm to 315nm

       UVB – valuable for medicinal, and medical applications.

  • 315nm to 400nm

       UVA – useful for printing, curative, lithography, detection and medical applications.

It can deactivate pathogens like bacteria and viruses. UV-C exploits specific wavelengths of the ultraviolet spectrum, archetypally between 200 to 280 nanometers. The Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) recently unconfined a report on germicidal UV that says UV-C is the most effective part of the spectrum.

History of UV Sanitization.

Sanitizing with UV-C light has been a standard exercise since the mid-20th century. In fact, the 1903 Nobel Prize in medicine was granted to Niels Finsen for via UV light to fight tuberculosis. 

How does UVC kill Disinfection works?

As obvious by various research studies and reports, when organic creatures are observable to deep UV light in the range of 200nm to 300nm it is absorbed by DNA, RNA and proteins.

Absorption by protein can lead to rupture of cell walls and death of the organism. Absorption by DNA or RNA explicitly by thymine bases is known to cause inactivation of the RNA or DNA double helix components through the construction of thymine dimers.

It is broadly accepted that it is not required to kill pathogens with UV light, but rather apply enough UV light to avoid replication are orders of magnitude lower than mandatory to kill, making the cost of UV treatment to dodge infection commercially viable. 

Is UVC light safe?

Similar to the UV-A and UV-B rays from the sun, contact to UV-C can harm the skin and eyes. .As a basic instruction, germicidal UV lamps should not route when someone is closure. Only skilled labors should knob germicidal UV units and make sure the merchandise is turned off before execution maintenance.    But without more research into how humans’ tariff with this kind of light exposure, others think some questions are left unanswered. It’s important to be sure that these lights won’t injury workers who are upright underneath the bulb for entire shifts. so far, the indication maybe isn’t where it must be.

Success story of ‘Photo math’

Optical character recognition or optical character reader (OCR) is the electronic or mechanical conversion of images of typed, handwritten or printed text into machine-encoded text, whether from a scanned document, a photo of a document, a scene-photo.
Widely used as a form of data entry from printed paper data records – whether passport documents, invoices, bank statements, computerized receipts, business cards, mail, printouts of static-data, or any suitable documentation – it’s a standard method of digitizing printed texts in order that they will be electronically edited, searched, stored more compactly, displayed on-line, and utilized in machine processes such as cognitive computing, MT , (extracted) text-to-speech, key data and text mining. OCR may be a field of research in pattern recognition, AI and computer vision.

This idea has now gathered the eye from all round the world. Time Magazine, Forbes and Business Insider have all written about them. They’ve even been featured on the smash US television program , The Ellen DeGeneres Show.


So, what’s all the fuss about? Well, many folks dreamed a few magical solution to our math homework once we were kids, right? Now, because of PhotoMath it’s finally become a reality. Ok, it’s not quite magic – but, besides the world’s media, both math lovers and math haters are getting a kick out of PhotoMath, a new app that can help solve mathematical equations with a quick click of a button. If you think that sounds too easy, rest assured that it’s much more than that. It’s an app that can also help you learn how to solve difficult problems through step-by-step instructions. All you need to do is point your phone’s camera at the problem, and PhotoMath will help you through it.


PhotoMath was created by MicroBlink, a Croatian company focused on providing mobile tools based on machine vision technology. Everything started in 2012 when the team created a service for improving bill payments. In 2014, they took advantage of their innovative solution called blinkOCR and experts from MicroBlink built Photomath and launched an iOS version at TechCrunch Disrupt Europe in London. A year after that, the app was available also for Android users. Even though it was considered a side project for promoting the services offered by MicroBlink, Photomath became a standalone company, due to its phenomenal success

Everything begins with the way Photomath completes its tasks. The onboarding flow is very engaging and it proves how easy it is to use the app. But the best advantage is that the app solves math problems in real time. Although Photomath offers an option for manual input, it would be a tedious process for children to type all the data and to wait for a while to receive an answer for their homework. For this reason, the app launches the camera from the start, allowing users to scan the text and after a few seconds, the solution is on the screen along with the steps used to get there. In certain cases, a graph can be drawn for a better understanding of the problem. As we always say a simple user interface offers great user experience.


You probably wonder how is it possible to solve a math problem so quickly and so accurate. Even though it seems simple, behind this math assistant is a really complex algorithm generated by advanced neural networks and deep learning technology. This service provides amazing advantages. For example, the average recognition time is 500 ms and it can be used in areas without internet connection. The low memory footprint is definitely a plus because everybody struggles with this issue and the fact that it provides results even in low light environment and it detects text at angle makes this tool very useful for all types of users. If you would like to understand more about BlinkOCR, the machine learning – based tool which helps developers to convert a mobile device into a mathematics teacher , we recommend you to read the detailed description offered by MicroBlink.


Photomath generates a win – win – win situation which may be a rare behavior for an app. First of all, it is, doubtless , the right tool for college kids who struggle with math because it allows them to know the logic behind an answer . Secondly, it helped its creators to promote their services and to attract many customers interested in the technology which makes this app so efficient and so easy to use. And thirdly, its journey from the start until today teaches us the way to create an exquisite experience for all users, albeit the app is predicated on a really complicated machine learning algorithm. We can say that Photomath represents an important lesson for all app owners who don’t know what to do to attract potential users. The main take away from this story is that an apps are often the simplest solution for increasing the worth of a business.

Pygame

Gamming is one the hottest fields out there today and people are going crazy when it comes to gaming. With the emerging field of gamming, game programming is also growing nowdays and since it has a wide range of application in almost every field like advertising,education,AI/ML etc., programmers are really into it. Building a game for any purpose is fun and has it’s own craze since it involves a lot of imagination. Seeing your imagination and design being build has its own satisfaction. Pygame is python open source framework which helps you do so. 

What is Pygame?

If we talk about the basic well-known definition of Pygame, it says-

“Pygame is a cross-platform set of Python modules designed for writing video games. It includes computer graphics and sound libraries designed to be used with the Python programming language.”

You can also define Pygame as-

“Pygame is a Python wrapper module for the SDL multimedia library. It contains python functions and classes that will allow you to use SDL’s support for playing cdroms, audio and video output, and keyboard, mouse and joystick input.”

What this basically means that if you know python and you love playing games,you will definitely have an instinct to develop it and Pygame is one of the easiest python modules that’ll help you in that.It was an open source project which has developed a lot today and is a very popular module for beginners.

It is third party module that you can download from the internet that is used to make games using python. The games are pretty simple and most of them are 2D games.You draw shapes and images and you can go pretty far with Pygame if you know how to use it proficiently .

How to work with Pygame?

To begin with Pygame module,you need to follow some easy steps as mentioned below:-

  1. You must have Python installed in your pc/mac. If you don’t have it you can easily download it from Python Webiste: https://www.python.org/. Just download the latest version of python available.
  2. Then you have to open command prompt window.
  • In the command prompt window, type “pip” and then type “pip install pygame” to install the module.pip is pretty much package install in python.
  • After that pip command will help collecting everything and then you have pygame installed in your pc/mac.
  • You can uninstall  pygame by typing “pip uninstall pygame” in command prompt.
  • If it dosen’t work for you that means you do not have python environment variables which you can fix easily and then get started with pygame.

Working in pygame

The module Pygame is very easy to learn and use so for a beginner it becomes simple to get started with game development. Python itself is very easy to understand language compared to others and even non-programmer can read it whats written in python because its syntax is more of general language. Pygame is built on python so you can explore amazing features of game development using pygame easily. So,to begin with pygame open python cmd and type “import pygame” and then type “pygame .int()”. This will let you import pygame module so that you can work with it. 

Building your own games

Pygame module helps you to bring your imagination of gaming to life. Being a beginner in this field, it becomes very difficult to work with complex codes. But using pygame and following the step wise approach, you can really build your own amazing games. Let us look how we can do it.

Firstly, we have to set up window according to what game design we have in our mind and then according to one’s requirement you can have your own specifications. To create a window, just type “win=pygame.display.set_model((1000,1000))”.What this basically so is, it will create a pygame window wherein your whole game program will work.

You can give caption to the window, create shapes, images and much more depending upon how creative you can be while building a game. You can create your character with the help of pygame and the let it move by specifying attributes like size, velocity, sound and music effects etc. Sound exciting, Right ! But this isn’t all. You can also have animation and optimization done to give your game a look according to you.  

The game Dangerous Higschool Girls In Trouble was written in Pygame and has won some awards and is available on steam. There are many such games beautifully built using pygame. So, if you want to jump into game development and don’t know where to begin with, Pygame is the best available option.

How 5g obliterates phones battery ?

The world’s connectivity needs are changing. Global mobile data traffic is expected to multiply by 5g before the end of 2024. Particularly in dense urban areas, the current 4G networks simply won’t be able to keep up.

That’s where a new 5G comes into play. With 5G networks being switched on, the first use cases are boosted mobile broadband, which will bring better experiences for smartphone users, and fixed wireless access, on condition that fibre speeds without fibre to homes. 

Being capable to download a  HD movie in seconds and share your wow-moments with friends , that’s just the beginning .It’s allowing industries to reinvent themselves. It affects you. And it’s starting now.

First, let’s recap how we got here.

  • 1G: Mobile voice calls
  • 2G: Mobile voice calls and SMS
  • 3G: Mobile web browsing
  • 4G: Mobile video consumption and advanced data speed
  • 5G: Technology to serve customers and digitalization of production.

5G is enabling a new wave of innovation. It has the potential for changing the world, further powering the hottest trends in tech today: IoT (Internet of Things), AI (Artificial Intelligence) and AR (Augmented Reality) and many more.

With 5G technology comes ultrafast internet service that won’t just enable more stable communications between mechanical device and autonomous vehicles, but also make it possible for you to copy a complete picture in mere seconds, like some sort of super-powered internet Avenger.

But for now, the phone battery, which seems like it’s draining at the speed of light. Need evidence? Samples from CNET found that after just 4 hours of using the Moto Z3 on a 5G network, the battery was “completely zapped.” They also found the Galaxy S10 5G deck to 50 per cent battery life in about 4 hours, projecting a far shorter lifespan than its usual 18 hours.

To resolve that grim side effect, scholars at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Lille in France have established a new radio-frequency switch they say is 50 times more energy proficient than the present solid-state switches. They issued their outcomes on May 25 in the journal Nature Electronics.

The solution is actually fixed right in the problem. Because smartphones are packed with switches that carry out duties like bouncing back and forth between various networks and spectrum frequencies (4G to LTE, to Wi-Fi, to Bluetooth, etc.), batteries drain faster. 

So when the limited d number of 5G-enabled smartphones on the market is frequently bouncing back and forth between 4G and 5G communications, for instance, the problem is amplified. 

Your phone will need to bear a connection to the 3G or LTE network in hauling to the 5G network so that phone calls, text messages, and data will be delivered consistently.

Because your phone is associated to several networks concurrently, the battery will drain more rapidly than one would usually expect, and the phone may get warmer than when solely on 3G or LTE.

As 5G networks “develop in capability and capacity,” Samsung says, they might be able to lump more of your phone’s utilities with less battery drain. CNET bids that new Qualcomm Snapdragon X55 chips will precise the problems.

Deji Akinwande, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, said in a prepared statement. And the idea is simple: the switches stay off most of the time.

Unless the radio-frequency changes are dynamically helping the device jump between networks at that exact point in time, they stay off, preserving precious battery life for other processes.

While other researchers have done similar work on the lower end of the 5G spectrum—where speeds are slower but travel further—this is the first time a switch is able to function all over the radio-frequency spectrum, from low-end gigahertz frequencies all the way up to the terahertz band, which could one day usher in 6G. 

To construct it, the experts used a nanomaterial called hexagonal boron nitride, a learner in the materials science field that comes from the same family as graphene, a honeycomb-lattice sheet of carbon atoms used in everything from bike tires to cleaning up radio active waves. According to study in Semiconductors and Semimetals, hexagonal boron nitride is only as thick as a single layer of atoms and is the thinnest known insulator in the world, with a thickness of 0.33 nanometres.

In this case, these researchers used a single layer of boron and nitrogen atoms in a honeycomb pattern. Then, they sandwiched the layers between a set of gold electrodes.

Funding for their work comes, in part, from the U.S. Army Research Office, which has a stake in 5G because it could improve Department of Defence efforts in artificial intelligence, lead to faster data transmission between drones or other unmanned aerial vehicles, and could even support soldier-wearable radios or communications systems that will have longer battery lives and faster upload and download speeds.

Malware

Malware is also known as malicious software. A  software used or created to disrupt computer operation, gather sensitive information, or gain access to private computer systems.  It can appear in the form of code, scripts, active content, and other software. ‘Malware’ is a general term used to refer to a variety of forms of hostile, intrusive, or annoying software.

How Malware Spreads?

Malware is a program that must be triggered or somehow executed before it can infect your computer system and spread to others.

Here are some examples on how malware is distributed:

  • Social network
  • Pirated software
  • Removable media
  • Emails
  • Websites

Damages

1. Data Loss

Many viruses and Trojans will attempt to delete files or wipe hard drives when activated, but even if you catch the infection early, you may have to delete infected files.

2. Account Theft

Many types of malware include key logger functions, designed to steal accounts and passwords from their targets. This can give the malware author access to any of the user’s online accounts, including email servers from which the hacker can launch new attacks. 

3. Botnets

Many types of malware also subvert control over the user’s computer, turning it into a “bot” or “zombie.” Hackers build networks of these commandeered computers, using their combined processing power for tasks like cracking password files or sending out bulk emails. 

4. Financial Losses

If a hacker gains access to a credit card or bank account via a keylogger, he can then use that information to run up charges or drain the account. Given the popularity of online banking and bill payment services, a hacker who manages to secrete a keylogger on a user’s system for a full month may gain access to the user’s entire financial portfolio, allowing him to do as much damage as possible in a single attack.

Symptoms that your computer is affected:

  • Increased CPU usage
  • Slow computer or web browser speeds
  • Problems connecting to networks
  • Freezing or crashing
  • Modified or deleted files
  • Appearance of strange files, programs, or desktop icons
  • Programs running, turning off, or reconfiguring themselves (malware will often reconfigure or turn off antivirus and firewall programs).
  • There seems to be a lot of network activity when you are not using the network

Types of malware:

  • Viruses   
  • Trojan horses
  • Ransomware
  • Spam
  • Adware
  • Spyware
  • Worms
  • Zombie

Viruses:

A program of code which is loaded on your computer without your knowledge .     All viruses are manmade. viruses copy themselves to other disk to spread to other computers.

Trojan horse:

A Trojan horse must be send by someone or carried by another program or software of some sort. they are used to capture your login or password.

Ransomware: 

Ransomware is a form of malware essentially holds a computer system captive while demanding  a ransom. The malware restricts user access to the computer either by encrypting files on the hard drive or locking down the system and displaying messages that are intended to force the user to pay the malware creator to remove the restrictions and regain access to their computer.

Spam:

Spam is email that you did not request and do not want. One person’s spam is another’s useful newsletter or sale ad. Spam is a common way to spread viruses , Trojans etc….

Spyware:

Spyware is a type of malware installed on computers that collects information about users without their knowledge. The presence of spyware is typically hidden from the user and can be difficult to detect. on your computer to steal important information, like your passwords and logins and other personal identification information and then send it off to someone else.

Adware:

Adware (short for advertising-supported software) is a type of malware that automatically delivers advertisements. Common examples of adware include pop-up ads on websites and advertisements that are displayed by software. Often times software and applications offer “free” versions that come bundled with adware.

Worms: 

A computer worm is a self-replicating computer program. It uses a network to send copies of itself to other nodes (computers on the network) and it may do so without any user intervention. 

Zombie:

Zombie programs take control of your computer and use it and its Internet connection to attack other computers or networks or to perform other criminal activities.

How Can You Protect Your Computer? 

•Install protection software.

•Practice caution when working with files from unknown or question able sources.

•Do not open e-mail if you do not recognize the sender.

•Download files only from reputable Internet sites.

•Install firewall.

•Scan your hard drive for viruses monthly.

Humanity vs AI (Feat. DOTA 2)

Ever since back in 1956, in a workshop in Dartmouth College, from where AI is assumed to have emerged as a field, there was a question that nagged at the minds of people who were working on AI. A question that gave rise to one of the best action movies of all time. Will AI trump humans? Will the machines end up winning?

People have spoken both for and against humanity in this debate. An example being Jack Ma, the co-founder and former executive chairman of Alibaba Group.

The Chinese entrepreneur said he was “quite optimistic” about AI and thought it was nothing for “street smart” people like them to be scared of. Jack Ma firmly believes that AI will never triumph over Human Heart. 

On the flipside, Billionaire entrepreneur, engineer and philanthropist Elon Musk disagreed and claimed that AI will be ‘vastly smarter’ than any human and would overtake us by 2025. He went on to call AI a potential existential threat to humanity.

Here we not talk about Mr. Musk who after expressing his opinions about AI decided to create a company to study AI. Enter OpenAI the star of the show. OpenAI states that their mission is to ensure that Artificial General Intelligence benefits all of humanity AGI is the hypothetical intelligence of a machine that has the capacity to understand or learn any intellectual task that human being can. AKA Strong AI or Full AI.

Now this is where it gets really interesting. Defense of The Ancients 2 is one of the most popular Multiplayer Online Battle Arena games in existence. It involves players choosing a ‘hero’ from among a pool of over 115 heroes each with it’s unique abilities, strengths and weaknesses.  Every year Valve hosts a tournament in which the best teams in the world participate competing for the Grand prize and the chance to host the Aegis of the Immortal. This tournament named The International has the biggest prize pool in the history of E-Sports. TI9 in 2019 hard a prize pool of over 34 million dollars.

Back in 2017 at the opening ceremony of TI7 the crowd was riled up way more than ever before as they were gonna experience something for the first time in DOTA history. 

Danil “Dendi” Ishutin is one of the most loved personalities in the DOTA Pro circuit; His team Natus Vincere has won the first TI ever hosted. Dendi was challenged by the open AI team to one versus one showdown at TI7. Dendi vs OpenAI Bot. Now, since DOTA requires long term strategic planning & execution, it is a classical nightmare for AI. However, with the crowd cheering, the DOTA Community saw their champion fail. This was the first time this had ever happened.

Now, an AI performing as good as an average human player or even an above average one would have been a feat in itself, however, beating a professional who was among the top percentile of players in the world; who had spent over 12,000 hours playing the game was completely different.

However, DOTA is a team game. It is played with 5 people facing 5 other people. Beating one guy, however impressive that may be, was still beating one guy. 

Then, in 2018, while the Community was still reeling from Dendi’s loss, OpenAI challenged the then TI winning World Champion team, OG to a match of DOTA. Not some 1 vs 1 challenge, no. This was the real deal. An actual 5 vs 5 game of DOTA 2. What happened next sent everyone reeling. It was gonna be a best of 3 series. 

Many thought that the World Champions each of whom having played over 10 thousand games of DOTA over the course of their whole lives might have an edge over the bot who had one year. These people were in for a rude awakening. It was later revealed that the bot had played millions and millions of matches against itself, learning and improving all the while. 

Then came the night of the series.

GAME 1:

Just after choosing their heroes, the bots, dubbed OpenAI 5, declared that their estimated win probability to be 67.6%. This was just based on the hero choices made by the AI. In the beginning, it seemed as if the Bots were roaming around the map aimlessly and making random rather questionable plays which even professional casters weren’t able to justify. They were playing extremely aggressively and at about 18 minutes into game 1, the stats made it clear that both the teams were doing about equally well, in fact, OG was at a slight advantage. Then, at this time, the bots declared that they had a win probability of over 95% at that point. This didn’t make sense to anyone at that time, but, to the bots, the game was as good as won. And then, as if to prove their point, in the very next engagement between the 2 teams, the bots wiped out 4 out of 5 players of OG and then declared that their win probability were now over 99% and shortly after, they won game 1. It became apparent that there was a method to their madness. 

GAME 2:

After the hero draft itself, the AI declared a win probability of over 60%. Then, turning up the heat, just 5 minutes into the game, declared a win probability of over 80%, which escalated to 90% by the 8-and-a-half-minute mark. 30 seconds later, it was over 95%. Topson, one of the players of OG even stopped playing for the last few minutes of the game, knowing the hopelessness of the situation. 

Playing aggressively, the AI won just 21 minutes into the game, winning game 2 and hence, the series.

Later, one of the core members of OpenAI team said in an interview that in the millions of games the AI has played, it has learnt to extremely accurately predict whether an engagement was going to result advantageously for it or not. Meaning, if upon being engaged, it fights back, instead of attempting an escape, you will lose the fight.

The Progress in AI is astounding. Even though the Artificial Intelligence we have now is a long way from Artificial General Intelligence, OpenAI, Google’s AlphaGo and AphaZero are extremely promising.

Although the debate that whether developing AI will lead to the Skynet Scenario is still ongoing, the best and brightest minds are working to make sure that AT benefits humanity. 

What the future holds, only time will tell.

For More info, watch 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfb6aEUMC04

Blockchain Technology

Blockchain technology was first introduced in 1991 by Stuart Haber and W. Scott Stornetta, two researchers who wanted to implement a system where document details could not be tampered with. But it wasn’t until almost two decades later, with the launch of Bitcoin in January 2009, that blockchain had its first real-world application.

Block chain technology, in simple words, is a distributed ledger that records information on digital assets. Block chain is literally a chain of blocks, but in the case of block chain network, here a block means digital information and chain refers to the public database where the information is stored.

Block chain consists of blocks that store information about the transactions like the amount of purchase, date and time etc.

Blocks also store information about who is participating in the transactions but instead of storing the actual name, the purchase is recorded in such a way that there is no identifying information using a digital signature type of username.

Blocks store information in a way that distinguishes them from other blocks. Just as each of our names distinguish us from one another, each block has a code called hash that sets it apart from other blocks.

No block can have the same hash code as another block. Hashes are cryptographic codes that are created by special algorithms.

 For example, after making your first purchase, you decide to make a second one while the first one is in transit. Now, even though the details of your purchase will look nearly identical to your previous one we can still distinguish the blocks because of their unique hash codes.

While the above example tells that block stores the details of a single purchase, the reality is different. A single block can store up to 1MB of data. That means a single block can house a few thousand transactions under one roof.

When the block stores data it is added to the end of the block chain. But for that first 4 things need to happen:

1.A transaction must occur.

2.The transaction details must be verified with information available in public platforms. In block chain this is done by a network of computers. When you make your purchase, that network of computers rushes to check that your transaction happened in the way you said it did. That is, they confirm the details of the purchase, including the transaction’s time, amount, and participants of the transaction.

3.That transaction must be stored in a block with the digital signature, amount of transaction.

4.Now the block must be given hash code so that it can be distinguished from others. Once the block is hashed, it can be added to the end of block chain. When that new block is added to the blockchain, it becomes publicly available for anyone to view.

Each computer in the blockchain network has its own copy of the blockchain, which means that there are thousands of copies of the same blockchain. Although each copy of the blockchain is identical, spreading that information across a network of computers makes the information more difficult to manipulate. With blockchain, there isn’t a single, definitive account of events that can be manipulated. Instead, a hacker would need to manipulate every copy of the blockchain on the network. This is what is meant by blockchain being a “distributed” ledger. So the hacker has to manipulate every single block after the one which he wanted to change.

Recalculating all those hashes would take an enormous and improbable amount of computing power. In other words, once a block is added to the blockchain it becomes very difficult to edit and impossible to delete.

To address the issue of trust, block chain has implemented tests for computers that want to join the block chain network. One of them is proof of work system.

In proof of network system, the computers have to solve a complex mathematical problem in order to prove themselves. If a computer solves the problem it becomes eligible to add a block to the block chain network. Although this sounds very simple, in reality only one in 15.5 trillion, as of January 2020, were able to solve the problem.

The goal of blockchain is to allow digital information to be recorded and distributed, but not edited.

The blockchain network discourages the existence of multiple blockchains through a process called consensus. In the presence of multiple copies of the blockchain, the consensus protocol will adopt the longest chain available. More users on a blockchain mean that the blocks can be added to the end of the chain quicker. According to that logic, the blockchain of record will always be the one that most users trust. The block chain network stands to make every business and government operations more efficient, accurate and secure.

IOT in Agriculture

Do you check your smart band for the amount of calories you burnt or ask Alexa or Siri to calculate values which means you are using IoT internet of thing) technology? What exactly is IoT in simple terms? Internet controlling things with the population about to hit 9.6 billion by 2050 and the pressure on agriculture to feed the growing population of the world. Threats like weather change, pests, diseases and many physical conditions and also demand for more productivity but the problem with traditional methods can’t satisfy the needs. Smart farming is the need of the hour and what exactly is smart farming?  Smart farming is a capital-intensive and hi-tech system of growing food cleanly and sustainable for the masses. IoT devices are smart devices which can transfer data over network.

The term IoT was coined in 1999 but it was really born in the period of 2008 and 2009 and by 2050 it is believed that the no. of devices connected to internet is supposed to hit 50 billion. First used IoT device was a coke vending machine in 1982 to report whether the drinks were cool and also the number of drinks in the machine but the first ever IoT used in agriculture is a Thermostat. There are many devices used in agriculture like weeding machines, drones, sensors, computer imaging, machine navigation, material handling which are based on IoT.

Weeding robots use the pictures captured and compare the weeds in their database and spray them directly with their robotic arms and considered to be a boon to the environment since farmers spread the pesticides throughout the land degrading the soil. Machine navigation is another topic all are familiar with just like toy cars but in the bigger sense agriculture machines are equipped with sensors, precis GPS and machine learning for self-driving capability and precision farming with computer imaging eliminating the labour intensive tasks. Their moments and efficiency can be controlled using a smartphone, where the captured pictures are sent to cloud by the robot in which the entire database is present and hence the processing takes place. Use of cloud services provide analysis of the complete data exported from it.

Harvesting robotics is another IoT are used for picking fruits and vegetables with their image processing and robotic hands eliminating the problem of labour shortage. They can determine the stage of the crop and harvest them accordingly. Sensors play an important role in agriculture and there are many kinds of sensors including sunlight, humidity, moisture, light, soil, CO2 where all the sensor data is transferred to a microcontroller through which is transferred to a cloud. Combination of data coming from diverse sensors and data exchange allows to build crop models—prediction of how the crop will grow in the given conditions, practice precision farming relying on sensor and satellite data, build harvesting strategy.

One of the major industry to incorporate drones is agriculture industry and they are equipped with cameras and sensors which are used for mapping, surveying and imaging the farms. There are two types of drones namely are ground based drones and aerial drones. From the drone, insights are drawn depicting crop health, irrigation requirements, spraying, planting, soil fertility and yield prediction. Actuators are used by different agricultural machines for many purposes. Actuators are used in sprinklers height and angle of the nozzle, which allows the sprayers to work efficiently.

Actuators which are the functioning part in IoT play a major role in agriculture and most of the agricultural equipment seek help from them for diverse purposes. In sprayers, the actuators control the angle and height of the nozzle which helps them to work properly. In spreaders they help in spreading of fertilizers and pesticides in right direction. They reduce the mechanical stress on combine harvesters and helps in making furrow lanes precisely by the seed drills.

Thus, the IoT devices in agricultures help farmers get reliable data and in a country like India with the shortage of agricultural labour in quarantine and various regulations it’s a need of the hour to be incorporated to reduce the loss of agricultural productivity.