Management of Information System

The thing I’ve liked the most about the course and especially the Blog was the fact that I got to make time to read up on a lot of new technology I knew existed but would never make time to familiarize myself with or learn more about. We hear about RFID, ERP, the importance of being able to successfully manage information systems in the workplace, networks, VOIP, WiMax, Supply Chain Management, wireless technology and the list goes on and on, but I personally found it really hard to take the time to read more about those topics with work and all. Taking this course got me to bring myself up to speed on a lot of this new technology and have an appreciation on how to better apply some, if not most of this technology in my working environment.
The Blog was a little tricky at first to get started, but once you get going, it’s pretty straightforward and actually fun to do. It was not like creating a web page which can prove to be a little harder for someone without a basic programming background. It was actually a lot easier than I thought and it gave me a little more knowledge on how to create a simple news page about pretty much anything you want it to be!
A lot of the tools that we had to add to our Blog page required research and then some reading which was good; it got me to learn more about them. Again, like I’ve mentioned above, I had heard about a lot of the things we had to do in our Blog, but I never really had taken the time to check it out; this was a great experience and I’ve taken out of this experience more knowledge than I had originally anticipated 6 weeks ago. I must admit it was a good exercise and writing those articles got me to study on new subjects; I can honestly say that I am not as stupid today as I was 6 weeks ago.

Managing industrial environment with Robotic

A good friend of mine was telling me recently about a trip to Europe where he got to visit a manufacturing tissue plant that had managed to successfully implement a large portion of the concepts we have been discussing in class over the past few weeks.
The integrator for most of this technology was a company called Elettric80. Fanuc Robots were operating most of the equipment and LGV (Laser Guided Vehicle) were doing everything from feeding the material to emptying the production line and loading the trailers. With the help of sophisticated logistics software and integrated industrial wireless system, a small group of maintenance employees could oversee the whole process from a centralized control room. The motors, drives and conveyor system were all interconnected through Profibus and Profinet high speed where real time changes could be done to either slow down or speed up a line. The robots were simply amazing; just like the LGV, they were programmed to become smarter and communicate to each other to optimize production. If one line was operating better than the other one, the LGV and other robots would give priority on the production to them so they would not have to slow down. The LGV were even setup to change their batteries when needed.
Commands were given to the LGV to either ship finished goods material or store it in racking systems; inventory controls were all done via RFID and most of the internal communication within the plant was VOIP. I could not believe that this one company had managed to successfully implement all this technology, but it made me realize as future managers the importance of information system and what it can do to make us better and more competitive. The importance of understanding information systems has always been important, but today it could make the difference between surviving in what has become a very fierce competitive market. I would invite you to take a look at their website and have a quick look at those videos; it’s like taking a visit in the future!

OLPC; One Laptop Per Child

All throughout the course we’ve been talking about how great computers have made our life easier and how revolutionary the Internet has been over the last few years. The advantages computers have provided us with and their low prices combined with broadband connectivity have allowed small businesses and larger organization to do things faster and better.
A computer might be more affordable to us today, but for other countries, a computer is for most people a luxury they can only dream of having. The founder of MIT Media Lab, Nicholas Negroponte saw a need that needed to be filled and kick started the project of OLPC, more commonly know as One Laptop Per Child. It is the biggest non profit technology based project in a decade that seeks to put 100 million laptops in the hands of developing world schoolchildren in the upcoming years. The price tag for this project is estimated at $10 billions US. Among the countries that would benefit from this initiative, we can find Argentina, Brazil, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Rwanda and Uruguay.
The technical challenge was to build something rugged enough to withstand harsh conditions, real efficient, but by the same token cheap. The One Laptop team with its former MIT engineers had to reinvent the portable computer as we know it. The current cost of the laptop is around $150.00, the goal is to reduce that price down to $100.00.
Those little machines are a marvel of engineering if you ask me. The laptop comes with WI-FI antenna for wireless access to the Internet and each laptop acts as a wireless router; so the more laptop in an area, the wider the wireless coverage from one access point. There is no hard drive in the system, instead it uses 512Meg of Flash Memory, and LED (Light Emitting Diode) will light up the panel and a processor that draws less than 2W of power. The system consumes next to nothing in power and can operate for more than 6 hours while surfing the web with the backlight LED on. For the areas where they don’t have power, a small cranking device called Yo-Yo a Go-Go was developed. The device was engineered so that very little strength would be necessary to crank the device, taking in consideration that a lot of the kids may not have the strength and endurance to use the device for extended period of time. A microprocessor regulates the voltage even has the speed of the devices slows down, continuously providing a charge to the battery. This is just simply amazing!!!
The list goes on and on with the features and engineering that was put into this device. I would invite you to take 5 minutes and read a little more about what I think is one of the coolest things that have been done for the kids in development countries. The engineering behind this system is nothing short of extraordinary. Take a look at this small video, its well worth it.

New means of Identification

For the longest time, identification systems have been using fingerprint recognition, tissue in the eye’s iris and a person’s voice to securely recognize someone. Although fairly secure, a new mean of recognition could soon be added to the list. Research has been done to use vascular patterns inside someone hands for identification and authentication. Up to now, technology only allowed to read and correctly pick out visible or audible patterns like mentioned above; fingerprint, eye and voice. This new type of biometric identification uses the network pattern of blood vessels in your hands to distinguish people from anyone else’s.

An infrared light source illuminates the back of the hand; as infrared light passes through body tissue, it is reflected by the haemoglobin in the blood. This reflected light picked up by the CCD reveals an image of the blood vessels.

Some businesses, schools, and apartment buildings have already adopted this technology. Companies are also beginning to use the technology to better manage access to their information technology infrastructures. In Japan, many banks have converted ATM machines to feature vascular sensor as an added security feature. Some of the reasons for utilizing vascular pattern over fingerprint are the fact that people don’t have to touch the sensor – a concern for countries where hygiene is of concern.

Unlike fingerprint, vein patterns are not visible to the naked eye and copies aren’t just left behind on surfaces for everyone to take them. This would make it very difficult for fooling the system. On top of things, the data is encrypted and converted to 1 and 0 which makes it practically useless for anyone to use or duplicate. Mathematical algorithms are used to pinpoint the position and center of each blood vessel.

Take it a step further, Hitachi introduced a system that makes it possible to unlock doors simply by grabbing hold of a handle with a vascular pattern sensor mounted on it. Unbelievable what people will think off!

Nanofluids Technology

Back when I was working on my engineering thesis, a friend of mine was telling me all about his research topic on Nanofluids. Not really familiar what Nanofluids were at the time, it picked my curiosity and I started reading a little more on the subject.

Without going in too much technical detail, Nanofluids consist of tiny little metal particles being added to conventional liquids. The idea behind this process is for cooling purposes. Water alone will have somewhat efficient cooling characteristics, but metal has to ability to absorb a lot more heat than water alone. With the two combined, greater cooling capabilities can be achieved; some of the system available act on the same principle as a radiator and have found great use in HVAC systems.

The challenge researchers are currently being faced with is the stability of the molecular structure. Because of the very different chemical characteristics of the two, it makes it difficult for the bond to hold for any extended period of time.

Some of the areas where Nanofluids might be of great interests would be in the cooling of engines, industrial equipment gearboxes or transmissions and maybe even computers. Some of the restrictions imposed on semiconductor engineers are the ability to cool down computer processors’ in the high Gigahertz operating range. Nanofluids would be utilized to cool down the processor thereby allowing much faster processing speed. Although still at the experimental stage for computer, Nanofluids have been successfully implement in the industrial world. The technology is still quite expensive, but with time commercial applications should be more affordable for everyone.

New Cancer Treatment

I was reading an article the other day about new research being done in the field of cure against cancer. The ongoing battle scientist have had with cancer might have a somewhat promising future for both researchers and patients. Imagine zapping a cellular molecule with huge electric discharge that would destroy a specific type of organism, say a malignant tumour for example. This is what researchers have been experimenting with these days.

They are using thousands of volts, four thousand amperes and over one hundred million watts to target specific regions of a body to destroy cancer cells. Those surges of energy are called power pulse and would only be administered for a few billionths of a second; there lies the trick.
This new field of research, bioelectric, is an emerging field of study on its own. It is a combination of two very different fields of study, high voltage engineering and biology. Depending on the path and location of the required treatment, the pulse would be calculated and determined for that specific area. A cell can be compared to an electric circuit made up of tiny electrical components; technically, with the appropriate signal, any part of that cell can be destroyed, where lies the idea of targeting cancerous cells and tumours for treatment.

This is just another great example of what technology has been able to offer and what it might just provide us with over the next decade. Engineers and scientists have done more in the last 15 years than the previous 50 with the advancement of research and development in the field of semiconductors. Thanks to these advancements, we may be one day able to cure all forms of cancer.

Robot Surgeon promise to save lives!

The University of Washington BioRobotics Lab has been working on developing a remote controlled two armed surgical robot to operate on people. The idea for the robot would be to assist in saving lives in remote communities, war zones and disaster areas. A group of surgeons, aerospace engineers and networking experts have been developing the prototype which could eventually become an integrating part of the equipment soldiers would carry around in their armoured vehicle or would be deployed in remote area to help save injured people.

Studies done by the American Military have shown that nearly two third of combat casualties comes within 30 minutes. There is precious little time to perform even simple life saving procedures, such as controlling bleeding.

The medical vehicle that would be equipped with this technology would have the military doctor stationed safely away from the front line perform the operation. This could be done in most time a lot faster than evacuating the injured person to the nearest hospital. Even though it still is in the prototype and research phase, the robotic surgeons would prove to be a life saving device for many. Huge advancement in the robotic and wireless field over the past few years have allowed engineers to make great leap in the development of such technology.

The International Federation of Robotics estimates the number of robots used in surgery and therapy at 2800 units worldwide. These units include the da Vinci surgical system, currently the only commercially available surgical robot approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

A transatlantic experiment was performed with a surgeon in London using a regular Internet connection with iChat and Skype to control a set of robotic arms to perform movement in an attempt to sew up a dummy patient. This was done with free technology available today; new hardware/software development will allow for even better results, but this is a good indication of what is to come in a not too distant future. With the use of unmanned, mobile robotic technology, the U.S. Department of Defence expects to reduce deployed personnel by up to 30% by 2025. And just when we thought we had seen it all.