Life: Expectation and Motivation

Expectation: a belief that someone will or should achieve something is one of the prime reason why people work hard today. They are in expectation that someday something will happen. Similar term that has same kind of meaning is FAITH. The main difference between faith and the expectation is that In FAITH you will wait for your destiny or so called GOD/ LORD to fulfill your wish whereas in expectation you will depend upon some person for something to happen. We expect some people to feel good about ourselves. We expect some people to do something the way we think is good. And in some case you expect someone to behave a certain way with you. but these expectations only leads to disappointment and finally to frustration. We expect from people because we love them. We expect from people because we want to see them happy. We expect from them because you don't want that person to be bad in some ways. But some people are not meant to be expected from. If someone doesn't see any positive vibe in your expectation then let them be in their situation itself. Those people doesn't deserve to be great who take things for granted. Each and every thing in this world is made for special purpose and has a certain level of value. But if someone takes something for granted then they probably don't know what is life. They are so busy in their own limited world that the outer world or outer knowledge seems to be curse for them. This world is highly competitive and if you don't take the right track at the right time then you are going to be one of the losers in this community. So to be a winner we must act as soon as it is possible. Don't waste your time to those people who doesn't see the vibe that universe has given to you. Give yourself enough self respect to move away from people who doesn't see your worth. At the end, You are what you are and it doesn't mean that you are wrong if someone doesn't see your worth.

भूकम्प र नेपाली (कविता)

झट्ट आयौ, झसङ्ग पार्यौ, के भाकी है तिमी ।
बिगार्नु सम्म बिगार्यौ तिमीले, के गोरखा के ठिमी ।।
यत्रा घर लडाइदियौ, मान्छे तिमी कस्ती ।
सबै रून्छन्, तिमी नाच्छौ, उजाड पार्यौ वस्ती ।।
नाच्ने नि तरिका छ, जथाभाबी नाच्यौँ ।
हाम्रो प्यारो धरहरा त्यो, किन तिमीले भाच्यौँ ।।
मान्छे हेर, कति रोका छन्, तिमीलाई आ छ हाँसो ।
हेर के के सखाप पार्यौ, पुर्खाहरूको नासो ।।
ऐया भन्छन्, मरे भन्छन्, कति दु:ख पाउने ।
अरू केही काम छैन तिम्रो, किन बार बार आउने ??
मान्छे मरे, घाइते भा छन्, पाका छैनन् खाना ।
तिम्रा बिगार लेखी लेखी, भरिए कैयौँ पाना ।।
पुग्यो हामीलाई, गर्नु गर्यौ, चुपचाप बस अब ।
बाँच्याले नि राहत पाँउथे, शान्त हुन्छौ जब ।।
आइरहे नि मतलब छैन, टेर्ने छैनौ हामी ।
साहसले त, पुर्खैदेखि कहलिएका नामी ।।
भोकाहरूलाई खाना खुवाउँला,  छत हालौँला गाउँमा ।
यी सब लड्या उठाउनेछौँ, आफ्नो आफ्नै ठाउँमा ।।
पाटन, गोरखा सब बनाउछौँ, पार्छौँ बलियो ठिमी ।
धरहरालाई उठाउनेछौँ, हेरी राख तिमी ।।

-ई. विशाल भण्डारी
२०७१/१/२२, मंगलबार

Nepal Unites (#GoHomeIndianMedia)

Around the globe, many people might exactly know where was Buddha born? And also few more know about the home of the tallest peak of the world ( Mt. Everest ). The country where Gautam Buddha was born is a Himalayan kingdom lying with the great Himalayans at its top and some of the large plains at the bottom. That country having its independent history despite of being between two giants China and India is known as Nepal. Nepalese (also known as Gurkhas) are one of the most bravest people in the world history. Nepalese never celebrate Independent day because we were never under anyone’s rule. We were always independent and always be.

Even the East India Company of British Emperor couldn’t make it into Nepal due to our brave Gurkhas, that’s why we are always celebrated in various countries. Our contribution in world war II was uncomparable. Since then Nepal has always become first priority for United Nations Peace Force.
Wherever any kind of disaster occurs Nepalese are deployed around the globe. In last decade only Nepalese were deployed to help in Gujarat earthquake, Pakistan Landslide, Haiti earthquake and many other places. Even after the giant earthquake of 1954 in Nepal, Nepalese have always united for the sake of humanity and nationality. Whether it is in case of helping people or strengthening nationality, Nepalese are always united.. May it be cricket game (even ICC has praised Nepalese unity in celebrating win or loss), or showing the world our identity (Buddha was born in Nepal campaign), (Electing Prashant Tamang as Indian Idol), (Anuradha Koirala and Pushpa Basnet as CNN hero), (largest human flag) and currently everyone’s involvement in earthquake rescue and relief is more than that can be described in words.
We Nepalese are very strict about our identity and whenever we are tried to pushed away from it, we have bounced back. Either that be (Buddha was born in Nepal Campaign) or (#GoHomeIndianMedia trend), we never compromise with our identity. We have fought a lot and have saved our identity since very long ago. So our identity is more valuable than our lives. So in order to keep our identity raised up, we will do everything to defend it. We have a saying in Nepali “Hati haina, dati ladne nepali ko bani huncha” which means (We Nepalese have an attitude of fighting with troubles instead of running away).
Even in very harsh conditions we have never surrendered our identity and pride and what do you (Indian Media) think, your some shitty news can break our identity and unity. Even those giant earthquakes couldn’t shake our unity, what do you think you people are???
We are very generous people. We give away everything we have in order to save someone’s life. Since we are in the birthplace of Lord Buddha, we are peace loving and like to do our work without interception. So we don’t want interference of any international media and people (especially Indian) in our national affairs. We were and we are capable of solving our problems ourselves. Thanks to everyone who are helping us in this very difficult situation but please help us being in your limit. We appreciate your help not your interference. So please kindly do what you are meant to do. You are not allowed to peek at our internal affairs, else you may lose your eyes. We are one of those countries who have given eyesight (by surgery) to maximum people around the world, so the one who can make also knows how to take. There are other medias from around the globe who are exactly doing what they are meant for. Our country is not the place to shoot your daily serial like news. We want to show reality not fake news. So please indian media be in limit. Once again thanks for your efforts and help in rescuing and relief in our difficult situation.
People are just throwing hashtags now but if again you people try to interfere in our affairs, I am not sure that people may throw stones at you ! Either change your attitude or just return Back. #GoHomeIndianMedia #NepalUnites

How to Help Earthquake Victims of Nepal via Computer

On Saturday, 25th April, 2015 11:56 AM Local time (UTC + 5:45) a biggest tragedy of the century hit the Himalayan kingdom of Nepal. An earthquake of 7.9 Richter scale in magnitude with its epicenter located at Barpak, Gorkha devastated the central region of country effecting more than 15 districts of Nepal. The effect was extreme in the capital city Kathmandu, its valley and surrounding districts like Sindhupalchowk, Nuwakot, Kavrepalanchowk and Dhading. Beyond that several other districts around Kathmandu valley were affected. More than 8 million people were affected by this earthquake and around 300 thousand houses are damaged (partial and complete).

 Many countries like China, USA, Japan, Bhutan, Israel, India, Canada, Pakistan, Bangladesh, New Zealand, Australia and many others have come ahead for rescue as well as for relief efforts. Nepal Army, Armed Police Force and Nepal Police all are providing uncountable efforts to manage the destroyed structures as well as bringing people out of those wrecked and broken structures. Also many youths, elders, actors, officers and various organizations are volunteering for relief efforts. Many people who are out of the affected areas are also eager to help and support in the relief efforts but due to geographic and various other constraints they are not been able to do it. So I have decided to recite some of the ways that anyone with basic computer skills and active internet connection can play some role in helping people indirectly. Few of the ways will be described below:

 1) Mapping: Many of the rescuers in Nepal are not been able to track the actual victims due to lack of proper map. Many roads and free spaces that exist in maps are not exactly in the position they ought to be. Also many structures that are destroyed are also not effectively given. So in order to update maps people who are familiar with those locality can volunteer in updating maps so that rescue team can easily reach their destination. For mapping the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap ( www.hotosm.org/updates/2015-04-26_hot_activities_for_nepal_response_report_2 ) is best to start with. It’s currently mapping Nepal’s road networks, buildings, residential areas, open spaces for the communication for helicopters and rescuers. It has a wiki page ( http://www.wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/2015_nepal_earthquake ) which lists tasks and instructions for anyone with a computer and internet to participate. Or you may refer this Tutorial ( www.learnosm.org/en/beginner/introduction/ ) if you need any assistance.

 2) Facebook Safety check: Right after the earthquake hit Nepal, Facebook activated its very unique function known as “Safety check”. It helps in notifying people about their friends safety status. This check can be checked by yourself or you can also check someone who you know is safe. So this can also help for easier communication.

 3) Google Person Finder: Google also deployed its special search engine named google person finder ( www.google.org/personfinder/2015-nepal-earthquake) that helps in finding people who are missing in Earthquake in Nepal. But in order to make it complete functional, people need to update their status in its database so that anyone who search you can find you easily. This service is currently available via mobile phone too. You can post the status of people who you know are safe as well as also file a missing person. This is also very effective way of finding people’s status from around the globe. Anyone can volunteer in this to update the database of safe and missing peoples. In Nepal: text “Search ” to 6040 In India: text”Search ” to +91-9773300000 In USA: text”Search ” to +1-650-800-3978  

4) Data Analysis: Some of you are also eager of stats about earthquake. So to facilitate these queries Humanitarian Digital Exchange ( www.data.hdx.rwlabs.org/group/nepal earthquake) platform can be useful. It was launched by UN Office for the coordination of Human Affair with the goal of enabling humanitarian agencies to upload, analyse, and share data that can sharpen their ability to target relief efforts. Beyond that you can also analyse the data for extracting some useful informations and share those so that it can lead to easier rescues and relief efforts. 

 5) Tracing Service: You can use the tracing service ( www.familylinks.icrc.org/nepal-earthquake/en/pages/home.aspx ) deployed by ICRC (International Committee of Red Cross). It allows anyone to search for missing relatives or to report that they are alive.  

6) Social Networking: In current days social networking has been the most popular trend among the people of all ages. So if you have some data or information about people who are in need of relief or may be some health or some other issues, you can use your own social network to spread the necessary information so that it can be seen by those who are trying to serve the specific need. You can help by posting those things in pages who are working in the relief efforts. 

 7) Last but not the least you can uplift the people’s confidence and courage by providing them some good form of informative as well as useful medias like videos and pictures. Please note that We Nepalese have always help up our heads in pride so please don’t post anything that can be shameful you and country. 

Instead of being idle, do whatever is possible for victims. Just boosting their confidence is also worth more valuable than just being idle. 

 We had made such great History and we have never learnt to surrender to problems instead we will bounce back.

 Stay calm Nepal, one day again we will RISE up. 

 May God bless Nepal.

(This post is posted by mobile device so links are not properly. please copy the links in bracket and open it in ur browser. Whenever I get chance to get online via PC, I will fix it) 

What is DTH ?

Hello everyone, how are you all?? I hope you all enjoy reading my blogs so I thought of this new topic to help u broaden your knowledge as well as to have fun in your leisure time. But I didn’t see any comments from you. I know you people read my blogs but if you don’t comment then how will I know whats your interest and what am I lacking in?? So whatever you think, excellent, good, satisfactory, poor or anything else, please comment it. It can help me improve the way I write my blogs in future.

DTH, a blooming trend in the present world of infotainment is actually an acronym of Direct To Home. Nowadays its most highly appreciated technology in all around the globe for high quality video transmission. As we have generally seen, it not only can transmit TV and radio, but it is also used for data transfer in several parts of the world. Since it makes use of wireless technology, TV channels are sent to the subscriber's television direct from the satellite eliminating the need for cables and any cable infrastructure. Then how does a DTH works then?? How can we get such high quality pictures via DTH than normal cable distributed TV channels??

Now let me quench the thirst of your curious mind one by one. First lets start with what is DTH ? DTH is generally a satellite television broadcast system. It is a kind of DBS-TV(Direct Broadcast Satellite Television). The TV signal you receive is directly received from the satellite. No intermediate connection is necessary. These TV broadcast are served by geostationary satellite (which is located at 36,785 km above earth surface). Looking at the history it is found that, first direct broadcast of video via satellite was done in the Tokyo Olympic games in 1968. Since then this technology is extensively used commercially in the field of satellite communications. This technology is the greatest source of revenue generation for satellite companies till date.

Although the digital video transmission was used since 1960s, it was not commercially applied. The receiver antenna was large  and the decoding of the signal was also a tedious task. But in 1990s, digital video transmission became feasible. The development of low cost and small sized antennas and receivers, high speed digital integrated circuits, error control mechanisms, encryption and decryption of MPEG format video made the DBS-TV practically realizable. This gave rise to the fully digital DBS-TV which is also known as Direct TV. This Direct TV is commonly called DTH.

Then Hughes Electronics Corporation started commercial use of Direct TV by launching its first satellite for DBS-TV in 1993. The satellite was called DBS-1. After the launch of DBS-1 the company started providing limited service to the civilians. In 1993 and 1994, DBS-2 and DBS-3 was launched. Since then several satellites are launched for DBS-TV transmission. Direct TV was the first brand in the field of DTH and it alone has more than 80 million customers till date. Other giant vendors for DTH transmission are STAR TV, Telestar, Echostar, DISH TV, Astro etc. For more details of DTH vendors click here. These companies provide use of their satellite for the transmission in other small countries.

We all know we have mainly two parts in a general DTH system. An outdoor part i.e. Antenna and another is indoor part i.e Signal decoder also known as “Set top box”. The antenna acts as the signal receiver. In antenna there is a combination of two types of antenna, one is parabolic reflector antenna (the curved shaped metallic plate) and another is feed (generally HORN antenna is used). Feed is kept in front of the parabolic reflector antenna facing towards it. It is the feed, which is directly supplied by the  signal. The parabolic reflector is used just for directivity of signal. In DTH telecast the signals are transmitted in Ku band(10.7 GHz to 18 Ghz) and are received by the subscribers through a small dish antenna (nearly 60 cm diameter) and a set top box. The simplified block diagram of DTH receiving system is shown below.

There is a block in the receiver which verifies the user identity/ account and checks for his balance then only will decode the received signal. In this way the cost control is done.

In addition to TV and radio transmission, some of the companies also provide data facilities. These data are also encoded as encoding of other video and audio signal and is transmitted. The receiving side extracts data from the received signal.

                        Figure: Detailed diagram of DTH transmission

Advantages:

·         Easy installation

·         User friendly

·         Portable and efficient for home user

·         High definition video transmission

·         Reliable

·         Economical

Disadvantages:

·         time delay (normally it has time delay of about 2 seconds, as it is the time required for signal to reach satellite and come back to earth again)

·         disturbed by bad weather.

·         Only one user can be served by one receiver

This was all I could help you understand. Its just introductory article so for more technical details you may contact me or use the references. Thanks for reading.

References:

·         Pratt,T., Bostian,C.W., Allnutt,J.E. “Satellite Communications”.2nd Edition.John Wiley and Sons.

·         http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_To_Home

·         http://www.dishhome.com.np/what-is-dth

Engineering Projects Ideas for New Nepal.....

Engineering, in one word its heart of everything we have today. From a tiny toy to huge skyscrapers, engineering is the core of everything. Generally Engineering is the stream that helps to make people's lifestyle easier nowadays. And according to my personal aspect, Engineering is something that must modify and make lifestyle easier and must no violate humanity and environment features.

During studies of Engineering (especially BE), students must complete a project in order to gain some practical experience in working with the related materials and a team. May be I'm not capable of writing this blog from many aspects, I'm just trying to list out some of the useful techniques and ideas I learnt so that our  juniors will not face the problem I faced. I've compiled a list of all kinds of electronics projects that may be relevant in context of Nepal. I believe in the concept "Don't reinvent the wheel", so I've tried to make a list that may be quiet unique for you guys. And let me tell you clearly that, most of the project ideas are inspired from several incidents, peoples, systems and various sites. I have written this blog in order to facilitate students who are in confusion of choosing a project. As it is said "A journey of miles begins with a single step", I've just taken a little step to make youth innovative. I hope you people will join me and make it large. 

One of my senior said me that "Nepal is the country of problems but that is an opportunity for people like us to do something innovative to develop it." Of course, he was correct. Engineers are called creatures of logic, so being a creature of logic, we must try to find solutions of a certain problems. 

Reinventing the wheel by copying some international developed countries standard, our hard work, talent is total waste. So if we do some activities that can help our community to grow up, our effort will definitely count up someday.

Now without any further delay, i'll take you to our topic. 

According to Nepalese University system, most of the university has requirement of one minor project and one major project. 

Minor project must minimally be able to solve few problems or must be able to do at least one or two tasks. The tasks and problem may be of your choice.

In the other hand, major project must be accomplished by making a complete system comprising of several subsystems. you can use any micro-controller for your project.

And most importantly, both the project must be done in a team. A single student project is not allowed.

Now first of all lets list out the problems in Nepal. And then list out the solutions for it.

Problems in Nepal:

1. Energy Scarcity
2. Health problems
3. Lack of education
4. Traffic
5. Poverty
6. Traditional working pattern
7. Lack of support for disabled people
8. Water supply
9. Slow government works
10. Internet bandwidth
11. Lack of public awareness
12. Lack of digitization
13. and many others......

Just finding out problems and not doing anything is a shame for all technical students. So even all of us just include one of any smallest problem from our society and solve it, that can be a great contribution for development of our country.

Solutions by using Engineering ( Minor Project List):

1. E-portals for government institutions.
2. Automatic Traffic light control based on vehicle pressure
3. Paper free Offices (Centralized Server)
4. Green Industries (industrial waste status indicator)
5. E-Hospital/Online hospital
6. Automated Museum
7. Interactive Displays
8. Pinless Recharge 
9. Water Level Alarm in rivers to detect flooding
10. Automated Irrigation projects
11. Greenhouse projects
12. Patients status monitoring software
13. Online education
14. Solar tracking
15. Power load indicator
16. Digital hoarding boards
17. Wind Mill (Electricity generation by wind)  
18. Mobile shield
19. Intelligent automatic three phase shifter system
20. Ultrasonic mosquito repellant 
21. Automatic staircase lamps
22. Shadow alarms
23. Versatile power supply
24. Vibration Detector
25. Shadow detector with alarm
26. Friendly mobile chargers
27. Automatic timer for DVD players
28. Digital Energy meter 
29. Mobile shield
30. Earthquake sensor
31. Voice controlled circuits
32. Sun-Down switch( Advanced Street light controller)        
33. Visitor counter
34. Pollution controlling Tower ( It filters the solid particles from smoke)
35. Effect of current through a magnetic coil
36. Generation of electricity by moving magnetic field
37. Digital thermometer
38. Digital Hoarding Displays
39. Brake Failure Detector
40. Fuel Reserve Indicator
41. Friendly Energy consumption indicator

More projects and major project lists will be published very soon. And I'd like to humbly resuest all the seniors and experts to contribute project names in comment below. your list will be put on the blog. I hope to get positive response and help from everyone. Thank You!! Lets help Nepalese youth be more innovative and better than students from any country in the world.

Sixth Sense Technology "where virtual world gets into reality"

It’s the beginning of a new era of technology where engineering will reach new milestones. Just like in the science fiction movies where we can display the computer screen on walls, commands are given by our motion, voice etc. The smart digital environment will interact with us to do various tasks and many more. These all virtual visions will be possible very soon. You just imagine it and this new technology will make it possible. Isn't it cool??? Now any idea what I'm talking about?

Yes, definitely I'm talking about sixth sense technology. Lets thank Mr. Pranav Mistry a brain genius and computer and information science expert whose idea and skills introduced this   technology among us. Pranav Mistry is considered as the person who introduced this technology. Mistry is 28 years old PhD candidate in the Fluid Interfaces Group at the MIT Media Lab.

Sixth sense technology is a perception of augmented reality concept. Like senses enable us to perceive information about the environment in different ways it also aims at perceiving information. Sixth sense is in fact, about comprehending information more than our available senses. And today there is not just this physical world from where we get information but also the digital world which has become a part of our life.

Technically speaking, Sixth sense technology is such a technology that interprets human actions (gestures) and performs according to it. Such action may be due to any kind of bodily movement like hand, face etc. This technology converts human actions into several kinds of algorithms and processes it. This technology is also described as technology bridging virtual world with reality. Simplest form of this technology is smile detector in most of digital camera nowadays.  In TED talks, he has explored this technology along with its horizon of use. He has also described that how this technology can change the way of living of modern world. His TED talk video can be watched here :  

Now let me explain, how this sixth sense technology works.

The Sixth Sense prototype contains a projector. This projector is generally very small. The prototype also includes a mirror and a camera. These both too are very small and portable. All of these three components are assembled together in a pen like device. This device can be put on like garland on our neck.  Both the projector and the camera are connected to a mobile computing device. This computing device is generally kept inside the user’s pocket. The projector projects visual information enabling surfaces, walls and physical objects around us to be used as interfaces, while the camera recognizes and tracks users' hand gestures and physical objects using computer-vision based techniques. 

Beyond this hardware part, the software part also plays a very important role in this technology. As all the data processing and output calculation is done via software, the use of software is greatly appreciable. In this technology, the user who gives command will have put on several color bands on his finger tips. Reading this color bands position, the computing devices determines what symbol does the gesture refers to. The software program processes the video stream data captured by the camera and tracks the locations of the colored markers or bands at the tips of the user’s fingers. The movements and arrangements of these bands are interpreted into gestures that act as interaction instructions for the projected application interfaces. This Sixth Sense technology prototype supports multi-touch and multi-user interaction at once. This can perform several task at one by single gesture.

As far as today, this technology prototype is successfully tested in various interfaces for several purposes like:

• Showing time

• Checking boarding pass

• Reading books

• Clicking photos

         And many more…………..

Some examples shown in his TED talks are:

•  You pick up a book and hold it in front of you. You see, projected onto its cover, reader ratings and reviews.

• When you want to check the time, you draw a circle on your left wrist; the projector displays a clock right on your arm.

•  You hold up your boarding pass; the words DELAYED 20 MINUTES or ON TIME are beamed onto it.

•  You hold up your left hand, fingers pointing to the right. The system recognizes that you want to make a call, and projects a dialing pad onto your fingers. You tap the virtual keypad with your right hand to dial the call.

• You hold your fingers out at arm’s length forming a square, the way a cliché Hollywood director does to frame a scene. The system snaps a photo of what’s enclosed by your fingers. Later, you can sort, resize and fiddle with these photos by projecting them onto any wall and dragging their images with your fingertips, à la Microsoft Surface.

•  You run into a guy at a party. The system projects his name and Facebook keywords onto his T-shirt, so you can remember who he was and start a conversation.

Isn't this technology really cool??

So how do you think about my blog reading this? Please comment it below, no matter you liked it or disliked it. Thanks for reading.
For more details about Sixth sense technology, click here

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SixthSense

http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/11/at-ted-virtual-worlds-collide-with-reality/

http://www.engineersgarage.com/articles/sixth-sense-technology

http://www.ted.com/talks/pranav_mistry_the_thrilling_potential_of_sixthsense_technology.html

Agri-Electronics: A GREEN REVOLUTION for Nepal

Nepal needs no introduction. It’s the country of Mt. Everest along with a lot of other several natural gifts. So let me introduce Nepal naturally in brief once again. Nepal is a country which has a variety of natural resources in a large amount. Mountains, rivers, forests, animals, birds are gift of nature to Nepal. Since it is land with very rich natural resources, most of the population here (about 78% according to the mid yearly census report of 2063 B.S.) is involved in agriculture. So it is clear that most of the food (grains, vegetables, dairy products etc) consumed throughout the country is harvested in Nepal itself. But still the food is not enough for whole population. Why??

Now the point is why did I choose this topic then? Honestly, I’m fascinated about implementing engineering in Agriculture since my very childhood. And nowadays I saw many electronics engineering students doing their projects on agriculture related issues. Students are doing projects on artificial greenhouse automation, irrigation system, advanced poultry farm, automated farming etc. So I thought, if we commercially use these projects and implement it, I think our country will take a great leap in the path of success. I’m not writing this blog regarding my knowledge only. I’ve read several reports, articles and also I’ve interviewed many people to prepare this blog.

Farmers toil hard in the field to feed the world, but due to several consequences they are unable to yield the result they wanted. So in order to achieve that result, science and nature must unite. Agriculture engineers are there to design and develop equipments for agriculture. Then what is agri-electronics?

Why is it necessary?

Agri-electronics is an emerging and multi-disciplinary frontier of advanced research that takes convergent and holistic look at all the related areas in agricultural sector. It ensures optimal induction of IT and electronics for improvement in agriculture. [1]   This can create a sort of green revolution for the improvement of traditional agriculture system. In a country like Nepal , where more than 75% people are involved in agriculture, agri-electronics can be the turning point for agricultural development. The latest practice adopted worldwide is precision agriculture. It implies knowledge-based agriculture employing latest techniques of science and technology bringing both together diverse fields – agronomy, plant science, soil science, entomology, metrology, weed science, plant pathology, ecology, water technology, environment and economics- to deal with complex issues of production, distribution pricing and marketing.[1]

What can we do then?

We as an electronics engineers can develop efficient and economical systems for implementation in agricultural sector. To deal with all above tasks and complexities we can use software, embedded systems, sensors etc. Presently Nepal is lacking ICT experts for agriculture technology. So you can be the one. Various solutions can be developed in context of Nepal. Some of them are listed below.

·     Wireless plantation control system so that plantation can be done in extreme weather.

·     Database and proper online market for farmers.

·     Intelligent irrigation system for proper irrigation.

·     Artificial greenhouse control for various off-season vegetables and crops.

·     Quality sensor for soil. i.e. sensor that keeps eye on the quality (pH and other chemical factors).

·     Production control system to determine the accurate time of crop harvest.

·     ePest surveillance system

·     wireless sensor network for agricultural management

·     pest and fertilizer control system

·     Production surveillance system to keep eye on plant and their production from time to time.

These were some probable systems and solutions that can be done in case of Nepal. The world has marched much ahead than our imagination. Even our neighboring nation India too has marched ahead in the field of agri-electronics. They have used agri-electronics for almost every kind of agricultural tasks.

Some of the devices and systems they have developed are:

 (Note: all of these Indian systems are derived from EFY. 2011 ):

1.   Electronic nose for aroma characterization of tea:

It uses array of sensors to recognize a definite pattern of aroma. This is used in Tea industries for quality assurance of final product.

2.   Electronic Vision for tea:

It uses digital image processing to determine the color of fermented tea leaves during tea fermentation.

3.   Electronic tongue for Tea:

It compares the taste of tea for quality assurance.

4.   GSM based remote operation of agricultural equipment:

It uses GSM based cell phone to control various agricultural equipments like water pump, plant trimmer etc. It has interactive voice response system (IVRS) so that the farmer will get no problem using it.

5.   ePest surveillance system:

It collects data and plant samples from the farm in order to determine about the health of the crops.

6.   Plantation management using wireless sensor network:

This collects data about soil properties, agronomic data, physiochemical properties and searches similar property in internet or database and compares it with the most suitable farming in that sector. This can increase crop yielding.

WSN (wireless sensor network) can be used in irrigation control, fertilizer management and pest management.

If the world can march so fast in the field of agri-electronics, then why can’t we do it although we are in agricultural country? Can’t we use our skills and knowledge to improve Nepalese farming and farmer’s lifestyle? Time has come to think friends.. Let’s hope this GREEN REVOLUTION will soon start in Nepal and bring a new trend in Nepalese traditional agriculture system. I am ready to give my full effort for this green revolution. Are you ready???  This was all I could say.. Again please comment whatever you think about this blog. Thanks for reading. If    you like the blog pleae share it. for continuous update, please follow this blog. JAI NEPAL !!!!!!!! 

Reference:

1.   Dr. N. Bhattacharya. “AGRI-ELECTRONICS- The emerging Frontier of Advanced Research”. EFY. 2011

2.   Mid census report 2063, Nepal Statistics Bureau

3.   Ministry of Agriculture, Nepal

©Bishal Bhandari

CRYOELECTRONICS – “low temperature electronics”

Have you ever tested keeping your digital wrist watch in the deep freezer of the refrigerator? If not then let me tell you that the watch will stop functioning. Now a question may arise in your mind, Does this mean, people in north and south pole don’t use digital clock?? The answer is “NO”. They do put the digital watch. Now you think, if digital clock doesn’t function in low temperature then how does this happen? (Now you use your brain to find the reason, I’ll say the answer at the end of this blog  )

Now I think you all have got a little about what I am going to explain in my blog.

Do you know what the temperature at the space is? -150°C at the orbit of Jupiter, -230°C at the orbit of Pluto and below -55°C to -65°C at the moon, Mars and other asteroids. In this extreme low temperature, our conventional electronics is of no use. Thus researchers are pioneering a technology called “CRYOELECTRONICS” which is also referred as “Low temperature Electronics”.  Now what is CRYOELECTRONICS then?

Cryoelectronics is made up of the combination of two words. “Cryo” and “Electronics”, among which  ‘Cryo’ is again derived from greek word “kryo” which means ‘icy cold’ or ‘frost’. So simply we can consider cryoelectronics as the low temperature electronics. Generally cryoelectronics deals with the production of low temperature electronic devices. Cryoelectronic materials have high carrier mobility and gives high reliability in low temperature. Their temperature tolerance ranges from -150°C to -273°C. Examples of these devices include complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) diodes and field effect transistors (FETs).

Conventional electronics not useful for space, why??

As we now already know that space has extremely low temperature. All the research in spaces can be done only with the help of space ships. Electronics is very essential part of spacecraft as the spacecrafts needs sensors, cameras, wireless data transmitter, control systems. All of these are electronics devices and systems. Thus without electronics the space program is a body without the soul.

Now the point to see is, our traditional electronics which are made up of semiconductors works only between temperatures from -65°C to 125°C. But since our space has temperature more cold than -65°C, In such case our whole electronic system will not function. Thus there is necessity of such technology which can go beyond the extremity of temperature and perform. Thus the concept of Cryoelectronics arose.

One idea could help us to use conventional electronics in space. We can put thermal source for low temperature applications so that the device remains at the normal temperature despite of being of surrounding temperature. But this seems quiet impractical as we need more power to run those thermal sources. This will make electronic devices heavy, bulky and complex too.

How does Cryoelectronics work?

Cryoelectronic materials are generally derived from semiconductors like arsenic, germanium and gallium arsenide, CMOS, high temperature co-fired silicon, amorphous silicon and superconductors. Superconductivity is a state of matter in which the thermal, electric and magnetic properties of many elements, compounds and alloys become drastically changed from its original one when cooled to exceedingly low temperatures. Such elements become superconductor at such low temperature.

Hundreds of materials are known to become superconductors at low temperatures. Aluminium, Tin, Zinc, Lead, Idium, Mercury are few examples of elements which act as superconductors in their crystallographic forms at atmospheric pressure. Not only elements, but alloys and compounds like disilver fluoride or silver subfluoride (Ag2F), compound of carbon and potassium (C8K) and some semiconducting compounds like tin telluride (SnTe) can become superconductors if properly infused with impurities.

Applications

Nowadays cryoelectronics is widely being used in space programs. NASA - The most leading space agency in the world is also using cryoelectronics in development of various devices. NASA is now using semiconductor switching devices, magnetic capacitors, digital to analogue and analogue to digital converters (ADC and DAC)s, operational amplifiers, oscillators, control circuits, power circuits based on cryoelectronics.

Advantages of cryoelectronics are:

1        Increased circuit speed

2        Low power dissipation

3        Fast switching

4        High thermal conductivity

5        Reduction in thermally induced failures

6        Reduced operating power supply

7        Improved digital and analogue circuit performance (based upon noise margin, switching and gain band-width)

Due to these advantages cryoelectronics is nowadays applied in outer space satellites, cosmic radiation detectors, UV (ultraviolet) and IR (Infrared) ray detectors, medical instruments, high speed circuits, dynamic Random Access Memories (RAMs) and organic electronics.

Nowadays many people are involved in more improvement and further research on cryoelectronics. You can also choose your career in the field of cryoelectronics. Best of Luck.

If you like the post, please share to your friends and please comment so that I can detect my good points, else too please comment so that I will know my faults.

(Answer Of question asked in the first paragraph:

It is explained in Why conventional electronics will not work’s last paragraph. The watch is always put on wrist. No matter whatever the outer temperature is, your body temperature normally remains at 37°C i.e. 98°F, thus our body will act as thermal source for the watch and keep it in normal temperature. Thus the watch works.)

Reference:

Adkoli, V.R.  “Low temperature Electronics for space.” EFY.2012

©Bishal Bhandari