GSM World

At the 3GSM World Congress held in Barcelona in February, initiatives were taken to promote this upcoming trend. From the first ever premiers of short Bollywood movies on cell phones to unveiling movies made for cell phones, the event set the bugle for the emergence of cell phones as the fourth screen.

When the world’s largest entertainment industry begins taking serious business. As a part of Bollywood mobile initiative, two short films, zahir and Matrimony, Directed by sanjay Gupta of Kaante and zinda fame were prenmiered at the event. The movies are a part of ‘Dus Kahaniyaan’, a compilation of 10 short films. The initiative is promoted by Roam ware-global flaming and value-added solutions provider, Hungama-the developers, aggregators and publishers ofo Indian entertainment and Bollywood content and the GSM Association. “Next generation home theatres will be the size ofo a cellphone,” said Neeraj Roy, CEO, Hungama Mobile.

Another mention worthy initiative was the tken by the Sundance Institute. Founded by Robert Redford, the institute supports and promotes artists and filmmakers from across the world.

O2’s flame to fame

O2 showcased its day flame at the event. Its wide 3.6 inch VGA display caught our eye at once. Knowing that the device has been equipped with an NVIDIA Go force chip, we expected it to have a superior graphics quality. And we were not disappointed after we switched it on for a first hand experience. The graphics are meme rising and the Flame would be a boon for mobile gaming enthusiasts (thanks to the large display). The handheld supports TV out support as well and we are sure people wouldn’t mind watching TV and movies on the wide screen.

Other features include 3G support, extendable memory up to 2GB and a 2 megapixel camera. Apart from the flame, the Xda Atom Life was also put up on display at the exposition.

The juiciest Berry

There was no way Research in Motion could have escaped the race for being slim. At the 3GSM World Congress, they launched what they are claiming to be their slimmest Smartphone-the BlackBerry 8800. The quad-band device is slim only in terms of the literal width. It packs in a wide array of features like GPA (including BlackBerry maps), noise cancellation, speaker and independent voice recognition for voice activated dialing. Other features include multimedia support for voice and data applications like e-mail and text messaging.

The device has a QVGA display along with a built-in light sensing technology that automatically adjusts the brightness. The famous trackball navigation brings with it the ease of navigation.

Microsystems

Microelectronics has been around for some time now. On the drawing boards are experiments to put sensors and actuators on the same chip. Novel sensors and actuators will enable whole new application domains that are not possible based on the conventional technology solutions.

Microsystems and nanotechnology are the next frontiers. It is very important for India to establish a leadership role in this emerging area. A National Programme on Micro and Smart Systems will specifically look at three application areas – automobile, aerospace and bio-sensors.

“At the micro level, physics of the material will not change,” said Dr Atre. However, at the nano level the physics changes. As you are assembling nano devices atom by atom, simple things like color change. Gold, for instance will have a different color at the nano level. Physical properties will also change.

Chemical Sensors

Nanotechnology can even be used to combat terrorism. Chips with chemical sensors can be deployed at any place and which will detect the small vapour given out by explosives. It works on a principle called EGFET (Extended Gate Field Effect Transistor). A transistor in a chip is exposed to some chemicals. Depending on how the chemicals behave at the gate of the transistor, the current through the transistor changes thus enabling a compact chemical detector.

The transistor gate is functionalised with an appropriate sensor film that is exposed to the environment and it can then detect the corresponding target materials like RDX.

Slimmer than the slimmest

Samsung’s Ultra Edition I series devices that were launched in India in 2006, took the market by a storm. The devices defied the 10mm benchmark of cell phones. For the uninitiated, the 10mm bench meant that it was not possible to include many features in a waistline as thin as 10mm. Beaming with pride at the success of I its Ultra Edition I series, Samsung showcased of its Ultra Edition ill series at the exposition. Comprising four handsets-SGHU600 and SGH U700 (sliders), SGH U300 (a clamshell) and the SGH U100 (a candy bar the series has it all. With a waistline of 5.9mm, the Samsung U100 is the kind of features that it has. The tri-band EDGE enabled device sports a 3.2 megapixel camera.

Further to Samsung’s partnership with Yahoo! The handset also packs in the Yahoo’s search engine and its instant messenger. Other features like uGo, uMenu, utrack and A2DP profile for Bluetooth are also packed in the slim form factor.

Beyond Music

Though the N918GB has been developed keeping music as the core element, the telephony aspect hasn’t been ignored. It is a 3G device and also boasts of Wi-Fi connectivity, which is rarely provided on a music phone. The 2 megapixel camera is decent though we have seen better onboard cameras. The battery backup is impressive and it managed to see us through two days with around two hours of internet browsing and almost four hours of music playback.

However, keeping the Bluetooth turned on and using a pair of stereo Bluetooth turned headsets to listen to music cuts the backup by half, which is understandable.

The N91 8GB would score over Sony Ericsson’s W950i in terms of its internal memory and onboard camera.

Wow! Tech a Look Part – 4

R&D in energy is critical to realise this ambitious target and thus meet development goals. Given the difficulties in procuring fossil fuel supplies, there is a need to direct R&D to more efficient way of distribution and consumption, development of substitutes to fossil fuels and adopting commercial low carbon high-efficiency technologies that extract and use coal, our most abundant primary resource.

Apart from coal, there is need for a mission on bio-energy that would include bio-diesel from non-edible oils such as Jatropha and Karanj. On the other side, storage technology is important for using intermittent sources of power and for the automotive sector.

India’s theoretical solar power potential (600TWA) is several folds above its current total energy consumption. However, much needs to be done to develop this into cheap energy. The impediment here is high cost. There are interesting developments that could lead to big gains in thin films solar cells with the potential for nearly 45 percent sunlight-to-electricity conversion efficiency appears feasible through this route.

Wow! Tech a Look Part – 3

The overall efficiency of energy consumed is lost or wasted in the process of conversion from raw materials such as coal to the final energy services. In India, currently the total installed power generation capacity is 143,311 MW, derived as thermal power from coal, gas and oil(64.6 percent), hydro power (24.7percent) and as renewable energy (7.4percent). Nuclear energy component is still rather low (2.9 percent). To meet energy needs till 2032, at the very least, India needs to increase primary energy supply 3 to 4 times and electricity generation capacity/supply by 5 to 6 times of current levels. By 2032, power generation capacity must increase to nearly 800,000 MW from the current capacity of around 160,000MW.

R&D in energy is critical to realise this ambitious target and thus meet development goals. Given the difficulties in procuring fossil fuel supplies, there is a need to direct R&D to more efficient way of distribution and consumption, development of substitutes to fossil fuels and adopting commercial low carbon high-efficiency technologies that extract and use coal, our most abundant primary resource.

Wow! Tech a Look Part - 2

Science and technology development as an engine of growth for India has several facets, some of which have been mentioned earlier. One Key element relates to the creation of the modern infrastructure. This includes, among other things, transportation systems, communication systems, power, and urban and rural infrastructure.

Each one of them poses unique challenge, not only in installation, commissioning and operation but also in research and development. These R&D efforts encompass very broad-spectrum of technologies and engineering endeavors. To give a flavor of the breadth and depth of such challenging demands, we pick up energy as a case in point.

The demand for energy has grown enormously since the middle of the last century. As world population grew 3.2 times between 1850 and 1970, precipitate use of industrial energy grew nearly 20-fold. Due to fast depletion, increasing cost and environment issues with fossil fuels, alternative and renewable sources of energy have become important.

Total energy use is skewed towards the developed world. Though per capita commercial energy consumption in low income countries has more than doubled, 15 percent of the world’s population in the industrialized nations consume over half the energy produced.

Wow! Tech a look

Technology has advanced more in the last half a century than in the previous 2,000 years. History has shown that modern economic growth has been inspired by a rapid and persistent upgrading of technology and scientific know-how. One third to half the growth of the industrially advanced countries is estimated to have come from technological prgress.

Unlike invention, innovation consists of practical application of invention. Innovation is essentially the task of the entrepreneur. And India is on the way to becoming a major player in global innovation. This in turn implies adoption of technology foresight to make the right technology choices with a national perspective; establish a robust innovation ecosystem; and leverage international cooperation to reinforce our own innovative strategies.

India is already displaying its innovative capabilities in manufacturing, bio-technology and even at the grassroots level. A dramatic recent example is the Tata Nano, which through innovations in design, engineering and manufacturing has created the world’s first low-cost, mass-produced car. The real benefit of India’s scientific and technological talent pool is not just in terms of scalability, high-levels skills and comparatively low-costs, but in its innovative capabilities.