Gigapixel Images

A 1.8 gigapixel video surveillance camera named ARGUS was built jointly by DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) and the US Army. It is capable to pick out a sleeping dog in the Earth from the altitude of 20,000 feet (6 km).  In other words, it can resolve details as close to six inches. Quite amazing! The ARGUS can be attached to drone (unmanned aeroplane remotely controlled) and taken to a height of 20,000 feet to observe 25 square kilometres at any instant. Thus entire New York City can be brought into surveillance by two ARGUS attached drones to hover over the city.  The entire Manhattan is under observation 24x7.  

Like ARGUS, AWARE-2 is another gigapixel camera. It was used to study the behaviour of tundra swans present in Pungo Lake, USA [1]. With AWARE-2 camera gigapixel snapshot was taken [1] and found 656 swans swimming in the lake and 27 flying above the lake at that instant. Scientists can use the snapshot to track individual swan or study the swans' flock (group) behaviour.  Existing scanning panoramic camera cannot achieve this feat. Use of gigapixel is not confined to ecology alone. It can be applied in fields like urban planning, traffic control, forestry, archaeology and so on.

Gigapixel snapshot of Budapest city, Hungary. Inset: two landmarks building in the city. Zooming operation  on gigapixel image helps us find the buildings. Image courtesy www.photographyblog.com [7]

Digital Society

Today we are living in digital society.  Due to rise of digital technology basic fabric of society is almost changed.  For example, in India twenty years back, cellular phones were bulky and were a status symbol. Users seldom revealed their cell phone numbers, as incoming calls were also metered or charged. Now sleek cell phones are the norm and each Indian possesses a cell phone. The word “Privacy” is unknown to Indians earlier, now they practice it. Thus digital technology has started shaping the society. Earlier posts like tribal, agrarian and industrial society discussed length and breadth of technology-society association. In this post emphasis will on the digital technology.

Technology has so advanced that by click of a button we get any information we want. Is this means we are far superior than our ancestors? The answer is Yes and No. Internet has become giant virtual library. Internet contains lot of text information and videos which are structured, static and suited for one way communication (author to reader or viewers). We have honed our skills to surf and sift information from Internet. By this reason, yes is the answer.  We lack the ability to communicate, leave alone extracting information from fellow humans. This is because human to human interaction is much unstructured, dynamic and two way (author to listener, and listener to author). Communication is complex and lot of training is required to excel [1].  We had fishermen, who observed the cloud and predicted the weather and other vital information required for fishing. In agrarian society humans acted as an information repository.  

Today society banks more on man-machine interaction rather than human-human interaction. This may result in assorted individuals (Man, woman, boy and girl) instead of a family (Father, mother, son and daughter) staying in a house. Thus our challenge is to make the digital devices to assist us in improving human-human interaction.

Digital Devices

We come across devices like digital clock, mp3 player, audio compact disc player, Video Compact Disc (VCD) player, Digital Video Disc (DVD) player, computer, cellular phone, Tablet and so on. These diverse devices can be brought under umbrella of digital devices. Analog devices operate on analog signals which are continuous in time as well as in value. Digital signals are discrete in time and can hold only two values i.e. ones and zeros. Dominance of digital devices over analog counter parts is due to the axis of IC fabrication, Computer and Internet.

Figure 1. Digital Clock | Image courtesy Wikipedia

Pre-Digital Society

In earlier posts tribal, agrarian and industrial society were discussed. In this post, post-industrial society will be discussed.  One may wonder about the title and they may have an urge rename it as “information society.” Lot of definitions exists for information society [1]. Industrialization of a nation is gauged by amount of petroleum or energy usage. Likewise two metrics can be used for information society. First is extent of information usage. Next is economy of a country should hang on information production (for example movies, music videos, books, information equipments etc). So it is better to leave the discussion on information society to economists and social scientists. The present digital society may lead us to information society. 

       This is one part of series of articles dealing with evolution of societies. In the present society we encounter lot of displays. These articles try to find out the answer for “rise of display and smart devices.” I firmly believe engineering, technology, economics and end user behaviour has to be studied as a whole and not in isolation.  That is why article like this appear in this blog which is dedicated to Digital Image Processing. 

The post-industrial society can be broadly classified into pre-digital and digital society. In Industrial society electricity was used a form energy like coal and petroleum. In digital society, electricity is used to transport information. In digital society, information production, distribution and consumption happens in binary form i.e. ones and zeros. In pre-digital society analog signals were used and optional use of electronic components.

Smart devices and Learning - Part II

In the earlier post we tried to understand what is learning. We had a glimpse of tribal and agrarian society. This post deals with industrial society. Characteristics of industrial society are usage of coal, petroleum, steam engine and urban dwelling.

The objective of this three-part post is to understand the motives behind the veneration of gadgets (i.e. smart phones) usage, and education that emphasize reading and writing skills. 

Genesis of industrial society

Extensive use of coal and steam engine by the society can be regarded as the starting point industrialization. Earlier times steam engines were used to draw water from iron mines.  Their efficiency improved and used in locomotives. First successful locomotive using steam engine was devised by James Watt. 

Britain was in the forefront in industrial revolution as iron and coal was extensively available. Climate conditions in England helped to start textile industry. People used to spun, and then weave it to make cloth at home. It was a labour intensive task.  In a textile factory, conversion of cotton into cloth was carried out with machines with the help of few workers. Textile mills were very productive and were able to produce cloth economically. The machines like spinning jenny, water frame, flying shuttle, spinning mule required huge space to house them. Thus buildings were exclusively built. Thus first time in history mass production of goods was carried out. Till then it was production of goods by masses.  (Above statement is an adaptation from Mahatma Gandhi's famous quote “We don't require mass production but production by masses”).

A mill engine from Stott Park Bobbin Mill, Cumbria, England.  Image source: Wikipedia

Smart devices and Learning - Part I

Today smart phones are fashion icons. It is regarded as a height of accomplishment for citizens of information society. Living without broadband access is unthinkable. Any time and any where is the mantra of information-citizens. Few questions arisen in my mind. Whether I use electronic gadgets to enhance my cognitive ability (like use of knife) or to overcome my inability (use of crutches)? Are we smarter than our ancestors? A person who adapts to the environment and at the same time achieves his or her goal is termed as smart. In today’s environment, accessing electronic gadgets is associated with smartness. Adaptation is otherwise called as learning.

    We spend much time on how to display information in mobile phones, tablets, computer screens and TV.  We seldom think about "Why we have to display the content." This post deals the evolution and need to display information.

Learning and artifacts

Any living being (bacteria to human beings) adapt to environment. It means environment is observed, changes in stimuli are noted and responses modified to suit environment. Put is simple way “living beings learn.” What is learned by yester generation living beings are passed to future generation is passed down. It may be in the form genetic mutation or in bevavioural change. Present day bacteria are   resistant to anti-biotic medicines due to mutations (for more information google “drug resistant Tuberculosis”). Wild grasses due to genetic mutations become rice, wheat and so on. Long long ago few wolves started interacting with human beings. The relationship was beneficial to both of them. Slowly aggressiveness of wolves mellowed, and gave birth to new species called “Dogs.” In the stated case change in behaviour has resulted in change in anatomy. Adaptation to environment makes changes in brain connections in other cases.  Reorientation in neuron changes makes marked changes in behaviour.  Storage of information in brain is not inherently permanent. Unless efforts are taken information stored in brain becomes unrecoverable. Our ancestors somehow learned to store the information in external objects. This is blessing as well as curse for us.  

The biggest difference between humans and other living beings is that they are able to create objects.  The entire human history can be divided into four categories based on amount of storage of information on external objects: tribal society, agrarian society, industrial society and information society. 

Figure 1. (Left) Tribal society (right) Ploughing - root for agrarian society