Radio frequency Identification -Life becomes easy when magnets play for you

How difficult it will be to track each and every part manufactured from a production line? How messy would be the scene when all the cabs are parked outside the airport blocking the traffic? But here we have RFID tags which have made our life easier. From industrial workshops to shopping malls we have their presence everywhere. Now these tags have made our life even easier with Govt. of India planning to make use of RFID tags to collect taxes after GST.

What is Radio- Frequency?

A radio frequency (RF) signal refers to a wireless electromagnetic signal used as a form of communication. RF waves occur naturally from sun flares, lightning, and from stars in space that radiate RF waves as they age. Humankind communicates with artificially created radio waves that oscillate at various chosen frequencies. RF communication is used in many industries including television broadcasting, radar systems, computer and mobile platform networks, remote control, remote metering/monitoring, and many more. A radio-frequency identification system uses tags, or labels attached to the objects to be identified.

RADIO FREQUENCY IDENTIFICATION

Let’s know what RFID actually is and its working using an example -:

Consider a workshop which produces parts of a car, so we have to make the input (steel bar) pass through 10 machines to make it a finished part . We have to produce hundreds of such parts everyday and just imagine how difficult it would be to keep track of each and every part every time it passes through a machine, just attach a RFID tag and you will have to do nothing but just to check your computer to track the part and its details. 

Yes, RFID uses electromagnetic frequencies to transfer data from a tag to a receiver. Here when we attach RFID tags to our parts, the tag stores information such as the part name, part no. and other info and we have receivers which tap the info and store it in the computer.

The first patent to be associated with the abbreviation RFID was granted to Charles Walton in 1983. Surprisingly RFID was used during WW-2 to identify weather the aircraft were friend or foe. 

Some common uses of RFID are-:

•  Industries, workshops & assembly lines.
•  Shopping outlets ( Eg- Tag attached to the clothes)
•  Collecting toll taxes from vehicles.
•  For virtual queues.

The E- Way bill to hit markets by October

The GST council has introduced the E-way bill system a electronic way bill for movement of goods which can be generated on the GSTN (common portal). A ‘movement’ of goods of more than Rs 50,000 in value cannot be made by a registered person without an e-way bill. When an e-way bill is generated a unique e-way bill number (EBN) is allocated and is available to supplier, recipient, and the transporter

Once the supplier has paid the tax, he obtains a E-way bill and a RFID tag that has the information about the supplier, supply, cost and taxes. The obtained tag is now fixed to the vehicle and the historic and tiring blockages in the inter- state borders are now eliminated, once the vehicle passes through a receiver the data related to the goods it carries is transferred to a computer and the waiting time is eliminated.

So, we can see how RFID has changed the way a logistics business works by providing the position of the goods supplied. This would not just give the current information about the goods being transported but also provide a sense of comfort to the suppliers who were also worried about the goods they were earlier supplying. 

References

1. www.wireless-technology-advisory
2. economictimes.indiatimes.com
3. www.servicetaxonline.com

Note: The views expressed here are those of the author’s and not necessarily represent or reflect the   views of DoT Club as a whole.

Guest Lecture Unleashed - A Lecture by Dr. Dinesh Chandrasekhar on "Disruptive Technologies for the Digital Nation"

A good lecturer is an artist.

- Lecturing is a type of art.

D.O.T Family warmly welcomed a person with around 18+ years of progressive Technology & Consulting experience in CRM/CX Cloud, MDM and Digital Technologies such as Cloud, Big-data Analytics, IoT(Internet of things) & Artificial Intelligence - Dr. Dinesh Chandrasekhar as a guest to give an informational lecture on “Disruptive Technologies for the Digital Nation”. He started with a brief introduction on himself which was an amazing description a person can give on oneself. 

He started as a journalist, analyst. He had worked with GE. He is currently part of the Global Solution and Innovation (GSI) Group of Hitachi Consulting, The “A” Team which is leading the Innovation and development of global solutions in 4 Pillar technologies such as Cloud, Digital Transformation, IoT & Big Data Analytics & AI across industries. With 14 years of experience in Hitachi and a work experience with clients across the Globe this person is a good orator in himself. He was sent to Saudi Arabia for work instead of The US. 

He spoke a lot about disruptive technologies and how India is getting digitized. The applications like BHIM and CISF Mobile App are examples to support digitization. He talked about mutant innovation. Giving or showing us the examples of teenagers who have worked wonders in some fields of technology which motivated the audience to do something great in their lives. He mentioned some companies like Astro, Spectral Insights and Ecolibrium which are working in fields of space technology, healthcare and energy respectively. 

He also spoke about how new innovations in CCTV have helped the whole nation with theft as there are machines now which can not only capture images of people roaming all around like in a CCTV but also find criminals in that hush of people. The technology in all the countries is improving by leaps and bounds and it is the need of an hour for any nation to progress. He talked about automation and how robots would take most of our manual jobs till 2025. He gave a lot many live examples from his journey in Hitachi working as a technology expert in that company. 

Every lecturer wants to tell a lot many things, share a lot many experiences but time remains the only constraint. Because of less time even our guest had to cut short his lecture but the knowledge and the information we got from whatever was explained was unmatched. The D.O.T Family wholeheartedly takes this privilege to thank Dr. Dinesh to take some time out from his busy schedule to come back to the institute from where he pursued his own masters and give a guest lecture.

Everything on demand

“Start where you are,

  Use what you have,

  Do what you can.”

With this motto in mind many E-commerce websites and applications have been launched in past one and a half year to help people sail through this concept of everything on demand. What does everything on demand mean? In simple words whatever a person requires he/she can get that from online sites and applications and on just a click they can place their order and within a stipulated time period enjoy the product once they receive it. So this platform has just made people’s life easier, happier and much simpler. The use of E-commerce websites comes with much ease in the context of their usage. People all over the world now know how to shop online and this has brought to the ease of using these applications and the Internet.

Technology has played a major role in E-commerce. The impact that tech-savvy customers are having on E-commerce world is not just stronger than ever, it’s faster than ever. Today people are inclined towards learning about the usage of new applications and wanting to use them thus increasing the usage of these sites. Gone are the days when people used to be scared in their own little world about not placing an order online due to security issues and risk. Nowadays people from all age groups are happily ordering things online on just one click.

You name it, they have it is the motto they follow. From clothes, groceries, medicines, food deliveries, to taxi services everything is just one click away. For clothes- Flipkart, Myntra, Jabong, Voonik and many more, for food deliveries- Food Panda, Zomato, Swiggy and many more, for taxi services- Ola, Uber, Meru, for medicines- MedPlus, Medlife, Pharmacy. Competition has increased a lot due to frequent entrants in this field. People are always confused from where to buy and hence consumer loyalty for one particular application is zero. People nowadays can compare the prices easily on various sites and then they make the buying decision. The lowest price offering site then wins the battle.

Technology and internet has taken away the business of retail sellers. Instead, technology today is helping customers keep track of their purchases, and altering the ways in which those consumers interact with online retailers. Brands no longer have to wait for people to come to a brick and mortar store but rather visit any site or that brand’s application and buy clothes from then and there itself. This all has reduced people’s interaction with outside world. These applications are beneficial but are they not making people phone bound or internet bound? The process of online ordering reduces time and is user friendly but the touch and feel option would be available to customers only if they go out in open market and explore the things they want to buy. Now, businesses can reach consumers everywhere. Even when customers aren't shopping, retailers can still be on their minds. The constant presence of a brand’s app on a customer's phone reminds him or her that that brand is out there, as an option. What’s more, location-enabled interactions, which deliver messages to customers who enter shops, are getting customers offline back into actual stores.

Today technology has reached its pinnacle because now even if we don’t carry our money along, we can store it in our phone in some app like Paytm or Freecharge. These applications have made people’s life easier and tension free. Looking into the recent example of demonetization when Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes were banned, people who have Paytm used it immensely as it is a very easy to use app. In some unforeseen situations or circumstances technology has always helped people to maintain a proper balance in this economy. 

Why are people using everything on demand services? 

Because personalized customer experience is growing. The fact that consumers want personally relevant shopping experiences is nothing new. 

What is new?

It's the fact that technology is making personalization a  standard. These marketing techniques are becoming a popular method for those looking to build a loyal customer base. With the advent of mobile personal assistants, e-commerce sites are realizing that automated services no longer cut it.

To better serve customers, e-commerce sites are finding that they must adapt to the new customer service standards set by technological improvements. This means servicing customers on the various channels they have access to while creating different channels to expand their reach.

Brand websites, email, Facebook, Twitter and even Instagram are all being used by customers to connect with brands. So this is a vicious circle of everything on demand. First it will capture you with its ease and simplicity and then it will never let you go off its hook.



References:

1. https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/288149
2. https://www.theguardian.com/small-business-network/2015/feb/06/how-mobile-ecommerce-changing-fashion-industry

Note: The views expressed here are those of the author’s and not necessarily represent or reflect the views of DoT Club as a whole.

Hawk-Eye System in Sports

What comes in your mind when you hear the word ‘sports’? Well, probably athletic people in their Jerseys, teams with trophies or your favourite player. If you agree, perhaps you are myopic, because, just like we say ‘there is something more than meets the eye’ in the case of sports, it is the conspicuous presence of technology.

As of today, technology can track the trajectory of a ball and display a record of its statistically most likely path as a moving image; this is named the Hawk-Eye system. It has now been accepted as an impartial second opinion in sports and has also been accepted by governing bodies for Tennis, Cricket and Football. We say this is the technical era, but technology’s occupancy in sports dates back to the 19th century. In the early 1936, Electrical scoring system was introduced. Some years later the first use of instant replay took place during a Canadian broadcast and soon became a key technology for officials. Referee microphone, chip timing, pitch tracking and so many more inventions followed. Hawk-Eye was developed in the UK by Paul Hawkins. It was first implemented in 2001 for television purposes in cricket where it displayed the video from 6 different angles.

How does a Hawk-Eye Operate?

Each one of us has witnessed the flawless contribution of Hawk-Eye in cricket. Many a times there comes a situation in cricket when the decision goes to hands of the third empire, we the get to see a visual in our televisions which shows the whole trajectory of the ball and also whether it would hit the stumps or not. This is nothing but Hawk-Eye in full fledged action.

All Hawk-Eye systems are based on the principles of triangulation.Triangulation is the process of determining position of a point by forming triangles to it from known points. These points are located using the visual images and timing data provided by a number of high-speed video cameras located at different locations and angles around the area of play. The system rapidly processes the video feeds by a high-speed camera. All the data is stored in the predefined game model which contains a predefined model of the playing area and includes data on the rules of the game.

In each frame sent from each camera, the system identifies the group of pixels which corresponds to the image of the ball. It then calculates for each frame the 3D position of the ball by comparing its position on at least two of the physically separate cameras at the same instant in time. Each frame builds the path along which the ball travelled. The system generates a graphic image of the ball path and playing area, which means that information can be provided to judges, television viewers or coaching staff.

When the Hawk-Eye went down

Although Hawk-Eye system has been trusted and embraced in sports like Cricket and Football, its precision in Tennis has fallen short. Its Statistical margin of error or in layman language the difference between actual trajectory and Hawk-Eye trajectory was large enough to criticize its performance. Moreover, its prediction of balls trajectory after bouncing in Cricket has also been questioned by many.

Hawk-Eye in spotlight

Cricket:
In winter of 2008/2009 ICC installed the Hawk-Eye referral system wherein if the teams were dissatisfied, they could demand referral with Hawk-eye.

Tennis:Hawk-Eye was tested by International Tennis Federation and passed for professional use too. It was used in television coverage for Wimbledon, Queens’s club championship, Davis Club and Tennis Masters Cup.

Others:In Football, Hawk-Eye informs the referee whether the ball fully crosses the goal line or not.
In Snooker when the shots went awry, Hawk-Eye was used to demonstrate the actual shot intended by the player. Moreover, Hawk-Eye was also used in Badminton and Australian Football.

The Hawk-Eye technology came about bringing a revolution in sports. Sports are fairer and the chances of errors in decision have fallen ever since this technology has surfaced. In the end when the human eye misses the Hawk-Eye clenches.

References:

1) https://www.hawkeyeinnovations.com/sports/cricket
2) www.topendsports.com
3) www.bostonglobe.com
4) www.youtube.com
5) www.hire-intelligent.co.uk

Note: The views expressed here are those of the author's and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of DOT as a whole.