Suhani Jain, Author at Your Tech Story

MIT engineers create a wireless underwater camera without batteries

According to some estimates by scientists, more than 95 per cent of the earth’s ocean has never been observed, meaning we have seen less of our planet’s ocean than the far side of the moon or Martian surface. One major challenge which prevents widespread undersea exploration is the high expense of powering a wireless underwater camera for a long time. If we do that now, it will require tethering it to a research vessel or regularly sending a ship to repower the batteries.

Some engineers from MIT have taken a giant step to deal with this problem by creating an ultra-efficient battery-free and wireless underwater camera. It is approximately 1,00,000 times more energy-efficient than the other undersea cameras. This device can take colour photos and transmit image data even in the dark underwater environment wirelessly through the water.

The feature that makes this autonomous camera extraordinary from the other underwater cameras is that it is powered by sound meaning it converts mechanical energy into electrical energy from sound waves travelling through water which powers its communications and imaging equipment. The camera also utilizes sound waves to transmit data to a receiver that can rebuild the image after capturing and encoding the image data.

Since it does not need a power source, the camera could operate for weeks on end before retrieval this would allow scientists to explore remote parts of the ocean pollution or supervise the growth and health of fish raised in the aquaculture farms.

“One of the most exciting applications of this camera for me personally is in the context of climate monitoring. We are building climate models, but we are missing data from over 95 per cent of the ocean. This technology could help us build more accurate climate models and better understand how climate change impacts the underwater world,” says Fadel Adib, senior author of a new paper on the system. He is an associate professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and director of the Signal Kinetics group in the MIT Media Lab.
Source: scitechdaily.com

Other co-lead authors and signal kinetics group research assistants joining Adib on the paper are Sayed Saad Afzal, Osvy Rodriguez, Waleed Akbar, research scientist Unsoo Haa and former group researchers Mario Doumet and Reza Ghaffarivardavagh. The paper is published in the ‘Nature Communications journal on 26th September 2022.

Going Battery Free

Scientists needed a camera that could run autonomously for long periods and could harvest energy underwater while draining very little power. Piezoelectric material-made transducers are used in the camera’s exterior to acquire energy.

They create an electric signal when a mechanical force is applied to them, they vibrate and convert the mechanical energy to electrical energy when a sound wave travelling through the water hits the transducers.

“We were trying to minimize the hardware as much as possible, and that creates new constraints on how to build the system, send information, and perform image reconstruction. It took a fair amount of creativity to figure out how to do this,” Adib says.
Source: scitechdaily.com

Sending Data with Sound

When the image data is captured then they are encoded as bits and sent to a receiver one bit at a time through a process called underwater backscatter. The receiver acts as a mirror to reflect the waves and transmits sound waves through the water to the camera.

“This whole process, since it just requires a single switch to convert the device from a non-reflective state to a reflective state, consumes five orders of magnitude less power than typical underwater communications systems,” Afzal says.
Source: scitechdaily.com

Suhani Jain

I am a student pursuing my bachelor’s in information technology. I have a interest in writing so, I am working a freelance content writer because I enjoy writing. I also write poetries. I believe in the quote by anne frank “paper has more patience than person

Samsung partnered with Axis Bank to launch their credit card in India

Samsung India declared its first ever credit card in India on Monday 26 September 2022. Samsung partnered with Axis Bank and visa to launch this credit card that will offer the users a 10 percent cashback on all Samsung products and services around the year.

It has entered a crowded category that sees about 50 firms compete for users’ attention in the world’s second-largest internet market.

“The Samsung Axis Bank Credit Card, powered by Visa, is our next big India-specific innovation that will change the way our customers buy Samsung products,” said Ken Kang, President and CEO, Samsung South-West Asia.
Source: siasat.com

The South Korean tech giant, Samsung partnered with Axis Bank headquartered in Mumbai, and Global payments processor Visa to launch the cards known by the name ‘Samsung Axis Bank Credit Card’.

There is a monthly cap of 2500 INR (roughly $31) on the signature card. However, the infinite card extends that limit by four times.

The cashback is capped at 10,000 INR ($123) yearly on the signature card and 20,000 INR (about $246) on the infinite card.

The second largest smartphone seller in India, Samsung, has claimed that it will provide its customers with exciting financing options on credit cards. These cards are especially aimed at serving users in smaller Indian cities and towns.

Even if the space that Samsung is entering is really crowded and narrow but the opportunity here is undoubtedly large. According to industry estimates, Indian banks have issued about a billion debit cards to customers in the country but only fewer than 25 million unique individuals in the nation have a credit card.

Users will receive rewards on their spending through their cards and get access to deals from local companies such as food delivery platform Zomato, fashion e-commerce Myntra, grocer Bigbasket, online pharmacy Tata’s 1 mg, and Urban Company.

The announcement made on Monday underscores smartphone makers growing attempt to expand their services. Chinese giant, Xiaomi, which dominates the smartphone market in the country, rolled out a payment service powered by UPI in India in 2019 and started to lend customers last year.

Co-branded cards are generally beneficial for both the partner brand and the customers as it enables power users of a brand to get higher benefits as they spend more time with the brand.

“We realize that 70 percent of consumers are upgrading their devices within 12 months of purchase in the country. This co-branded credit card will help them save their hard-earned money while enjoying new devices with this industry-first offering,” Raju Pullan, Senior Vice President, Mobile Business, Samsung India, told IANS.
“The card is RBI-complaint and meets all the latest requirements of the central bank, including on tokenisation. The consumer electronics and technology space is open for disruption and we are the first, along with Samsung, to distrust this space,” Sanjeev Moghe, President and Head, Cards and Payments at Axis Bank, told IANS.
Source: siasat.com

On the signature card, the annual fee is $6.13 before taxes. However, the infinite card levies a charge by 10 times the current value. The firm claims that it will soon begin accepting applications from customers for the card.

The card also provides complimentary airport lounge access, dining offers, a fuel surcharge waiver, and access to a bundle of offers from Axis Bank and Visa.

MD and chief executive officer of Axis Bank, Amitabh Choudhary, said that their main focus is to provide product prepositions and cares for the customers’ evolving needs and offer them a seamless experience.

Suhani Jain

Falguni Nayar: India’s wealthiest self-made female billionaire

Leave a Comment / Story, Tech Story / By Suhani Jain

In the current modern times, women like Falguni Nayar are making noteworthy participation in the entrepreneurial network of India. Our country brags about successful businesswomen all over the world. Women-led startups offer about 35% higher ROI in comparison with the businesses led by men.

Women entrepreneurs play an important role in increasing job opportunities, wealth, and the nation’s development. The rich list has seen a rise in self-made entrepreneurs this year. Many she-preneurs have made it to the list during the current year increasing the number of women bosses from 13 to 55.

“What makes the Indian wealth creation story truly inspirational is that 67 percent of the list is self-made, up from 54 percent five years ago. Also, 79 percent of the new faces this year are self-made as well,” Anas Rahman Junaid, MD, and Chief Researcher, Hurun India stated. “The wealth creation engine of first-generation entrepreneurs and professional managers is on full throttle and is an important driver for India’s GDP to swiftly reach the $5 trillion mark”, He added.
“It is exhilarating to see the entrepreneurial ecosystem of India contribute a significant amount to this list with the rising number of women entrepreneurs and uptick in self-made entrepreneurs,” Co-Founder & Joint CEO, IIFL Wealth, Yatin Shah, stated.
Source: businesstoday.in

The IIFL Wealth Hurun India Rich List 2022 has become a little more inclusive in the present year. Founder and chief executive officer of Nykaa, Falguni Nayar, has surpassed ‘biotech queen’ and Biocon founder, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw (Net worth Rs. 24,800), to become the richest self-made woman in India and the seventh women billionaire on that list after a mega listing of her beauty and wellness e-commerce platform Nykaa.

Nykaa is India’s first Unicorn startup led by a woman. It was founded by Falguni Nayar in 2012, selling beauty and personal care products via its mobile app and website. Nykaa, which is a Sanskrit word for the actress, became quite popular with young techno-geek Indians, mostly women, who opt for the wide selection of brands in comparison with what was on offer at their local shops.

The 59-year-old Falguni Nayar became the second largest wealth gainer this year with an increase of 345 percent in her wealth after the businessman Ravi Modi of Vedant Fashions.

At the listing ceremony on Wednesday, Nayar said, “I hope the Nykaa journey – an Indian-born, Indian-owned, and Indian-managed dream-come-true – can inspire each of you.”
“The best part about Nykaa is that it lets me access so many global brands that had never been sold in India before,” said 30-year-old loyal customer Sanaeya to the AFP news agency.
Source: hindustantimes.com

Her rank increased by 169 positions to the 33rd spot and Her wealth ranked up by 345 percent, which is about 30,000 Crore INR in the previous year, to report a net worth of Rs. 38,700 Crore. Also, she ranks 5th in the Top 10 biggest gainers list. Nykaa’s wealth has increased by 1,388 percent in five years.

The e-commerce platform has also invested in a few companies this year. It declared the acquisition of an 18 percent stake in clean beauty brand Earth Rhythm for 42 Crore INR and a 60 percent stake in Nudge Wellness for 4 crore INR.

Nykaa’s popularity has increased and so did its brand appeal, with top Bollywood actors such as Katrina Kaif and other renowned social media influencers, and celebrities supporting the e-commerce platform breaking new ground in makeup carts and skincare for tech-savvy Indian women. The brand also developed its in-house brand of products in 2015 and start selling clothes and household products recently. It has a highly increasing street presence with 80 stores in over 40 Indian cities.

Suhani Jain

Google is combining Google Tasks with Assistant and Calendar reminders

Leave a Comment / News, Tech News / By Suhani Jain

Tech Giant, Google, is integrating Google Assistant and Calendar reminders in its Google Tasks App in its latest step of the application clean-up drive. The firm took this decision to make it seamless for users to manage their tasks and reminders from any of these three applications by unifying its to-do systems.

Currently, you can create several types of ‘reminders’ in the Google Assistant, Calendar, and Tasks apps. However, they are not utilized in the same way from every app or stored within all three.

As of now, Google Tasks, which was first released as a standalone application in 2018, operates in its box. Users can create tasks and subtasks as per their requirements. They can also set reminders in the iOS and Android apps using a side panel in Gmail or Google Drive on the web. Even though, those don’t get displayed on Assistant’s reminders. Besides this, Google Calendar has two distinct options to create tasks and reminders which could create confusion for users.

Google is focusing on changing this with an update that will be launched in the upcoming months. Once this feature is incorporated, it will display in both the Tasks and Calendar lists when the user sets a reminder with Google Assistant. They will also receive notification for the task completion reminder at the set time.

All they have to do is open the notification to move their reminders into Google Tasks so that they can oversee all their to-do items in one place. Google will question the users if they want to ‘try the new Tasks experience’. When they tap on this notification, the user will be allowed to move their currently existing reminders into the Tasks application.

In the coming months, Google claimed that the users will see a prompt to try out this whole new integrated task experience when they use the Calendar or Assistant application. To add to this, the firm will also eliminate the Calendar reminders options once the transition is completed.

“Soon, we’ll be simplifying our task management solutions by migrating Assistant and Calendar Reminders to Google Tasks. This means you will now have an easy way to view and manage all your to-dos in one place through Google Tasks, regardless of whether you create them using Assistant or Calendar,” the company said in a blog post.
Source: techcrunch.com

Product Manager, Ilya Brown wrote in a blog post, “We are continuing to invest in Google Tasks and expand its capabilities to help you capture, organize and accomplish all you have to get done. Moving reminders into Google Tasks is one step closer to helping people effortlessly get things done, and we are so excited to bring it to you.”
Source: metro.co.uk

What are Google Tasks?

You have heard of the integration of the above-mentioned app. But do you know what is tasks app and how it works? You might not know but it will be home to your Google reminders soon. Well, here is the detailed explanation below.

You can utilize the tasks app to create a central to-do list when you are using a particular Google app. If you are using Gmail or Sheets, you can create a ‘task’ by tapping on a circled checkmark logo.

On your desktop, it will show a sidebar where you can fill in the details of your task like name, time, and date. Your new task will be generated after clicking on the ‘Save’ option.

Every user initiates his Task experience with one task list by default while you can create more if you find them helpful.

Suhani Jain

Nvidia Corporation releases new gaming chip with AI features

Leave a Comment / News, Tech News / By Suhani Jain

Nvidia corporation has declared new flagship chips on Tuesday, 19th September 2022. This chip is specially developed and focuses on Video gamers that utilize Artificial Intelligence (AI) for the advancement of graphics using Taiwan Manufacturing Semiconductor corporation’s cutting-edge four-nanometer technology with 80 billion transistors to produce these processors.

Nvidia corporation has received attention in recent years with its thriving data center business, which trades chips used in artificial intelligence tasks such as natural processing. Even though the corporation’s roots are in graphics chips, the other products yet accounted for 59 percent of its most recent fiscal year’s 26.9 billion USD in revenue.

Graphic Processors of Nvidia have become highly popular chips for AI applications. Previously, they were only used to push and enhance the quality of movies in the gaming industry. The latest graphics processor known as the H100 can help reduce the computation time for some tasks containing AI model training from weeks to days and it is a very big change.

Chief executive officer of Nvidia corporation, Jensen Huang, released the company’s newest “Ada Lovelace” series of graphics chips on Tuesday, named for the 19th-century British mathematician who was regarded as an early innovator in the computer science field. There was also online streaming of the keynote speech.

Nvidia Chief Executive Officer, Jensen Huang, called the H100 processor the “engine” of AI infrastructure, said in a statement, “Data centres are becoming AI factories – processing and refining mountains of data to generate insight.”
Source: content.techgig.com

Even though Nvidia corporation designs its graphic chips and its partners develop or manufacture them, Jensen Huang uncovered that the “4N” chip manufacturing technology utilized by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing will be used to develop the chips. This will be a different approach or a departure from Samsung Electronics Corporation Limited which developed the previous gen of flagship gaming chips of Nvidia.

Artificial intelligence is used in the latest Lovelace chips for the advancement of video game graphics. Nvidia Chip is using Artificial intelligence to anticipate the appearance of some pixels without carrying out the full set of computations because it is difficult to calculate what every pixel on the screen should look like. By using these Lovelace chips, it is now easy to generate any game’s entire frame using Artificial intelligence.

Matt Wuebbling, vice president of worldwide GeForce marketing at Nvidia corporation, said in a media report that the Lovelace chip series will be available for sale all over the world and will not get affected by a new ban imposed by the U.S on trading Nvidia’s top data center artificial intelligence (AI) chips to China.

The chips will not consist of a so-called hash-rate limiter which is a technology Nvidia added in its previous gen of chips to limit their use in mining the Ethereum cryptocurrency because of the recent changes made in the tracking of the currency, Matt Wuebbling also stated.

Price and Availability

The GeForce RTX 4040, The predominant and most expensive version of the graphics chip, will be priced at 1599 USD and go on sale on 12th October 2022. Two RTX 4080 versions having lower initial prices will be available for purchase in November and will cost 899 USD and 1,199 USD, respectively.

Besides this, Nvidia also disclosed the Grace CPU super chip which is a new processing chip that complements the GPU chip and is based on Arm technology. It is claimed to be the first new Arm-based processor unveiled by Nvidia since the firm’s contract to acquire Arm limited fell through last month consisting of regulatory issues.

This Grace CPU Sperchip will be launched in the first half of next year and is said to be a bridge between two CPU chips that concentrate on AI and other activities demanding plenty of processor power.

Suhani Jain

Are Bose QuietComfort Earbuds 2 worth the hype?

Leave a Comment / News, Tech News / By Suhani Jain

The QuietComfort Earbuds 2 are unveiled now after weeks of leaks. Bose’s latest flagship wireless earbuds feature various upgrades which include adaptive Active Noise Cancellation (ANC), sound calibration technology and Bluetooth 5.3 for enhanced sound technology.

First and foremost, Bose has developed the new variant which is one-third smaller than the original QuietComfort Earbuds side. Besides this, it is also making new ear-tips to help reach optimal wear for more customers.

This next generation QuietComfort Earbuds 2 has built on traditional Bose hallmarks while also struggling in the areas they have underperformed in the past such as battery life, touch controls and special features.

Despite their shortcomings, their Active Noise cancellation and sound Quality performance take the QuietComfort Earbuds 2 to a whole new level, on the top spot on our best noise-cancelling earbuds list.

Design and Comfort

Bose has claimed to reduce the size of the QuietComfort Earbuds 2 by 30 per cent which is a considerable redesign that portrays the QuietComfort Earbuds 2 as more practical and captivating. The outer plastic is more enhanced than the original so you can expect these QuietComfort Earbuds 2 to survive even hard knocks and also trials of regular use.

These black Earbuds 2 show a mix of glossy and matte finishes, which is a smooth touch. Also, their IPX4 rating enables protection from water and sweat. The charging case also has a slender design and sturdy design

Sound Quality

QuietComfort Earbuds 2 uses the latest proprietary technology known as CustomTune that mechanically calibrates active noise cancellation and the sound frequency profile to the unique properties of the year.

The overall effect features a punchy and sharp soundstage. 3D audio is not available. CustomTune emits a tone used to map the contours of the ear canal for more enhanced active noise cancellation. You can select from the two standard modes which are Quiet (acoustic noise cancellation) and Aware (transparency mode) modes and other 2-10 custom modes.

Another option you can use is setting the ANC level 3 on the custom modes. It is one of the best earbuds with a mic voice and video calling. Bose’s QuietComfort Earbuds 2 features superb vocal capture, making conversations loud or clear on your end.

Bose Music App and features

Another attractive thing is its Bose music app, the hub for almost all special features. It consists of ActiveSense, EQ, Eartip Fit test and shortcut. One big feature that it sports is Self Voice to adjust how loud the user’s voice sounds on call. Battery life is 6 hours per charge and a 20-minute quick charge gives two hours of playtime.

Price and Availability

The QuietComfort Earbuds 2 have an MSRP of 299 USD consisting of a $20 markup from the first-generation entry. It is available in only one colour which was displayed at the launch. However, it is claimed that a soapstone colour option will be unveiled later this year.

The charging case, USB-C type charging cable, three sets of different size tips, three sets of different size bands and safety instructions are provided inside the box.

It is selling these new buds at a higher cost than the recently announced AirPods Pro 2 which costs 249 USD or its market competitors like the Sony WF 1000XM4 which is priced at $279 and Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 3 whose price is $249.

If you find this expensive, you can always buy the previous model of QuietComfort Earbuds which are available at amazon on a discounted price of 199 USD.

Conclusion

The QuietComfort Earbuds 2 are outstanding follow-up that offers better sound, great call quality and unrivalled active noise cancellation. Sound balancing technologies like ActiveSense and CustomTune also provide Noise neutralization extremely well.

Suhani Jain

Suhani Jain

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