EFYJuly2020 PDF

July 2020 | Vol. 52 No.
7 | ISSN-0013-516X
Contents
52nd Year of Publication
Since January 1969
18 HEALTHCARE: Electronic Authentication 37 TECH FOCUS: AI And ML Shifting Focus Next Issue
Of Organic Foods Back To Hardware • Understanding Cryptocurrency
24 INTERNET OF THINGS: Exploring The 43 Artificial Intelligence: AI In • Bad Users Can Fail Good
Military Service: Rules Sky, Land And Sea AI Systems
Applications Of IoT • Electronics In Education &
46 Test & Measurement: T&M Solutions Skill Development
26 Artificial Intelligence: AI Insurance
For Satellite Systems • Cutting-Edge Gadgets For
Is Coming, Here’s Why Smart Classrooms
70 Market Survey: Growth Of 5G Market
30 EDUCATION: Online Learning: An Antidote • Diy: 9V Adaptor For Arduino
And Its Impact On Economy
To Uninterrupted Education Amidst 76 Facts & Figures: Scheme For
Covid-19 Crisis Editor : Ramesh Chopra
Promotion Of MSMEs In Defence
Editorial : Editorial Secretary
32 POWER: Use Of Supercapacitors In 77 Facts & Figures: Guidelines For Use Of correspondence Phone: 011-26810601; E-mail: editsec@efy.in
(Technical queries: efylab@efy.in)
Defence And Transport IAF Test Facilities By Private Entities
Subscriptions & : Phone: 011-40596600
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Back issues, : Kits‘n’Spares, New Delhi
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14 Hydrogen As A Fuel For Next-Gen Mobility taiwan : J.K. Media, Ph: 886-2-87726780 ext. 10
49 “There Is No Machine Which E-mail: taiwan@efy.in
Can’t Be Made In India” 15 Wind-Solar Hybrid Systems To Improve
United States : E & Tech Media
Ashok Chadda, managing director, Grid Stability Ph: +1 860 536 6677
16 Innovations Thriving In The Battle Against E-mail: usa@efy.in
Powersem GmbH Germany and Powersem
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Ph:+44 1727 765542
17 Automated Food Cooking C:+44 7910 073565
50 “Everyone With A Smartphone E-mail: alastair@asa-media.com
Now Has A Personal Satellite StartUp Zone pms plantenberg media service GmbH, Germany
Ph: +49 89 5507 9909
Navigation System” Mobile: +49 170 4828426
Jim Lin, marketing director, SkyTraq 66 The IoT And AI In Defence E-mail: germany@efy.in
67 Going Green With EV Charging
67 Self-Driving Electric Vehicle For Delivery Printed, published and owned by Ramesh Chopra. Printed at
International Print-o-Pack Ltd, C-4 to C-11, Hosiery Complex, Phase-II
68 Solving Water Crisis With Air And Extension, NOIDA-201305, Gautam Budh Nagar, Uttar Pradesh, on the
Do-It-Yourself Nanotechnology
69 The IoT For Digital Farming
first day of each month and published from D-87/1, Okhla Industrial
Area, Phase-1, New Delhi 110020. Copyright 2020. All rights reserved
throughout the world. Reproduction of any material from this magazine
51 OTP Based Wireless Smart Lock System in any manner without the written permission of the publisher is
prohibited. Although every effort is made to ensure accuracy, no
54 Make This Handy Zener Meter For eStyle responsibility whatsoever is taken for any loss due to publishing errors.
EFY will not be responsible for any wrong claims made by an advertiser.
Faster Testing Disputes, if any, will be settled in a New Delhi court only.
56 Conveyor Jam Detector For Industries 80 First Look: Some New Gadgets
82 DIGITAL: How Intelligent Toilets Can SUBSCRIPTION RATES
58 Protect Your Appliances With This
Bring Efficient Public Toilet Management Period Newstand You saarc Countries Other Countries
Power-On Delay Timer Year Price (`) Pay
In India (`)
Digital Print Digital Print
60 Automatic Hand-Wash Timer 84 Buyers’ Guide: Some Mid-Range Five 6000 3000 US$ 50 — US$ 50 —
61 Make A Simple Capacitive Touch Keyboard Smartphones With Powerful Battery Three 3600 2150 US$ 33 US$ 135 US$ 33 US$ 270
With Arduino And Processor One 1200 840 US$ 12 US$ 50 US$ 12 US$ 100
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08 Q&A: Things You Wanted To Know! 73 New Products Please send payments only in favour of EFY
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4 July 2020 • electronics For You www.EFYMag.com
FeedBack
Your suggestions
EFY GOING DIGITAL FM BROADCASTING

It is very difficult to fully enjoy reading This is regarding ‘Make Your Own India’s
EFY online. Being highly technical, FM Transmitter For Broadcasting’ Electronics

Magazine
some articles are to be read again and DIY project published in November
R A N K IN G A S PER
again for understanding. Without a 2019 issue, which is also available ELCINA-IMRB
REPORT
print version, one will lose interest on your website www.electronics-
and concentration on the subject and foru.com (like all other projects).
will get diverted to unrelated materials Can I use 27MHz crystal oscillator
available online. in this circuit?
Don’t
Gopal Jagwani Jose Rizal
EFY. Thanks for sharing your feed- The author Joy Mukherji replies:
back! There is delay in printing some Yes, replace capacitor C5 accord-
Be A
issues, and we decided not to print ingly for resonance at 3rd or 4th
April issue, due to Covid-19 and its harmonic of 27MHz (81MHz or
effect on portal as well as courier 108MHz). Replace C5 with a trim-
services. mer and tune for maximum range
Loser!
••• and best sound output. If ISV149
is not easily available, try using
AI AND ROBOTICS: HYPE OR a 1N4007 or several of them in
REALITY parallel.
I came across your article on ‘AI and •••
Robotics: Hype or Reality’ published
in October 2019 issue. I really like the MICROTURBINE You don’t know
way you balanced the article giving This is regarding ‘Generate Power how much you
importance to both AI and Robotics. Using Microturbine’ DIY article don’t know.
I am looking forward to many such published in August 2019 issue.
articles in the future. The microturbine hardly gener-
ates an output of 12V DC and
Siddharth S. 20mA current. Can we use any
12V DC motor to get atleast 200
Read
EFY. Thanks for your feedback! We to 500mA?
are glad that you liked the article.
We will try to cover related topics in Dr P. Chandra Shekar
some forthcoming issues of Electron-
ics For You as well. The author A. Samiuddhin replies: to keep up-to-date
••• Thank you for taking interest with the tech world
in my article. The microturbine
YOUR REQUEST used in this project generates
Please publish a series of articles on AC and not DC. Depending upon
programmable automation controllers the water flow, the microturbine
and industrial controllers. output could be 20V, 150mA max-
imum. Any microturbine having
Er. Sunil Pedgaonkar a maximum output up to 40V,
3A can be used in this project.
EFY. Thanks for the request! We will Make sure that the microturbine
try to cover the relevant topics in doesn’t have internal regulator. To subscribe, Scan
visit efy.in or OR This
forthcoming issues. If so, the efficiency will be com- contact us at: 011-4059660 Code
Email: support@efy.in
••• promised.
Also available at all leading magazine outlets

Q&A
Things You Wanted to Know!
Q1. What are the differences between USB 3.x and USB-C?
Anand B.
A1. You must have seen different

USB-C USB 3.x
types of Universal Serial Bus or USB
hardware. USB is supposed to be
universal, but in reality, this is not
the case because there are so many
different types of USB devices avail-
able in the market. Most people get
confused, especially with the more
recent ones such as USB 3.x and
USB-C.
USB 3.x. The USB x.x defines
the data transfer speed. The recent
USB 3.x standard is much faster than
USB 2.0 and USB 1.0. It is recom-
mended for devices like external
hard drives. You can identify USB Fig. 1: Different USB types with pin details (Credit: https://en.wikipedia.org)
3.x port or connector by its blue
colour. Many USB 3.0 ports also have an SS symbol (which and faster. It can receive and provide more power than previ-
stands for SuperSpeed). Most new computers have at least ous versions of USB. You can find it on many latest devices,
one USB 3.x port. You can use a USB 2.0 device in a USB including Apple’s MacBook. It has become the new standard
3.x port, or USB 3.x device in a USB 2.0 port, but neither for mobile devices. The biggest advantage of USB-C is that it
setup provides the extra speed benefit. The pin details of is reversible, and so, it can be plugged in either up or down
the USB3.0 connector are shown in Fig. 1. direction. Male plugs of USB-C are found on cables and adap-
USB-C. Formally known as USB Type-C, it is a 24-pin tors, while female receptacles are mounted on host devices
USB double-sided connector. USB-C is smaller, reversible, and adaptors.
Q2. What is zero PCB or veroboard mentioned in your DIY articles?

Alok Mathur
A2. Zero PCB is basically a general-purpose printed

circuit board (PCB), also known as perfboard or
DOT PCB. It is a thin rigid copper sheet with holes
pre-drilled at standard intervals across a grid with
2.54mm (0.1-inch) spacing between holes. Each hole
is encircled by a round or square copper pad so that
component lead can be inserted into the hole and
soldered around the pad without short-circuiting the
nearby pads and other leads. For connecting the lead
of component with another lead, solder these together
or join these using a suitable conducting wire. Fig. 2: Typical zero PCB Fig. 3: Typical veroboard
Veroboard or stripboard is also a general- (Credit: www.roboelements.com) (Credit: www.tubesandmore.com)
purpose PCB characterised by a 2.54mm regular
(rectangular) grid of holes, with parallel strips of copper ish company Vero Technologies Ltd and Canadian company
cladding running in one direction across one side of the Pixel Print Ltd.
board. This general-purpose PCB is known by the name Both zero PCB and veroboard are popular among hobbyists,
of the original product, Veroboard, a trademark of Brit- beginners, and students for rapid prototyping and project works.
Answers compiled by Sani Theo, technical editor. Letters and questions for publication may be addressed to Editor, Electronics For You, D-87/1, Okhla Industrial Area,
Phase 1, New Delhi 110020 (e-mail: editsec@efy.in) and should include name and address of the sender.
8 JULY 2020 • electronics FOR YOU www.EFYMag.com

Tech News
Technology Updates
New AI tool turns low-pixel faces into realistic images

Researchers at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina “While the researchers focused on faces as a proof of con-
have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) tool that can turn cept, the same technique could, in theory, take low-resolution
blurry and unrecognisable images of people’s faces into perfect shots of almost anything and create sharp, realistic-looking
computer-generated portraits. The method, called PULSE, pictures, with applications ranging from medicine and micros-
searches through AI-generated examples of high-resolution copy to astronomy and satellite imagery,” says co-author Sachit
faces to match the ones that look similar to the input image Menon from the Duke University.
when compressed to the same size. Instead of starting with a low-resolution image and slowly
adding detail, PULSE traverses a high-reso-
lution natural image manifold, searching for
images that downscale to the original low-res-
olution image. The team used a tool in machine
learning called ‘generative adversarial network’
or GAN, which are two neural networks trained
on the same data set of photos.
One network comes up with AI-created
human faces that mimic the ones it was trained
on, while the other takes this output and
decides if it is convincing enough to be mis-
taken for the real thing. The system can convert
a 16x16 pixel image of a face to 1024×1024
pixels in a few seconds. Details such as pores,
wrinkles, and wisps of hair that are impercep-
tible in the low-pixel photos become crisp and
Representational image clear in the computer-generated versions.
Telcos increase vigilance as government warns of phishing attacks

Telecom companies have increased their vigilance of networks oversee disbursement of government fiscal aid. The attackers
and systems following the government’s recent warning on are expected to send malicious e-mails under the pretext of
large-scale phishing attacks in the coming days against individ- local authorities that are in charge of dispensing government-
uals and businesses, where attackers may use Covid-19 as bait. funded Covid-19 support initiatives.
In a security advisory to its business-to-business
customers, Airtel says it is monitoring the situation on a
real-time basis and has upgraded the security operations
centre to a higher threat-level status and promised to
send daily dashboards to customers.
Citing various reports, the company warns that cyber-
attacks can be initiated by exploiting various vectors
such as e-mail/phishing attack, suspicious webpages,
internet links, unpatched/un-updated systems connected
on the network, or identity theft (poor ID management).
A source from Jio says that the company has raised its
vigilance levels and is keeping a close watch on traffic.
Recently, India’s cybersecurity nodal agency, CERT-
In issued an advisory warning of the potential phishing
attacks that could impersonate government agencies, Telecom companies have increased vigilance following the government’s recent warning
departments and trade bodies which have been tasked to (Credit: www.pixabay.com)

Tech News
Ultra-thin film turns smartwatch into health monitoring system
Researchers have developed a thin adhesive film that could amounts. They also built a custom smartwatch and an accom-
upgrade a consumer smartwatch into a powerful health- panying app to record data.
monitoring system. The system looks for chemical indicators According to the researchers, the skin-touching side of the
found in sweat to give a real-time snapshot of what’s happen- adhesive film collects and analyses the chemical makeup of
ing inside the body. According to the study, published in the droplets of sweat. The watch-facing side turns those chemical
journal of Science Advances, the researchers have engineered signals into electrical ones that can be read, processed, and
a disposable, double-sided film that attaches to the underside then displayed on the smartwatch.
of a smartwatch. While the team designed a custom smartwatch and app
The film can detect molecules such as metabolites and to work with the system, the research team says the concept
certain nutrients that are present in body sweat in very tiny could someday be applied to popular models of smartwatches.
Google now shows Covid-19 testing centres in India

Google has partnered with information and guidance needed before using their services.
the Indian Council of Medical The listing also shows the government-mandated require-
Research (ICMR) and MyGov to ments, which include calling the national or state helplines
help people find Covid-19 test- before heading out to get tested, carrying a doctor’s prescrip-
ing centres in India. The tech tion (referral required), testing restrictions (tests are limited
company has introduced a new to certain patients) and information about whether the lab is
testing tab on its Covid-19 relat- government or private.
ed search. This tab provides the Tapping the ‘learn more’ link leads to more information
location of listed testing centres from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW).
close to the user. Along with According to the company, currently, the search has over 700
the location, it also shows key testing labs listed on Search, Assistant, and Maps spanning
more than 300 cities. The new feature is currently available in
Google has introduced a new testing tab on its
Covid-19 related search, which provides the location English, Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada,
of listed testing centres (Credit: Google) Marathi, and Gujarati.
Low-cost emergency ventilator to help fight Covid-19 crisis

Fitbit has developed a low-cost ventilator to help save lives This stand is big enough to fit various sizes of oxygen tanks.
during the Covid-19 pandemic. The ventilator, called Fitbit The team at Fitbit is working on improving Fitbit Flow by
Flow, is a low-cost, high-quality, and easy-to-use automatic including a high-resolution add-on display, for viewing the
resuscitator, developed with the objective of providing ventila- system’s status and pressure waveforms.
tion during any emergency.
Fitbit has received a nod from the Food
and Drug Administration (FDA) for using
the product during the Covid-19 pandemic
in situations where conventional ventila-
tors are not available. Inspired by the MIT
E-Vent Design Toolbox, the ventilator has
been developed based on the inputs from
clinicians looking after Covid-19 patients
at Oregon Health and Science Hospital and
Mass General Brigham Center.
It is easy to use and doesn’t require
trained professionals to operate. This ena-
bles more volunteers to monitor a patient,
given that trained staff supply is strained
at the moment. The mechanical ventila-
tor is compact and made from laser-cut
aluminium. It can sit on a tabletop or a
stand with wheels for ease in mobility. Fitbit Flow (Credit: Fitbit)

Tech News
Intel launches 3D Lakefield chips for foldable and ultra-thin laptops
Intel has launched new hybrid processors, which have been package area for up to 47 per cent smaller board size and
codenamed, Lakefield. These chipsets are made for next-gen extended battery life. This will enable original equipment
PCs with foldable and dual-screen devices of the future. manufacturers (OEMs) a more flexible form factor across
The Intel Core i5 and i3 Lakefield processors with Intel single, dual, and foldable screen devices.
hybrid technology are built for intense workloads and fore- The company claims that these will be the first Intel
ground applications while balancing power and performance Core processors to deliver as low as 2.5mW of standby
optimisation for background tasks. system-on-chip (SoC) power—an up to 91 per cent reduc-
The Lakefield chipsets are completely compatible tion compared to Y-series processors for more time between
with Windows 10 application in up to a 56 per cent smaller charges.
AI-based system to track social distancing in public places

Researchers at IIT-Kharagpur have developed a cyber-physical putes the distance as per criteria set by the Ministry of Health
system based on artificial intelligence for monitoring social and Family Welfare,” a member of the research group says.
distancing in public places. The team, under the leadership of The researchers have focused on the ease of deployment of
professor Debashish Chakravarty and professor Aditya Bando- such a device in remote places and curtailing the cost by using
padhyay, has engineered a low-cost device which can detect inexpensive and easily accessible hardware materials. Students
the gap between individuals, a spokesperson of IIT-KGP said. have come up with the device leveraging readily-available
“The device will play a proximity alert sound through hardware while the lockdown was in place. The system has
audio output, whenever any violation of the social distancing been successfully tested by installing three prototypes of the
norms occurs. It captures images of the field view and com- device within the IIT-Kharagpur campus.
Now digitise your dog into a computer game

Researchers from the University of Bath have developed data can then be transferred onto a digital character for use in
a motion capture technology that enables you to digitise films or computer games.
your dog without a motion capture suit and using only one However, these technologies—particularly when applying
camera. them to animals—require expensive equipment and dozens of
Motion capture technology is widely used in the entertain- markers to be attached. Computer scientists at CAMERA at the
ment industry, where actors wear a suit dotted with white University of Bath collected the movement data of a range of
markers, which are then precisely tracked in 3D space by mul- dogs to produce a model that could predict the poses of dogs
tiple cameras taking images from different angles. Movement from images taken by a single RGBD camera.
Wearing special doggie motion
capture suits with markers, the dogs
were filmed under the supervision
of their BCDH handlers doing a
range of movements as part of their
enrichment activities.
They used this data to create
a computer model that can accu-
rately predict and replicate the
poses of dogs when they’re filmed
without wearing the motion capture
suits. This model allows 3D digital
information for new dogs—their
shape and movement—to be cap-
tured without markers and expen-
sive equipment and just using a
single RGBD camera. While normal
digital cameras record the red,
green and blue (RGB) colour in each
pixel in the image, RGBD cameras
Researchers from the University of Bath have developed motion capture technology that can digitise your dog also record the distance from the
(Credit: University of Bath) camera for each pixel.
www.EFYMag.com electronics For You • July 2020 13

Smart World
Hydrogen As A Fuel For Wind-Solar Hybrid Systems Innovations Thriving In The Automated
1 Next-Gen Mobility 2 To Improve Grid Stability 3 Battle Against Coronavirus 4 Food Cooking
HYDROGEN AS A FUEL
1 FOR NEXT-GEN MOBILITY
Hydrogen-powered vehicles are more efficient than a combustion engine as no greenhouse gases
are emitted. However, the process of generating hydrogen should also be green. Commonly used
processes for separating hydrogen from other substances include steam reforming of methane,
gasification, and electrolysis
in gaseous form, costs for compres-

sion, cooling, transport, and storage
of hydrogen differ. Other key compo-
nents of a hydrogen vehicle include
electric traction motor(s), thermal
system, auxiliary battery, traction bat-
tery pack, among others.
Manufacturers define the power of
the vehicle by the size of the electric
motor. Since the hydrogen engines are
powered by an electric motor, these
vehicles are also known as fuel cell
electric vehicles (FCEVs). Power is
generated when hydrogen inside fuel
cells in vehicles undergoes reverse
electrolysis. In this process, hydrogen
(Credit: https://afdc.energy.gov)
present in tanks reacts with oxygen in
the air to produce electrical energy,
water, and heat. The electricity thus
H
ydrogen has been used as a of methane, gasification, and elec- produced can either directly flow
source of clean energy through- trolysis. Hydrogen is also a byproduct to the electric motor, which in turn
out history, from spacecraft of many industrial processes where it is converted to mechanical energy
and submarines to refineries and is often treated as waste. to drive the vehicle’s wheels, or the
forklifts. When vehicles are powered In the most popular process known energy can be stored in the battery
by hydrogen fuel cells, the only by- as electrolysis, an electric current is pack, depending on the requirement.
product is water, which is emitted in passed through water to separate its The auxiliary battery is mainly present
the form of pure water vapour, and primary constituents—hydrogen and to start the vehicle, and the thermal
hence no greenhouse gases are emit- oxygen. Electricity is not generated system keeps the operating tempera-
ted. In addition to hydrogen’s abun- from fossil fuels but produced from ture range in check.
dance in nature (as part of water and sources like wind, solar, and hydro Unlike battery electric vehicles
atmospheric gas), hydrogen-powered energies to mitigate carbon footprints. (BEVs) that require recharging from
vehicles are more efficient than a Hydrogen binds to most other an external source, FCEVs produce
combustion engine since there are no substances and is a flammable gas. electricity themselves and use a small
moving parts. So, it is stored in liquid form in a fuel and lightweight battery for storage.
For zero net emissions, the process tank for ease of transportation until it The main benefits of this propulsion
of generating hydrogen should also is needed by the fuel cell stack (col- technology include no engine noise,
be green. Commonly used processes lection of electrodes). The amount of quick charging time of less than five
for separating hydrogen from other energy stored is decided by the size minutes, and longer range as com-
substances include steam reforming of the hydrogen fuel tank. Besides, pared to fully electric vehicles, regard-

Smart World
less of environmental conditions. The low demand for hydrogen vehicles much lower pressures.
In the Asian market, companies stems from the fact that these are quite It is also crucial to develop
like Hyundai and Toyota have taken expensive to buy as well as use. The advanced infrastructure to refuel
an interest in the field. Even world- overall efficiency is almost half of what these vehicles and shorten transpor-
wide, manufacturers like Audi and BEV has due to losses in hydrogen pro- tation distances and make policies to
BMW are already working on hydro- duction through electrolysis. increase their adoption. In the US, the
gen vehicles. Numerous experts are New techniques can help in allevi- California Energy Commission (CEC)
expecting a lot from this alternative, ating risks regarding the safety of such and the state’s Air Resources Board
while others still remain skeptical. a vehicle. For instance, researchers at provide subsidies for new hydrogen
Hydrogen-powered vehicles require Northwestern University in the US, car buyers. South Korea plans to
high-pressure compression to work, in collaboration with the Colorado expand the country’s hydrogen refu-
which is difficult to achieve due to the School of Mines and National Insti- elling infrastructure to 660 pumps by
low density of hydrogen. Also, there are tute for Standards and Technology, 2030. Completely switching to such
a limited number of refueling stations have recently come up with novel clean energies will go a long way in
that exist in just a few countries (like adsorbent materials that are built from keeping the air clean and ensuring
Germany and the US) due to lack of organic molecules and metal ions or sustainable mobility.
sufficient manufacturing and demand. clusters and can store hydrogen at —Ayushee Sharma
2 Wind-Solar Hybrid Systems

to improve grid stability
Using renewable energy sources like wind and solar for power generation has helped in
reducing carbon footprints and made power available to non-electrified remote areas. A hybrid
power system that combines the benefits of both sources can improve the reliability and stability
of the grid to deliver non-intermittent electric power
S
ustainable power generation of the battery storage also gets
through renewable energy, reduced, which makes it easier
instead of conventional fossil to handle.
fuels, has not only helped in reducing The generation of power
carbon footprints but also made power from wind energy is done by
available to non-electrified remote wind turbines (commonly verti-
areas. While choosing green energy cal or horizontal axis), whose
options for a region, several factors blades rotate with wind blow-
like geographic variability, economic ing within the range of defined
feasibility, and so on need to be con- cut in (usually, a minimum of
sidered. 4-5m/s) and cut off speeds, cou-
For complete reliance on renew- pled with generators. The axis
able energy like solar or wind, it must of rotation of the turbines must
be available in all seasons. However, align with the wind direction.
this is not the actual case due to unpre- Solar power systems have
dictable weather. For example, solar solar panels, which consist of
energy cannot be harnessed to its can handle both systems for charg- photovoltaic (PV) cells that utilise
full potential in monsoon, and wind ing the battery so that energy can be sunlight to generate electrical energy.
speeds may be highest in one season used whenever needed. A compatible Factors like sunlight intensity and
and not so in others. In areas where inverter converts DC output to AC duration, as well as cleanliness of
more than one renewable energy like for purposes like power distribution, panels and their orientation, need to
wind or solar is available, a hybrid powering appliances like refrigerator be considered for efficient solar panel
power system that combines their and oven, and so on. In case of on-grid arrangement. Some arrangements
benefits can improve the reliability hybrid systems, the battery is charged also involve moving solar panels in an
and stability of the grid. by the grid when both solar and wind accurate direction by tracking the sun
Wind-solar hybrid systems inter- are not available. to get more light.
face wind turbine generators and solar These systems can be installed Hybrid systems are often used for
panels to generate power in a decen- on rooftops if size permits. The cost small loads. In the residential sector,
tralised mode, typically in the range of varies based on the ratio of wind and there has been significant adoption—
1kW to 10kW. The standalone system solar components and maybe even particularly in single-family homes,
is connected to a charge controller that cheaper than a solar system. The size luxury apartments, and large multi-

Smart World
family buildings—to fulfil a definite and uncertainty about their applicabil- of transmission infrastructure.
set of power requirements. In commer- ity makes people skeptical regarding Outside India too, various ini-
cial and industrial sectors, these can their viability, thereby decreasing tiatives are being taken to boost the
be used in places with chronic power the rate of adoption and implementa- sector. Gamesa, Blue Pacific Solar
shortage, or where the grid has not tion in various countries. To bring a Products, Grupo Dragon, and Alter-
reached—like rural offices, schools or positive change, several companies nate Energy Company are some of the
small hotels for basic needs—as only in India are working in the area of popular names in this field. Last year,
a few loads like fans and lights have wind-solar hybrid, including Super- the Kenyan Investment Authority and
to be powered. Due to this, standalone nova Technologies Private Limited, Meru County Government entered
hybrid systems are generally preferred Zenith Solar Systems, Alpha Wind- into a Memorandum of Understand-
over on-grid systems. mills, Unitron Energy System Pvt ing (MoU) with Windlab and Eurus
Other application areas include Ltd, and ReGen Powertech Pvt Ltd. Energy for the development of the
military and railways. Indian Rail- The Ministry of New and Renewable Meru County Energy Park, African
ways, for example, is already issuing Energy (MNRE) has introduced the continent’s first large-scale wind-
tenders to implement wind-solar National Wind-Solar Hybrid Policy to solar-storage hybrid project. The aim
hybrid projects. promote large-scale wind-solar hybrid is to produce up to 80MW of clean
In spite of the potential of hybrid power projects through measures energy to power homes, and construc-
systems, a high initial investment, like encouragement to technological tion is expected to begin next year.
considerable duration for payback, advancements and better utilisation —Ayushee Sharma
3 Innovations thriving in the battle

against coronavirus
Amidst the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic, existing technologies and innovations like
robots and drones are becoming common. These are being used for sanitisation, awareness,
adherence to social distancing rules, and to deliver medical supplies
U
nforeseen situations call for sify intensive care patients by using given the huge population of the coun-
unforeseen measures. Such is X-ray images and can examine the try. One such example is Telemetric
the case of the Covid-19 pan- lung within just three seconds. Patient Monitoring System by Cardiac
demic, where the urgency of response Singapore, which in spite of being Design Labs that allows healthcare
has resulted in a host of innovations a small country is densely populated workers and volunteers to monitor the
and proactive measures through col- and relies on an open economy, has vitals (like respiration, body tempera-
laborations among universities, indus- been able to manage well till now and ture, and blood pressure) of multiple
tries, startups, and the government. kept its Covid-19 cases under control. patients at a time from a central loca-
Existing technologies like robots Technological innovations and modi- tion by attaching wearable devices to
and drones are becoming common. fication of pre-existing solutions to their chests. Besides hospitals, it can
Robots are being used round the cater to the needs in this scenario have also be used in homes, hotels, schools,
clock in hospitals to provide medica- played a vital role in ensuring this. and the like.
tion and meals to patients. In office For example, an automated ther- A large population of India lives
entrances and public places, these mal screening device iThermo scans in rural areas. Numerous startups are
are being used for sanitisation and people’s temperature as they walk developing economical and portable
awareness. Drones are being used to by at IHiS’ office and St. Andrew’s ventilators for critical care owing to
monitor adherence to social distancing Community Hospital in Singapore and their shortage that can be deployed
rules, do temperature screening using alerts staff when a person with a high in both urban and rural areas of the
thermal imaging, and deliver medical body temperature is detected. People country after medical regulatory
supplies don’t have to stop in queues, and approval.
Big data and availability of digital frontline workers have lower chances AI and machine learning (ML)
resources on government platforms of contact with the undetected person. are playing a key role in helping state
are not only helping citizens but also The benefits of using such technolo- governments. For instance, in April,
those developing solutions by serving gies include a lower risk of infection Bihar permitted the development of an
as an authentic source of information. and reduced need for manpower AI-powered tool through a partnership
In South Korea, artificial intelligence in places like hospitals, according between Norway India Partnership
(AI) has been used to develop test- to luxresearchinc.com. Initiative (NIPI) and Wadhwani Insti-
ing kits and other tools. For example, In India, innovations that can deal tute of AI that can determine potential
VUNO‘s Chest X-Ray AI image support with multiple patients at a time are patients through cough-sound analy-
decision tool uses an algorithm to clas- helping in dealing with the situation, sis. In Andhra Pradesh, an ML-based

Smart World
automated number plate recognition updates and travel information in both or in the near future based on factors
system has been deployed by L&T to English and Malayalam to masses with like feasibility, scientific validity, and
check for violations such as the speed older phones. scope of impact. Innovation categories
of vehicles or distance travelled by Both the central and state gov- include screening, vaccines, thera-
individuals from their homes. ernments in India are working on peutics, public health, diagnostics,
Even mobile apps are being devel- crowdsourcing ideas and mapping containment strategies, and much
oped that cater to people with older innovations in the country for funding more. Such initiatives need to be taken
phones, who do not own smart- promising ones. For instance, C-CAMP because at a time when the economy is
phones. For example, GoK-Direct app, Covid-19 Innovations Deployment a major concern, it is crucial to invest
developed by the Kerala government Accelerator or C-CIDA was launched only in technology that is necessary
in partnership with Qkopy, sends noti- in March to search for innovations and not just jump onto the bandwagon.
fications and SMS regarding Covid-19 that could be deployed immediately —Ayushee Sharma
4 Automated
Food Cooking
With the introduction of advanced technologies such as cooking robots,
people can enjoy hassle-free cooking and save considerable time. The goal
of using such innovations is to cook hygienic food at a quicker pace
I
n this fast-paced world, after a tiring cooking a variety of dishes, tailored ents, and condiment combinations.
job of cooking, you barely get time according to your taste and preference. It is a well-programmed robot that
for anything else. While ordering You just need to prepare a vegetable can cook food faster than people.
food on a daily basis can affect your plate at night, store it in the fridge and Touchscreens and mobile ordering cut
health, hiring a perfect maid can also load the plate into the device before down on long lines and clumsy inter-
be a difficult task. However, with the heading to work. You can access this actions with cashiers. This robot helps
introduction of advanced technologies automated cooking machine from any- humans to focus on creating better
such as cooking robots and machines, where via an app to give commands to recipes and tastier food while main-
you can enjoy hassle-free cooking and cook food. On arriving home, you will taining cheaper bills for customers.
save considerable time and effort. get fresh and healthy homemade food. It is a fully automated, end-to-end
These robots and machines work It can cook almost all Indian recipes burger assembly line running com-
through robotic arms with multiple like Indian curries, rice dishes, samb- pletely on codes. It uses computer
joints, numerous actuated degrees har, poha, upma, and many more. The vision and other AI features to operate
of freedom, tactile sensors, and most exciting part is that your mother a grill. On completion, a human server
sophisticated control systems. These can teach it different recipes through takes the burger out, inspects it for
technologies feature the best of indus- live camera feed. quality, and preps it neatly on a plate.
try’s software, robotics, and artificial Moley Robotic Kitchen. It is an RoboChef. This fully automated
intelligence (AI) skills with top-tier advanced, fully functional robot that robotic kitchen can cook 800+ reci-
culinary expertise. The major players cooks with the same speed, skill, pes, powered by IoT, robotics, and AI.
in restaurants, industries, airlines, and sensitivity of a master chef. The RoboChef solves your food wastage
kitchen developers, and even chef Moley Robotic Kitchen has an inbuilt problems through precise measuring
training schools are also looking to library of recipes from around the cups and sensor fusion technology.
deploy these new innovations. world. You just need to prepare a You can record or customise a recipe
The goal is not to automate away plate with ingredients, give a com- and cook it whenever you like. You just
humans entirely but to automate the mand via the app or use the touch- need to choose a recipe from the app
portion of the restaurant experience screen, and let the robot prepare a or RoboChef control screen, load the
that can be done better, faster, and be delicious meal. You can also down- ingredients, and select start cooking. It
more cost-efficient with machines. load a recipe and cook yourself. has zero CO2 emissions and 24/7 moni-
The following are four smart auto- Creator Burger-Making Robot. toring. It provides intelligent, hygienic,
mated cooking machines: This robot features around 350 sen- and predictive maintenance.
Euphotic Delight Cooking sors and twenty microcomputers to Here are a few of the countless
Machine. What’s so smart about it? produce the best, freshest, and locally advantages of automated cooking
Well, the machine by Euphotic Lab sourced cheeseburger for just six robots: save time, consistent, safe to
starts cooking food of your choice on dollars. The machine is also capable use, more hygienic, trustworthy, and
one touch of a button or through an of making multiple kinds of burgers, personalised.
app command. It has the capability of with a vastly different taste, ingredi- —Deepshikha Shukla

Healthcare
Electronic Authentication
Of Organic Foods
The availability of adulterated food products in the market has led to a number of health
problems. In response to this, people are now moving towards the use of organic food products,
which are naturally produced, safe, healthy, and of higher quality. In addition, several new
electronic methods have been devised to ensure proper labelling of these organic products
(Credit: https://foodrevolution.org)
I
n the present times, human health is these are naturally produced, safe, healthy,
degrading fast due to available reasons and of higher quality. Organic food products
such as dependency on technology, are grown without using pesticides and
lack of hard work, and adulterated food weedicides, which can affect the chemical
products available in the market. composition of organic food products.
Adulteration of food products (whether
Dr S.S. Verma raw or cooked) takes place at every level— Organic food and its labelling
is professor at be it cultivation, production, marketing, Organic food products are produced by
Department of Physics,
Sant Longowal Institute or consumer levels. People are therefore methods that comply with the specific stand-
of Engineering and getting attracted towards organic food ards of organic farming but may vary world-
Technology, Sangrur,
Punjab
products, whose market is steadily increas- wide. Private and government agencies are
ing worldwide. Consumers want to use regulating the production and processing
organic food products as they believe of organic products by restricting the use of

Healthcare
a packaged product for verifying that
the organic product meets organic
standards. However, some people are
always trying to sell conventional food
as organic to earn more money.
Authentication methods
The consumer’s interest in organic
foods is increasing, and so is the need
for robust analytical tools for their
authenticate labelling and certifica-
tion as organic. The certification of
food products as ‘organic’ is protected
by laws in every country and can be
used by producers who have received
official certification according to
standards. In some countries, organic
food production is being developed
as a self-regulated industry. The food
OrganaDx acts as a preliminary tester before food products go to testing labs (Credit: www.mydxlife.com) products marketed as organic are to be
produced in a way that complies with
certain pesticides, weedicides, and fer- ingredient foods, the organic stand- organic standards set by national gov-
tilisers in the farming methods as well ards specify additional regulations ernments and international organic
as the use of irradiation, industrial prohibiting artificial preservatives, industry trade organisations.
solvents, or synthetic food additives. colours, or flavours and require that On these lines, currently, the
The labelling of organic food their ingredients are organic European Union, the United States,
products is the need of the hour to • No organic food is grown or Canada, Japan, and many other
strengthen consumers’ trust. Organic handled using genetically modified countries require producers to obtain
products often have a number of organisms special certification based on govern-
labels on them depending on the ment-defined standards to market
place of their origin and testing, but A comparison between organic food as organic. Products are tested
the USDA (United States Department and conventional food products for authenticity before being certified
of Agriculture) organic label is the With only some recognised differences as organic. This certification acts as
only one that’s federally certified by between nutrient and anti-nutrient a guarantee to consumers that the
accredited agents. Here are some of contents of organically and conven- organic food items have been pro-
the general standards fixed for the tionally produced food, the variable duced and processed without the use
production and processing of food nature of food production, shipping, of pesticides and chemical fertilisers
products, which can then be labelled storage, and handling it is difficult and do not contain any contaminant.
or certified as organic: to generalise the results. Moreover, There are different biomarkers/
• Food products are grown and from the perspective of science and analytical approaches available for
processed according to the guidelines consumers, there is not enough evi- the authentication of organic produce.
based on several factors such as soil dence to support the claims that eating Services of organic food testing labo-
quality, animal raising practices, pest organic food is safer or healthier in ratories are often utilised to analyse
and weed control, and use of additives comparison to conventional food. organic foods for their nutrition con-
• Producers rely on natural sub- Even the several claims suggesting tent and for the added health benefits
stances and physical, mechanical, or that organic food tastes better are not they might claim. Food testing assures
biologically based farming methods supported by tests. Further, organic consumers that the products they are
• Product is assigned as organic farming has higher production costs purchasing are authentically organic.
if it is grown on soil that has used no and lower yields, and thus higher Food Safety and Standards Author-
prohibited substances (pesticides, consumer prices as compared to con- ity of India (FSSAI) has recently
weedicides, and fertilisers) for three ventional food. operationalised the Food Safety and
years prior to harvest But still, the demand for organic Standards (Organic Foods) Regulation,
• Similarly, regarding organic food is high as consumers are con- 2017 so that the food standards and
meat, the regulations require that cerned about their personal health safety are maintained. Food testing
animals are raised in living conditions and environment. Becoming familiar laboratories provide these services
accommodating their natural behav- with the organic label and understand- to ensure that organic food produc-
iour, fed hundred per cent organic ing its claim empower consumers to tions, as well as processed products,
feed and forage, and not administered make informed decisions about the are free of chemical and microbial
antibiotics or hormones food they purchase. Consumers can contaminants. Before certifying food
• Regarding processed multi- look for the identity of the certifier on items, the certifying authorities like

Healthcare
National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP)
and Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS) India also
need analysis reports from organic food testing labora-
tories stating that organic foods contain no residues of YOU CAN NOW
SETANUP
pesticides, heavy metals, antibiotics, etc.
The complete compliance with regulations in mark-
ing food products as organic is not strictly monitored
due to the hand and glove approach between the regu-
lation enforcement agencies and producers. Therefore
non-organic foods are often being falsely labelled and
marketed as organic foods. There are several chemical EFY-CERTIFIED
SKILL
and electronic methods in use for the authentication of
organic foods, but taking into consideration the easy
DEVELOPMENT
handling and non-invasive nature of electronic meth-
ods, this article only highlights the growth in electronic
authentication of organic foods.
CENTRE IN YOUR
Electronic authentication
Currently, there is an increase in consumer awareness
about the quality and authenticity of the food. With
INSTITUTION
ever-increasing health problems at present, a growing In Partnership with EFY
number of consumers are willing to pay extra for fruits,
vegetables, and other food items labelled organic, but
whether they’re getting what the label claims is another
matter. Now scientists studying conventional and
organic foods are devising new ways, in general, and
electronic methods, in particular, to make sure farms are
labelling their products appropriately, which could help
prevent organic food frauds and cheating of consumers.
Nowadays, for food analysis, electronic sensors are used
because they require less time and operate at a lower
cost per analysis than other techniques.
1. Authenticating supplier’s identity and data on
organic food products. Organic food product supplier’s
digital authentication or e-authentication may be used
when referring to the electronic authentication process
that confirms or certifies a person’s identity and work.
In a time, when fraud and identity theft have become
rampant, electronic authentication can be a more secure EFY-CERTIFIED
Skill DEVELOPMENT
method of verifying the identity of the supplier.
There are various e-authentication methods that
can be used to authenticate a supplier’s identity as CENTRE
well as data of organic food products ranging from a
Referred to as ESDC, the Centre will help
password to higher levels of security that utilise multi-
students improve their hands-on skills,
factor authentication (MFA). When used in conjunction
make exciting projects of their own and
with an electronic signature, it can provide evidence of understand the latest technologies
whether data about organic food products received/
reported has been tampered with after being signed by
its original sender.
For more details, please call: Shyam (+91-8800100761)
Under electronic authentication, a quick response email: efyenq@efy.in or visit: https://efymag.com/ESDC
code, a type of 2D bar code is used to provide easy
access to information with the help of a smartphone ESDC’s New Partners
or QR scanner. Information like authentication code,
grower code, name, location, contact number, Face-
book URL, production date, expiry date, and regulatory
authority URL about authentic organic growers can be
embedded on QR code that can be tracked easily at no
cost. The model of adopting a QR code-based labelling
mechanism for organic produces drastically better trust-
worthiness among organic consumers.
www.EFYMag.com electronics FOR YOU • JULY 2020 21

Healthcare
2. Electronic food analyser. Imme- including adulteration. The use of ing the authenticity of products to the
diate testing is important instead of these devices involves electronic consumers. Besides capturing data at
sending the food items for analysis products of advanced chemical and every point within the supply chain
to expensive food testing labs and physical sciences combined with ecosystem, a cloud and IoT powered
waiting for results. For this, we need intuitive integration of microproces- blockchain system also ensures that it
electronic devices that we can use on sors, advanced bioinformatics, and is shared amongst every supply chain
our own to authenticate contaminated statistics. participant such as farmer, manufac-
food products. OrganaDx (developed The tests are based on voltam- turer, supplier, distributor, and finally
by MyDx, Inc., USA) acts as a prelimi- metric, bio-electronic, and piezoelec- the consumer. The security of data is
nary tester before food products go to tric platforms made from a variety the immutability element of block-
testing labs. of components. Electronic tongue chain, which adds an additional level
It detects harmful chemicals in or nose makes use of components of security and prohibits any sort of
food within minutes. The analyser based on the use of nanoparticles, fraudulent activity.
offers one of the most practical food enzyme biosensors, heavy metals, 5. NIRS technology. The applica-
quality testing options for consumers graphite-epoxy composites, metal tion of well-developed Near-Infrared
today. It is a battery-operated hand- oxide semiconductors, microe- Spectroscopy (NIRS) can be a rapid,
held electronic analyser for consum- lectrodes, microfluidic channels, cost-effective, and non-destructive
ers that contains a sensor to test for pre-manufactured gas sensors, method to verify the organic identity
certain pesticides and helps to verify redox enzymes, and others as ideal of food products. Recently, NIRS has
the safety of cannabis plants, fruits, resources for understanding and been widely implemented in the food
and vegetables. utilising their power in food science. industry for analysing ingredients in
OrganaDx is the most practical The versatility of electronic devices foodstuffs and can be used without
food quality tester that allows detect- lies with their capability to analyse sample preparation. Spectral regions
ing pesticides in food, ensuring that multiple food items. related to protein and fat content are
we do not unknowingly consume 4. Blockchain and organic food. among the most important ones for
potentially dangerous cancer-causing To ensure whether or not we are con- the classification model.
pesticides at unsafe levels. It also suming authentic chemical-free food The models are based on data
allows testing of food quality for heavy produce calls the need for a technol- preprocessing using direct orthogonal
metals to see whether it is safe for ogy solution that can help resolve signal correction (DOC), standard
consumption. issues in one of the most effective, normal variant (SNV), and first and
The device is about the size of two trusted, regulated, and consumer- second derivatives provide the most
iPhone 5s stacked together that fit driven food systems in the world. A successful results in terms of median
into the palm of a hand. It has a small new system to electronically certify sensitivity and median specificity.
chamber where the sample is put to organic products and ingredients has 6. Nuclear magnetic resonance
have a complete analysis of various come into force, promising to tighten (NMR) spectroscopy. Figuring out
chemicals in it. The analyser is con- traceability, fight fraud, and collect whether a fruit or vegetable has been
nected via Bluetooth to a smartphone reliable data on organic trade. The grown under organic conditions is full
app, which people can use to report e-system (blockchain) tracks the of complications. The most reliable
their data. The data will get shared movement of food products across authentication technique currently
(but information about the person the world. This aims to reduce fraud used is based on analysing the stable
who enters the data will be hidden) so risks by providing greater transpar- isotope composition of nitrogen in
that others can also benefit. ency in the supply of organic prod- food products, which is also not
3. Electronic noses and tongues. ucts to consumers. foolproof.
Adulteration of food products due to The blockchain was born with Scientists and engineers are look-
use of pesticides, weedicides, and fer- cryptocurrencies but is now growing ing towards the use of nuclear
tilisers during production, and use of in every sector where transactions magnetic resonance spectroscopy to
additives on the way to consumers is take place. The blockchain is the authenticate food products, including
one of the grave health risks. The con- technological basis of a platform in honey and olive oil. New methods
cern for the quality of food products which those who participate in the with the potential to authenticate
is relevant for producers, distributors, supply chain interact with each other. different organic foods based on the
retailers, consumers, and national It is an ecosystem in which from the use of NMR technology are under
governments. suppliers and growers of organic development.
The electronic tongue and nose seeds to commercial operators and In conclusion, the development of
in the food industry authenticate certified processing companies, all fast, cost-effective, non-destructive,
tests of the different groups of food are connected at different levels. and portable electronic authentica-
products. This is a rapid and pow- Blockchain—a distributed ledger tion techniques to certify the organic
erful technique, which requires no technology offers the much-required food products in the near future will
special sample preparation to deter- traceability and transparency in an be of great help for consumers to have
mine the quality of a product for the otherwise complex food supply chain healthy consumption of food and a
determination of food authenticity, by preventing fraudulence and ensur- safe environment.

Internet Of Things
Exploring The Applications

Of IoT
The Internet of Things
has become a game
changer in today’s
world and is playing
a vital role in the
industrial revolution.
This article explores
the uses of IoT in
healthcare systems,
water supply, recycling
systems and many
other areas
Wipro’s IIoT Center of Excellence in Kochi, Kerala (Credit: Tech Observer)
T
he Internet of Things (IoT) could be Today, a lot of IoT related startups are
a game changer for India, but the coming and working in India. They are
country is lagging far behind China deliberately taking advantage of the Internet
in its adoption. Today, the IoT is transform- to enhance the abilities of the devices. The
ing industrial revolution. An IIoT factory devices may be lighting system, entry into
can yield 5-12.5% cost reduction in opera- home, water sprinklers used for irrigation in
Vinayak tion and optimisation, 10-40% cost savings agriculture, traffic control system, vehicles,
Ramachandra in predictive maintenance and 20-50% road lighting systems and many more. In
Adkoli is BE in cost reduction in inventory optimisation. a smart city, electric transmission, billing
industrial production.
He has been a To boost IoT concepts, Indian technol- and the security of various services such
lecturer in mechanical ogy giant Wipro announced the launch as banks, ATMs, hotels, etc, are all done
department for ten
years in three different
of industrial IoT Center Of Excellence through IoT-operated devices. Dealing with
polytechnics. He is also (COE) in Kochi, Kerala on March 14, IoT related projects by companies and start-
a freelance writer and 2019. According to Wipro, this COE aims ups is offering great challenges.
cartoonist
at developing innovative solutions for Vyuti is a visual object intelligence
customers in industrial manufacturing, provider for the manipulation of objects by
automotive, healthcare and pharmacy. robotic arms. It can pick, orient and place
COE aims at developing customer-ready objects in various locations. With adequate
IoT solutions. training, the solutions can be applied in
sectors like manufacturing, construction,
Innovations needed for healthcare, and warehousing. Today, there
IoT industries are many solutions in the market for object
Innovation leads, the world follows. With recognition. Funded by N.A. Gokul, Vyuti is
the rise in the Indian Startup Ecosystem, in talks with TVS, AMS and Sansera.
innovation has reached its peak in the Numocity is working with the electric
country with 45,444 patent applications vehicle ecosystem. It aims in connecting bat-
filled in 2016-17 alone. tery, charging stations, etc, via a transaction

Internet Of Things
engine, distributed ledger in unlimited extrac- resulted in saving of thirty per cent of
and an artificial intelli- tion of water. With- overall water costs.
gence (AI) based engine. out considering the
Founded by Ravikiran research of aquifers Effects of IoT based wearables
Annasamy, Numocity as well as other envi- in the healthcare system
was a member of Bosch’s ronmental factors, The market size for wearables had
DNA 2.0 Cohort in 2018. ground water source reached 25 billion dollars by the end
may be threatened. of 2019. Currently, wearable technolo-
Areas benefitting IoT based systems gies are considered as an integral part
through IoT can even help to uti- of IoT based projects and include
While India is considered lise waste water at smartwatches, fitness bands, and even
to be the fourth largest malls, flats, etc. Not AR/VR headsets.
home for startups, the less than 380,000 The smart contact lens is one of the
failure rates are also very litres of water is most anticipated medical IoT technol-
high here due to many recycled at Orion ogies. Pharmaceutical giant Novartis
factors including diffi- mall, Bengaluru teamed up with Google to build this
culties in managing the Fig. 1: Multi-sensor, multi-parameter, every day based revolutionary device that promises to
ventures. multichannel water analysing on an IoT based help patients with diabetes by meas-
instrument to measure pH, residual
The hundred billion chlorine, ORP, Ozone etc (Credit: system. uring their glucose levels as well as
dollars Indian healthcare processinstruments.co.uk) Greenvironment assisting those with eye problems.
industry is set for revolu- India is an environ- The smart contact lens looks like a
tion. Big data, IoT and AI will shape mental engineering company incu- regular contact lens, but it comes
the future of this new ecosystem. bated at IIT Chennai, offering smart with a sensor that can track the blood
Increased entry of affordable IoT water and waste water management sugar level of the user non-invasively
devices and rising consumer expecta- solutions for residential companies/ through the tears and correct vision in
tions are driving the rapid growth of the apartments, commercial establish- a new innovative way. The project was
IoT market. The IoT market in India is ments, institutions and industries. initially designed by Google X.
expected to reach 15 billion dollars by IoT based smart sensor solutions The lens contains a tiny and
2020, accounting for nearly five per cent on the cloud can monitor pH, Flow, ultra-slim microchip that is embed-
of the total global market. With nearly DO (dissolved oxygen ), ORP (oxida- ded in one of its thin concave sides.
120 firms offering solutions in the IoT tion reduction potential), TDS (total Through its equally tiny antenna, it
segment today, there are tremendous dissolved salts), level, pressure, tem- will send data about glucose measure-
opportunities for further growth. perature of water during water supply. ments from the user’s tears to his or
Smart lifestyles, embedded homes, It can keep automatic records of the her paired smartphone via installed
buildings, healthcare and manufactur- above parameters and send alerts over software. This technology has got the
ing are key sectors in India for IoT start- email or SMS. potential to lower the cost of manag-
ups. Investors are now showing more Smart water management systems ing the chronic disease and encourage
interest in IoT startups with a cumu- in multi-specialty hospitals are help- people to get involved in managing
lative investment of more than sixty ing to reduce hundred litres/person/ their health digitally.
million dollars since 2014. The top four head resulting in 20-30 per cent water
areas of funding are: lifestyle/weara- conservation. Today, in 172 apart- To sum up
bles, embedded computing, industrial ments of Chennai, dependency on IoT is an emerging field of Internet
Internet and connected homes. an external supply of water is greatly technology. It is a field of research and
Today, various operations of the reduced by producing good-quality innovation concerned with increasing
city such as traffic, electricity, water, recycled water for 55 per cent of the the abilities of devices on the Internet
waste management, and much more communities living here using an scale. Ordinary rules of operating
are done on IoT platforms. Samsung efficient IoT based system. This has devices no longer apply here. Basi-
R&D Institute in Bengaluru, Nasscom, cally, here the Internet leaves
Intel and L&T together have announced its classical realm and enters a
the formation of Open Connectiv- new world of control of devices
Soft contact lens
ity Foundation (OCF) India Ecosystem encapsulates mechanism.
Task Force to increase awareness about electronics The scientific community,
global IoT standards and their benefits Sensor detects
policy makers, apex bodies
for the Indian IoT industry. glucose in tears and funding agencies are con-
tinuously striving to progress in
IoT based systems for water Chip and antenna
receives power and various areas of IoT. In the last
supply and water recycling sends info
two decades, India has achieved
Increasing dependence on ground many milestones in the areas
water as a reliable source of water Fig. 2: Google Novartis Diabetes Smart Contact Lense of IoT and many are yet to be
in rural areas of India has resulted to improve vision (Credit: pinterest.com) achieved.

Artificial Intelligence
AI Insurance
Is Coming,
Here’s Why
Artificial intelligence is a powerful tool,
but it may pose some risks if used
incorrectly. These risks can be unknown
or uncontrollable and hence, you need
to find other ways to deal with it
A
rtificial intelligence (AI) is not Information Technology Liability (IT
only a powerful tool, it can also be Liability) insurance covers claims arising
a highly risky technology if used from the failure of information technology
incorrectly. No matter how much you products, services, and/or advice.
take care, there still might be some lurking The information technology (IT) indus-
risks, which are either unknown or uncon- try has unique liability exposures due to
Anand Tamboli trollable, and that means you will be need- the crossover between the provision of
is a serial entrepreneur, ing a different way of risk-management. professional services and supply of goods.
speaker, award-winning
published author and If you perform a thorough pre-mortem Many service providers in this industry offer
emerging technology analysis, please ensure that training and a mix of both goods and services. It gets
thought leader testing are complete. A stress test of all further complicated by the legal ambiguity
the systems with the help of red teams around software advice and development
will make you more confident about their and whether it is, in fact, the provision of a
performance. However, there still might be service or sale of goods.
some risks that are unidentified, or identi- Traditional Professional Indemnity insur-
fied but can’t be anticipated or controlled. ance policies often have onerous exclusions
Such residual risks can be dealt with by relating to the supply of goods. In contrast,
way of transference. traditional Public and Products Liability
Transference or risk transfer is a risk policies often contain exclusions relating to
management and control strategy that the provision of professional services.
involves the contractual shifting of a pure Many insurers have developed a range
risk from one party to another. One exam- of insurance options to address these issues,
ple is the purchase of an insurance policy, which they commonly refer to as IT liability
by which a policyholder passes the speci- policies. These policies represent a combina-
fied risk of loss to the insurer. tion of Professional Indemnity and Public
and Products Liability insurances bundled
Currently available options into one product. These policies were
and their limitations developed to minimise the prospect of an
If you have an IT solution, which is the uninsured claim due to its ‘falling between
closest equivalent for an AI solution, a few the gaps’ between the two traditional insur-
options are already available in the market ance products.
for transferring some of the risks. However, the added complexity of AI

solutions is driven by complex algo- turer for not testing the autonomous The legal battle is a sign of what’s
rithms in addition to the data ingested machinery thoroughly enough. coming as AI gets incorporated into all
or processed. Over time, change in We need to establish specific facets of life, from self-driving cars to
data can significantly change product protections for potential victims of virtual assistants.
or solution characteristics; add to that AI-related incidents, whether these are Karishma Paroha, a London based
cloud-based services. It just widens businesses or individuals, to give them lawyer, who specialises in product lia-
the gap in existing options, and with confidence that they will have legal bility, has an interesting view. She says,
that, the prospect of falling through recourse if something goes wrong. “What happens when autonomous
the gaps increases significantly. The most critical question from chatbots are used by companies to sell
a customer’s standpoint would be, products to customers? Even suing the
Hence the AI insurance who foots the bill when a robot or an salesperson may not be possible. Mis-
Before we even think about AI insur- intelligent AI system makes a mistake, representation is about what a person
ance, let’s see if there is a need for it. causes an accident or damage, or said to you. What happens when we’re
This need can only become evident becomes corrupted? The manufac- not being sold to by a human?”
when there are multiple issues with turer, developer, the person controlling
significant complexity. There has been it, or the system itself? Or is it a matter Risky digital assistant
a steady stream of warnings since the of allocating and apportioning risk for patients
last half century to slow down and and liability? In mid-2019, a large consulting firm
ensure we keep machines on a tight Drew Turney, a journalist, argues started deploying voice-controlled
leash. in one of his articles, “We don’t put digital assistants for hospital patients.
Many thought leaders have asked the parents of murderers or embez- The idea was that a digital device
critical questions such as who accepts zlers in jail. We assume everyone is would be attached to the TV screen
the responsibility when AI goes responsible for his or her decisions in the patient room, and the patient
wrong, and what are the implications based on the experience, memory, could request for assistance.
for the insurance industry when that self-awareness, and free will accumu- The firm wanted to replace the
happens. lated throughout their lives.” age-old call button service due to
Autonomous or driverless cars are There are many examples where its inherent limitations. One of the
the most important considerations for complex situations have occurred, significant limitations cited was that
the insurance industry. In June 2016, which begets a need for AI insurance. there was not enough context avail-
British insurance company Adrian able for nurses to prioritise patients
Flux started offering the first policy AI loses an investor’s fortune only based on the call request. With
specifically geared towards autono- Austria-based AI company 42.cx had the age-old call button system, two
mous and partly automated vehicles. developed a supercomputer named patients could request help at the
This policy covers typical car insur- K1. It would comb through online same time. While one of them may
ance options, such as damage, fire, sources like real-time news and social require urgent help, the other one
and theft. media to gauge investor sentiment could wait. However, with just the
Additionally, it also covers acci- and make predictions on the US stock indication of help requests, nurses
dents specific to AI—loss or damage futures. Based on data gathered and couldn’t determine the patient who
as a result of malfunctions in the car’s its analysis (based on that data), it needed immediate help. With voice-
driverless systems, interference from would then send instructions to a based digital assistants, the firm and
hackers, failure to install vehicle soft- broker to execute trades, adjusting its hospitals anticipated that, with more
ware updates and security patches, strategy over time based on what it context from the command text, they
satellite failure, or failure of the manu- had learned. could prioritise nurse visits.
facturer’s vehicle operating system or In May 2019, a Hong Kong real The system was deployed with
other authorised software. estate tycoon Samathur Li Kin-kan prioritisation based on the words
Volvo has said that when one of decided to sue the company that used uttered by the patients. For example,
their vehicles is in autonomous mode, trade-executing AIs to manage his if a patient asked for drinking water,
they are responsible for what happens. account, causing him to lose millions the request was flagged as a low prior-
I think this is an important step. of dollars. A first-of-its-kind court case ity, whereas if someone complained
However, still, it fails to answer the opened up that could help determine about pain in the chest, they were
question of who is liable for any who should be held responsible when flagged with the highest priority. Vari-
accidents? Who is at fault if the car an AI stuffs up. ous other utterances were prioritised
malfunctions and runs over someone? While it is the first known instance accordingly. The idea behind these
When autonomous machinery of humans going to court over invest- assigned priorities was that patient
goes wrong in a factory and disrupts ment losses triggered by autonomous needing water to drink can wait for a
production, who is responsible? Is it machines, it also highlights the black- few minutes, whereas a patient with
the human operator who has thin- box problem of AI vividly. If people chest pain may be at risk of attack and
threaded control, or is it the manage- don’t know how the AI is making needs immediate assistance. Generally
ment for buying the wrong system? decisions, who’s responsible when speaking, this logic would work in
May be it should be the manufac- things go wrong? most of the scenarios.

However, this system companies or adop-
wasn’t linked with the ters can come together
patient information data- and break this barrier
base. Such that, besides by contributing to the
getting the room number common pool.
of the requester, the system Equitability. The
did not know anything second challenge is
else. Most importantly, it whether this common
did not understand what pool is equitable
the patient’s condition was enough. Due to the
and why they were in the nature of AI solutions
hospital. and customer base, not
Not knowing the every company would
patient’s condition or ail- have equivalent rev-
ment may prove to be a enue and pose a com-
severe impediment in some parable risk. Being equi-
cases. These cases may be at table, though may not
the long tail of the common be mandatory in the
scenarios, and I think that is beginning, it will soon
what makes it more dangerous. it’s the machines or human beings become an impediment for growth if
For example, if a patient has who should bear ultimate responsibil- not appropriately managed.
requested water, the system would put ity for their actions. Insurability of cloud-based AI. In
it as a low priority request and give This debate refers to a paragraph the case of minors (children), parents
other requests a relatively higher prior- of text that was buried deep in an are liable and responsible for their
ity. However, what if the patient was European Parliament report from early behaviours in the public domain. Any
not feeling well, and hence requested 2017. It suggests that self-learning wrongdoing by them results in parents
water. May be not getting water in time robots could be granted ‘electronic paying for it. However, as they grow
could worsen the patient’s condition. personalities.’ This status could allow and are termed as adults, responsibil-
It may be that the patient was choking robots to be insured individually and ity entirely shifts to them.
or coughing and therefore asked for be held liable for damages, if they Similarly, the liability of AI going
water. Continuous coughing may be an go rogue and start hurting people or wrong will have to shift from vendors
indicator of imminent danger. Without damaging property. to users over time, which may impact
knowing the patient’s ailment and con- One of the paragraphs says, “The the annual assessment of premiums.
dition, it is tough to determine whether European Parliament calls on the com- Any updates to the AI software may
a simple request for water is a high mission, when carrying out an impact bring this a few steps backward for
priority or low priority, and these types assessment of its future legislative vendors as there are new inputs to AI
of scenarios are where I see significant instrument, to explore, analyse and now. If AI works continuously without
risks. One may term this system as well- consider the implications of all pos- any updates, the liability will keep
intentioned but poorly implemented. sible legal solutions, such as establish- shifting gradually towards end-users.
Now the question is—in a scenario ing a compulsory insurance scheme However, in terms of cloud AI
where a high priority request gets where relevant and necessary for (cloud-based AI solution), this shift
flagged as a low priority on account specific categories of robots whereby, may not happen at all since vendors
of the system’s limited information similarly to what already happens would always be in full control.
access, who is responsible? If the with cars, producers, or owners of If customers or AI users supply the
patient’s condition worsens due to this robots would be required to take out training data all the time, there would
lapse, who would they hold account- insurance cover for the damage poten- be a shared liability from the solution
able? tially caused by their robots.” and outcome perspective.
Who (or what) can be held Attribution. However, of all, attri-
accountable for such failures of ser- Challenges for AI insurance bution of failure might be the biggest
vice or performance is a major lurking Although the market is tilting quickly challenge with AI insurance. Several
question, and perhaps, AI insurance to justify AI insurance products, there cases discussed in series of my articles
may be able to cover the end-users in are still a few business challenges. have shown us how challenging and
all such scenarios when the need for These challenges are clear roadblocks ambiguous it can be to ascertain fault
compensation arises. for any one player to take the initiative contributing factors in the entire AI
and lead the way. value chain.
Many regulators are A common pool. As the insurance AI typically uses training data to
swiftly gearing up fundamentally works with a common make decisions. When a customer
Since 2018, European lawmakers, legal pool, the first challenge appears to buys an algorithm from one company
experts, and manufacturers have been be not having enough quorum to but uses their own training data or
locked in a high-stake debate: whether start this pool. Several AI solutions buys it from a different company and it

doesn’t work as expected, how much ness could be outrageous. These
at fault is the AI and how much is the would typically not only result in rev-
fault of training data? enue losses but also put a burden on
Without solving the attribution fixing them, making alternate arrange-
problem, insurance proposition may ments while these are being repaired,
not be possible. and so on.
As I interviewed several insurance This scale is dangerous, and
industry experts during the last year, therefore having an AI insurance
all of them insisted that a good insur- would make sense. Additionally, with
ance business model demands correct this option in place, it will also make
risk profile and history. people more responsible for develop-
Unfortunately, this history doesn’t ing and implementing AI solutions.
exist yet. The issue is that it won’t These options would also contribute
exist at all if no one ever takes the ini- towards the Responsible AI design and
tiative and makes the flywheel rotate. use paradigm.
So the question now is—who will do it And more importantly, every
first? What might make it work? human consumer or user would want
While doing it first in the tech some level of compensation at some
industry is quite a norm, in risk-averse point in time when AI solutions go
sectors like the financial industry, it is wrong. They won’t accept it if you say
just the opposite. So, until that hap- AI is at fault. It is a fair expectation to
pens, there might be an intermediate be compensated.
alternative. The question is, who will foot the
How about insurers covering not compensation bill?
the total risk but only the damage This question is the biggest reason
control costs? For example, if some- why I believe AI insurance will be nec-
thing goes wrong with your AI system, essary. It may be a fuzzy concept for
and it causes your process to come to now but will soon be quite relevant.
a halt, you will incur two financial
burdens. One would be on account of Better risk management
revenue loss and the other would be is the key
fixing the system. In this case, while Getting AI insurance may be a good
the revenue loss can be significant, idea, but that shouldn’t be your objec-
system fixing costs may be relatively tive. Instead, you must focus on a
lower, and insurance companies may structured approach for development
start by offering only fixing part of and deployment. By doing it, you can
the cover. minimise risks to such an extent that
Insurers may also explore Para- it (AI solution) is safe, useful, and
metric Insurance to cover some of the under control.
known or fixed cost issues. If you follow my three core prin-
Aggregators can combine the ciples of good problem solving, i.e.,
risks of a cluster of several companies doing the right thing, doing it right,
matching specific criteria. They can and covering all your bases, it will
cover part of those risks themselves help.
and transfer partial risks to the insur- Given that almost everything you
ers. Either way, it is not a complete would have mitigated or had planned
deadlock to get this going. to do so, there would be hardly any-
thing that would qualify as residual
AI insurance is coming, risk. Managing residual risk is more
here’s why like a remaining tail when the entire
Implementing an AI solution means elephant has passed through the
you can do things at a much larger door.
scale. If you have been producing x If, however, there is any uncertain-
number of widgets per day without ty or unknown risk to your solution,
the use of AI, you may end up creating risk transfer should be more effortless
1000x widgets with AI. as you would have completed the
This type of massive scale also required due diligence already.
means when things fail, they would It is always a good idea to deal with
also fail magnanimously. The issues problems and risks in their smallest
1000x failures can bring upon a busi- states. Stich in time saves nine!

Education
Online Learning: An Antidote

To Uninterrupted Education
Amidst Covid-19 Crisis
With the outbreak of novel coronavirus, many business sectors have been affected
tremendously. The education sector is the latest area that has been affected by this prevailing
situation. Most countries have shut down their universities, colleges, and schools
Dr Parteek Bhatia
is an Associate
Professor at Department
of Computer Science
and Engineering,
Thapar Institute of
Engineering and
Technology, Patiala
T
he outbreak of the deadly corona- way. Uncertainty looms all over the world,
virus has unleashed a global crisis. and everyone is feeling the heat of this pan-
With an impact spanning over demic. To restrict the further spread of the
hundred countries, the virus is already virus, mass events or gatherings have been
impacting the global economy in a hard cancelled, lockdowns and travel restrictions

Education
have been imposed, and as a result, the Internet could be a great asset for Technically, with the current
multiple business sectors have been educating students in offline mode broadband speed and millions of
affected. People are being encouraged by providing them content in the smartphone users, online education
for self-isolation. The fear among the form of video lectures, blogs, and is a more feasible idea to deliver
public is quite evident and it may not presentations. content to students in the absence of
be abating soon. Numerous colleges in India have traditional teaching. The only need
The education sector is the latest not considered online video sessions is to motivate the teachers to create
sector that has been affected by this as a serious way of delivering content their own online content.
prevailing situation. Most countries to the students. It is worth noting that Of course, the Internet is already
have shut down their universities, the major hindrance in the usage of filled with a variety of learning con-
colleges, and schools. In India, most online content by the students is the tent, but still, students don’t use
states have suspended teaching in language barrier and lack of custom- them. They don’t find the existing
universities, colleges, and schools, ised content according to their syl- content adhering to their needs of
and no one knows how long this situ- labus and needs. syllabus and examination pattern.
ation will prevail. Due to this dubious The current scenario of battling Students need assurance that online
situation, institutes for higher educa- with coronavirus and suspension of content is authentic and they will
tion around the globe are trying to classes may force the educational perform well in the examination after
boost their online teaching capacity institutes to consider online learning studying it. They want the content in
to ensure uninterrupted delivery of more seriously. Our previous experi- the same language in which they are
courses during such crisis to the ence with demonetisation gives an comfortable. The need of students
stranded students. indication of this. While demoneti- can only be fulfilled if their teachers
But the big question is—are we sation affected a large user base in come forward and record the content
prepared for it? India, it also had a positive outcome specifically for them so that they can
In India, the number of institutes in the form of a boost in online pay- feel the same personal connection
involved in practicing online teaching ment transactions. Before demon- and confidence as they do in class-
is quite low. The use of online educa- etisation, people did not use online rooms.
tion is common only in professional payment methods and it was used This wreaking pandemic may
institutes. Most of the science and art only by a few tech-savvy people. push educational institutes across
colleges are not using online educa- But due to demonetisation, most of India to create their online con-
tion seriously. The situation is worst the ATMs dried up and people had tent and further deliver it to their
in rural and small city colleges. no other option than switching to students through proper channels
Technically, India has the poten- online mediums for their payment. and platforms. This will ensure
tial to provide online education to This resulted in a boost in digital that the education would keep on
all the students in the current situ- payment platforms in India. These going even when the universities
ation after the suspension of formal online transactions helped the and colleges are suspending classes.
classroom teaching. India is one of country keep going in the absence of This will also help the colleges and
the largest broadband content con- printed money. universities to keep the teachers
sumers in the world. Many of these In the same way, in the current and students engaged in positive
consumers are students, who use the situation, the universities and col- activities, instead of spending time
Internet mainly for social media and leges also have the option of only in fear. In this moment of crisis,
entertainment purposes. The use of online mode for the delivery of con- teachers and students can come for-
the Internet as a mode of education tent. The online learning can keep the ward to keep the flow of knowledge
is still abstract to them. education uninterrupted even in the and learning uninterrupted through
This is contrary to the fact that moment of crisis. online learning.

Power
Use Of Supercapacitors
In Defence And Transport
Supercapacitors are energy storage devices that bridge the gap between electrolytic
capacitors and rechargeable batteries. This article explains their importance and usage in
defence and transportation sectors
E
lectricity is a hugely versatile form rated. The plates are made of metal that is
of energy, but it suffers one major coated with a porous material like activated
drawback; it is relatively difficult carbon, which provides the plates effectively
to store. Batteries can store large amount with a bigger surface area, rendering it to
of power, but they take hours to charge store much more charge. For better under-
up. Capacitors, on the other hand, charge standing, let’s assume electricity as water—
Rathindra Nath almost instantly but store only tiny where an ordinary capacitor is like a cloth
Biswas is a amounts of power. that can mop up only a tiny little spillage
1964-batch chemical
engineering graduate In the next few decades, our fossil- of water, while a supercapacitor’s porous
from Jadavpur fuelled cars and home heating appliances plates can soak up many times more because
University, Kolkata. will need to be switched over to electric they are more like a chunky sponge. Porous
He was awarded a
certificate for designing power, if we are to avert catastrophic supercapacitors are big electricity sponges.
Benzol Plant by climate change. Besides, in modern-day In an ordinary capacitor, the plates are
Giprokoks, USSR, and
Certificate of Honour
defence equipments, there is a need to separated by a relatively thick dielectric
by Indian Institute supply high energy electric pulse. In our made of mica or plastic, or even simply air.
of Metals. He has electric-powered future, where we will be When the capacitor is charged, positive
published 35 research
papers in various required to store and release large amounts charges form on one plate and negative
journals. He retired of electricity very quickly, it is quite likely charges on the other plate, creating an elec-
from service as head - we will turn to supercapacitors that com- tric field between them. The field polarises
MECON, Durgapur
bine the best of both the worlds. the dielectric, so its molecules line up in the
opposite direction to the field and reduce
What is a supercapacitor? its strength. That means the plates can
The structure of a capacitor is rather store more charge at a given voltage. This is
simple. It consists of two electric conduc- shown in Fig. 1.
tors called plates and an insulating layer
between them called dielectric medium. Classification of supercapacitors
If these two plates are connected to direct Supercapacitors are mainly classified into
voltage, they become charged, and the three types: Double-layer capacitors; Pseu-
magnitude of electric charge accumulated do-capacitors; Hybrid capacitors.
on the plates becomes proportional to the Double-layer capacitor (DLC). A capaci-
magnitude of voltage. The more charge it tor consists of two electrodes, separator and
takes when voltage is applied, the higher electrolyte. As shown in Fig. 2, in a double-
the capacitance is. A supercapacitor is dif- layer capacitor (DLC) there is no dielectric
ferent from an ordinary capacitor mainly in as such. Supercapacitors are often termed as
two important ways—its plates effectively DLC. The electrolyte in a DLC is the mixture
have a much bigger area and the distance of positive ions and negative ions dissolved
between them is much smaller because in a solvent. Both the plates are soaked in
the separator between them works in a dif- an electrolyte and separated by a very thin
ferent way than a conventional dielectric. insulator made of carbon, paper or plastic.
Like an ordinary capacitor, a superca- When the plates are charged up, an elec-
pacitor also has two plates that are sepa- trical double layer appears at the interface

Power
(a) Positive ions Separator Molecular dielectric (b)
Negative ions Electrolyte Electrolyte
Fig. 1: Schematic diagram of ordinary capacitor Fig. 2: Double layer supercapacitor: (a) discharged, (b) charged
between a conductive electrode and strong opposition from the solvent Because of multiple processes
an adjacent liquid electrolyte. At the molecules. Hence, no charge transfer acting to store charge, the capacitance
boundary, two layers of charge with takes place between electrolyte and values are higher. Pseudocapacitance
opposing polarity are formed, one at electrode. is accompanied by an electron charge
the surface of the electrode and one in However, these opposite charges transfer between electrolyte and elec-
the electrolyte. exert electrostatic forces on each trode coming from a de-solvated and
These two layers are typically other. Thus, a large amount of charge adsorbed ion. The adsorbed ion has
separated by a single layer of solvent is built up at the common boundary no chemical reaction with the atoms
molecules (generally one molecule of electrode and electrolyte. The acti- of the electrode since only a charge
thick) that adhere to the surface of the vated carbon layer deposited on the transfer takes place. It uses transition
electrode and act like a dielectric as in electrodes is very much porous and metal-oxides like RuO2, IrO2, or MnO2
a conventional capacitor. The solvent provides astounding surface area and inserted by doping in the conductive
molecules act as a barrier and prevent acts as a storehouse for storing electric material like active carbon, which
combination of opposite charges. charges during charging. covers the electrode. Both pseudoca-
Therefore no electric charge flows in Pseudo-capacitor. A pseudo- pacitance and double-layer capaci-
between electrode and electrolyte. In capacitor is a hybrid between a battery tances contribute inseparably to the
conventional capacitor, the thickness and electric double-layer capacitor. It total capacitance value.
of dielectric might range from a few also consists of two electrodes sepa- Hybrid supercapacitor. Hybrid
microns to a millimetre or more. rated by an electrolyte. Charge storage supercapacitors are the devices with
In short, supercapacitors get their occurs by chemical and electrostatic elevated energy storage capability
much bigger capacitance from a com- means. The chemical process involves and elevated capacitance. It combines
bination of plates with a bigger surface charge transfer by means of reduction- electric double-layer capacitor and
area and less distance between them oxidation that is redox reaction when lithium-ion technology, resulting in
(because of the very effective double most of the charge is transferred near an energy density up to 115 per cent
layer). The supercapacitor’s capaci- the surface of the electrode. higher. The hybrid capacitor offers an
tance is in direct proportion to the area On the other hand, in double- enhanced capability of energy storage,
of electrical double layer. layer capacitors, positive and nega- providing power to applications more
Upon voltage application, the tive charges reside on two electrode quickly and efficiently.
electrical double layer is created that surfaces. While the charge transfer
aligns both negative and positive is similar to that in a battery, transfer Construction details
charges along the boundaries of elec- rates are higher because of the use of Electrodes. The internal arrangement
trodes and electrolytic solution. When thinner redox material on the elec- of a wound type cylindrical superca-
these negative or positive ions migrate trode, or lower penetration of the ions pacitor is shown in Fig. 3. It comprises
close to the electrode, they experience from the electrolyte into the structure. active layers made from activated
carbon electrodes and separator with
Performance Parameters aluminium tabs inserted in-between
active layers. Aluminium foils should
Parameters Electrolytic Double layer Pseudocapacitors and
capacitors supercapacitors hybrid type (Li-ion) be able to distribute a peak current of
100A, and act as the current collec-
Temperature range (°C) -40 to +125 -20 to +70 -20 to +70
tor. They are coated with activated
Maximum charge (V) 4 to 630 1.2 to 3.3 2.2 to 3.8 carbon, which is electrochemically
Recharge cycles (thousands k) Unlimited 100k to 1000k 20k to 100k etched, so that the surface area of
Capacitance (Farads) Up to 2.7 100 to 12,000 300 to 3300 the material is about 100,000 times
Specific energy (Watt hours per kg) 0.01 to 0.3 4 to 9 10 to 15 greater than the smooth surface. The
Self-discharge time Short, in days In weeks Long, in months
electrodes are separated by a very
thin ion-permeable separator made
Efficiency (%) 99 95 90
of porous polymeric films or woven
Working life in years 20 5 to 10 5 to 10 ceramic fibres.

Power
1. Terminals 6. Separator Fig. 4: A hybrid motor using supercapacitor

2. Safety vent 7. Carbon electrode
3. Sealing disc 8. Collector
4. Aluminum can 9. Carbon electrode pacitors can provide extra
5. Positive pole 10. Negative pole
power of up to 34hp and
Fig. 3: Exploded view of a wound supercapacitor can be used to smooth out
acceleration, bridging the
Virtually all supercapacitor manu- gaps in power delivery that
facturers use activated carbon made occurs when the mechani-
from coconut shells as the active cal transmission changes
component of the electrode. During gear. This removes any
processing, the ash is removed and jerkiness that would occur
kept below one per cent, iron is kept during a shift. As super-
below 100ppm and halogens are capacitors can charge and
removed in order to have an extended discharge symmetrically
cycle of operation. High porosity of and in seconds, they make
this material can provide an electrode for an incredibly efficient
area up to 3000 sq. metre/gm. It can Fig. 5: Capa bus means of providing a short
yield capacitance of 145 F/gm. Active but strong electric assist in a
material represents half the total cost Electrolytes. Electrolytes consist of vehicle while driving. The supercapac-
of a supercapacitor. As the cost of acti- solvent and dissolved chemicals that itor is discharged during acceleration
vated carbon is cheaper, about ` 1050/ dissociate into positive cations and and recharged during braking, which
kg, it is being widely used. negative anions. Aqueous acidic or means that a hybrid motor or an
A carbon nanotube (carbon mole- alkaline electrolytes are used in super- e-motor never lacks the power it needs
cules with a cylindrical nanostructure) capacitors with low specific energy during driving, ultimately increasing
is another promising active material, and high specific power. Electrolytes the efficiency of the vehicle.
but is quite costly to manufacture. with organic solvents are more expen- As shown in Fig. 4, the system gen-
Carbon nanotubes cost about ` 3500/ sive but can give a higher capacitor erally uses a 12-25V variable energy
kg, but have double the energy density, voltage of 2.7V. alternator that generates electricity
and therefore are used for special-pur- during regenerative braking at up to
pose supercapacitors. The nanotube Uses of supercapacitors 25V before sending it to a low-resist-
surface provides greater wettability Vehicles. Supercapacitors are used ance electric double-layer capacitor
and has high conductivity. It can yield in vehicles for regenerative braking. that can be fully charged in seconds.
capacitance up to 180 F/gm. They have much higher power densi- A DC-DC converter then steps down
Graphene, a two-dimensional ties than batteries and can charge and the electricity from 25V to 12V before
carbon monolayer, is another promis- discharge more rapidly. They also distributing it to the vehicle’s electri-
ing candidate whose cost varies from store much more energy as compared cal system.
` 350 to ` 2800/kg. But its fluffiness to conventional electrolytic capaci- Capa bus. A capacitor vehicle or
limits the energy density of a super- tors. This makes them more suitable capa vehicle, as shown in Fig. 5, is
capacitor and can’t be competitive, for capturing kinetic energy as a vehi- a traction vehicle that uses superca-
unless a way is found to tightly pack it. cle slows and release it for bursts of pacitors to store electricity. In general,
For pseudocapacitors based on acceleration. supercapacitors can store about 5 per
Redox, Ruthenium dioxide yielding They don’t have the ability to store cent of the energy that lithium-ion
capacitance of 750 F/gm, Manganese large amounts of energy, but they rechargeable batteries can. This limi-
dioxide, which gives capacitance of are high powered devices, primar- tation restricts the range of driving to
350 F/gm, IrO2, etc are typically used ily because the electrons can move a couple of kms per charge. But they
as electrodes. back and forth very quickly. Superca- can be charged in a matter of seconds.

Power
So, in public transport systems such as quick recharging at charging stations ` 7 million per unit and also reduc-
buses that have to stop frequently at at bus stops. A collector on top of the es the scale of automation in the
known points where charging facili- bus rises a few feet and touches an assembly line. These new generation
ties are installed, using supercapacitor overhead charging line at the stop. machines are provided with superca-
as the energy storage device is quite Within a few minutes, the supercapacitors up to a level of 5000 F and
viable. pacitor banks stored under the bus operate at a voltage less than 10V.
Since 2010, capa buses have been seats are fully charged. The buses also
operating in Belgrade in Serbia, capture energy from braking. Defence application
Shanghai, Hong Kong, Sofia, Bul- The recharging stations can be Where to use supercapacitors in mili-
garia, and Graz in Austria without equipped with solar panels. A third- tary devices? In applications where the
any major trouble. These buses are generation bus has been developed, charge can more or less be maintained
provided with supercapacitors made which can extend the range up to continuously, but at times it is required
of activated carbon and have a typical 32km. In the future, buses would use to obtain enormous amounts of energy
energy density of about 10 watt-hours/ supercapacitors with vertically aligned impulsively in a very short period of
kg compared to 200 watt-hours/kg of carbon nanotubes as the active ele- time. Supercapacitors already have set
a high-performance Li-ion battery. ment that would have one-quarter of their foot in military technology.
These buses consume energy that the energy density of a lithium-ion Laser weapons (LaWs). Laser
is only one-tenth of the cost of fuel battery. Future developments include weapons no longer exist only in sci-
consumed by a diesel bus and can the use of inductive charging under ence fiction. USA, Russia, China, and
achieve lifetime fuel savings of about the street to avoid overhead wiring. India have systems with which enemy
` 15 million per bus. Spot welding gun. Spot welding aircraft, ballistic missiles, anti-ship
The buses use 40 per cent less guns are generally used in the current ballistic missiles are destroyed with
electricity, even when compared to robotic system in assembly lines for a laser beam. Onboard generator of
an electric trolley bus, mainly because resistance welding of thin gauge steel the aircraft or ship provides electrical
they are lighter. The capa bus is 40 per (about 0.8mm). These machines use energy that is stored in the superca-
cent cheaper than a Li-ion battery bus a pneumatic/electromechanically pacitor banks.
and far more reliable. The buses need operated forcing system to apply force In case of a fast moving distant
to stop regularly every 5km allowing to electrodes and power supply to target like an enemy aircraft, mis-
provide energy for weld- sile, etc, it is not possible to hold the
ing. It weighs about 50kg laser beam on the target. Therefore
including the weight of the energy that can destroy the target
the transformer, which is must be delivered in the form of single
about 25kg. radiation of 10-100kW power pulse in
These welding guns a few milliseconds. Only supercapaci-
are gradually replaced tors have the capability of doing this
with supercapacitors task. Laser weapon systems are tied to
based devices that result ship or aircraft’s navigation radar and
in a reduction in weight can be operated through the mother
by 50 per cent due to vehicle’s combat information centre.
elimination of bulky A typical arrangement of LaWs is
transformers. It yields a shown in Fig. 6.
Fig. 6: Laser gun fitted in a destroyer reduction in the cost of Railgun. A railgun is a military
device that uses electromag-
Projectile velocity is five times the speed of sound and its firing range can reach 370 km netic force known as Lorentz
Railgun Device Interaction of Magnetic Fields The Principle Behind
Lorentz Force force to launch projectiles 2m
Source of
electromagnetic long and weigh 100-120kg at
pulse Magnetic field B
Power Magnetic field B The current speeds exceeding Mach 7-8
generator Current I
flowing
Magnetic field through the using a sliding armature that
of the armature Current I armature
is accelerated along with a
Negatively pair of conductive rails. The
charged rail
projectile normally does not
Armature Projectile contain explosives, but relies
The current flowing
through the armature
on the projectile’s high speed
Armature Force
Round
Force F F to inflict damage.
Positively The railgun uses a pair of
Conductive rails charged rail Rail
Charge parallel conductors, or rails,
The railgun uses electromagnetic force (Lorentz force) to propel an electrically conductive projectile that is initially part of a chain.
along which a sliding armature
Currently I, flowing through the rails, generates magnetic field B in the rails and armature. As a result, under the action of force F, is accelerated by the electro-
the armature is pushed out of the magnetic field of the rails and the projectile accelerates.
magnetic effects of a current
Fig. 7: Railgun that flows down on one rail

Power
Fig. 8: Schematic diagram of a pulsed linear accelarator weapon
nology delivers up
to 120kW of power
to run an airfield,
weapons, radar sys-
tems, hospitals, or a
disaster relief com-
mand centre.
Pulsed linear
accelerator weapon.
It is a futuristic
directed-energy
weapon designed to
Fig. 9: KALI 5000 system work in such a way
that if any enemy
into the armature and then back along missile is launched towards a country,
the other rail. It is based on principles it will quickly emit powerful pulses of
similar to those of homopolar motor. the relativistic electron beam, which
However, the problem is that ships, is converted by other components of
like an aircraft carrier or destroyer, the machine down the line into flash
which can generate 25MW of power, x-ray and high power microwave that
are only suitable for its installation destroy the target. Unlike laser beams,
due to the high power requirement of it does not bore a hole in the target
the rail gun. The device uses super- but thoroughly destroys the onboard
capacitors to store the enormous electronic system.
power and deliver it as a pulse in a As shown in Fig. 8, the circuit
short period of time. Fig. 7 shows the generates a high-voltage pulse by a
arrangement of a railgun. Marx generator by charging several
Heavy mobility truck. Heavy capacitors (likely supercapacitors) in
Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck parallel by a DC power supply through
(HEMTT) is an eight-wheel-drive, the resistors and discharging them in
9,100kg tactical truck with a 470hp series. The output is available as a
diesel engine used by the US army and brief pulse. USA, Russia, China, and
many other countries for transporting India have this powerful weapon.
combat vehicles and weapons. This India has developed this machine and
diesel-electric hybrid truck does not christened it as KALI (Kilo Ampere
use batteries. Instead, it uses superca- Linear Injector) (refer Fig. 9). KALI
pacitors that accept more of the power 5000 system can produce electron
created by regenerative braking and pulses of about 100ns with energy of
deliver the power to the wheels during about 1MeV, current 40kA, a power
acceleration. This increases efficiency of 40GW, and microwave radiation at
by up to 20 per cent. This hybrid tech- 3-5GHz.

Tech Focus
AI And ML Shifting Focus

Back To Hardware
The adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) in different sectors has
transformed the conventional approach for different applications. Although the terms AI and ML are
used interchangeably, the former aims at the success of a task, whereas the latter ensures accuracy
Ayushee Sharma
(Credit: https://medium.com)

Tech Focus
F
rom marketing and retail to when compared to that in technolo- applied to fields, including speech
healthcare and finance, adop- gies like extended reality, distributed recognition, social network filtering,
tion of artificial intelligence ledgers, and quantum computing. computer vision, natural language
(AI) and machine learning (ML) in Three-quarters (77 per cent) of semi- processing, and so on. These tech-
these sectors is drastically transform- conductor executives surveyed for nologies take and examine thousands
ing the conventional approach for the report claimed that they either of users’ data for precision and accu-
different applications. AI makes it had already adopted AI within their racy applications like face recogni-
possible for systems to sense, com- business or were piloting the tech- tion. This is contributing to the rapid
prehend, act, and learn for perform- nology. development of innovations that are
ing complex tasks such as decision considered magical right now, but
making that earlier required human The concept of AI and ML with hardware advancements, its
intelligence. Unlike the regular pro- Although the terms AI and ML are place might be taken by much more
gramming, where action needs to used interchangeably, the former advanced innovations in the coming
be defined for every situation, AI in aims at the success of a task, whereas decades.
conjunction with ML algorithms can the latter ensures accuracy. So,
process large data sets, be trained to solving a complex problem is done How AI and ML applications
choose how to respond, and learn through AI training, but maximising are redefining the traditional
from every problem it encounters to efficiency by learning from the data systems
produce more accurate results. and already performed tasks is the AI and ML could grow to the current
This has not only impacted how concept of ML. ML relies on large extent due to advancements in not
we use data but also how we design datasets to find common patterns only algorithms but also in storage
and fabricate hardware chips or and makes predictions based on capabilities, computation capac-
integrated circuits (ICs) for enabling probability. ity, networking, and the like, which
next-generation devices, thereby Applied AI is more commonly made it possible to make advanced
opening new opportunities. The seen in systems that are designed devices accessible to the masses at
growth of AI shifts the core of inno- for financial market predictions and an economical cost. Traditionally,
vation from the software back to autonomous vehicle control. Gener- logic was usually hard-wired in the
hardware. For better performance, alised AIs to handle different general design of electronic systems. But in
for example, AI needs more memory situations is where ML, usually con- the light of high manufacturing costs
as compared to traditional require- sidered the subset of AI, comes into presently and the growing complex-
ments to process and transfer large play. In what is called supervised ity of chip development, AI-driven
data sets. Consider the case of virtual learning ML algorithm, the relation- processor architectures are redefining
assistants that are increasingly being ship model between input data and traditional processor architectures to
used in homes. Without reliable target output is established to make suit new demands.
hardware for such functionalities as predictions, whereas unsupervised Computation is mainly done on
those associated with memory and learning does not involve categoris- the central processing unit (CPU),
logic, these cannot work properly. ing data for training. In situations like the brain of the computer. With
According to Accenture Semi- competing with humans in complex the emergence of computationally
conductor Technology Vision 2019, computer games where information demanding applications that apply
from the annual report by the Accen- needs to be gained from the environ- AI and ML algorithms, additional
ture Labs and Accenture Research, ment continuously, reinforcement processing choices through combi-
the semiconductor industry is highly learning is implemented. nations of graphics processing units
optimistic about the potential of AI Sub-branches of ML like deep (GPUs), microprocessors (MPUs),
in their work in the coming years neural networks have already been microcontrollers (MCUs), field-
programmable gate arrays (FPGAs),
and digital signal processors (DSPs)
Data Data Data Actionable
Generated Stored Processing Insights are coming up to meet the optimum
feature requirements. The options,
Big Data Artificial Intelligence
considered distinct categories, are
gradually becoming heterogeneous
processing solutions like system-on-
chips (SoCs) and custom-designed
application-specific integrated cir-
cuits (ASICs).
Structured and Data is stored Data is processed using Predictive
Unlike traditional storage meth-
unstructured in databases central processing unit (CPU)/ signals are ods to store parameters while tuning
(ex. video) data and servers graphics processing unit generated a neural network model during train-
(GPU) and AI algorithms to
detect patterns ing and inference, high-bandwidth
RAM is required not only at data
The process (Credit: https://cooltechnospy.com) centres but also for edge computing.

Tech Focus
data can render AI useless for some
applications.
AI makes it possible to process
data as patterns instead of individual
bits and works best when memory
operations are to be done in the form
of a matrix, thereby increasing the
amount of data being processed and
stored and hence the efficiency of
the software. For instance, spiking
neural networks can reduce the flow
of data as the data is fed in the form
of spikes. Also, even if there is a lot
of data, the amount of useful data
to train a predictive model can be
reduced. But the issues still exist.
Like in chip design, the training of
ML models happens in different
environments independently at dif-
ferent levels.
Graphcore’s AI chips used in MS Azure cloud (Credit: www.eetindia.co.in) There needs to be a standardised
approach to the application of AI.
The increased amount of volatile speed interconnections and routing For efficient utilisation of AI, chips
memory for proper functioning switches are being examined for load designed for AI, as well as those
causes an excessive rise in power balancing. modified to suit AI requirements,
consumption levels. This is driving The answer to improving chips need to be considered. If there is a
the need for evolving memory inter- for AI applications lies with the tech- problem in the system, there is a
faces to ensure that the tasks get nology itself. AI and ML are being need for tools and methodologies to
executed at high speeds. Although leveraged to improve performance, quickly solve it. The design process
new processor architectures are and as design teams become more is still highly manual despite the
helping reduce the load, other mech- experienced in this field, they will growing adoption of design auto-
anisms like new memory interfaces enhance how chips are developed, mation tools. Tuning the inputs is a
and processing into memory itself manufactured, and tweaked for time-consuming yet highly inefficient
are also being researched upon and updates. Complicated issues related process. Even just one small step in
implemented. to the implementation, signoff, and a design implementation can be an
UK-based startup Graphcore’s verification of chips that cannot be entirely new problem itself.
IPU is a novel processor with solved and optimised with traditional There has been widespread
high on-chip memory capacity methods can be solved with AI and misuse by companies claiming to
specifically designed for dealing ML. use AI and ML to gain the advantage
with complex data structures in Using ML-based predictive models of the trend and increase sales and
machine intelligence models. Out- inside the existing EDA tools, US- revenue. Although the cost of com-
side memory sources take much based company Synopsys claims pression and decompression is not
more time to return a result than to have achieved results like a five so high, the cost of on-chip memory
on-chip ones. According to a report times faster PrimeTime power recov- is not so cheap. AI chips also tend to
from IHS Markit, worldwide rev- ery and a hundred times faster high be very large.
enue from memory devices in AI sigma simulation in HSPICE. All this To build such systems that store
applications will increase to 60.4 requires a focus on R&D and accu- and process data, the collaboration of
billion dollars in 2025 from 20.6 rate end-to-end solutions, creating experts on different teams is neces-
billion dollars in 2019, while the opportunities for possibly entirely sary. Major chipmakers, IP vendors,
processor segment will grow from new markets with value-creation in and other electronics companies
22.2 billion dollars in 2019 to 68.5 different segments of semiconductor will be adopting some form of AI
billion dollars in 2025. companies. to increase efficiency across their
Thus, semiconductors pro- operations. The availability of cloud
vide the necessary processing and Overcoming the challenges compute services at a reduced cost
memory capabilities required for all The main focus is on data and its of computing can help in boosting
AI applications. Improving network usage. This requires more than just evolution. Technology advancements
speed is also important for working a new architecture for the processor. will force semiconductor companies
with multiple servers simultane- Different chip architectures work for to empower and reskill their work-
ously and developing accurate AI different purposes, and factors like forces, enabling the next generation
models. Measures such as high- the size and value of the training of devices in the marketplace.

Defence Electronics
The Changing Face Of

India’s Defence Sector
In Perspective
India is one of the largest importers of defence equipment worldwide. However, the government
is now planning to reduce the country’s dependence on imports with focus on indigenous
production of defence equipment. With a slew of recently announced reforms, the defence
sector will surely gain more momentum in its path to self-reliance in defence production
Potshangbam July
I
ndia is one of the largest import- ment. This will encourage increased defence manufacturing to 74 per cent
ers of defence equipment in the participation of the private sector in from 49 per cent, the defence sector
world. Imports account for 60-65 defence manufacturing. With a slew will surely gain more momentum in
per cent of the country’s military of reforms recently announced by the its path to self-reliance in defence
requirements, which are being met government, including banning the production.
by foreign suppliers. In a significant import of weapons that can be made In tandem with current develop-
move, the government seeks to reduce in the country, corporatisation of Ord- ments in the defence sector, a webinar
electronics import with focus on indig- nance Factory Board (OFB), and rais- titled ‘Defence Electronics—Policy
enous production of defence equip- ing foreign direct investment (FDI) in Focus on Domestic Manufacturing,

Defence Electronics
Procurement and Atmanirbharta’ president and country director, Thales which can be produced in the country,
was organised by ELCINA (Electronic India and which the Indian industry has the
Industry Association of India) in col- • Ankit Tyagi, manager, aerospace capability of producing, shall not be
laboration with Ernst & Young (EY). and defence, EY India open for import.”
The discussion focused on various Highlighting the scenario on the
aspects, including defence production, Domestic manufacturing manufacturing aspect, Sanjay Jaju
domestic manufacturing, offset policy, In its latest efforts to boost indigenous says, “India has a huge requirement,
opportunities for MSMEs and startups, defence production, the government is and the bulk of this requirement has
among others. planning to introduce a list of weap- been met through imported routes in
Moderated by Col. KV Kuber (retd), ons/platforms to ban imports with the past. Nevertheless, we have made
director, Aerospace & Defence, EY year-wise timelines. Priority will be significant progress over the years,
India, the imminent panel of experts given to the indigenisation of spares and a large number of defence plat-
included: that are currently imported, and a forms are being manufactured in our
• Sanjay Jaju, JS (DIP), Ministry of separate provision will be introduced country.”
Defence, government of India in the budget to buy military hardware He adds, “We also have a robust
• Lt Gen. Sanjay Verma, AVSM from domestic manufacturers. private sector, which is taking shape
(Ati Vishisht Seva Medal), VSM (Vish- Sharing his perspective on the from 2001 onward, and close to 450
isht Seva Medal), DG of Weapons measures taken by the government, Lt licenses have been given to the private
and Equipment (DGWE), Ministry of Gen. AKS Chandele (retd) says, “The sector. Many of these companies have
Defence government will prepare a negative list been producing state-of-the-art and
• Lt Gen. AKS Chandele (retd), of items and equipment, which will world-class equipment, which has
PVSM (Param Vishisht Seva Medal), ban the import of particular equip- been used by our services. We have
AVSM, senior advisor, ELCINA ment. So far, we have been relying on also started to make decent progress
• Col H.S. Shankar, VSM (retd), the defence procurement procedure, in terms of exporting some of our
CMD, Alpha Design Technologies which has been incentive-based start- products. And we have set a target of 5
• JD Patil, director and senior ing from IBM and on the other side by billion dollars of export from India by
executive vice president, L&T defence global. So, the idea is to incentivise 2024-25.”
business domestic design and manufacture. India has been making steady pro-
• Emmanuel de Roquefeuil, vice The negative list will ensure that items gress in exports and has seen a growth

Defence Electronics
of over five times in the last four years. tiative. In fact, with the new reforms, Some of the long-run processes and
On a positive note, Jaju says, “There is this will gather momentum.” procedures which have been hold-
an increase in FDI cap for the defence While discussing the General Staff ing the industry have been changing
sector, and notification will get issued Qualitative Requirements (GSQRs) of substantially.”
shortly. Our focus should not be just weapons and platforms, Lt Gen. Chan-
manufactured in India but manufac- dele points out, “The government has Opportunities for MSMEs
ture in India for the world. We have an suggested that the armed forces, when and startups
online portal, which issues clearances they make their wish lists, should have The role of startups and MSMEs is
to all the exporters in a time-bound realistic GSQR. A little word of cau- significant to help India in achieving
manner. Last year, we gave all the tion—it should not dilute the opera- its goal of indigenisation and self-
clearances within the timeline that we tional parameters of the equipment, reliance in the defence sector. Their
stipulated.” which is to be procured. You will participation can boost innovation
Besides, the discussion also require equipment that is comparable and technology development in the
focused on the space sector. In the and better than what the adversary defence manufacturing ecosystem.
latest development, the government possesses. You can’t fight tomorrow’s With the government’s focus on lev-
has announced to bring more private war or today’s war with yesterday’s eraging small businesses and startups,
players in the space segment in an tools. So, we require modern state-of- there is an increase in MSMEs’ share
effort to promote ‘self-reliant India’ the-art equipment. And there should in India’s current defence space.
mission. Col. H.S. Shankar says, “After be a balance between what is opera- Stressing on the importance of
the announcement, there have been tionally required and what is desired.” startups, Jaju says, “We have fairly
some inputs coming from the Indian As far as the offset policy is con- strong and robust startups in the coun-
Space Research Organisation (ISRO) cerned, Emmanuel de Roquefeuil try, which is the second-largest eco-
and government of India. ISRO has highlights, “We are a bit cautious with system. We run a programme called
come out with an expression of inter- the offset part. It could be much better ‘Innovation for Defence Excellence,’
est for handing over the total manu- if more incentives were given. Because and as part of this programme, we
facturing, assembling, integration, at the end of it, the purpose of the have been doing ‘Defence India Start-
and testing of the PSLV 3 program to a offset part of the DDP is to invite com- up Challenge.’ Now, we have close
consortium of private industries. So, panies like Thales and others. They to fifty startups, which are working
two or three such consortiums have need to invite those companies which on futuristic technologies. We expect
been made, and ISRO will request the are ready to invest in India. This part these startups to start contributing
proposal or tender. On the basis of it, of the documents could be improved.” along with the bigger players in the
ISRO will decide which particular con- Further, he welcomed the initiative development of futuristic technolo-
sortium will be given the task of build- of raising the foreign direct investment gies, and work in tandem to create a
ing and making its own factory. This (FDI) cap from 49 per cent to 74 per defence manufacturing ecosystem.”
is a very good example of how ISRO cent via the automatic route, which Lastly, Ankit Tyagi also gave a
wants to utilise the private industry. was announced by the government of presentation where he talked about
And we welcome this.” India recently. the demand for innovative products
The discussion also highlighted and equipment, which will rise in
Defence procurement policy the inspection process of the equip- areas of cybersecurity, surveillance,
India’s defence procurement policy ment, which is a concern considering communications, and electronic
aims to push forward higher indig- its time-consuming process. JD Patil warfare equipment. “The innovation
enous content for defence equipment says, “The one big bugbear in the category will become the impetus to
and supports various initiatives for defence sector has always been the initiate this technology revolution
local material/vendors as part of Make inspection process. Until the inspec- for the Indian Armed Forces, which
in India initiative. tion is not completed, the equipment is again a great opportunity. And
Lt Gen. Sanjay Verma says, “As far is not stamped for delivery. Since the finally, with the global downturn, the
as Indian army is concerned, 75 per outbreak of the Covid-19, digital has companies across are looking for new
cent of the last five-year procurement taken some amazing levels of initia- market spaces and local partners. So,
has been from Indian industries, both tives. Now, we have started inspecting it is expected that many foreign com-
in terms of the number of contracts as equipment online with proper kinds panies will look to further expand
well as the monetary value. Whatever of cameras, special software, etc. In into the Indian market through col-
expenditure has been done on the con- fact, we have already delivered three laborations and JVs. And this will
tract, it has been done on the Indian systems within four weeks—fully digi- give an opportunity to the MSME
industries.” tally inspected and digitally certified. sector,” he says.
He adds, “Another good thing that Before this, it was unthinkable in the The discussion concluded with
we would like to share is that request defence industry—everything had to several queries raised by the audience
for proposals (RFPs), which we have be carried out on paper and done in concerning the domestic defence
floated around 70 to 75 per cent, are a set format. I think those myths are industry, which was addressed by the
directed at the Indian industry. So, we falling out and falling apart. These panel of experts with fresh insights
are in sync with the Make in India ini- bad times are teaching us new things. and thoughts.

AI In Military Service:
Rules Sky, Land And Sea
With the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, modern electronics warfare has become more
intelligent, effective, and precise in many ways. Leveraging AI technology in warfare equipment
gives more advantages in the race towards modernisation of military equipment. This article covers
the use of AI in military applications and on-going modernisation of Indian warfare equipment
A
Sani Theo recently published book, Army of revolutions, modern warfare is unique,
None, authored by Paul Scharre, lethal, and much more destructive than
talks about autonomous weapons, ever. You may refer the ‘AI In Defence: The
artificial intelligence (AI), and cutting-edge Warfare Revolution 3.0’ article published
technology in modern warfare. Experts in EFY July 2019 issue, which talks about
think that in future, wars will be fought by various warfare revolutions in the history
AI-based autonomous machines. However, of mankind.
it’s difficult to predict whether humans will Modern warfare is part of the third revo-
still be in charge of the deadly machines. lution that uses drones, unmanned aerial
Looking back at the history of warfare vehicles (UAVs), and AI. With the use of
Representation of AI-robotic armies (Credit: lifeboat.com)

AI technology, modern electronics
warfare is becoming more intelli-
gent, effective, and precise in many
ways. The recent killing of Iranian
major general Qasem Soleimani near
Baghdad International Airport by a
US drone in January this year was
an example of the preciseness and
effectiveness of a drone and also an
eye-opener. According to some news,
the world’s most feared drone, MQ-9
Reaper, had killed Soleimani. The
recent tension between the US and
Iran has witnessed the use of many
deadly drones in the Middle East.
Every country has its own secret
planning and strategy to modernise
warfare equipment in the airspace,
ground, and sea. Leveraging AI tech-
nology in warfare equipment gives MQ-9 Reaper drone (Credit: en.wikipedia.org)
greater advantage in the race towards
modernisation of military equipment. and built by Kratos Defence & Secu- sold to many countries, including the
All the autonomous machines have rity Solutions for the US Air Force. It UK, France, and Australia.
some form of AI and other sophisti- has been designed to perform and
cated technologies involved. This is operate as a fighter jet. Further, the AI on ground
why an autonomous drone is one of air force is exploring to use F-35 and Some countries are replacing foot
the most advanced and secret pro- F-15EX fighter jets together with the soldiers on the ground with intelligent
jects of the defence department in Valkyrie drone. robots, allowing them to engage with
many countries. MQ-9 Reaper, developed by enemies without putting human lives
This article covers the use of AI General Atomics Aeronautical Sys- at risk. Robot tanks, vehicles, and
in military applications, including tems, is the first hunter-killer UAV sentries are being developed to replace
skies, lands and seas, and on-going designed for long-endurance and human soldiers.
modernisation of Indian warfare high-altitude surveillance. It is also For example, the Uran-9 robot is
equipment. called Predator B, capable of being an unmanned combat ground vehicle
remotely controlled or autonomous (UCGV) developed and produced by
AI in sky flight operations, primarily for the Russian Defence company, UPTK.
Skyborg drone, originally designed the US Air Force. It has a range of The robot is especially designed to
as a flying AI machine, is now envi- 1,850km and an operational altitude deliver combined combat, reconnais-
sioned as a combat aerial vehicle of 15km, which makes it useful for sance, and counter-terrorism units
having the capability to carry out long-term loitering operations for with remote reconnaissance and fire
dangerous missions, including hunt- both surveillance and support of support. It can be used autonomously
ing down or jamming enemy air ground troops. The Reaper has been on predefined paths or manually oper-
defence networks, recon- ated on roads.
naissance missions, or The robotic system
striking targets in heavily is equipped with a wide
defended airspace. Ear- range of remote-controlled
lier, Skyborg was meant sensor modules such as
to operate either togeth- laser warning systems and
er with a piloted fighter, electro-optic and ther-
providing assistance to a mal imaging cameras.
human pilot, or as an AI The onboard fire control
flying machine on autono- system consists of auto-
mous mode. AI-powered matic target detection,
Skyborg drones are likely identification, and tracking
to be put into use by 2023. devices as well as ballistic
XQ-58 Valkyrie drone computers. It is capable
can fly at a high sub- of detecting and tracking
sonic speed and take off enemy targets at a distance
without a runway. It is a up to 6km during day and
stealthy drone designed Uran-9 robot (Credit: armyrecognition.com) 3km at night. The Uran-9

robotic armed vehicle was inducted
in January 2019.
SGR-A1, an AI-based sentry gun,
is a stationary lethal autonomous
weapons system (LAWS). South Korea
is using these sentry guns for years
along the heavily defended border
with North Korea. They are placed at
a fixed location to watch and respond
to possible threats. These were devel-
oped in 2006 and reportedly deployed
in 2010 along the demilitarised zone.
A similar system, developed by
DoMaam Super aEgis II, was also
unveiled in 2010. It can detect humans
at a distance up to 3km during day
and 2.2km at night. It is normally
equipped with a 12.7mm caliber
standard gun.
AI in sea
Robots and AI are not only used for
research in the deep sea but also for BrahMos missile (Credit: www.fresherslive.com )
defence applications.
The US defence research agency capabilities. It is an oceanic multipur- is expected to be ready within three
DARPA has developed an unmanned pose system. to five years.
submarine tracking vessel called Sea China is believed to have deployed Kamorta-class corvettes with the
Hunter. It has been built with many many unmanned underwater vehicles Indian Navy, currently in service,
electronic sensors, image-processing (UUVs) and autonomous underwater are a class of anti-submarine warfare
hardware, and software. It can be vehicles (AUVs) in the South China corvettes. These were the first anti-
armed and used for anti-submarine Sea. The HSU001, one of its autono- submarine warfare stealth corvettes
and counter-mine duties. This autonomous vehicles, was showcased during to be built in India. INS Kavaratti
mous ship can travel thousands of China’s 70th National Day in October corvette is one of the projects that
miles for months without a human last year. recently completed sea trials and was
crew. delivered to the Indian Navy in Febru-
The Russian Poseidon is an auton- Modernisation of Indian ary 2020.
omous, nuclear-powered, and nucle- warfare equipment The Indian Air Force’s (IAF) vision
ar-armed unmanned underwater The government of India has already for 2020 includes plans to raise its
vehicle under development by Rubin initiated the process of preparing inventory of fighter combat squad-
Design Bureau. It is capable of deliv- Indian defence forces in using AI and rons, acquire more advanced fighters,
ering both conventional and nuclear developing the technology within the sophisticated defence systems, and
payloads. The Poseidon is a family of country in order to modernise the smart long-range weapons. The IAF
drones having multiple features and defence equipment. will receive forty upgraded Su-30MKIs
A fully indig- capable of carrying the BrahMos
enous Futuristic cruise missile, possibly before 2020
Infantry Combat end.
Vehicle (FICV) is BrahMos is a medium-range
being developed ramjet supersonic cruise missile that
by Ordnance Fac- can be launched from submarines,
tory Board (OFB) ships, aircraft, or land. It is described
and Defence as the world’s fastest supersonic
Research Devel- cruise missile with a high degree of
opment Oranisa- precision and accuracy. It can be used
tion (DRDO) for by Indian Army, Navy, and Air Force.
use by the Indian Ghatak, an unmanned combat
Army. Most of the air vehicle (UCAV) and, Rustom, an
parts to be used unmanned air vehicle (UAV), are under
in the production development by DRDO. India is also
w i l l b e d eve l - likely to purchase thirty Reaper drones
HSU001 autonomous underwater vehicles (Credit: www.forbes.com) oped in India. It from the US State Department.

Test & Measurement
T&M Solutions
For Satellite Systems
A satellite has to operate in very harsh conditions after launch. It has to function in a vacuum
while handling high levels of electromagnetic radiation and fluctuation in temperatures.
Therefore it’s crucial to test each satellite properly before it enters space. This article covers the
various types of satellites testing and challenges that may occur during the process
Deepshikha Shukla
Satellite testing before launch (Credit: https://images.unsplash.com)
M
ost people probably never think Therefore satellites have to be durable
of how many times satellites and reliable.
affect their lives. But every time A satellite has to operate in very harsh
you turn on your GPS to find a location, conditions after launch. It has to function
or check the weather forecast, satellites in a vacuum while handling high levels of
play an essential part. We rely on satellites electromagnetic radiation and fluctuation
for so many things in our lives, including in temperatures. Also, it must survive
communication, navigation, remote sens- the extreme vibrations and high acoustic
ing, surveillance, and earth observation. levels during launch. Governments or pri-

Test & Measurement
to perform all the checks. Thus,
sufficiently thorough and accurate
preflight testing is required within
provided schedules and budgets.
The characteristics of satellite com-
munications such as propagation
delay, variable channel, and limited
bandwidth present challenges for
the service providers.
Various tests performed
on integrated satellite
Reducing the cost of tests can sig-
nificantly reduce the total cost of a
satellite program, enabling profit-
able ventures in new satellite appli-
cations. Maintaining instrument and
system accuracy and regular check-
ing of the key parameters reduce the
overall cost of tests and shorten the
program schedule in multiple ways.
Satellite thermal vacuum testing (Credit: www.nasa.gov) Following are a few major satellite
tests:
vate companies that spend millions are providing critical information Thermo-vacuum testing. In this
or even billions of dollars a year on are still operational, the satellite will test, the satellite is kept in a vacuum
satellite technology need to ensure remain in use until it has reached the chamber to check the working of
that their investments would be end of its lifecycle. its hardware under various thermal
fruitful. That’s why it’s vital to test A crucial part of all satellite test- loads. The thermal insulation has
each satellite properly before it gets ing is the recording of data that will to maintain the temperatures of the
launched into space. later get analysed to find and repair PCBs and sensors like magnetometer
problems with the satellite. Test and GPS, and also the battery, in
Satellite testing approach throughput and cost of the test are the desired range. The functioning
Testing must begin at the initial major contributors to these structures. of each PCB, sensor, actuator, bat-
phase of satellite construction for Regular verification of test equipment tery, uplink, and downlink is thor-
checking each component’s accel- performance as per specifications oughly tested within the extreme
eration during launch, power con- ensures repeatable measurements and space temperature range. Thermal
sumption, RF performance, etc. successful acceptance testing, which vacuum chambers are used to test
Common components that need can significantly reduce the time and satellite operating performance in a
testing include solar panels, anten- cost of tests. space environment (vacuum) with
nas, batteries, electrical equipment, great temperature fluctuations to
fuel cells, and radio equipment for Challenges of satellite testing ensure that thermal control analysis
transmitting information from the Satellite testing presents unique chal- performed during the design phase
satellite to the ground station. lenges. When you test a satellite, you is accurate.
As these parts get assembled into are often testing the one that will Antenna deployment test. It
larger pieces, they must undergo eventually go into orbit. Therefore, helps to ensure successful deploy-
additional tests. At the final stage, a while the tests need to be meticulous, ment of satellite antenna in space.
quality control team must conduct the testing itself should not damage For establishing a reliable com-
rigorous testing before declaring the the satellite in any way. munication between the ground
satellite ready for flight. It costs hundreds of millions of control station and satellite, antenna
Requirements for satellite testing dollars to manufacture and launch deployment is one of the most
depend on its construction, design, a satellite. Currently, satellites are important tasks. It includes antenna
and payload. Once satellites are in simply decommissioned when these design validation in transmitting and
orbit, these are usually beyond the run out of fuel. Satellites are subject receiving mode to test transmitting/
reach of repair. That is why compa- to the most challenging technological receiving modules and verify switch
nies that design and test satellites standards and requirements while matrix performance to meet the
must consider every contingency operating in space. highest performance requirements
and examine everything multiple Once the satellite is built, no part in the hazards of space.
times to avoid any error. Although, of it is generally removed for testing. Global Navigation Satellite
if a part of the satellite fails after Hence, without being able to see System (GNSS) testing. GNSS
launch but other components that the inside of the satellite, you need receiver tests can only be conclusive

Test & Measurement
tion of AOCS in orbit.
Subsystem testing. It includes
battery voltage and bus voltage test-
ing, primary and secondary battery
voltage testing, solar panel voltage
checking, actuator and sensors
testing, momentum wheel testing,
magnetic voltage, sun sensor test-
ing, indoor and outdoor testing, RF
emission testing, pressure checking,
fuel tank and oxidiser tank testing,
solenoid valve checking, static and
dynamic load testing, and satellite
thrusters testing.
Some satellite testing
solutions providers
For many years, only governments
were involved in the construction
Satellite communication testing (Credit: www.gl.com) and testing of satellites. However,
these days large and small private
when these are performed under an ical shocks during the liftoff and sub- companies are increasingly investing
environment that is close to reality. sequent launch trajectory in satellites for commercial purposes
Thus, GNSS simulation must include • Acoustic test simulates a vibra- like television and radio signals, tel-
proper simulation of satellite orbits, tion environment to verify whether ecommunications, and even military
interfering signals, signal propaga- the satellite can function normally applications.
tion characteristics, characteristics after bearing acoustic vibrations NTS provides a network of facili-
of receiver antenna, and receiver Satellite payload testing. Satellite ties to conduct the necessary tests,
environment. payload systems must operate reliably including building gigantic climate
Ground station and ground in space, providing reliable service for chambers, to analyse how a satel-
terminal testing. Once a satellite is decades of operational life. Additional lite would respond to the vacuum
on its target orbit, several routines tests will include measurements to of space or to extreme changes in
need to be performed to ensure learn each satellite’s exact centre of temperature. It also conducts tests
optimum performance of the entire gravity and mass to ensure its compat- for vibration, solar radiation, dealing
chain of satellite communications. ibility with its launch vehicle. It also with the dust of space or pyroshock,
Validation, monitoring, and perfor- helps to control the orientation when which might occur during the booster
mance test of ground stations are the satellites are in orbit, which can separation stage or the satellite sepa-
of vital importance for the satellite determine how long they will operate ration stage from explosive bolts.
operator. in space. NASA and some other private
Vibration testing. Vibration tests Electromagnetic compatibility. companies are exploring the ways of
are very costly to carry out and are Satellites also need to get tested for satellite servicing, which can make
among the most crucial checks to shielding against external radio sig- spaceflight more sustainable, afford-
conduct. The collected data from the nals. The electromagnetic (EM) inter- able, and resilient. It is testing space
vibration test allows the analysis of ference and compatibility tests are robots to diagnose, maintain, and
the satellite structure design to meet used to understand EM field response extend a spacecraft’s life.
the vibration requirements. Vibra- produced by the satellite itself under GNSS test solutions from Rohde &
tion test is generally done before normal operation and to determine Schwarz and some others enable test-
the thermo-vacuum test by applying the EM interference limit that satellites ing subsystems, assemblies, and com-
various loads on the launch vehicle can tolerate. ponents to validate the performance
as follows: Hardware-in-the-loop simulation of ground station terminals and
• Static loading tests the vibra- (HLIS) test. A HILS facility is used to in-orbit service under well-defined
tions due to accelerations experi- test one of the most complex systems and controlled conditions. All GNSS
enced during flight onboard, the Attitude and Orbit Con- scenarios are fully customisable and
• Harmonic loading simulates trol System (AOCS) of satellites in a repeatable.
the vibrations that the satellite will closed-loop, catering to the stringent GL Communications provides
experience during launch requirements of the spacecraft mis- various test solutions to monitor and
• Random loading tests random sion. During HILS tests, deficiencies test backhaul networks, no matter
vibrations in time and frequency in the spacecraft hardware, software, what type of media, bandwidth, or
domain interfaces, etc, are determined and signalling is over the satellite net-
• Shock testing tests for mechan- corrected to achieve flawless opera- work.

Interview Make in India
There Is No Machine
Which Can’t Be Made In India
Ashok Chadda
managing director, Powersem GmbH Germany
and Powersem Semiconductors Pvt Ltd India
Make in India is surely what we all should promote; but first of all, we need a well-developed infrastructure for the same. Ashok Chadda,
managing director, Powersem GmbH Germany and Powersem Semiconductors Pvt Ltd India, in a conversation with Deepshikha Shukla,
discusses how Make in India helps to uplift the Indian electronics market and what its challenges are
Q. How can Make in India products sudden introductions like GST. But and are manufacturing products
help to reduce costs? we feel that with this government, in Sweden, Germany, Brazil, or
A. Customers in India should buy we can get it done. We have to talk the USA. They are coming to India
innovative modules made in India openly and keep trust in our abilities and want to sell the same products
and believe more in Indian products. because Europeans and Americans in India. But it makes no sense
If you want to innovate with your trust Indian abilities, and a lot of manufacturing in Germany and
application, use resources available in their CEOs are Indians. other places and sending it all the
India. Also, with new kinds of mount- way here because the cost becomes
ing technologies and modules, you Q. Do you believe that moving in addition very high. And if you
can really save costs. towards industry automation can want to be competitive with China,
help India? you have to reduce costs. So, we
Q. What is a good way to target cus- A. We believe that with the want to make the same modules in
tomers in the electronics market? number of people we have in India, India that we make in Germany for
A. It’s good to look for distributors we should mainly work with them. the local market and also for export
both online as well as offline. But we And we don’t believe in buying to Middle East Turkey, Australia
are thinking about selling products expensive machines from Ger- or Malaysia and other emerging
online only. In Europe, we’re selling many or Europe because you will markets.
mainly through online distributors, also have to fly in people who are
and it is working fine. Therefore we maintaining these. We don’t need Q. How are you planning to contrib-
are also starting online sales in India. to buy big expensive machines from ute to the Indian electronics market?
Earlier, we were only exporting, but Europe as we can make alternative A. Powersem’s main target is
now we are in contact with some of machines even in India and learn to to sell innovative and customised
the online distributors. We’re looking use and improve them step by step. power semiconductor modules in
for partnerships in India with online So, in India, we have got every- India—whether developed and made
distributors and application centres. thing, including skilled labour and in Germany or India. We want to
industries that can make customised offer a single quality worldwide that
Q. How far the Make in India govern- machinery, which is much cheaper. can be also exported from India.
ment policies are helping manufac- If we buy machines in India, these We provide power semiconductor
ture in India? can be maintained by Indians. So, modules for the PC board, which can
A. A lot of developers of semicon- our maintenance costs also get be mounted directly on the board or
ductors are from India, but living and reduced. And the other thing is that can be pressed in or can be soldered.
working abroad. We can all innovate we don’t believe in making goods We are also focusing on the minia-
here too, but to sell products from in India by buying machines from turisation of electronic components
India worldwide, we need a far better abroad like from China, USA or to save material and costs. We are
infrastructure facilities, better corpo- Europe. planning to supply innovation made
rate laws, and more support from the in India not bought from China or
Indian government. What we have Q. What are the challenges faced by Germany into India. Currently, we
seen so far is that there is no machine the Indian market and how are you have a manufacturing unit in Banga-
which can’t be made in India. planning to overcome them? lore, and we are planning to expand
Right now, it is very difficult to A. There are a lot of foreign it to North India, Pondicherry or East
manufacture in India as there are companies that are coming to India India.

Interview Test & Measurement
Everyone With A Smartphone

Now Has A Personal Satellite
Navigation System
Jim Lin
marketing director, SkyTraq
From providing logistic solutions to guiding users, navigation satellite systems are fundamental to modern technologies like the
Internet of Things (IoT). Jim Lin, marketing director, SkyTraq, discusses the operation and scope of GPS/GNSS technology for industrial
and consumer navigation and tracking applications in an interaction with Ayushee Sharma
Q. What are the applications of GNSS spheres in 3D, with sphere centre being rection data is being broadcast on the
receivers? the satellite position and the sphere satellite signal. Japan’s QZSS satellites
A. Popular Global Navigation Satel- radius being travelled distance, the are broadcasting LEX signals to provide
lite System (GNSS) receiver applica- receiver position will be one of the two centimetre-level accuracy positioning to
tions are navigation with smartphones, intersecting points; that is, using three Japan and Asia-Pacific regions. Galileo
calling taxi knowing where it is and satellite measurements to derive the plans to provide high accuracy service
when it’ll arrive, fleet management, (x,y,z)- three unknowns of the receiver by broadcasting E6 signals to enable
vehicle anti-theft GPS locator, GPS position. better than 20cm accuracy positioning
sports watch, etc. Less well known are GNSS receivers typically do not have globally, and so on.
time synchronisation and frequency super-accurate atomic clocks as in the New GNSS chipsets will accom-
reference application, which can be navigation satellites but have low-cost modate these new signals to enable
used for synchronising time across time reference that has some time dif- the standalone centimetre-level to
the globe to the accuracy of 10nsec, ference (dt) from the atomic clock. This decimetre-level accuracy. By using an
or used in GPS Disciplined Oscillator unknown dt time difference requires inertial measurement unit with a GNSS
(GPSDO) to generate precise reference another satellite measurement. Once dt receiver, high accuracy can be main-
frequency for base stations. is known, the GNSS receiver can adjust tained for a while after signal blockage
its local time to match atomic clock time to ensure reliability.
Q. How are compatibility and interop- within 10nsec.
erability among different service pro- Q. Which GNSS system is most often
viders of navigation satellite systems Q. On what factors is the selection of a found in smartphones?
maintained? GNSS module based? A. A smartphone has a minimum
A. The compatibility and interoper- A. Applications such as autono- of GPS/GLONASS signal receiving
ability of different global and regional mous ground vehicle precision guid- capability. Newer models can receive
navigation systems were carried out ance or UAV to spray pesticides will additional Galileo and BeiDou signals.
bilaterally in the past between US-India require centimetre-level-accuracy RTK They have similar 2.5m CEP accuracy
on GPS/IRNSS, EU-US on Galileo/GPS, receivers. Applications that are often in (inferior to precise RTK or PPP solu-
EU-China on Galileo/BeiDou, and US- a partial signal blockage environment tions) under the open sky. The ones
Japan on GPS/QZSS. Multilaterally, the may benefit from the latest quad-GNSS capable of using more satellite constel-
compatibility and interoperability are capable receivers. Being able to use lations can have better accuracy under
discussed through ICG (International more satellite constellations, a quad- adverse signal environments.
Committee on Global Navigation Satel- GNSS receiver can have more satellite
lite Systems). signals to work within urban canyons Q. How do you see the growth of the
than a regular GPS/GLONASS receiver, consumer satellite navigation market in
Q. Can you explain the working of thus providing better accuracy. the coming years?
GNSS? Another consideration may arise A. Everyone with a smartphone
A. The principle of GNSS is trian- from regulation requirements. For now has a personal satellite naviga-
gulation. The GNSS receiver measures example, the AIS-140 application in tion system. New growth areas would
the travel time of GNSS signals from India requires a minimum of NavIC/ be smartwatches with GNSS function
satellites to the receiver. Using decoded GPS capability. for accurate fitness tracking of running
data from GNSS signals, the receiver distance and pace rate, cars with satel-
can compute the position of satellites. Q. What considerations in design can lite navigation systems having inertial
By using travel time measurements, help ensure GPS accuracy? measurement units, and barometric
one could derive travelled distance by A. There are various new devel- pressure sensors that provide improved
multiplying travel time by the speed opments on the satellite signals to position accuracy in all road envi-
of light. By combining positions of improve GNSS receiver accuracy. ronments, giving correct navigation
three satellites, one can draw three Precise Point Positioning (PPP) cor- instructions.

Do-It-Yourself EF Y
o
i The
San
OTP Based Wireless Ashwini Kumar Sinha

Smart Lock System
T
his is a one-time password every time you try to unlock it, which key is lost or stolen, it creates a huge
(OTP) based smart locking gives you extra security. problem. Also, the electronic wireless
system using Arduino and Blue- A key-based locking system has locking system is not that safe because
tooth. It can generate a new password now become outdated because if your you might forget your password, or it
might get stolen by others while enter-
ing the password on your device. So,
we can make a DIY smart lock that
has the capability to remove all these
security threats and problems.
The author’s prototype wired on a
breadboard is shown in Fig. 1.
To start the project, we need the
following hardware components/
materials:
• Arduino Uno
• Bluetooth HC-05
• Jumper wires
• Servo motor
• LED
• 5V battery or power bank
• USB type-B cable for program-
ming Arduino
• Breadboard or veroboard PCB
After collecting all these compo-
Fig. 1: Author’s prototype wired on breadboard nents, start the project by writing an
Arduino code.
Coding
First, we need to include the library
and declare variables, as shown in
code snippet Fig. 2. Include a servo
library and then create a string array
to generate a password. Next, create a
few more string variables to store the
password, OTP, and LED pin numbers
as given in code snippet.
Fig. 2: Arduino code with library and variables Now, in the second code snippet,
Fig. 3: Setup serial, servo and pin mode Fig. 4: Loop( )and OTP( ) functions

Do-It-Yourself
we need to set up serial and baud rate Now, let’s develop an Android
for Bluetooth as shown in Fig. 3. Set app for our project. We can develop Connections with Arduino
up a pin for servo using servo.attach an Android app on two different Uno and Other Components
(PWM pin number) function. Then platforms—Android Studio and MIT Arduino pins Components and pin
define pin mode as output for LEDs. App Inventor. Here, let’s choose the Pin 9 (PWM) Servo yellow wire (signal
In the third part of the code, create MIT App Inventor because it’s easy to input wire)
a loop, and check the incoming data make an app with blocks and without Rx Bluetooth module Tx
from Bluetooth. Next, create ‘if state- normal coding. Tx Bluetooth module Rx
ment’ to check the device ID. If it GND Bluetooth (-Ve)
matches, create OTP ( ) function for Android app development Vcc 5V battery (+Ve)
generation of OTP as shown in Fig. 4. First, you need to have a valid Google Pin 12 Red LED (Anode)
In the last part of the code, as email account. Next, open the link
shown in Fig. 5, create a check ( ) https://appinventor.mit.edu to start user interface (UI) on the left side or
function to check whether OTP is the MIT App Inventor project. You will download the .aia file from source.
correct or not. If it is correct, turn the find two tabs—Designer and Blocks efymag.com.
servo to an open position to unlock the on the top right side of the screen. Now, select the Blocks tab to start
locking system. Create a layout from the designer blocks coding. (In this platform, you
Congrats, you have done Arduino section, as shown in Fig. 6. Just drag can program the app’s behaviour
coding part! and drop the components from the by putting blocks together). First,
we need to initialise Bluetooth list
available for connection from the
App Inventor Blocks Editor section.
Then we need to set a button function
to send device ID according to our
Arduino code, as shown in Fig. 7.
Now, save the file as .apk on your
computer. Transfer .apk file to your
Android smartphone and install it.
We are almost done now. We
have completed Arduino coding and
Android app development. Now, let’s
start our hardware setup and connec-
tions. The circuit connections with the
Arduino Uno board and other compo-
nents are given in the table and also
shown in Fig. 8.
Next, let’s crosscheck everything,
including connections. Wrong connec-
tions can damage your costly Arduino
board. Do not connect servo motor
Fig. 5: Check ( ) function directly to the 5V pin of Arduino.
It is not safe because
Arduino has not been
made for the amount of
current that is required
for servo motor to oper-
ate. Use a separate 5V
DC supply for the servo
motor. For interfacing
the servo motor with
the actual lock, you may
refer to the ‘Make Your
Own Smart Wireless Bio-
metric Lock’ DIY article
published in February
issue.
Congrats, you have
completed your awe-
some project! Now,
Fig. 6: Smart lock layout for Android app switch on your OTP

Do-It-Yourself
Now
Book
Your Ads
Online
25%
And Get
Fig. 7: App Inventor blocks for the smart lock layout
Instant Discount!
ALL CREDIT CARD / DEBIT CARD /
NET BANKING ACCEPTED
You can even

select the position
of your choice.
Facility is
available for
multiple insertions.
Pay online and

get confirmation
of release.
Scan this Code
Check out on OR
www.efymag.com/advertise
Fig. 8: Complete circuit connections of smart lock system
based smart wireless locking system nected’ message on the app.

and follow the steps given below: 4. Touch on the key icon to send
1. Open the installed OTP_Smart- the device ID. If the device ID of app India’s
lock app and turn on the Bluetooth in and lock matches, then an OTP will be
your Android phone. received in the app next to the key icon. Electronics
2. Touch on the Bluetooth icon to 5. Touch the lock icon and enter Magazine
get a list of Bluetooth connections for OTP in the text bar. If everything RANKING AS PER
pairing. is fine, the servo motor will move ELCINA-IMRB
3. Select HC-05 from the list. On to unlock the lock. At the same REPORT
successful pairing, you will get a ‘con- time, the onboard LED of Arduino
will light up, indicating success-
ful unlocking of the smart lock
system.
EFY Note
The source code Ashwini Kumar Sinha is an electronics
of this project hobbyist and tech journalist at EFYi
is available
for free download
at source.efymag.com
Do-It-Yourself
EF Y
vedi
Dwi
S.C.
Make This Handy Zener Meter Fayaz Hassan

For Faster Testing
T
he circuit presented here is com-
pact and handy for measuring the BOARD1= STEP UP BUCK BOOSTER/CONVERTER (9V TO 30V OR 40V)
D2
voltage rating of a Zener diode 1N4007 BOARD1
CON2
instantly. To check a Zener diode, it is D1 VIN+ VOUT+ PZ1 FOR
connected across a DC power supply 1N4007
1 IC1 3 R1 VOUT−
R3
PIEZO
SJ2
R2 VIN− BUZZER
with a suitable resistor in series, then 7805 2.2K
10K
10K
R5
the voltage drop across Zener diode 2 SJ1,SJ2 ARE 12K
is measured using a multimeter. The \1
RESET Vcc
8 SHORTING
P+
LED1 JUMPERS
whole setup, including selection of S1
POWER INDI. 2
PB3 ADC1
7
R6
470K
voltage range in multimeter, takes POWER C1
10u
C2
3 6
ON/OFF 10u PB4 PB1 R4
more time than the actual measure- 25V 16V 2.2K R7
4 5
ment itself. GND PB0
T1
47K
SDA
GND
SCL
This circuit uses only a 9V battery BATT.1
Vcc IC2 2N2222
9V CON1 C3 CON3 P−
as a power supply for checking voltage FOR ATTINY85 0.1u FOR VR1
drop across a Zener diode that may OLED SJ1 10K
be rated even higher than 9V. It may GND P+,P− ARE THE PROBES USED TO MEASURE THE VALUE OF ZENER DIODE
also be used as a continuity tester,
diode junction tester, LED tester, etc. Fig. 1: Circuit diagram of handy Zener meter
It displays basically the voltage drop
across its two probes, which is useful played in 32×24 bit size font. supply module to change the output
for such testing. A buck-boost converter (Board1) is voltage. The buck-boost converter
a type of DC-DC switch-mode power used here is an LM2577 based step-
Circuit and working up module. Any step-up buck-boost
The circuit diagram of the Zener meter Parts List module with more than 30V DC
is shown in Fig. 1. It is built around a Semiconductors: output may be used in this circuit.
5V voltage regulator 7805 (IC1), micro- IC1 - 7805 voltage regulator The circuit can work in either 0-30V
IC2 - ATtiny85 microcontroller
controller ATtiny85 (IC2), an organic D1, D2 - 1N4007 rectifier diode range (in case jumper SJ1 is shorting)
light-emitting diode (OLED) display, T1 - 2N2222 npn transistor or 0-40V range (in case jumper SJ1 is
transistor 2N2222 (T1), buck-boost LED1 - 5mm LED open/disconnected). The range may
Board1 - LM2577 buck-boost converter
converter (Board1) and few other be selected based on the maximum
Resistors (all 1/4-watt, ±5% carbon):
components. R1, R4 - 2.2-kilo-ohm output of the buck-boost module.
The ATtiny85 microcontroller R2, R3 - 10-kilo-ohm
(MCU) configured as a voltmeter using R5 - 12-kilo-ohm Software
R6 - 470-kilo-ohm
its ADC channel displays the voltage R7 - 47-kilo-ohm
The software code (ZenerMeter.c)
across the probes on OLED display. A VR1 - 10-kilo-ohm potmeter for ATtiny85 MCU is written in C
buck-booster module is used to step- Capacitors: language. It requires three libraries
up the 9V DC input to about 42V DC, C1 - 10µF, 25V electrolytic (oled_lib.c, font_basic_16x8.h and
C2 - 10µF, 16V electrolytic
which is required for measuring the C3 - 0.1µF ceramic disk oled_nums_32x24.h), which are kept
voltage drop across the Zener diode. Miscellaneous: in the same folder as ZenerMeter.c.
Due to small size of the components BATT.1 - 9V battery The hex code (ZenerMeter.hex) can
used here, the circuit becomes compact CON1 - 4-pin connector be generated using any AVR C com-
CON2, CON3 - 2-pin connector
and handy. S1 - On/off switch piler such as Programmers Notepad
The OLED display used here is SJ1, SJ2 - Shorting jumper (WinAVR). During testing, we used
2.4cm in size with 128×64 pixel PZ1 - Piezo buzzer ISP programmer for burning the hex
- 4-pin OLED, 2.4cm
resolution, which requires a 5V DC 128×64 pixel
code ZenerMeter.hex into ATtiny85.
supply and an I2C connector. It has - 8-pin IC base You can use any suitable AVR MCU
four pins, out of which two are for - Jumper wires programmer.
power supply, one for serial data - Berg connector The software controls the display
- 2-pin terminal connector
(SDA) and one for the clock (SCL). for battery through I2C serial communication
The text/message is displayed in (All these are available from kitsnspares.com) protocol. The physical I2C pins (SDA
16×8 bit size font and voltage is dis- and SCL) of ATtiny85 are not used in

Do-It-Yourself
this project. Note that the
OLED can be controlled
through two pins of any
AVR MCU using software,
leaving I2C pins for other
applications or control.
An actual-size PCB
layout for the handy
Zener meter is shown in
Fig. 2 and its components
layout in Fig. 3. Assemble
the circuit on the PCB
and connect 9V battery
to it.
Fig. 2: Actual-size PCB layout of Zener meter
Initial setup
1. Disconnect shorting
jumpers SJ1 and SJ2.
Wr i t e / p r o g r a m t h e
zenermeter.hex code to
ATtiny85 MCU through
ISP port using an AVR
programmer. Insert the
programmed MCU on the
PCB. It is recommended
to use an 8-pin IC base
for the MCU on the PCB.
2. Connect a multi-
meter in voltage mode
across Vout+ and Vout-
of the buck-boost module Fig. 3: Components layout of the PCB
(Board1) and switch on
S1. Then, adjust inbuilt potmeter of diode, it will start displaying the
module to get about 42 volts. In case, unknown voltage drop of the diode.
the maximum output of the module is The circuit is now ready to use. This
below 42 volts, then adjust the inbuilt circuit can measure Zener voltages
potmeter to about 32 volts. Now, dis- of up to 40V.
connect the multimeter. When no component is connected
3. Connect a known voltage source across the probes (P+ and P-), ‘Zener
(between 10V DC and 25V DC, say absent’ message is displayed on
12V) and a multimeter (in voltage the OLED. When a Zener diode is
mode) across the probes P+ and P-. connected (in reverse polarity), the
Adjust VR1 to match the voltage read- voltage drop across the Zener diode
ing on OLED display with multimeter is displayed on the OLED. When a
reading. Now, disconnect the multim- junction diode is connected in for-
eter. ward bias mode, or both the probes
4. Connect shorting jumpers SJ1 are shorted (continuity tester mode),
and SJ2. Now, restart the circuit by the voltage drop across the probes is
switching S1 off and on again. The displayed and a small beep is gener-
‘Zener meter’ along with a maximum ated. In case an LED is connected in
voltage range message will appear forward bias mode, the LED glows
on the OLED display. Connect the and voltage drop across the LED is
probes (P+ and P-) across a Zener also displayed.
Fayaz Hassan is a manager

efy Note at Visakhapatnam Steel Plant,
The source code Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh.
His interest includes MCU projects,
of this project mechatronics, and robotics
is available
for free download
Do-It-Yourself
EF Y
vedi
Dwi
S.C.
Conveyor Jam Detector T.K. Hareendran

For Industries
T
he conveyor jam detector cir- While packages of various shapes fixed-voltage timing application. It is
cuit presented here is designed and sizes move down a conveyor belt, advisable to connect the entire elec-
to activate an alarm device or it is imperative that they continue tronic assembly to an industry-grade
programmable logic controller (PLC) to travel down to prevent potential linear/switch mode DC power supply
when the speed of the conveyor system delays or severe damages due to an adaptor.
falls below the set minimum speed, accidental jam. Following the common You can design a range of prox-
alerting the workers the possibility of industrial practice, the sensor head of imity sensors as the sensor head for
jamming of the conveyor system. Con- the conveyor jam detector can be the conveyor jam detector but using
veyor jam detector is an indispensable installed in the second return idler a readymade inductive (or optical)
sensor device found in most conveyor support from the drive-end. (Normally proximity sensor can save both time
safety and control systems. when the speed of the conveyor belt is and effort.
slowing down, the rota- The circuit diagram is very clear
tion speed of the return and self-explanatory. The first mon-
idler is slowing down as ostable (IC2A) of IC2, which com-
well.) The conveyor jam prises pins 1 through 7, is configured
sensor head installation as a retriggerable monostable, and
is shown in Fig. 1. the leading edge of its output pin 6
is used to trigger the second mon-
Design description ostable (IC2B), which comprises
The circuit diagram of pins 9 through 15. LED1 and LED2
the conveyor jam detec- are system status indicators wired
tor is shown in Fig. 2. It to the output of the first and second
is built on a dual preci- monostable, respectively. RC timing
sion monostable mul-
tivibrator HCF4538B Parts List
that offers stable retrig-
Semiconductors:
gerable/resettable one- IC1 - LM7812, 12V voltage
Fig. 1: Conveyor jam sensor head installation shot operation for any regulator
IC2 - HCF4538B dual monostable
T1 - BC547 npn transistor
LED1, LED2 - 5mm LED
D1 - 1N4007 rectifier diode
1 IC1 3 C4 100n
R4 100K Resistors (all 1/4-watt, ±5% carbon):
LM7812 C3
C1 R1, R2, R4 - 100-kilo-ohm
100u
100u 2 VR2 1M R3, R6 - 2.2-kilo-ohm
25V 1 16 C5
63V Cx1 VDD
R5 - 10-kilo-ohm
10u,25V
15
2
RxCx(1) Cx2 VR1, VR2 - 1-mega-ohm potmeter
R1 100K
3 14 Capacitors:
RESET(1) IC2 RxCx(2)
C2
T1 CON4 C1 - 100µF, 63V electrolytic
D1 VR1 1M BC547 C2 - 1µF, 25V electrolytic
1u,25V HCF4538B 13
FOR
1N4007 4
+TR(1) RESET(2) C3 - 100µF, 25V electrolytic
SIGNAL
5
−TR(1) +TR(2)
12 OUT C4 - 100nF ceramic disk
R2 100K 6 11
R5 C5 - 10µF, 25V electrolytic
Q1 −TR(2) 10K
7 10 GND Miscellaneous:
CON1 R3 Q1 Q2
CON1 - 2-pin terminal connector
FOR CON2 2.2K 8
Vss 9
16V − FOR SJ1
Q2 CON2-CON4 - 2-pin connector
R6 - 16V-24V unregulated power
24V CON3 2.2K supply
FOR LED1 LED2
SENSOR - 16-pin IC base
RUNNING SJ1= SHORTING JUMPER HALTED
IN - SN04-N inductive proximity
SENSOR IN = SENSOR ASSEMBLY OUTPUT PULSE sensor (optional)
- 4N25 opto-coupler (optional)
(All these are available from kitsnspares.com)
Fig. 2: Circuit diagram of conveyor jam detector

Do-It-Yourself
100-kilo-ohm
(R1+VR1) to ensure
that the first mon-
ostable is compatible
with the sensor pulse
input. The preferred
pulse width of the
second monostable
is about ten times of
the first monostable,
which results in RC
values as 100-kilo-
Fig. 3: Actual-size PCB layout for conveyor jam detector Fig. 7: Partial view of author’s prototype ohm and 10µF (that is,
R4+VR2=100-kilo-
components R1, VR1, and ohm and C5=10µF).
C1 set the RC time con- The calibration will ensure that
stant of IC2A whereas R4, while the conveyor is moving, the first
VR2, and C5 set RC time monostable of IC2A is triggered by the
constant for IC2B. sensor pulses through CON3, which in
The input pull-up turn triggers the second monostable of
resistor R2 is added IC2B. Hence, T1 gives a closed output
intentionally because the through CON4. This action continues
circuit input at CON3 till the conveyor moves at the desired
is configured to handle speed.
negative-going (falling In case the conveyor comes to a
edge) pulses only. For a halt (or slows down), IC2A no longer
Fig. 4: Components layout of the PCB sensor with an inbuilt gets the trigger pulse, therefore T1 is
pull-up resistor, simply opened by IC1B (after a short delay)
remove shorting jumper to indicate the conveyor jam or failure.
(SJ1). Output pin 10 of
the second monostable Construction and testing
(IC2B) drives the output The actual-size PCB layout for the
(CON4) via the NPN conveyor jam detector is shown in
open-collector transistor Fig. 3 and its components layout in
switch (T1). Fig. 4.
The DC input (16V to The prototype was tested using
24V) connected across a square type inductive proximity
CON1 is protected against sensor SN04-N, powered by a 12V
reverse polarity feed by supply. The author’s model of DC
one 1N4007 diode (D1). motor driven idler wheel used for test-
The fixed voltage regula- ing the prototype is shown in Fig. 5.
tor LM7812 (IC1) lets Note that SN04-N has an internal
Fig. 5: Idler wheel model you power up the circuit 10-kilo-ohm pull-up resistor, so if
through any unregulated you are powering it (or any other
DC supply adaptor. inductive/optical proximity/rota-
tion sensor module with internal
Rs = Vcc −1.3V/50mA Calibration pull-up resistor) from an external
Rs
CON1# 1 6 C Calibrate the setup with power supply (usually 10V to 30V),
FOR(Vcc)
+10V−30V 2 the help of potmeters remember to include a simple iso-
IC 5 VR1 and VR2. Assuming lated interface circuit like the one
1 3 4N25 E the rotation per minute shown in Fig. 6.
CON2# 4
2
FOR (RPM) of the idler wheel Partial view of author’s prototype
3
SN04−N 1 = BROWN WIRE OF SN04 is 600, the concerned wired on a bread board is shown in
2 = BLACK WIRE OF SN04 rotation sensor assembly Fig. 7.
3 = BLUE WIRE OF SN04
GND
(RPM sensor) giving one
CON1#= 2−PIN CONNECTOR
CON2# = 3 PIN CONNECTOR
pulse per rotation results
in a period of 100ms. T.K. Hareendran is an electronics
SN04−N = INDUCTIVE PROXIMITY SENSOR hobbyist, freelance technical
Since C1 is a 1µF author and circuit designer.
capacitor, you need a He is founder and promoter of
TechNode
Fig. 6: Isolated interface circuit resistance value of

Do-It-Yourself
EF Y
vedi
Dwi
S.C.
Protect Your Appliances With This S. Thangamani

Power-On Delay Timer
T
his simple delay timer circuit is
used to prevent noise and spike
in electrical equipment before
switching on the main input supply.
Most electrical appliances powered by
230V AC mains produce large voltage
spikes when the power is switched
on. The voltage spike also affects low-
power electronic circuits. Hence, noise
suppression and spike protection are
very important. One of the easiest
solutions is to use a power-on delay
circuit that switches on the electronic
circuit after a few seconds. Fig. 1: Author’s prototype
The author’s prototype is shown in
Fig. 1. Block diagram of the power-on The output is built
delay timer circuit is shown in Fig. 2. around triac BT139,
which can switch
Circuit description up to 16-ampere AC
Circuit diagram of power-on delay load. The maximum
timer circuit is shown in Fig. 3. It is 16-ampere current
built around a timer NE555 (IC1), means we can have
60 per cent as opti-
mum current, that
Parts List
is, up to 9.6 amperes
Semiconductors: (or 16×0.6=9.6
IC1 - NE555 timer
IC2 - 4017B decade counter amperes). The opti-
IC3 - MOC3041 optotriac mum load will be
Triac1 - BT139/BTA12 triac Fig. 2: Block diagram of the power-on delay timer 2 20 V × 9 . 6 A = 211 2
BR1 - 1A, bridge rectifier
watts. The triac is trig-
Resistors (all 1/4-watt, ±5% carbon), unless stated
otherwise: decade counter 4017B (IC2), opto- gered by optotriac MOC3041 (IC3).
R1 - 100-ohm, 0.5W triac MOC3041 (IC3), triac BT139 Optotriac has the advantage of trig-
R2-R5 - 10-kilo-ohm (TRIAC1), a 100-kilo-ohm preset gering 230V AC power by itself and
R6 - 330-ohm, 0.5W
(VR1) and a few other components. providing circuit isolation.
R7 - 1.5-kilo-ohm
R8 - 150-ohm, 0.5W Timing accuracy is achieved by DC power for this circuit is derived
R9 - 1-mega-ohm using decade counter 4017B. NE555 from step-down transformer X1,
VR1 - 100-kilo-ohm preset IC is used as a bistable oscillator. bridge rectifier BR1 and capacitors C3
Capacitors: VR1 preset is used to vary the tim- and C4. Resistor R2, capacitor C5 and
C2, C3, C6 - 0.1µF ceramic disk ings from 0.1-sec to 1-sec pulse in preset VR1 are timing components for
C4 - 1000µF, 25V electrolytic NE555 IC. When the main power is NE555 IC. You can change the delay
C5 - 4.7µF, 25V electrolytic switched on, 4017B starts counting time (0.1 to 1-sec) of this circuit by
C7 - 0.01µF, 400V ceramic disk
the pulses received from NE555. The varying VR1.
Miscellaneous:
CON1, CON2 - 3-pin terminal connector output pulses from NE555 are fed During power-on, clock enable
MOV1 - 270V metal oxide varistor to clock input pin 14 of 4017B. As a pin 13 (CLK EN) and pin 11 (Q9) of
X1 - 230V AC primary to 9V, result, 4017B gets breezed and its ten 4017B are in low states. Each output of
300mA secondary
transformer
outputs (Q0 through Q9) become high 4017B goes high one by one after each
- Heat-sink for triac sequentially. Output pin 11 (Q9) of clock pulse. When Q9 goes high with
(All these are available from kitsnspares.com) 4017B goes high at 10th pulse received tenth pulse, CLK EN also goes high.
from NE555. This stops the counting process in

Do-It-Yourself
AC IN = 230V AC,50HZ
C1 C2 3
R1 R2 100u,25V 0.1u O0
L
100E 10K 16 VDD
O1 2 N
4 8
E
RESET Vcc O2 4 R6
15 RESET
7 330E CON1
X1 DIS 7
O3 0.5W FOR
6
TH 3 14 IC2 MOV1 AC IN
9V AC IC1 O/P CLK
O4 10
4017B 1 6 G 270V
NE555 1
A MT MT1
BR1 2
TRI 13 O5
1A
CLK EN 2 K
IC3 NC
5
VR1 5 TRIAC1 MT2 C7
100K
O6 MOC3041 BT139 0.01u
3 MT 4
12 NC R9
CV GND CO 6
O7
5 1 R8 1M
R4 O8 9
8 Vss
150E
10K 0.5W L
C5 O9 11
C3 R3 C6 N
C4 4.7u R7
0.1u 10K 0.1u E
1000u 25V 1.5K
R5
25V CON2
10K
FOR
X1 = 230V AC PRIMARY TO 0−9V,300mA SECONDARY TRANSFORMER GND AC OUT= 230V AC,50HZ AC OUT
Fig. 3: Circuit diagram of the power-on delay timer
spike arrester circuit built around

resistor R9, metal oxide varistor MOV1
and capacitor C7 is used.
Construction and testing
An actual-size PCB layout for the
power-on delay timer is shown in Fig.
4 and its components layout in Fig.
5. After assembling the circuit, con-
nect the 230V, 50Hz AC supply across
CON1. AC load should be connected
across CON2.
For initial testing, remove IC3
from the circuit and connect an LED
across pins 1 and 2 of MOC3041.
Fig. 4: Actual-size PCB layout for the power-on delay timer Switch on the delay timer circuit. The
LED should glow after a delay. If LED
does not glow, check voltage at pin
3 of NE555 with multimeter. If volt-
age pulses are available at pin 3 of IC
NE555, check 4017B and its associated
components.
If LED glows after a time delay,
your circuit is working well. Now,
remove the LED and insert the opto-
triac MOC3041, triac BT139 and asso-
ciated components. The power-on
delay timer is now ready for use.
A suitable heat-sink is recom-
mended for triac BT139. You may use
BTA12 in place of BT139.
Fig. 5: Components layout of the PCB S. Thangamani is electronics reverse

engineer with 38 years of service in
the electronics industry. He is the
4017B. The current high output states BT139 and the AC supply for the load proprietor of Parvaty Electronics,
of 4017B remain high till the power is becomes available across connector Madurai and vice president, Tamil
off. High state at Q9 makes MOC3041 CON2. Nadu Electronics Technicians
Association
to conduct. This triggers the main triac To improve the life of triac, the

Do-It-Yourself
EF Y
o
i The
San
Automatic Shashank T.S.

Hand-Wash Timer
A
ccording to the World Health want to use their expensive phones hands near the IR sensor module,
Organization (WHO) guide- near washbasins. So, it becomes dif- the sensor detects your hands. The
lines, people need to wash ficult to keep a check on time for the detection makes the sensor to send a
their hands with soap and water at handwashing procedure. low pulse signal to pin 2 of the NE555
least for 20 seconds to get rid of any Here is a low-cost and simple timer to trigger it. This activates
virus. Although you have a stopwatch solution that uses a timer at the heart NE555, and its output pin 3 goes high
on phones, wristwatches, and other of the circuit. NE555 timer is used for 20 seconds. The flush LED1 con-
electronic devices, it is not convenient in monostable mode along with an nected to pin 3 of NE555 glows for 20
to use them. Also, some people do not IR sensor to trigger it. The FC-51 IR seconds. During this time, you can
sensor module has an inbuilt wash your hands until LED1 turns off.
CON2 transmitter and receiver. Also, a buzzer can be connected to pin
FOR IR
S1
When you stand in front of 3 of IC1 for audio indication.
R3 4 8
180K RESET Vcc POWER the washbasin and place your The whole circuit can be assem-
ON/OFF
7
DIS
Vcc
GND
OUT
6
TH 3 CON1
R2 IC1 O/P
10K NE555 FOR 5V
2
TRI
R1
1K
C2
CV GND
100u
5 1
16V LED1
C1 FLUSH
0.01u
IR = IR SENSOR MODULE GND
Fig. 1: Circuit diagram of automatic hand-wash timer
Fig. 3: Prototype kept near the washbasin during hand-wash
Parts List bled on a general-purpose PCB

Semiconductors: or veroboard. The author’s pro-
IC1 - NE555 timer totype assembled on the vero-
LED1 - 5mm LED board is shown in Fig. 2. The
IR - 3-pin FC-51 IR sensor module
Resistors (all 1/4-watt, ±5% carbon):
prototype kept in a glass near
R1 - 1-kilo-ohm the washbasin during hand-
R2 - 10-kilo-ohm wash is shown in Fig. 3.
R3 - 180-kilo-ohm
Capacitors:
C1 - 0.01µF ceramic
Miscellaneous: Shashank T.S. is an
CON1 - 2-pin male connector embedded engineer
CON2 - 3-pin female connector at Adappt Intelligence,
S1 - On/off toggle switch Bengaluru. He has
- 5V DC power supply a keen interest in
- 8-pin IC base robotics and AI
Fig. 2: Author’s prototype

Do-It-Yourself
EF Y
Make A Simple Capacitive Touch Amal Mathew S.C.
Dwi
vedi
Keyboard With Arduino
C
ertain shortcuts on your key-
board such as copy, paste or
print can definitely simplify
your work. And what if you can create
these different keyboard operations
on your own? Have you ever thought
about this?
This simple DIY project explains
how you can make a portable device
that performs different keyboard
operations like copy and space bar.
It is a small single keypad device
that works on Arduino and capaci-
tive touch sensor. The sensor can be
made using any metallic object like
aluminium foil, coin, etc. The author’s Fig. 1: Author’s prototype wired on a breadboard
prototype wired on a breadboard is
shown in Fig. 1. sensor library in Arduino IDE. The
Hardware components include library turns two or more Arduino
TP1= ALUMINIUM
Arduino Micro, 1-mega-ohm resistor, pins into a capacitive sensor, which POWER USB
FOIL OR
INPUT SCL
jumper wires, and aluminium foil. can sense the electrical capacitance COIL
LEONARDO
ARDUINO
SDA
Arduino Micro is the smallest of the human body. Capacitive sensor IOREF
AREF
GND
board of the family of ATmega32U4 can detect anything that is conductive RST 13
Arduino. It is easy to integrate with or that has a significantly different per- 3.3V
5V
12
11
everyday objects to make them inter- mittivity than air, such as the human GND 10
GND 9
active. It is based on the ATmega32U4 body or hand. Vin 8
TP1
microcontroller (MCU) featuring a The project was tested using a A

MEGA32U4
built-in USB, which makes the Micro 1-mega-ohm resistor. If you are using 7
6 B
recognisable as a mouse or keyboard. a different resistor value, use the pro-
DIGITAL
A0 5
Note that you can use only the Ardui- gram (capturing_sensor_value.ino) to A1 4
ANALOG
A2 3
no boards that use ATmega32U4 such find the sensor value before uploading A3 2
as Micro, Leonardo, Leonardo ETH, the main Arduino sketch to Arduino A4

A5
TX 1
RX 0
R1
1M
etc. board.
Circuit and working Software program
Fig. 2: Circuit diagram of the capacitive touch
The circuit diagram of the capacitive Software is written in Arduino pro- keyboard
touch keyboard using Arduino is gramming language. The captur-
shown in Fig. 2. Digital pins 2 and 4 ing_sensor_value.ino code is used can be downloaded from the link
of Arduino are used to interface with to decode the sensor value. The https://github.com/arduino-libraries/
the sensor. copy_operation.ino code is used for CapacitiveSensor/zipball/master
The sensor setup includes a copy operation and the space_bar.ino For obtaining the sensor values,
medium to high-value resistor, some code is used for space bar operation open capturing_sensor_value.ino
jumper wires, a small piece of alu- on the keyboard. from Arduino IDE, compile and
minum foil. You can use any resistor After installing Arduino IDE in upload to Arduino board with the
value between 100-kilo-ohm and your PC, launch Arduino IDE Soft- sensor connected to the board. Next,
50-mega-ohm. Note that at higher ware, connect Arduino Micro to open serial monitor of Arduino IDE
resistor value, it behaves like a prox- your PC, select the board (Arduino/ and observe the values. The default
imity sensor. Genuino Micro) and COM port. Then sensor values obtained on the serial
The circuit requires a capacitive install capacitive sensor library, which monitor without touching the sensor

EFY Note
Do-It-Yourself The source code
of this project
is available
for free download
used such that whenever sensor value

goes over 1000, a keyboard operation
is performed.
Sensor values after touching the
sensor are shown in Fig. 4. You can
change the sensor values by chang-
ing the resistor value and use suitable
sensor values in the main codes (copy_
operation.ino and space_bar.ino)
Testing steps
1. Upload capturing_sensor_value.ino
code to Arduino board
2. Open the serial monitor and
observe the values with and with-
out touching the sensor. When you
Fig. 3: Sensor values without touching sensor
touch the sensor, the value comes in
between 3700 and 4052 as shown in
Fig. 4. For example, let us take a value
of 3800.
3. Next, open copy_operation.ino
code, insert the value 3800 in this code
as sensor1 ≥3800. Compile and upload
it to Arduino board
4. Now open any document file.
Select a line of text from this docu-
ment file. When you touch the sensor
it will perform the copy operation,
equivalent to ctrl+c operation on the
normal keyboard.
5. Similarly, open space_bar.
ino code and use 1000 in the code
as sensor1 ≥1000 and Keyboard.
write(32) for space bar operation.
After compiling and uploading the
code into the Arduino board, touch
the sensor. It performs space bar
operation by simply moving the cursor
towards right on each touch.
Fig. 4: Sensor values after touching sensor
are shown in Fig. 3. resistor, at every touch, the sensor Amal Mathew is an
Whenever you touch the sensor, value goes up by 1000. So, a condi- electronics hobbyist
the value increases. With 1-mega-ohm tion statement in Arduino sketch is
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Industry News
Industry Updates
PLI scheme for promoting

manufacture of medical devices
On The move
Vikram Solar appoints Suman Nag
The Department of Pharmaceuticals device market is 1.6 per cent. as CRO
Vikram Solar has announced the appointment
(DoP) that falls under the Ministry of Cancer care, radiotherapy medi- of Suman Nag as its chief revenue officer
Chemicals and Fertilisers has notified cal devices, radiology and imaging (CRO). As CRO, Nag will be responsible for
a production linked incentive (PLI) medical devices, nuclear imaging developing and implementing the commercial
strategy and identifying profitable commercial
scheme for promoting domestic manu- devices, anesthetics, cardio-respirato- opportunities to grow revenue and market
facturing of medical devices in India. ry medical devices, renal care medical share for the company. He will drive business
The new scheme proposes to extend a devices, and all medical implants have development, topline, branding, and
five per cent incentive on incremental been included in the target segments marketing.
He has an experience of over 25
sales (over the base year). This applies of medical devices eligible under the years across industries like renewables,
to medical devices produced in India, PLI scheme. automotive, and IT. Prior to joining Vikram
and these goods must be covered The tenure of the scheme has been Solar, Nag was associated with Suzlon Group
as chief commercial officer for two years and
under the target segments. set from 2020 (base year) to 2026 (year six months. He has also worked as a sales
DoP’s official statement reads, of completion). This makes the scheme manager with Mercedes Benz India.
“The expected incentive to the tune of eligible for a maximum of five years.
` 34.20 billion will be provided during The objective of this scheme has Dr Vivek Lall joins USA-based General
the tenure of the scheme.” been announced as a step towards Atomics as chief executive
It is to be noted that India import- strengthening the existing infrastruc- Dr Vivek Lall has been appointed as the
chief executive of General Atomics Global
ed medical devices worth ` 433.65 ture facilities to make the Indian medi- Corporation. Before joining General Atomics,
billion during the financial year 2018- cal device industry a global leader. he was associated with Lockheed Martin
19. The export figures, during the The government has currently banned as vice president, strategy and business
development.
same tenure, stood at ` 163 billion. exporting any kind of essential medi- He has also served Reliance as president
India’s share in the global medical cal devices in the wake of Covid-19. and CEO from April 2011 to August 2014. Lall
was responsible for spearheading growth
in the new ventures vertical for Reliance. He
has worked with Boeing Defence Space and
MSMEs get additional assistance amidst Security as vice president and country head
from September 1996 to April 2011.
Covid-19 crisis
The interventions by the government credit to MSMEs and small businesses. the electronics manufacturing sector
for micro, small and medium enter- Such enterprises were to be eligible to in India. A couple of years back, the
prises (MSMEs) have been gaining receive up to twenty per cent of their ministry of MSME had pointed out
rapid traction. Under the emergency existing borrowing as additional loans that there are about thirty million SME
credit line backed by the government, at interest rates which were capped,” manufacturing units in India, which
banks from public and private sectors reads an official press note issued by contribute about 45 to 47 per cent to
have so far already sanctioned loans the ministry of finance. India’s industrial output and 42 per
worth over ` 790 billion as of 20th The top lenders under the scheme cent to the country’s total exports while
June. More than ` 350 billion has are SBI, HDFC bank, Bank of Baroda, employing over 60 million people.
already been disbursed. PNB and Canara bank. As per the The SME sector creates more than
“As part of the Aatmanirbhar pack- ministry, this scheme has helped 1.9 1.3 million jobs every year and pro-
age, the government had announced million MSMEs and other businesses to duces more than 8,000 quality prod-
its plans for three lakh crore rupees restart their operations post-lockdown. ucts for the domestic and international
(` 3,000 billion) as an additional MSMEs form an integral part of markets.
Electronics production to reach ` 10,000 billion by 2025

The Ministry of Electronics and and specifications of three schemes Dubbed production linked incentive
Information Technology (MeitY) has aimed to take India’s electronics man- scheme (PLI) for large scale electron-
formally unveiled all the conditions ufacturing capabilities to a new level. ics manufacturing, scheme for promo-

Industry News
tion of manufacturing of electronic
components and semiconductors
Calendar of Forthcoming Electronics
(SPECS), and modified electronics Fairs/Exhibitions/Seminars/Events
manufacturing clusters (EMC 2.0) Event, Date and Venue Topics Contact address for details
scheme, these were first announced IFA Berlin Main meeting place for key retailers, IFA Berlin
in March 2020. September 3-5, 2020 buyers, and experts from the industry and Website: https://b2b.ifa-berlin.com
Exhibition Grounds Berlin Expo the media
These schemes entail an outlay Center City, Messedamm 22,
of about ` 500 billion (approximately Berlin, Germany
7 billion dollars). The schemes will GITEX Technology Week World-class technology event. Technology GITEX
September 27-October 1, 2020 leaders, enterprises and startups from Website: www.gitex.com
help offset the disability of domestic Dubai World Trade Centre around the world come together to show the
electronics manufacturing and hence future of every business and every industry
strengthen the electronics manufac- OSI Days Mega technology show with multiple events EFY Enterprises Pvt Ltd
turing ecosystem in the country. October 8-9, 2020 including expositions, conference and Website: www.opensourceindia.in
Nimhans Convention Centre, seminars
The promotion of electronics Bengaluru
manufacturing has been a key Engineering Design Show UK’s only event entirely dedicated to Engineering Design Show
component of the Make in India October 14-15, 2020 engineering, electronics and embedded Website: www.engineeringdesignshows.
programme. It is to be noted here The Ricoh Arena, Coventry design co.uk
that India’s production of electron- 3rd Automotive World Exhibition and conference for advanced Reed Exhibitions Japan Ltd
October 21-23, 2020 automotive technologies including Website: www.automotiveworld-nagoya.jp
ics grew from 29 billion dollars in Portmesse Nagoya, Japan electronics, smart factory and robotics
2014 to 70 billion dollars in 2019. The Light + LED Expo India 2020 Will have Future Zone for innovative Messe Frankfurt Trade Fairs India Private
growth in mobile phone manufactur- December 3-5, 2020 products, Solar Zone, and Launch Zone for Limited
ing, in particular, has been remark- Pragati Maidan, New Delhi new products Website: www.in.messefrankfurt.com
Email: deepak.bohara@india.
able during this period. messefrankfurt.com
EV sales increase with CES 2021

January 6-9, 2021
Global consumer electronics show Consumer Technology Association
Website: www.ces.tech
implementation of Las Vegas, Nevada
stringent emission norms NEPCON JAPAN Asia’s leading electronics tech show Reed Exhibitions Japan Ltd
January 20-22, 2021 about R&D and manufacturing, including Website: www.nepconjapan.jp/en
The global electric vehicle (EV) sales Tokyo International Exhibition packaging, with seven concurrent
have increased with the implementa- Center, Tokyo specialised shows
tion of stringent emission norms, as India Electronics Week Mega electronics and technology show EFY Enterprises Pvt Ltd
February 3-5, 2021 with multiple co-located events including Website: www.indiaelectronicsweek.com
per Frost & Sullivan’s recent analy- Karnataka Trade Promotion expositions, conference and seminars
sis, Global Electric Vehicle Market Organisation, Bengaluru
Outlook 2020. The report says that Since this information is subject to change, especially due to coronavirus breakout, all those interested
global EV sales stood somewhere are advised to ascertain the details from the organisers before making any commitment.
between ±9 per cent in 2020 com-

pared to 2019 under three different Compound semiconductor which can be used as a switch or
scenarios—gradual containment, materials market to reach rectifier in power electronics.
severe pandemic, and global emer- $66.6 billion by 2027 As per the report, the Informa-
gency. tion and Communication Technology
It adds that as the market recov- The global compound semiconduc- (ICT) sector is the major contribu-
ers, which is probably after June in tor materials market is expected to tor to the market. The construction
the best-case scenario, it is likely to reach 66.6 billion dollars by 2027, as sector of the Asia Pacific region is the
experience healthy growth. In an per a report by Reports and Data. The major shareholder of the market and
optimistic scenario, EVs market is report also says that Gallium Arsenide held around 29 per cent of the market
estimated to grow by 8.6 per cent (GaAs) generated a revenue of 7.71 bil- in the year 2019 due to a variety of
year-on-year (YoY), registering 2.5 lion dollars in 2019 and is expected to applications in the integrated ana-
million unit sales (battery electric grow at a CAGR of 7.7 per cent in the logue and digital circuits.
vehicles plus plug-in hybrid electric forecast period.
vehicles) globally in 2020. This is due to superior funda- AI in healthcare market to
The report further adds that mental characteristics being utilised reach $45 billion by 2026
to tap into the growth prospects in the development of infrared Artificial intelligence (AI) in the
exposed by EVs, market participants light-emitting diodes, microwave healthcare market is expected to
should focus on the introduction of frequency integrated circuits, solar grow at a CAGR of 44.9 per cent
new models to help OEMs increase cells, laser diodes, optical windows, from 2020 to 2026, as per a report
the percent penetration of EVs. It among others. by Reportlinker. It will stand at 4.9
says that a big number of recyclers The report further adds that power billion dollars in 2020 and reach
and dismantlers would come into semiconductors are expected to grow 45.2 billion dollars by 2026.
play as the first phase of batteries at a CAGR of 8.3 per cent during the The major factors driving the
will be available for second life or forecast period. This is due to highly growth of the market are the increas-
recycling. conductive and flexible properties, ing volume of healthcare data and

Snippets Industry News
Tata Power to develop 120MW solar project in Gujarat Entrepreneur First and IIT Kanpur to support aspiring
Tata Power has announced that Tata Power Renewable Energy Lim- entrepreneurs
ited (TPREL), the company’s wholly-owned subsidiary, has received a Entrepreneur First (EF) and Foundation for Innovation and Research in
Letter of Award from Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited (GUVNL) to de- Science and Technology (FIRST), a section 8 company promoted by the
velop a 120MW solar project in Gujarat. The energy will be supplied to Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IITK), have joined hands to build
GUVNL under a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA), valid for a period a supportive ecosystem for aspiring tech entrepreneurs. This partner-
of 25 years from scheduled commercial operation date. The project is ship will facilitate the journey for exceptional and talented individuals
required to be commissioned within eighteen months from the date of who aspire to start tech ventures. EF will support the process of finding
execution of the PPA. Tata Power’s renewable capacity will increase to a co-founder at the very early stage of a startup and close mentorship
3,457MW, out of which 2,637MW is operational, and 820MW is under on the idea and business model, and pre-seed investment. The startups
implementation, including 120MW won under this letter of intent. formed will have an opportunity to access the IITK business incubator.
Webee joins Lora Alliance for industrial IoT adoption Tesla signs battery supply deal with Panasonic
Webee Corporation has announced that it has joined LoRa Alliance to As per a report by Reuters, Tesla has signed a three-year pricing deal
advance the deployment of IoT and AI solutions, offering a next-gen with Japan’s Panasonic Corporation in relation to the manufacture
no-coding toolset for manufacturing, agriculture, and supply chain and supply of lithium-ion battery cells at the Gigafactory in Nevada, as
operations. LoRa Alliance is a non-profit association that enables per a filing by the carmaker. The report says that Tesla and Panasonic
large scale deployment of Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN) have been in talks to expand the battery joint venture’s capacity. The
IoT through the development and promotion of LoRaWAN open report adds that deal is effective from first April of this year. It sets
standard. Webee is a technology company that has developed a the terms for production capacity commitments by Panasonic and
no-coding visual approach in building complex AI, IoT, and computer purchase volume commitments by Tesla over the first two years of the
vision applications. agreement.
growing complexities of datasets, the “The infrared LED market is line to build products and surface-
need to reduce high healthcare costs, anticipated to witness significant mount technology (SMT) lines for
improving computing power and growth over the coming period TV motherboards. It will soon start
declining hardware costs. The report owing to ongoing technological manufacturing some of its Internet of
adds that a growing number of cross- advancements, high demand from Things (IoT) products. The company
industry partnerships and collabora- the automotive sector, as well as has also launched its new product
tions, and rising imbalance between rising adoption of CCTV and surveil- strategy called 1+4+N.
health workforce and patients are lance cameras across the industrial Madhav Sheth, Realme India
pushing the need for improvised sector,” reads the report. CEO, says that the company will soon
healthcare services. Since infrared LED is used in start manufacturing some of the AIoT
As per the report, a big factor for combination with different types of products in India. Sheth further adds
the growth is the adoption of this sensors, it is now becoming common that the company plans to increase
technology by multiple pharmaceu- in the Internet of Things (IoT) appli- its local workforce strength (at the
tical and biotechnology companies cations as well as M2M (machine- facility) to 10,000 in India by the
globally to expedite vaccine or drug to-machine) environments. Apart end of this year. The new strategy,
development processes for Covid-19. from these, the IR LED is used in he said, will help the company fur-
The report mentions that a major applications such as smoke detec- ther enhance smartphone and AIoT
restraint for the market is the reluc- tor, transmission system, infrared product portfolios. The company
tance among medical practitioners to applied systems, optoelectronic is also expanding its distribution
adopt AI-based technologies and lack switch, industrial equipment, and channels to tier-IV and V towns and
of a skilled workforce. The report adds infrared remote-control devices. will hire more than 5,000 sales team
that the microprocessing unit (MPU) For end-use, the infrared LED members.
processor segment is expected to hold market is bifurcated into consumer The strategy works on three
the largest share in AI in healthcare electronics, retail, aerospace and foundations. The first is ‘1 Core,’
in 2020. defence, healthcare, automotive, under which Realme smartphones
industrial, BFSI, and education. will be at the core of its AIoT eco-
Infrared LED market The industrial end-use segment system. The second foundation of
growing faster due to held a market share of over fifteen the strategy is ‘4 smart hubs,’ which
technological advancements per cent in 2019 owing to the grow- has been further divided into four
The infrared LED market is set to grow ing adoption of CCTV and surveil- sub-categories—smart TVs, smart
from its current market value of more lance cameras in the manufactur- earphones, smartwatches, and
than 500 million dollars to over one ing process. smart speakers. The third founda-
billion dollars by 2026, as reported tion is ‘N AIoT products,’ under
in the latest study by Global Market Realme to set up SMT lines which Realme plans to launch
Insights, Inc. The infrared LEDs are for TV motherboards lifestyle products and accessories.
utilised in cameras, remote controls in India This will range from in-car chargers,
for televisions, as well as in several Realme India has said that it is backpacks, luggage cases to smart
other types of electronic devices. investing in a complete production home gadgets.

Startup Zone
The IoT And Going Green Self-Driving Solving Water Crisis The IoT For
1 AI In Defence 2 With EV
Charging
3 Electric Vehicle
For Delivery
4 With Air And
Nanotechnology
5 Digital Farming
1 The IoT and AI and Cisco Launchpad. In 2017, the

organisation signed an exclusive tech-
in defence nology agreement with Israel-based
Automotive Robotic Industry Ltd, a
defence robotics company, to integrate
their rovers with its laser-guided sur-
veillance systems, thereby reducing
risks in the lives of soldiers.
In 2018, the company signed
a memorandum of understanding
(MoU) for a strategic collaboration
with US-based Quanergy Systems, a
provider of light detection and rang-
ing (LiDAR) sensors and smart sens-
ing solutions, to upgrade detection
features (addition of classification
and tracking) of its advanced Kavach
series for the Indian armed forces and
perimeter security in an economical
and efficient way to prevent insur-
gency and illegal immigration. Numer-
ous devices can be connected to each
other at a time based on the perimeter
(Credit: https://factordaily.com)
size that needs to be secured.
Besides surveillance and security
M
ission-critical applications Kavach, an advanced intrusion detec- for defence as well as commercial
require technologies that tion system that provides accurate areas like airports, these offerings
can be utilised in real time animal, object, and human detection also cater to autonomous vehicles
with high reliability and accuracy. for complete situational awareness and mobility perception, crowd con-
Any sort of failure or defect in the in areas like the Indo-Pak border in trol and people counting, and indus-
function of systems deployed for Kashmir. The merit is that there is little trial automation. The company has
such applications can have disastrous chance of false alarms, and identifying recently introduced an AI platform
consequences. Founded in 2015 by humans, animals, or objects becomes called Innovace that utilises several
Tushar Chhabra, Saurav Agarwala, easy. In 2016, the Indian Border Secu- thermal sensing cameras integrated
and Tomer Katzenellenbogen, defence rity Force (BSF) installed several of with LiDAR to continuously scan and
technology startup CRON Systems cre- these laser walls at hostile areas along detect people with high temperatures
ates end-to-end encrypted solutions to the country’s western border. in public places such as airports,
solve convoluted security problems at Apart from ground intrusion, 3D malls, and hotels. A person with a
India’s borders. sensing also helps in the detection of normal body temperature appears as
The startup tries to bridge the gap drones or unmanned aerial vehicles a green dot in the system, while those
between fragmented sensing solutions (UAVs). Besides this, the team has also with higher temperatures appear as
market and field requirements by designed SenseEdge, a software with red ones. Movements of red dots are
providing intelligent sensing that inte- advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and then constantly tracked within the
grates multiple sensors to perceive the machine learning-based perception, coverage zone, and it has an alarm
environment even in harsh weather prediction, and planning features. option if any dot is found within a
and terrain conditions through its The startup is backed by strategic few feet of a green dot, representing a
Smart Sensor Fusion platform. Using partners and investors—YourNest healthy individual.
this technology, the company has built Venture Capital, Techstars Adelaide, —Deepshikha Shukla

Startup Zone
2 Going Green
with EV charging
T
he automobile sector has seen aged for residential, corporate, and
a huge increase in the develop- industrial purposes. AC slow charging
ment of vehicles that run on stations developed by the company
clean fuels. In India, the growth of enable charging of three EVs at a time.
electric vehicles (EVs) is on the rise. The AC chargers operate on three-
Yet, one of the main reasons why phase input and deliver power ranging
people willing to invest in a cleaner from 3.3kW to 14.5kW. The AC Type
option for mobility are holding back 2 chargers range from 7kW to 22kW.
is range anxiety arising from lack of In DC fast-charging stations, a
enough charging stations. single module provides an output of
To overcome this hurdle, startup 5kW (24V 200A), which can be paral-
Meras Plugins was established in 2017 leled with four other units at a time to
to develop advanced charging solu- achieve 25kW. These fast chargers are ly-built algorithm schedules charg-
tions and public charging infrastructure integrated with multiple communica- ing for maximum utilisation of grid
across India. Founded by Vivek Swa- tion protocols (CHAdeMO, CCS, and resources. Our flexible control system
mynathan, Ragavendra Ravichandra, GB/T), which makes them compatible provides us with a network that can
Satheesh Venkatachalam, and Raghav- with all types of EVs. be connected to various systems and
endra TS, it is currently incubated with These are compliant with Bharath devices for information exchange.
IIT Madras Research Park (RTBI). standard (AC001 and DC001) and Energy management software and
Ragavendra Ravichandran, co- equipped with a complete protection mobile app will further help people to
founder, Meras Plugins, says, “We function to ensure robustness, reliabil- adopt EVs.”
started with an aim to promote a ity, and security. Additional features When it comes to future plans,
shift towards e-mobility, which helps include mobile app integration for Ravichandran says, “In April 2020, we
in reducing carbon footprints. The connecting to the cloud and allow- participated in Open Charge Alliance
company was running as a bootstrap ing users to spot the nearest charge plugfest along with leaders in the EV
startup until the development of proto- stations, Wi-Fi or GSM-based cloud sector globally to test the efficiency of
types. The fully developed prototypes interaction, RFID-based user authen- our charging station and charging man-
were tested at IIT Madras battery tication, and hassle-free payments. agement system. Besides supporting
centre for various parameters includ- The startup has also built an IoT- EV manufacturers through delivering
ing a smart feedback communication based, scalable automotive telematics high quality, algorithm-driven charg-
system. Our chargers, which have platform with the latest cloud-based ers, we also aim to be a significant
been sold to Amaron batteries, Acad- technologies to gain valuable infor- contributor in transforming the EV
emy of EV technology, have shown mation (such as vehicle tracking, fuel sector by setting up comprehensive
promising results in comparison to metrics, and driver efficiency) and charging infrastructure with our future
other standard chargers.” analytics in real time. The platform proof cloud solutions. Being the first
The company offers charge stations is capable of handling millions of company to test OCPP 2.0.1 from India,
that enable easy charging on the go. events per second and can be used to the company is currently focusing on
The chargers operate on power ranging optimise the overall cost in the system. further international expansion.”
from 3.3kW to 50kW and can be lever- Ravichandran adds, “The optimal- —Ayushee Sharma
3 Self-driving electric vehicle

for delivery
W
hile growth of the Internet anywhere via mobile phones. With fully autonomous electric vehicle (EV)
and its access to the masses lockdowns imposed in various nations to make transportation of local goods
has made it possible for due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the more accessible, including groceries,
e-commerce businesses to start in need has grown further. prescription drugs, dry cleaning, and
different parts of the world, it is the Nuro, a 2016 startup founded by much more.
reliable delivery service that has been Dave Ferguson and Jiajun Zhu, aims to For self-driving, the vehicle uses its
the backbone of these flourishing utilise technologies like robotics and onboard sensors (like high-definition
businesses today. From food and med- artificial intelligence (AI) for common cameras, radar, ultrasonic sensors,
icines to clothes and other consumer well-being. The team has designed, and audio sensors) to provide a 360-
essentials, items can be ordered from prototyped, and extensively tested a degree live image of the surrounding

Startup Zone
gets by learning more about lower the energy, lessen congestion on
the path and behaviour of roads and economic costs. Customers
drivers via the implemen- do not have to bend over to lift items.
tation of computer vision The doors open without swinging far
and advanced machine out, enabling the bot to avoid blocking
learning. cars. Unlike traditional vehicles, softer
There are no drivers materials are used for the front and
or passengers, and lower rear panels, and design is such that it
speed operation at/or minimises chances of injury.
below 40kmph enables The company started with vehicles
more time for reaction and making trips in the neighbourhood for
prevents collisions. The grocery delivery. Customers can place
vehicle emits zero emis- delivery orders on the Web or through
sions, and alternative fuels a mobile app. Recently, the company
area, calculate its location and localise are used to power these vehicles. Also, began working with CVS Pharmacy to
its position in the world map. High- there are no parking and network con- provide prescriptions and essentials
definition 3D maps mark road features nectivity issues for these lightweight through its vehicles in the US. The
such as lane centres and markers, and narrow-framed machines. Exten- customers can place orders on the CVS
curbs, traffic signs and lights, cross- sive testing is conducted before the website or via mobile app and select
walks and speed bumps, and help in vehicle begins driving on roads, and free autonomous delivery options at
figuring the safest and most efficient even during operation, it checks for their preferred location during the
route to the destination. Finally, the errors hundreds of times per second pilot. When the autonomous Prius
vehicle’s computer signals the rel- for safety and collision avoidance. It vehicles (and later on delivery bot
evant hardware systems for steering, never gets distracted like human driv- R2) reach the location, users need to
acceleration, brake, or taking a turn ers and focuses on defensive driving. confirm their identity to unlock their
whenever required. The greater the With multiple compartments, delivery.
movement, the smarter the system multiple trips can be combined that —Ayushee Sharma
4 Solving water crisis

with air and nanotechnology
T
he scarcity of clean water metic, nano-engineered, and micro-
and its access is affecting the nano structure patterned surfaces.
entire human population, be Modular water purifier cartridges
it directly or indirectly. Along with remove undesirable impurities present
natural causes like droughts, reasons in water. Re-mineralisation cartridges
like the rising population and global then add essential minerals (calcium,
warming are hugely responsible for magnesium, iron, copper, potassium,
adding to this pressure. Clean, fresh, sodium, selenium, zinc, cobalt, vana-
and safe water is not only essential dium, and molybdenum) to purified
for drinking but also for food pro- water in a sustainable and controlled
duction, besides other important Ramesh Kumar, and Ankit Nagar in manner.
uses. Indian cities, too, will run out 2017, raised a seed fund from Engi- The cost is significantly less than
of or contaminate groundwater and neers India Limited (EIL) under the that of currently available bottled
surface water resources completely Startup Fund scheme. mineral water. As these units can run
in a few years, if proper measures are Their environmentally sustainable on off-grid solar panel systems, these
not taken. device, atmospheric water generator are highly beneficial in remote or rural
This is where an IIT Madras-incu- (AWG) unit, captures moisture avail- areas where water cannot be made
bated company VayuJal Technologies, able in ambient air. The units are available due to issues like financial
which aims to translate advanced made with patented surface engineer- constraints. Energy consumption of
technologies for social good came up ing technology, energy-efficient unit solar products is low, which makes
with a unique solution to deliver clean design, and mineralisation technology them suitable for commercial pur-
water suitable for drinking and other that expands their water collecting poses, thereby boosting the renew-
day-to-day purposes on-demand, that efficiency. The moisture is condensed able energy sector. The water quality
is, when and wherever required with and collected into a tank. The con- complies with BIS - IS 2012 and all
quality assurance. The team, consist- denser is made using nanotechnology necessary World Health Organization
ing of founders Thalappil Pradeep, incorporated products such as biomi- (WHO) standards, and maintenance is

Startup Zone
customer-friendly. and VJ-2000 LPD unit (solar-powered in various places like schools, restau-
The company offers variable off-grid settlements). For these units rants, houses, offices, and so on, have
capacity machines to cater to several to work properly and efficiently, the already dispensed more than 85,000
applications such as irrigation, army temperature should lie between 20 litres of water. The team is also work-
tanks, construction sites, and more. and 42 degrees Celsius with a relative ing on a VJ-1000 LPD unit, and with
The startup has introduced multiple humidity of 35-99 per cent. The weight its expansion to more cities and other
variants of AWGs, including VJ-30 LPD and size of these units vary based on deprived regions, the demand-supply
unit (small-scale generator), VJ-100 the requirement for the rated produc- gap for potable water will gradually
LPD unit (domestic purposes), VJ-400 tion capacity. diminish.
LPD unit (commercial purposes), Devices that have been installed —Ayushee Sharma
5 The IoT for

digital farming
A
griculture is one of the most
important industries in the xNode devices
farming IoT sensors
world that not only provides
Connection
food but also raw materials for other xNode uses a LoRa
industries like textiles. Still, it is connection to stay
connected up to a
plagued by several issues, both natural distance of 1km away
and man-made, that make life difficult from your xSense Compatible
Battery sensors
for the farmers. xNode has a long battery You can pair the
xFarm, an agtech startup in life. You will have to xNode to dozens
recharge it only after of different sensors
Milano, was founded in 2017 out one year! based on your needsn
diversi in base alle tue
of Matteo Vanotti‘s need to use a necessitu00e0
digital service to manage his family’s
agricultural company in an efficient
manner. He was joined by Salvatore
Ferullo, the company’s CEO and Resistant - IP67 No SIM Connected with xFarm
Martino Poretti, head of Research and The xNode devices are designed to xNode devices do not need a xNode devices communicate
be positioned in the field and for this SIM card as they use the LoRa directly with your xFarm account
Development. The company aims to reason they are IP67 certified, i.e., connection to send all the data to and allow you to view data easily,
protected against the ingress of dust the nearest xSense station as well as use it for advanced
create a comprehensive digital plat- and water resistant to a depth of 1m features
form using the Internet of Things (IoT)
to help farmers and others save time
while working. advanced functionalities, including Besides farmers, target customers
The ecosystem provided by them forecast models, telemetry, finance include associations, cooperatives,
includes an agricultural application management, and precision fertilisa- contractors, dealers, agronomists,
that works both on mobile and desk- tion for improved work efficiency and insurances, and the like. For those
top platforms, dashboard analytics to productivity. As the modules use a employing several workers for their
manage multiple farms, and a line of LoRa wireless system, it is easy to con- farms, staff management options are
connected IoT sensors optimised for nect up to a hundred devices within an available to streamline the process.
agricultural use that can communicate approximate range of ten kilometres These customers can keep track of
via the Internet directly with users’ on the same network without high market prices for different crops as
accounts. battery consumption. well as analyse and manage their com-
xSense weather stations and This enables farmers to track pany’s financial statements.
sensors that are necessary to track activities and analyse local and reli- The mobile version available for
weather data and environmental able data, monitor crops, obtain per- Android version 5.0 and above is free
parameters come with SIMs so that sonalised recommendations for their without in-app purchases. Sensors and
users can send data via GSM to the plots to plan optimal crop schedules, advanced modules have to be bought.
software. The application provides improve irrigation and fertilisation, In the past few years, many other IoT-
up to thirteen free functions like protect plantations, and more. The based startups like Auroras, MotorLeaf,
recording treatments and processes information provided under the envi- Swinesmart, FieldIn, and Cowlar have
in the field, tracking movements and ronment tab is made simple to under- also started investing in agriculture and
transport, viewing the position of stand with the help of graphs and dairy industries. The ultimate goal is
fields and crops, managing warehouse images. Using telemetry, it becomes the same, that is, to aid people in this
inventory, among others. simple to control the performance of sector and thereby boost the economy
Premium xNode smart mod- vehicles, send prescription maps, and and well-being of individuals.
ules, when paired with sensors, add allocate fuel expenses. —Deepshikha Shukla

Market Survey
Growth Of 5G Market And

Its Impact On Economy
The introduction of 5G has benefitted the economy in several ways. It has helped in the growth of
various new technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality
(VR), augmented reality (AR), machine learning (ML), and blockchain. Apart from leading the growth of
new business operations and applications, it has provided revenue platforms for telecom operators
Nijhum Rudra and

Deepshikha Shukla
T
echnology has been going through The primary objective of 5G is increas-
an endless revolution for the past ing data speed while also reducing the
couple of years. It has transformed cost of operations in terms of per GB
our lives and several industrial sectors in cost. 5G will escort innovative business
various ways. Telecommunication is one of models, thereby providing state-of-the-art
the major sectors that has benefitted greatly applications to individuals and scores of
from new technologies. Mobile Internet has sectors such as industrial, commercial,
played a huge role in uplifting the popular- educational, healthcare, agricultural, and
ity of smartphones among every age group. social. All these sectors require a faster
It all started from 2G, then moving onto and uninterrupted network that can be
3G and 4G, and now it has entered a new offered by only 5G.
phase, 5G. The 5G network furnished with

Market Survey
ultra-low latency will also help in the 1,500
growth of various new and emerging (Figures are in million)
technologies such as the Internet of 229
Things (IoT), artificial intelligence 1,200
(AI), virtual reality (VR), augmented
reality (AR), machine learning (ML),
blockchain, and fixed wireless high- 900
speed broadband network. Apart from
leading the growth of new business 1,205
operations and applications, it will 600
also provide revenue platforms for
telecom operators.
300
The countries that have successful- 145
ly deployed 5G networks are Australia,
South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, the US, 177
0
UK, Germany, and a few others. They 2017 2025
lead in terms of 5G network deploy- 3G 4G 5G
ment, and site activations within the Fig. 1: Projected growth in wireless broadband subscriber base, post 5G rollout (Credit: Edelweiss
Asia Pacific have 5G non-standalone research)
architectures that support 4G/LTE
infrastructure for higher speeds. Faisal Kawoosa, founder and models, better education, healthcare,
As of now, India is home to a mere research analyst at techARC, says, smart cities, smart manufactur-
322 million wireless broadband sub- “Due to the ongoing Covid-19 crisis, ing, intelligent logistics, and overall
scribers. However, as per a report by we have seen how much we can enhanced lifestyles. The potential can
Edelweiss, the subscribers are expect- leverage from a robust and fast broad- be imagined by the fact that by 2026
ed to jump to one billion by 2025 with band connection. We believe that we there will be an estimated 619 billion
5G. It is crucial as telecom is the very have several use cases like industrial dollars revenue potential for telecom
backbone of India’s digital revolution. automation, high-speed home broad- operators.”
band, or immersive collaboration, be Yash Jethani, research manager,
Potential market areas it for education, healthcare, or just Regional Telecommunications Team,
of 5G communication office collaboration. Then there are IDC Asia/Pacific, says, “For operators,
As per IDC’s carrier transformation use cases like ultra-rich multimedia new areas are clearly in education,
survey run at APeJ level, the top three content where we can use AR/VR for healthcare, and government (public
5G use cases for operator CXOs are entertainment and gaming.” sector as IDC defines it) in the Covid
massive IoT, remote-controlled auto- Rajan S Mathews, director general, environment, but in the long term,
mation, and multi-access edge com- COAI, says, “With 5G, technologies driverless connected cars, 4K/8K
puting. Under the current scenario, a such as autonomous driverless cars, streaming, smart cities, and mixed
gamut of interconnected products and smart transportation and logistics, reality/immersive videos are some
services (smart home, smart refrigera- smart farming, drone patrolling for interesting use cases for Asia/Pacific
tors, smart HVAC, smart cars, CCTVs, road safety, holograms, and remote operators. India’s aggregate telecom
smart devices, etc) might be an ideal robotic healthcare are expected to spends on fixed data and fixed voice
play for operators, but India is still at enter our world and become more and is thirty per cent and forty per cent,
a very nascent stage for 5G adoption. more pervasive by the day. The tech- respectively, from B2C. B2C spend is
Hence, in this context, let’s find nology is poised to open up a plethora even more predominant in the mobile
out what the experts have to say: of possibilities in terms of business data and mobile voice segments.
Hence, for any future uptake in the
100
market, the B2B focus also gives
90
87.9 operators newer avenues to explore.
With newer avenues, there will be
80
numerous opportunities to capture
70
Capex (US$ billion)
58.5 under the government’s push with

60
Digital India.”
50
40 34.2 When can we expect 5G
30 in India
20 16.0
As per the Organisation for Eco-
8.6
10 nomic Cooperation and Development
0.6
0 (OECD) committee on digital econom-
2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
ic policy, 5G will not only amplify the
Fig. 2: Forecast of annual global 5G capex by mobile operators (Credit: Heavy Reading) country’s GDP but will also open up

Market Survey
new avenues of employment and dig- Others
Mathews adds, “However, ini-
itise the economy. 5G will also open LG 8% tially, 5G applications and software
OnePlus 2% Apple
opportunities for India to connect with 2% will require a considerable amount
52%
global markets and take advantage of of funding by the government. The
economies of scale. The 5G high-level Huawei 5GHLF has recommended an all-
12%
forum is drawing up an action plan in encompassing planning estimate of
this direction. 5G once implemented, 39.34 million dollars in the first year,
will open up new avenues of revenue 52.45 million dollars in the second,
for service providers. 65.57 million dollars in the third, and
To justify the statement, Yash 52.45 million dollars in the fourth
adds, “Covid-19 has definitely impact- year. A few roadblocks and challenges
Samsung
ed the progress. There are now signs 25% need to be addressed for 5G to become
of coming out of it amidst fresh PE a resounding reality.”
investments/FDI in the sector and
regulatory support, but CAPEX spend
Fig. 3: Premium segment market share Challenges of 5G communication
by OEMs, Q3 2029 (Credit: Counterpoint
as per IDC is expected to remain Technology Market Research) The biggest challenge is of course
muted for Indian operators over handset cost and localised use cases.
2019 to 2024. This is largely due to trial sectors. It is likely to produce up Currently, 5G smartphones are avail-
the fact that any increase in material to 12 trillion dollars worth of goods able in the price range of ` 40,000
change will not immediately result in and services. In India alone, the 5G is and above. Due to the Covid-19 crisis,
the CAPEX increase. Plus, Reliance expected to push the economy to 1 tril- manufacturing is impacted, and so is
Jio has already shown its interest in lion dollars in the coming years, at the the supply chain. Another challenge is
vendor-agnostic procurement, so the same time, it is now being witnessed to maintain the infrastructure in such
dynamics of the industry could shift as a potential game-changer with an difficult times of lockdown. Field forces
from CAPEX-led investments to OpEx- ability to offer an economic growth of faced a lot of issues in keeping towers
led ones with the move towards open more than one trillion dollars by 2035. and cables up and running. There was
source and cloud-based workloads. The success of 5G requires huge global also a quick requirement of expanding
So, once the auction takes place next investments, which is speculated to the network capacities, which meant
year in an optimistic scenario, 5G surpass 3.5 trillion dollars between working round and against the clock.
test licenses will be followed by tech- 2020 and 2035. According to COAI, while talking
nology trials, industry formulation, The overall expenditure on 5G is about 5G in India, the issues about
global and regional cooperation with expected to reach 88 billion dollars by the spectrum cannot be ignored. Tradi-
network sharing. So, the real commer- 2023, according to Heavy Reading’s tionally, the spectrum has always been
cialisation is only expected by 2022 or Mobile Operator 5G Capex. The statis- expensive. In India, 20MHz blocks
2023 realistically.” tics above display the expected global in the 3,300-3,600MHz band for 5G
According to a report of COAI, the yearly growth of investment in the tel- services have been priced at 49.20
telecom industry, along with DoT, is ecommunication industry from 2019 million dollars per MHz by TRAI in its
leaving no stone unturned in making to 2023. IDC expects the total 5G and recommendations. In Korea, for exam-
India 5G ready, and by next year, LTE router/gateway market to grow ple, the same band was priced at 17.2
India will be on a 5G map. To ensure by 3 billion dollars in 2024 worldwide, million dollars per MHz in auctions.
the commercial deployment of 5G, a at a compound annual growth rate The most critical factor in the uptake
high-level 5G India forum has been (CAGR) of 21.2 per cent. IDC projects of the 5G spectrum would be its price.
instituted where experts across the the number of 5G connections to grow The 5G high-level forum has lately
globe are collaborating and discussing by 1.01 billion in 2023. recommended early allocation of 5G
challenges and opportunities, making Yash further adds, “The domestic spectrum, increasing the quantum of
India a true 5G powered nation. Prime 5G mobile phone market is still expect- spectrum available and reducing the
Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious ed to be below 50 million dollars mark prices. The initial expenses on equip-
Digital India programme and better in 2020. There is still a long way to go to ment would also be costly.
telecom and Internet connectivity have a mature ecosystem for justifying For 5G effective deployment,
will benefit each other. 5G will open the CAPEX investment by operators. operators will have to wait for the
up new opportunities and catapult Jio, in its current shape and form, current pandemic to pass. The latency,
India’s transition towards digital with all PE investments, is best poised throughput, and scale are important
empowerment. to take a lead in the 5G space—but it factors for any use case deployment,
could only happen with the best mix but battling out current challenges
5G market forecast of B2B and B2C/B2B2C models. As for pertaining to procurement, proving
The 5G economy study stated that any technology generation to succeed, the ROI for a use case, cultural align-
by 2035, the entire world would there needs to be a timely push and a ment with DevOps teams, adoption
understand the huge potential and timely pull from the regulatory depart- of microservices, and seamless use of
benefits of 5G as it is expected to have ment in the right direction, and that’s orchestration platforms remain crucial
a positive impact on various indus- what India needs.” for 5G’s success in India.

New Products NEW
Components DC-DC converter

TRV 1M by TRACO Power is a 1W
DC-DC converter series with reinforced
isolation of 5000V
Air quality sensor announced BH67F2742, which is a AC for medical and
Renesas Electronics Corporation has dedicated MCU for contactless infrared industrial applica-
enhanced its ZMOD4410 Indoor Air thermometer applications. The MCU tions. The series
Quality (IAQ) sensor series flash architecture facilitates production offers several models
with the power of embed- parameter adjustment, product calibra- with different input voltages
ded artificial intelligence tion, and data storage. Compared with (±10 per cent) between 5 and 24V DC.
(e-AI), enabling smart traditional solutions, the integrated With continuous short circuit pro-
odour sensing for ventila- LDO, EEPROM, LED and LCD drivers, tection and low leakage current of less
tion systems, bathroom monitoring and low noise operational amplifier, and than 2µA, this converter series is suited
controls, and air quality monitors. 24-bit A-D converter reduce the require- to protect any connected interfaces or
The reinforced platform combines ments for large numbers of external applied parts to patients. Featuring semi-
neural network-trained firmware on components. regulated outputs, this series provides a
various microcontroller units (MCUs), The BH67F2742 has a built-in LCD good level of regulation without affect-
such as RL78 MCU, to provide higher driver used to drive an LCD to display ing the cost-efficiency.
resolution measurement results. temperature. Buzzer and motor are used It is an ideal solution for applications
With these new capabilities, the for vibration and sound output alert where a completely unregulated DC-DC
ZMOD4410 is not only capable of detect- when the measurement is complete. converter would not meet your regula-
ing gases that indicate the presence of Holtek tory requirements.
certain odours in small enclosed rooms www.holtek.com The device can operate up to 5000m
with higher accuracy and improved altitude and is now available in a com-
part-to-part deviation but can also dis- pact SIP-9 package.
tinguish between sulphur and ethanol- Car door lock IC TRACO Power
based odours. STMicroelectronics has intro- www.tracopower.com
Renesas’ unique software-configu- duced L99UDL01, an automotive uni-
rable ZMOD platform provides greater versal door-lock integrated circuit (IC)
design flexibility for smart sensing sys- that integrates six MOSFET Diode array
tems, allowing firmware updates with half-bridge outputs and Microchip Technology has launched
application-specific capabilities, such two half-bridge gate a new series of Transient Voltage Sup-
as selective measurements, to detect drivers with protec- pressor (TVS) vertical arrays—MDA3KP
volatile organic compounds (VOCs). tion and diagnostic TVS. The offering
Renesas functions. allows military
www.renesas.com As a complete centralised solution sys t e m c i rc u i t
for electronically driving car locks from protection for rug-
a body control module (BCM), the IC gedised handheld
Body temperature MCU replaces multiple individual motor radios, Global Positioning System (GPS),
Health monitoring at home and in drivers and associated analogue and and communication test equipment.
public places has become crucial passive components while providing Other device applications include auto-
these days. Due sophisticated functionalities. motive, industrial logging equipment,
to the impact It comes with unique safety features power supplies, and marine systems.
of the Covid- for normal operation in the event of an Microchip’s MDA3KP TVS diode
19 pandemic, accident and ensures quick access to array family offers an integrated multi-
the world has the vehicle. diode solution and provides fast-react-
drastically Also, the L99UDL01 has two powering avalanche breakdown diode (ABD)
changed in its saving modes—a 50µA standby mode that can divert excess current around
operations in public places by checking ready for re-activation by an SPI com- sensitive components to protect them
health conditions through temperature mand from BCM and a sleep mode that from electrical overstress.
monitoring. In such conditions, rapid reduces current to below 15µA. It is Its vertically constructed 8-diode,
measurement and accuracy play an packaged in 10mm×10mm TQFP64L. 16-pin surface-mount package allows
important role. STMicroelectronics efficient layout and ease of design, thus
Keeping this in mind, Holtek has www.st.com facilitating less requirement of printed

New Products
circuit board (PCB) space while ena- higher levels of autonomy. It enables launched SLG47105, a motor drive CMIC
bling higher power densities. centimetre-level-accuracy with respect that delivers both configurable logic and
Microchip Technology to vehicle dynamics and position, thus configurable analogue with high-voltage
www.microchip.com enabling safe and robust autonomous outputs.
driving. The device guarantees better The device is a part of the
operation during high mechanical shock company’s GreenPAK product
Memory chip and vibration. family and provides a
In a bid to offer a next-generation It comes in an SOIC housing (32 pins) cost-effective, one-
solution for ultra-responsive low with dimensions of 18.7mm×8.5mm× time NVM program-
latency operation, Teledyne e2v has 4.5mm. The product is qualified accord- mable option for
announced DDR4T04G72M, a radia- ing to the AEC-Q100 standard and is designers to integrate both digital and
tion-tolerant DDR4 ISO26262 ASIL-D (Automotive Safety analogue system functions while mini-
memory chip Integrity Level) compliant. mising component count, board space
that features 4GB Murata and power consumption for consumer
capacity. It is cur- www.murata.com and industrial motor applications.
rently validated at The new device is capable of driv-
2133MT/s with a ing two brushed DC motors, a single
target to increase to 2400MT/s in the MCU stepper motor, solenoid, or any other
near future. It features a 72-bit bus, NXP Semiconductors has introduced a load requiring up to 1.5A RMS current
where 64 bits are dedicated to data and new family of ultra-low-power, multi- per output. It has an operating voltage
8 bits to error correction code (ECC). protocol wireless MCUs, K32W061/41. of up to 13.2V. Besides protection fea-
Further, high-reliability manufacturing The new low-power devices comple- tures such as over-temperature, under-
and radiation-tolerant robustness make ment the recently introduced pin-com- voltage and overcurrent protection, the
it highly suitable for dealing with the patible JN5189/88 SLG47105 also includes configurable
rigours of space environments. (Thread/Zigbee) digital and analogue resources, allowing
The DDR4T04G72M enables and QN9090/30 the user to create a customised protec-
increased performance while taking up (Bluetooth LE) tion and motor control scheme with
minimal board space—something that MCUs and pro- current or voltage regulation, stall detec-
is certain to be of value in highly space- vide original tion or soft motor start to enable higher
constrained and densely-packed satellite equipment manufacturers (OEMs) system reliability and more efficient
designs. It can be used in conjunction with a simple support system for current battery usage.
with processors and FPGAs having a and emerging smart home and building Dialog Semiconductor
DDR4 controller, and is in particular, use cases. www.dialog-semiconductor.com
embedded on the Teledyne e2v space Low-power consumption of today’s
version of the Qormino common com- smart home and Internet of Things
pute platform together with the space (IoT) devices is crucial for achieving
POWER SUPPLies
version of NXP LS1046 quad-core pro- high performance from a single-coin
cessor (QLS1046-4GB). cell battery. NXP’s K32W061/41 MCU AC power supply
Teledyne e2v achieves this via multiple low-power RECOM has announced the extension
www.teledyne-e2v.com modes and low transmit/receive radio of its open-frame AC-DC power supply
power capabilities. range with the addition of the RACM60-
The K32W061/41 wireless micro- K series. The low-
MEMS sensor controllers are based on Arm Cortex profile 5cm×7cm
Murata has developed a new micro- M4 microcontroller core running at design features 90
electro-mechanical system (MEMS) with 48MHz and include 640kB onboard per cent efficien-
six degrees of freedom (6DoF) inertial flash and 152kB SRAM, providing stor- cy across its load
sensor SCHA600 that provides high per- age space and flexibility for complex range and enables full-power operation
formance for safety- applications and software over-the-air from -40°C to +55°C without forced
critical automotive (OTA) updates. The optional NFC NTAG cooling, and up to +85°C with derated
applications. The provides standardised out-of-band com- or forced air. Input range is from 80V AC
sensor enables new munications for simplifying the pairing to 264V AC and outputs available are 5V,
advanced driver- process. 12V, 15V, 24V, 36V and 48V.
assistance systems (ADAS) NXP Semiconductor The products are suitable for a wide
functionality and automated driving www.nxp.com range of applications with EN 62368-1,
through data fusion with Global Naviga- IEC 61558-1/-2-16, and IEC/EN 60335-
tion Satellite System (GNSS) and various 1 certifications for ITE/audio-visual,
sensors such as camera, radar, and lidar. Motor control chip industrial, and household use, respec-
This new sensor is a single package Dialog Semiconductor, a provider of bat- tively.
6DoF component integrated with GNSS tery management, AC-DC power conver- The RACM60-K series features full
and perception sensors for L2+ and sion, Wi-Fi, BLE, and Industrial ICs, has protection against short-circuits, output

New Products
over-voltage, over-current, and over- proven low-force 3D MEMS probe 2-enabled robotic controller based on
temperature and has a line and neutral technology and test clock rates up to Intel Xeon E, 9th Gen Intel Core i7/i3,
fusing for medical applications. No-load 200MHz at wafer sort. The 1Z DRAM and 8th Gen Intel Core i5 processors.
input current is only 100mW at 230V AC. node will move to high volume produc- The series fea-
RECOM tion later this year. tures an I/O
www.recom-power.com FormFactor connectivity
www.formfactor.com that supports
a wide variety
TEST & MEASUREMENT of sensors and actuators for meeting
Testing equipment the needs of a wide range of robotic
Power measurement instrument Keysight Technologies has announced a applications.
Boonton Electronics, a provider of cost-effective test solution, Ixia AresONE The ROScube-I supports an exten-
enhanced test instrumentation and sen- 400 gigabit Ethernet (GE) that enables sion box for convenient functionality
sors, has announced data centre operators to leverage 400GE and performance expansion with Intel
the launch of the capable test ports to link with and test VPU cards and the Intel Distribution of
new PMX40 RF legacy 100GE network equipment. OpenVINO toolkit for computation of
power metre, a high- The new test solution is based on artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms
performing radio frequency (RF) power pulse-amplitude modulation level-4 and inference.
measurement instrument. (PAM4) signalling interconnection Robotic systems based on the ROS-
By combining the utility of a tra- to 100GE non-return-to-zero (NRZ) cube-I are supported by ADLINK’s
ditional benchtop instrument, per- networking equipment Neuron SDK, a platform specifically
formance of modern USB RF power ports using Credo’s designed for professional robotic appli-
sensors, and simplicity of a multi-touch HiWire active cations such as autonomous mobile
display, it delivers a high utility value to electrical cable robots (AMR).
engineers and technicians for designing (AEC) technol- ADLINK Technology
and testing. The PMX40 streamlines RF ogy. It also provides www.adlinktech.com
testing and is optimal for broad use in speed-shifting of signalling rates and for-
the semiconductor, military, aerospace, ward error correction (FEC) conversion.
medical, and communications indus- As of now, many data centre opera- Raspberry Pi audio amplifier
tries. tors have widely deployed 100GE NRZ- Infineon Technologies has developed a
Boonton Electronics based technologies. However, higher fully self-contained Raspberry Pi audio
www.boonton.com speeds such as 400GE provide a new amplifier Hardware Attached on Top
mixed signalling and mixed FEC in (HAT) board. It
a multi-rate environment. This new offers high defi-
Probe card environment produces unique chal- nition audio at
FormFactor, a semiconductor test and lenges relating to the integration of boom box power
measurement supplier, has reached a PAM4-based 400GE and 100GE-capable levels in a small form
high-throughput mile- switch ports with existing 100GE NRZ factor. Infineon’s multilevel technology
stone in dynamic signalling-based switch port technology. ensures minimum size and consump-
random access Therefore the combined Keysight tion, state-of-the-art power efficiency,
memory (DRAM) and Credo test solution bridges the and HD audio quality for Raspberry Pi
wafer testing with the gap between incompatible PAM4- and users and makers. The target field of use
release of the SmartMatrix 3000XP probe NRZ-encoded signalling. It removes is active speakers with wireless music
card. The new SmartMatrix 3000XP potential testing issues to improve over- streaming.
probe card allows DRAM manufactur- all performance validation and quality. The board (KIT_40W_AMP_HAT_
ers to test 3000 dies or more at once The AEC cable technology performs the ZW) is compatible with Raspberry Pi
using FormFactor’s proprietary Tester necessary conversions to allow a PAM4- Zero W and Raspberry Pi 3 and 4. It
Resource Enhancement (ATRE) and encoded port to interoperate with an leverages the MERUS multilevel class
MEMS probe technologies. The new NRZ-encoded port. D amplification enabled by the MERUS
breakthrough allows the simultaneous Keysight Technologies MA12070P amplifier, which allows for
test of approximately 1000 additional www.keysight.com filter-free amplifier design that does not
dies over previous capabilities and can need to use a filter-coil at the output
reduce the test cost per die by more than filter. This significantly reduces the BOM
25 per cent.
miscellaneous cost and enables PCB area reduction.
The SmartMatrix 3000XP probe The board furthermore provides
card’s key features include proprietary Robot controller high output power in small form factor
TTRE (Terminated Tester Resource ADLINK Technology, an edge comput- up to 40W instantaneous peak power
Enhancement) technology, ultra-high ing solution provider, has launched at 4 Ohms.
switch-density ATRE (Advanced Tester ROScube-I, in collaboration with Intel. Infineon Technologies
Resource Enhancement) components, The ADLINK ROScube-I series is a ROS www.infineon.com

Facts & Figures
Scheme For Promotion Of

MSMEs In Defence
O
ne of the key objectives of the govern- in India programme in the defence sector
ment’s Make in India initiative is to bring • MSMEs to be educated about the relaxa-
micro, small and medium enterprises tions in the procurement process
(MSMEs) into the defence supply chain and • MSMEs to be familiarised with the various
thereby boost the self-reliance of the country funding mechanisms established specifically for
and contribute towards growing defence exports facilitating capable entrepreneurs low on capital
market. MSMEs are already contributing in or for capital intensive projects
defence manufacturing with thousands of qual- • Exploring the possibility of establishing
ity products, mainly at sub-system and compo- common testing and allied facilities at select
nent levels. In addition, as much as fifty per cent centres
of the manpower is engaged in MSMEs. Coverage.
It is high time that such measures are adopted • Boost Make in India, consolidate exist-
that would help to create an enabling environ- ing defence manufacturing ecosystem, and
ment to utilise the potential of MSMEs in the induct competent MSMEs of other sectors to the
defence sector to the maximum. Therefore, last defence sector
year, it was proposed to create a scheme for the • Identify location-specific problems that
promotion of MSMEs. need to be addressed by the Ministry of Defence
Objectives. (MoD), particularly, Department of Defence
• To unlock the potential of non-defence Production (DDP)
sector MSMEs located in Tier II and Tier III cities • Identify MSMEs with strong potential to
across India by providing them with relevant meet the technology requirements of the armed
information about the government’s Make in forces.
India programme in defence • Promote defence exports
• To give a new impetus to the development • Boost MoD outreach
of defence production in the country for its Eligible agencies. Under this proposal, the
domestic needs and also for exporting to friendly management of the proposed events can be
countries by involving MSMEs in larger numbers through DEO, leading think tanks, industry
• To provide the know-how to Indian MSMEs associations, local industry chambers, NSIC,
active in non-defence sectors for their entry in or any entity as may be recommended by the
the defence sector through workshops and con- department of MSMEs.
claves Criteria for sanction. The factors to be
• To tutor MSMEs about the prospective considered for the assessment include pro-
market and business opportunities around the posed coverage in terms of the catchment area,
world number of MSME units, range of defence items/
• To enable institutionalisation of the inter- equipment targeted, potential outreach of the
action of foreign OEMs (original equipment proposing agency, geo-demographic potential of
manufacturers) with MSMEs to encourage wider the region, and extant infrastructural facilities.
participation in the offset business industry Funding. Annual sponsorship subject to a
Scope. maximum limit of 0.2 million rupees/event (for
• MSME vendors to be imparted awareness national-level events) and 0.10 million rupees/
and information about opportunities emanating event (for state-level events) along with permis-
out of the Defence Procurement Procedure, and sion to use the logo of MoD from DPP. Since
more specifically out of the new Make II proce- finance ministry had approved one national
dure level and three state level conclaves in pilot
• MSMEs from non-defence sectors to be con- mode, fund requirement up to September 2019
nected with OEMs, defence public sector undertak- was estimated to be 0.50 million rupees.
ings (DPSUs), and ordnance factory board (OFB)
to help them avail the opportunities under Make Source: https://www.defenceexim.gov.in

Facts & Figures
Guidelines For Use Of IAF Test

Facilities By Private Entities
E
xtending the usage of Indian Air 3. Coordinate/facilitate discussion A trial coordination meeting will
Force (IAF) test facilities, includ- between IAF testing agencies and pri- be conducted at Air HQ or on-site to
ing aviation assets to private vate entities as required. formulate a trial directive. The meeting
sectors/entities, would boost the indige- 4. Allot time slots/assets for testing is to be attended by all stakeholders.
nous aviation defence industry, thereby and evaluation by the private sector Subsequently, TCC will issue a trial
reducing dependence on foreign suppli- with due approval of the DCAS. directive duly approved by the DCAS,
ers. These guidelines aim to outline the 5. Work out testing modalities in addressing all issues related to trials
modalities for the use of IAF assets (test- consultation with IAF test centres and and exercise command and control
ing and evaluation establishments, labs, private entities. over the conduct of trials. The TCC, on
ranges, aircraft, helicopters, radars, 6. Work out the cost of testing, the conclusion of trials, will settle the
and ground equipment) by the private taking into account the approved usage final bill with the private sector/entity.
sector to test equipment and systems rates of assets and facilities being uti- The approved rates of usage of IAF
being designed and developed to meet lised, likely usage of consumables, and assets, as available with Directorate of
IAF requirements. The test facilities/ other associated costs, in consultation Financial Planning, shall be used as a
assets would be provided for use by the with the private sector. A memoran- basis of all cost calculations. The cost
private sector when not in use by the dum of understanding (MoU)/agree- of carrying out test procedures will be
IAF. However, IAF reserves the right ment will be signed that stipulates the calculated on a case to case basis and
to change the time slot, or deny usage terms and conditions, including pay- approved by the DCAS.
of the test facilities due to operational, ment terms by the private sector and Adequate safeguards are to be
security, or weather reasons. indemnities to safeguard the interests incorporated so as to avoid any leak-
Test facilities with IAF. IAF has of the government of India. age of information by private entities
specialised establishments dedicated 7. Coordinate security clearances and vice versa. Therefore these entities
to test aviation equipment and sys- of private entities interested in testing are required to sign a non-disclosure
tems. Apart from these, various air to their equipment at IAF establishments. agreement with all stakeholders, which
ground/small arms ranges, aircraft, 8. Prepare a detailed task directive prohibits the sharing of information
helicopters, radars, and other ground for conducting trials. with regards to testing equipment with
equipment required for testing pur- Approval for utilisation of IAF any other agency.
poses could be sourced by private test facilities/assets. On receipt of a Accident coverage and indemnity
entities for testing and evaluation of request from private entities, the nodal bond. The private sector cannot claim
equipment and systems developed by officer at TCC will ascertain that the any compensation from IAF/MoD.
them for defence applications. system/equipment to be tested using However, damage to service property
Procedure. The following pro- the IAF facility has been developed due to negligence on the part of the
cedure is used for availing IAF test for meeting the IAF requirement. The private sector would be paid in full by
facilities/assets by the Indian private officer will ascertain the availability of them. Damage to government prop-
sector/entity: test facilities/assets and seek approval erties not attributable to the private
Testing coordination cell (TCC) of the DCAS for conducting trials using sector would be written off against loss
has been set up at Air HQ under the IAF test facilities/assets. to the government of India (GoI). Air
deputy chief of air staff (DCAS). TCC Trial and evaluation, cost of force personnel involved in testing and
is the single point of contact between testing, non-disclosure agreement. evaluation would get immunity in case
the private entities and IAF test estab- Certain tests may require modification the equipment of the private sector gets
lishments/facilities. The main tasks of of the platform. Such modifications, damaged during the process of testing
TCC are to: if deemed unsuitable by the IAF, will and evaluation. The participants of
1. M a i n t a i n a n d u p d a t e t h e be denied. Further, the private sector/ the private sector would also sign the
approved list of test facilities and assets entity will bear the cost of any modifi- indemnity bond to absolve the IAF/
that can be offered to private entities cation and de-modification that may be GoI of any damage/harm caused to
from time to time on the Ministry of required for carrying out testing. Such them during the process of trials and
Defence (MoD) and IAF websites. modifications will be carried out only evaluation.
2. Expeditiously action the request by authorised agencies, following due
submitted by private entities. clearances and certifications. Source: https://indianairforce.nic.in

Software
Free Daily Utility Tools

Software For
strategic
+ Office tools: Apache OpenOffice (www.openoffice.org)
+ Zipping software: WinZip (www.winzip.com)
+ Browser: Mozilla Firefox (www.mozilla.org)
applications
+ PDF Reader: Adobe Acrobat Reader DC (get.adobe.com)
+ Media player: PotPlayer (potplayer.daum.net)
Ayushee Sharma
AnyLogic EWare IFS Maintenix

Visit: https://www.anylogic.com Visit: https://systematic.com/ Visit: https://www.ifs.com/corp
Full version: Paid; free trial ?lang=en Full version: Paid
Full version: Paid
Anylogic software for defence model- IFS Maintenix is an easily scalable,
ling and simulation provides a flex- EWare by Systematic is a standard- end-to-end aviation maintenance
ible virtual environment for faster based, off-the-shelf software built for management software that allows
analysis, testing, forecasting, and easy deployment in military organ- organisations to maximise the rev-
optimisation of complex processes, isations to help them make accurate enue potential of assets through stan-
systems, and operations necessary tactical decisions to prevent loss dard and predictable maintenance.
to make the right decisions while of life and property while avoiding Users are provided with reliable and
mitigating risks involved. Modelling ambiguities. This powerful electronic timely information, which improves
of systems required for military plan- warfare tool allows users to process their productivity and efficiency. The
ning and management is done prior data reliably before passing it to software has a component-based
to their use in different applications, frontline units that include both day- architecture featuring controlled
and their role and interoperability to-day management and updating of workflow and point-of-maintenance
is tested. For disaster response sce- mission-critical data. With improved access to real-time information,
narios, this is possible by consider- threat identification, the team can which enables working with any
ing environmental variables, human minimise risk of such incidents. It maintenance and engineering (M&E)
behaviour, and technology systems can be customised to the geography system. Other features include auto-
while creating testing responses. of any planned mission. mated planning, paperless execution,
and compliance.
GeorbIS
Visit: https://www.vizexperts.com; Full version: Paid
GeorbIS is a 3D GIS (Geospatial intelligence) platform for visualisation, analysis,
and development of data. The software helps to enhance the planning process of
defence and paramilitary forces through several ways, such as the area of interest
visualisation, real-time sensor data integration, terrain analysis, among others.
Besides following global symbology standards like the MIL 2525D, it is OGC
certified and also compatible with MIL symbology used by the Indian military
along with support for the Indian Military Grid Reference System (IMGRS). It
also helps in making intelligent decisions when it comes to forest management,
oceanography, and disaster management.

Software
Voyager CommandTRACKER
Visit: http://www.salientcrgt.com; Full version: Paid
(Credit: www.salientcrgt.com/
Voyager CommandTRACKER is an incident and asset management system that provides real-
newsroom/media-library)
time awareness about the location of mobile users and assets, be it in vehicles or on foot via
tracking of GPS-enabled portable and mobile radio units. ‘Always On’ geo-fencing alerts and
notifications get triggered as assets enter or leave defined areas. Integration of third-party GPS
devices to other existing applications or systems enables easy sharing of data amongst command
staff, communications specialists, and emergency operations managers for management across
multiple locations.
mobile apps Scan the QR codes to download

the apps based on the operating
For Strategic Applications system of your device
UgCS for DJI Mgrs & Utm Map 100% Army Fit
Updated: June 2020 Updated: April 2020 Updated: November 2019
OS: Android and iOS OS: Android and iOS OS: Android and iOS
Download: Full version (free) Download: Full version (free) Download: Full version
UgCS for DJI allows users to establish Mgrs & Utm Map was developed to (free)
Android
a connection between DJI drones (like mainly help military personnel with 100% Army Fit app by the
Phantom 4, Inspire 2, Spark) with GPR GPS and coordinate systems. The app British Army is a training
mounted on them and UgCS desktop uses satellite navigation systems such as and fitness tool built for
(version 3.5 or higher) ground station for GPS, GALILEO, and GLONASS (GNSS) prospective recruits who
are preparing for an assess-
uploading and carrying out a previously supported by smartphones and their sen-
ment, or even those who iOS
planned mission, or to fly the drone in sors to show the most accurate position
wish to achieve the fitness
‘Click&Go’ mode. This enables ground- of the user. There are several location
level of military personnel. It allows users
penetrating radar (GPR) surveys in harsh/ (coordinate) format options, including
to track their goals, which include train-
hazardous environments without compro- MGRS, UTM, or Latitude/Longitude. The ing curated by fitness coaches for losing
mising the security of team members. It centre of the map also follows user loca- weight, increasing muscular strength,
can also be used as a standalone application while on the move, which enables improving distance running performance,
tion for manually flying drones. Other fea- measurements of distance, altitude, area, and the like. Training plans can be custom-
tures include Live HD camera view, home and the like. It can even assist users with ised based on the user’s requirements. The
position reset, flight simulation, support outdoor activities and sports. app also offers nutrition advice to ensure
for metric and imperial units, and so on. that exercises deliver expected results.
Military Flashlight
Android iOS Android iOS Updated: February 2020
OS: Android
Download: Full version
(free)
Military flashlight app Android
Military News allows users to simply swipe
Updated: March 2020 for a strobe light and has different strobe
OS: Android light blinking frequencies, including Morse
Download: Full version (free) code SOS signal as well as a standard com-
Military news app provides the latest news in the field of military/ Android pass dial. Only smartphone camera access
defence taking place around the world by analysing numerous news is needed for rear flash operation. It caters
stories and breaking news from reliable news publishers. Updates on military programmes to all military lovers, veterans, soldier
and such technologies as for military gear and equipment that are happening globally are families, and personnel. Users can also
also provided regularly. This includes notifications for breaking new stories and videos personalise the torch with different colours
for a better understanding of different situations. Other features include a bookmarking (depicting Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air
system for future reference, news sharing options, and much more. The latest version Force, and Coast Guard). The ad-free ver-
sion of this app is paid.
comes with a username update option and other improvements for optimisation.

First Look
EFY Bureau
Price
32-inch models:
` 12,999
Smart TVs
43-inch models:
` 21,999
With built-in Chromecast

Vu has launched two new smart TVs in India under its
Vu Cinema Smart TV series. The latest Vu Cinema TV
comes in 81.3cm (32-inch) and 109.2cm (43-inch) sizes.
Both smart TVs come with built-in Chromecast and
support for Apple AirPlay and Dolby Audio. The smart TVs
also feature a voice assistant remote and run on Android
9.0 Pie. There’s access to OTT platforms like Netflix, Prime
Video, Hotstar, YouTube, and Google Play apps.
These are powered by a quad-core processor paired
with 8GB storage and 1GB RAM. Their connectivity The voice assistant feature supports the Hindi language as
options include Bluetooth 5.0, Wi-Fi, HDMI CEC, and well. There is a Vu Help app, which provides steps on how to use
ARC. Both the smart TVs feature thin bezels with a 40W Android Smart function, learn more about the apps and software,
soundbar attached. or how to set up the TV.
Earbuds Notebook
With extra bass With better audio quality
Sony has launched its first-ever truly wireless earbuds in Acer has expanded its notebook series by launching Swift 3
India—WF-SP800N and WF-XB700. The earbuds are avail- notebook in India. It is available in a silver colour variant. It
able in black and blue colour options for XB700 and black, sports a 35.5cm (14-inch) full HD IPS display with 82.73 per
blue, and white colour options for SP800N. cent screen-to-body ratio. The notebook is powered by AMD
WF-SP800N earbuds are part of the sports-focused Ryzen 4000 series mobile processor coupled with Radeon
range of personal audio products. These come with active graphics, 16GB RAM, and 1TB storage space.
noise cancellation and IP55-certified dust and water resist- It also features DTS audio for better audio performance
ance. These earbuds are an excellent option for users who and Windows Hello via a fingerprint reader. It comes with a
are looking for premium features in true wireless ear- Wake on Voice (WoV) feature that enables users to activate
phones. Windows 10 using their voice even when the screen is off.
The earbuds have a battery life of nine hours and an It also allows users to interact with Cortana when the note-
additional nine hours from the case. These also feature quick book is on the standby mode. There’s also password-free
charging that brings an hour of use with ten minutes of charg- access, which gives users quick access to the notebook.
ing. There are gesture controls on the earbuds, access to voice As far as connectivity is concerned, the notebook fea-
assistants, app-based customisation through the Sony Head- tures support for dual-band Wi-Fi-6 (802.11 ax), USB Type-C
phones Connect app, and USB Type-C charging. port, and Bluetooth 5.0, among other things. It comes with
WF-XB700 earbuds a battery that can last up to eleven hours.
Price are part of the compa-
SP800N:
` 18,990 ny’s ‘extra bass’ range.
XB700: ` 9,990
These feature an IPX4
water resistance rating
Price
and up to eighteen ` 59,999
hours of battery life.
The earbuds get sup-
port for SBC and AAC
Bluetooth codecs. The
charging case features
a USB Type-C port.

First Look
Refrigerators Smartphone
With AI-enabled technology With dewdrop notch
Panasonic has launched a new range of artificial intelligence (AI) enabled refrigera- Oppo A11K comes with a full-
tors in India. The new refrigerator range has three types of sensors. screen display with a dewdrop
The door sensor senses how frequently the door is opened to understand a fam- notch on the top centre. The
ily’s needs to automatically switch between the power saving mode to other power phone has a 15.8cm (6.2-inch)
modes. The temperature sensor detects the internal and external temperatures to display with HD resolution and
determine and adjust to the required cooling power without human intervention. 270ppi pixel density. It runs on
The light sensor, on the other hand, adjusts the temperature as per ambient light. Android 9.0-based ColorOS 6.1.
Additionally, these refrigerators come with AG Clean technology, which the For performance, Oppo A11K
company claims can deactivate up to 99.9 per cent of bacteria to keep food fresh relies on MediaTek Helio P35
and healthy. The new range comes with twenty per cent extra storage space with a octa-core processor coupled with
35-litre vegetable box.
Prices
starts at
` 22,900
Smartwatch
With GPS positioning chip Price
` 64,990
Huami has launched Amazfit Stratos 3 smartwatch in India for athletes and sports
enthusiasts. It features a dual-chip and dual operating system. The smartwatch pro-
vides up to fourteen days of battery life. It comes with a GPS tracker and transflec- 2GB RAM and 32GB built-in stor-
tive MIP display with a 3.4cm full-round display. It is available with Corning Gorilla age. The phone supports expand-
Glass 3 protection and anti-fingerprint coating. able storage up to 256GB via a
The wearable has built-in activity profiles like ultra-endurance mode, exercise microSD card slot. It is powered
effect (TE), exercise load (TD), and recovery time data. It comes with eighty differ- by a 4,230mAh battery.
ent sports modes, includ- Oppo A11K has two rear
ing snowboarding, skiing, cameras featuring 13MP and 2MP
outdoor skating, fencing, sensors. The cameras come with
karate, and more. a bunch of modes such as AI
The smartwatch incor- beautification, bokeh, HDR, and
porates a three-mode/ photo filters. For selfies, it has a
four-satellite GPS position- 5MP front-facing camera. Other
ing chip, which provides key features of the phone include
increased speed and dual-SIM support, dual 4G, and
trajectory accuracy. It also a dedicated fingerprint sensor on
Price
the back.
` 13,999 comes with internal music
storage of up to 400 songs.
The prices, features and specifications are based on information provided to us, or as available on various websites and portals. EFY cannot vouch for their accuracy.

Digital
how intelligent toilets

can bring efficient
public toilet
management in india
Potshangbam July
T
he invention of intel-
ligent toilets has
been creating quite
a ripple across the
globe, considering
their smart capabilities to gather
insights into public health and
diseases. A few months back,
Numi 2.0, an advanced intel-
ligent toilet, was recognised in
the smart home category at the
2020 International Consumer
(Credit: www.watergroup.com)
Electronics Show (CES) Awards
held in Las Vegas.
Talking about India, the state
of public toilets is in a deplorable
condition. Maintenance and sus-
tainability of public toilets are
among the biggest challenges
across the country. Despite their
several benefits, not many are
aware of smart toilets. The intel-
ligent toilet is still an untapped have access to safe and private toilets reported that over 95 million toilets
area, and this technology is yet till date. This is not a case that one have been built across the country. The
to hit the mainstream in the witnesses only in remote villages, but pressing problem is the upkeep and
country. also in the cities. It is a major concern maintenance of these toilets. There is
This article explores how for the country as human waste breeds no mechanism to provide clear insights
intelligent toilets can help in various diseases and contributes to into water usage, hygiene conditions,
mitigating the most neglected environmental pollution that kills infectious diseases, the number of
issues concerning public toilets. nearly one thousand children each people using the toilets, etc. In such
day. To contain the matter, the Swachh a scenario, utilising the Internet of
Public toilet challenges Bharat Mission was launched by Prime Things (IoT) enabled technologies can
in India Minister Narendra Modi on October bring effectiveness in the whole opera-
It is undeniable that poor public 2, 2014, which has made India open tion and change the perception about
sanitation is one of the major defecation-free to a large extent. Indian public toilets.
concerns in India. Many do not Under the mission, it has been Toilet maintenance is indeed com-

Digital
plex and not sustainable. Moreover, or an app on a smartphone. Such toi-

people don’t want to spend their entire lets have the capability to prevent a
day cleaning toilets and engage in this disease outbreak before it becomes a
thankless job. This situation is not just full-blown tragedy.
prevalent in India; globally too, most Besides, what makes it easier for
of the public toilets remain defunct or the general public is the availability of
close after six months of operations as apps that helps them to locate public
there is no clear sustainability plan. toilets. These apps give information
Therefore public toilets powered by on opening hours, cleanliness ratings,
IoT and artificial intelligence (AI) are water availability, the style of toilet,
quite a realistic solution to fill gaps in toilet fee charges, free toilets, etc.
the sanitation sector. As per a report, a normal flush
toilet, when integrated with IoT, has
How intelligent toilets the potential to beat wearable smart
can benefit public technologies. In the coming years,
In today’s connected world, intelligent smart toilets are likely to capture
toilets can certainly bring a paradigm health and fitness and tech space,
shift in public sanitation management. too. Interestingly, Google was recently
Supported by smart IoT technologies granted a patent for toilets that can
and several other innovations, intel- help in tracking the user’s health
ligent toilets are capable of interacting condition by putting sensors on dif-
and connecting with the central com- ferent parts of the washroom. In short,
mand centre. These toilets provide opportunities with intelligent toilets
real-time updates, which makes it are endless.
possible to monitor the situation from
a remote location. The smart feed- Current scenario of intelligent
back helps extensively in increasing toilets in India
operational efficiency and data-driven In India, the penetration rate of these
decision-making. Smart toilets use the high-tech public toilets is still lagging
right amount of water, which reduces despite the Indian government’s initia-
the wastage of water. Besides water tives. However, there is an increasing
conservation, smart toilets also save awareness of smart toilets that can
a lot of energy, which makes them reduce the problems of public sanita-
environmentally friendly. tion.
These are equipped with external In recent years, many startups
CCTV cameras, sensors for automatic have shown interest in intelligent
cleaning and flushing, choke detec- toilets and they have come up with
tion, and voice announcement on mis- several innovative concepts. These
management that alerts the officials startups work in collaboration with a
in charge through IoT devices. These large number of government bodies.
innovations can also accurately moni- They have installed toilets in slum
tor footfall in a day. areas, metro stations, government
The smell is one of the key prob- schools, railway stations, refugee
lems that is difficult to deal with, espe- camps, etc.
cially when it comes to public toilets. In an interesting development last
With IoT smell indicators, it is pos- year, Google Maps listed over 57,000
sible to increase cleaning frequency public toilets in over 2,300 cities
to maintain hygiene. These toilets are across the country. One can easily
fast and effective in mapping cleaning look up and search for the nearest
standards and frequencies. toilet with the help of Google search,
The most interesting thing about Google Assistant, or Google Maps and
intelligent toilets is their ability to
yield insights into public health by
get instant results.
No doubt, smart toilets have been
Read
analysing the waste. These toilets can able to strike a positive impact on the Electronics Bazaar
detect early symptoms of a disease public sanitation scenario. To ramp up
and can even identify the person from the number of installations, the price
the fingerprint sensors embedded on factor, which is a major challenge,
the flush handle. After scanning the should be worked out without com-
toilet, they send an alert to the cloud promising the quality.

Buyers’ Guide
some mid-range
smartphones
with powerful battery
and processor
Nijhum Rudra the mid-range phones along with other to produce cracks on falling, so you
new features. should avoid buying such phones.
S
Before we move to the variety of Display. If you want to buy a
m a r t p h o n e s a re smartphones, we would first like to men- phone for just checking emails, social
considered to be one tion the qualities you should look for networking, and clicking photos, you
of the biggest inno- before buying a smartphone: can choose a 12-14cm (approx. 5 to 5.5
vations in the field Processor. A processor is considered inches) HD or full HD display phone.
of technology and to be the backbone of every device, and If you want a phone to stream videos,
have truly transformed the lives therefore a good chipset is also required edit photos and videos, or download
of people in several ways. With- for the smooth functioning of your phone. and view movies, a 14-15cm (approx.
out any doubt, India is one of But, you must note that the processing 5.5 to 6 inches) full HD or QHD resolu-
the fastest-growing smartphone power of a smartphone differs from one tion display would be a perfect choice.
markets worldwide. The country product to another due to various reasons Optical sensor. When we talk about
has several brands under its belt such as user interface (UI), bloatware, optical sensors, many people have a
that are available in various price operating system (OS), and more. If you misconception that high megapixels
segments along with the latest want to use your phone for heavy-duty mean better quality pictures, which is
specifications. From the budget purposes such as gaming and editing not the case. A high megapixel might
category to high-end premium photos and online documents, you should help you get a non-pixelated picture,
and flagship smartphones, there opt for Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 or but that doesn’t guarantee a crystal-
are several choices available in Snapdragon 820/821. But if you are a clear image. Several specifications,
the market. light user, you can go for any phone with such as camera aperture, ISO levels,
Smartphones have almost a good MediaTek processor. pixel size, autofocus, and more, need
become mini-computers for Battery. It is the second most impor- to be considered. Most importantly,
people as these help them to tant criterion for buyers, especially for you will have to check the quality of
stream online videos along those who spend most of their time on the camera lens being used. Leica or
with carrying out official work. phones every day. If you stream OTT plat- Sony optical sensors always give you
Keeping in mind the demand forms and play games, you need a smart- the best photos.
of people, phones are avail- phone with at least 3,500mAh battery. Now, let’s have a look at some mid-
able with powerful features and If you are an average user, a 3,000mAh range and premium smartphones with
specifications such as 6GB RAM, backed phone is good for you. However, it powerful batteries, processors and other
2TB expandable storage, high also depends on the quality of the battery important features:
internal storage options, power- that a company uses. Also, you should Nokia 7.2. Launched at the IFA
ful optical sensors, and so on. check the battery backup time carefully. trade show in 2019, Nokia 7.2 is backed
But for the past one and a Phone body. It is another important by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdrag-
half years, people are demanding criterion that you must look for before pur- on 660 chipset. The phone
phones with powerful battery chasing a smartphone. Nowadays, phones features a 16cm (6.3-inch)
and processor. While the former are available in both plastic and metallic touchscreen coupled with
helps to use the device more, the bodies, and some devices even have glass- a resolution of 1080×2340
latter helps in running the device coated panels. If you are someone who pixels. It is powered by a
seamlessly. Hence, companies keeps dropping the phone, you should go 3,500mAh non-removable
are now introducing powerful for metal or plastic built handset. Glass battery with fast charging
batteries and processors even in body phones, on the other hand, are sure options. Along with 4GB

Buyers’ Guide
RAM, the smartphone has an internal Asus Zenfone 5Z. The Asus
storage of 64GB that is expandable ZenFone 5Z comes with a 15.7cm
up to 512GB. It features three rear (6.2-inch) display with full HD+ reso-
cameras—a 48MP primary camera, a lution and 19:9 aspect
second 5MP camera, and a third 8MP ratio. It is powered by
camera. The front camera sports a Snapdragon 845 proces-
20MP sensor for selfies. sor that is clocked at
Price: ` 16,999 2.8GHz. It features 6GB
Samsung Galaxy A31. This pre- RAM and 64GB internal
mium A series smartphone was storage, which is fur-
launched by Samsung in India on ther expandable up to
24th March. With a resolu- 2TB. The phone runs on
tion of 1080×2400 pixels Android 8.0 Oreo with ZenUI 5 on
and 20:9 aspect ratio, the top. It sports a dual-camera setup at
phone is available in a the back—a 12MP primary camera
16cm (6.4-inch) display. and an 8MP secondary camera with
The phone is backed by a wide-angle lens. At the front, it has
a 2GHz octa-core Medi- an 8MP selfie camera. The phone is
aTek Helio P65 processor powered by a 3,300mAh battery along
that features two cores with 18W fast charging support. It is a
clocked at 2GHz, and six cores clocked dual SIM device with a hybrid SIM slot
at 1.7GHz. For battery backup, the and support for Dual 4G and VoLTE.
phone is powered by a 5,000mAh bat- Price: ` 16,999 (6GB+64GB),
tery along with support for fast charg- ` 18,999 (6GB+128GB)
ing. The phone operates on the latest Panasonic Eluga Ray 810. This
Android 10 OS. It features 6GB RAM Panasonic smartphone comes with
and an internal memory option of a 15.7cm (6.2-inch)
128GB that is expandable up to 512GB touchscreen. The
via an SD card. As far as the cameras phone is backed by a
are concerned, the phone features a MediaTek Helio P22
48MP primary camera, a second 8MP chipset and is powered
camera, a third 5MP camera, and a by a 4,000mAh battery.
fourth 5MP camera. It sports a 20MP It sports a 16MP prima-
camera on the front. ry camera and a second
Price: ` 21,999 2MP camera. On the front, it sports a
Samsung Galaxy M31. The Sam- 16MP camera for selfies. It features
sung Galaxy M31 features a 16.2cm 4GB RAM and 64GB internal storage.
(6.4-inch) display and a waterdrop Price: ` 8,499
notch at the top. It has Moto G8 Power Lite. It is a com-
thin bezels around plete budget smartphone launched
the AMOLED display, by Motorola in April this
which helps it stand year that comes with
out among the com- a powerful battery, an
petition. The Galaxy efficient processor, and
M31 is comfortable to many more features.
hold but a little heavy Along with a resolution
at 191gm. The weight of the smart- of 720×1600 pixels at
phone is mainly due to the 6,000mAh a density of 269 pixels
battery. The phone is equipped with per inch (ppi) and an aspect ratio
Exynos 9611 SoC and 6GB RAM. It of 20:9, the phone comes with a
has two storage variants to choose 16.5cm (6.5-inch) display. It is
from—64GB and 128GB. The Galaxy backed by a 2.3GHz octa-core Medi-
M31 is a dual SIM device with support aTek Helio P35 (MT6765) chipset.
for 4G as well as VoLTE. It has a quad- It operates on Android 9 and is
camera setup at the back with a 64MP powered by a 5,000mAh non-remov-
primary camera. It also houses 8MP able battery. The phone features a
ultra-wide-angle camera, 5MP macro 16MP+2MP+2MP rear camera and
camera, and 5MP depth sensor. an 8MP selfie camera.
Price: ` 18,499 Price: ` 8,999

advertisers’ index
Client name Page No. Client name Page No.
Digi-Key Electronics (www.digikey.in)......................................................................................2 National Controlling & Equipments........................................................................................89
EFY Group of Publications: Subscription Scheme..................................................................3 Sakthi Accumulators Private Ltd............................................................................................89
element14 India Pvt Ltd..........................................................................................Front Cover Samwha India Energy Saving...............................................................................................11
Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College Bidar.........................................................................87 Shavison Electronics Pvt Ltd (www.shavison.com)...............................................................85
Hasco Relays & Electronics International Corp. (www.hascorelays.com).............................31 Siglent Technologies Co., Ltd..................................................................................................9
HK Wentworth (India) Pvt Ltd (www.electrolube.in)...............................................................19 Smec Electronics India Pvt Ltd..............................................................................................88
India Technology Week.........................................................................................................92 STMicroelectronics Private Limited (www.st.com)...................................................................5
LWI Electronics Inc. (www.livewireinfo.com).........................................................................23 Technocomm Intruments Pvt Ltd (www.technocommgroup.com).........................................88
Montu Electronics LLP...........................................................................................................89 TME SLOVAKIA.......................................................................................................................7
Advertisers’ product categories index

Products Page No. Products Page No. Products Page No.
Batteries & Power Supplies Smec Electronics India Pvt Ltd............................................ 88 LWI Electronics Inc. ............................................................ 23
Montu Electronics LLP ........................................................ 89 STMicroelectronics Private Limited ...................................... 5 TME SLOVAKIA .................................................................... 7
Sakthi Accumulators Private Ltd ......................................... 89 TME SLOVAKIA .................................................................... 7
Shavison Electronics Pvt. Ltd.............................................. 85

Test & Measurement Equipment (Including Indicators
Materials (Including Chemicals & Consumables)
& Monitors)
Components (Including Active & Passive) HK Wentworth (India) Pvt Ltd ............................................. 19
Siglent Technologies Co., Ltd................................................ 9
Digi-Key Electronics.............................................................. 2
Technocomm Intruments Pvt Ltd......................................... 88
element14 India Pvt Ltd ....................................... Front Cover Reseller and Distributors
Hasco Relays & Electronics International Corp................... 31 Digi-Key Electronics.............................................................. 2
LWI Electronics Inc. ............................................................ 23 element14 India Pvt Ltd ....................................... Front Cover Training and Certification Institutes
Samwha India Energy Saving............................................. 11 Hasco Relays & Electronics International Corp................... 31 Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College Bidar....................... 87
EFY Magazine Attractions During 2020

Month Theme/Focus Areas Artificial Intelligence Tech Focus eStyle Buyers’ Guide MARKET SURVEY
January Anniversary Issue/ AI for Smart Home and Smart Smart Consumers Driving Smart Laptops Priced Under ` 25k Growth of Electronics R&D
Tech Trends City Industries Segment in India
February Augmented and Extended AI for News, Publishing and AR-Based Solutions for Top AR and VR Headsets Market Ratio for AR and VR
Reality Writing Businesses
March Automotive and Electric AI in Logistics and Intelligent Transportation and Top Solar-Powered Vehicles Automotive versus EV
Vehicles Transportation Mobility Systems
April Healthcare AI in Telemedicine and Role of Data Analytics in Healthcare AI-Based Healtcare Equipment Role of Wearables
Telehealth for Hospitals
May Quantum Computing AI for Manufacturing High-Performance Computing - Top Quantam Computing Platforms Edge and Cloud Computing
QuantumComputing for 2020
June Drones and Quadcopters AI and Hybrid Drones AI in Surveillance and Security Upcoming Drones for Industry Drones in Delivery and
Manufacturing Logistics
July Strategic Electronics AI for Military Operations AI and ML to Enhance the Powerful Smartphones with Signal Processing in
Performance of Semiconductors Powerful Batteries and Processors Communication
and Electronics
August Education and Skill AI in Education Industry Technologies in Education and Cutting-Edge Gadgets Making Schools Electronics in Education and Skill
Development Skill Development and Classrooms Smarter Development
September AI, Robotics and Cobots AI in Humanoid Robots Exoskeletons for Healthcare Top AI-Powered Speakers Industrial Automation Through Robots
Under ` 15k and Cobots
October Renewable Energy AI in Fighting Global Climate Electricity from Snow, Plastic Top Solar and Wind Power Panels Transition from Conventional to
Change and Any Other Raw Materials Renewable Sources of Energy
(Other Than Water and Solar)
November Bots and Conversational Apps AI in Customer Service Industry Robotic Process Automation Top Free Bots and Conversational Apps Chatbots Prospects in Businesses
December Blockchain AI and Blockchain - A Perfect Blockchain for Travel and Tourism Top Antivirus Software for Malware Database Management with
Match Blockchain
In addition, there will be regular series every month on subjects such as: Plus, subjects such as the following will be covered more or less in each issue:
 Smart World  Do-It-Yourself  eStyle  Automation
 Test & Measurement  Market Survey  New Products  Healthcare
 Design/R&D  Startup Zone  Tech News  The Internet of Things (IoT)
 Artificial Intelligence  Interviews  Industry News  Wireless/5G

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July 2020 | Vol. 52 No.

Since January 1969

The Changing Face Of

India’s Defence Sector Advertisements

EFY GOING DIGITAL FM BROADCASTING

EFY online. Being highly technical, FM Transmitter For Broadcasting’ Electronics

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A1. You must have seen different

Q2. What is zero PCB or veroboard mentioned in your DIY articles?

A2. Zero PCB is basically a general-purpose printed

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New AI tool turns low-pixel faces into realistic images

Telcos increase vigilance as government warns of phishing attacks

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Google now shows Covid-19 testing centres in India

Low-cost emergency ventilator to help fight Covid-19 crisis

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AI-based system to track social distancing in public places

Now digitise your dog into a computer game

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in gaseous form, costs for compres-

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2 Wind-Solar Hybrid Systems

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3 Innovations thriving in the battle

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Exploring The Applications

Wipro’s IIoT Center of Excellence in Kochi, Kerala (Credit: Tech Observer)

24 July 2020 • electronics For You www.EFYMag.com

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Online Learning: An Antidote

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Negative ions Electrolyte Electrolyte

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1. Terminals 6. Separator Fig. 4: A hybrid motor using supercapacitor

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Fig. 8: Schematic diagram of a pulsed linear accelarator weapon

36 JULY 2020 • electronics FOR YOU www.EFYMag.com

AI And ML Shifting Focus

www.EFYMag.com electronics For You • July 2020 37

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The Changing Face Of

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Representation of AI-robotic armies (Credit: lifeboat.com)