LG Defends OLED TVs Future

OLED, which stands for Organic Light- Emitting Diode, is in itself a film of organic compound with a layer of emissive electroluminescent, which responds to electric current with an electric current.

The Creation of Organic Light- Emitting Diode (OLED) 

LG, the famous Korean Electronics giant is the only major company which manufactures these OLED televisions. In the absence of any strong and solid competitor, this company has managed to reach the top and rule the market by itself. It has cornered the market in the absence of any cut throat competition. LG presented themselves as the promoters of the amalgamation of the OLED with the modern technology high definition television screens. They also focused their attention on the WebOS 2.0 TVs on the latest "wellness platform", which has a much simpler and uncomplicated user interface which operates with a much faster speed.

The Introduction of Organic Light- Emitting Diode (OLED) 

The company expressed its interest in continuing the production of OLED tv, better and improvised and more advanced versions. In the press conference conducted by company of LG at the CES 2015, they introduced some of the latest models. The center stage was taken up by the OLED.

The Evolution from Cathode- Ray Tube Sets to Organic Light- Emitting Diode (OLED) 

The company's spokesperson who happens to be the director of new products development, introduced the matter of the evolution of television to the spectators, which were majorly consisting of journalists. In his speech he placed emphasis on the fact that change and evolution keeps happening by the seconds. Prior to the LCD screen televisions, the cathode-ray tube sets were in vogue and most efficient. After the emergence of the LCD's, they slowly went out of vogue and at present, the OLED televisions have been evolved from the LCD screens. Currently, the OLED are better as they are known to produce nearly, perfect blacks, which are important for rich and brightly contrasted colors.

The Upcoming Year

LG has released a notice which states that the upcoming year will launch five latest designs. These designs will deal with a variety of changes, ranging from 55 inches to 65 inches, from flat screened to curved and slim bodied ones. They also plan on launching a 77 inch flexible television, which can be manipulated to be flat screened and form a curved conformation. Plus, it would have the added benefits of the amazing OLED picture quality and webOs interface as the smart features.

New Kids in the Block! 

In 2015 LG has lined up a plethora of new advanced gadgets. The reception of the OLED will determine the future course of this technology. The OLED is a complete class all by itself. Quantum Dot is another technology launched by LG, which is known for providing the rich- color technology. Though all these advancements don't come cheap, they are worth every dime that is spent on this latest updated version.

CES 2015: Toyota Opens Patents on Hydrogen Fuel Cell Technology

In a strong hope of a developed future of Hydrogen fuel cell technology being an alternative fuel source, the Japanese car maker Toyota has promised to offer around six thousand patents (related to the technology), which is owned by them, as royalty-free. Last Tuesday, the Japanese car maker Toyota made the much awaited announcement at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2015, which was held in Las Vegas.

Summary 

The pledge made by Toyota includes 5,680 Hydrogen fuel cell related patents, including the technologies that have been used in developing the company’s latest innovation Toyota Mirai. Approximately, 1,970 patents are related to fuel cell stacks, 290 patents are related to high-pressure hydrogen tanks, 3,350 patents are associated with the software used to control fuel cell system and rest of the 70 patents are related to hydrogen production.

Plan

The infrastructure required to support the electric cars has started to rise across many countries, even though the re-fuelling stations for hydrogen fuel cell powered cars are hard to find. Therefore the step taken by the Japanese car maker makes it all the more significant, by opening their patents for other companies to own and in the process boost up the places that the hydrogen fuel cell cars are starting to fill.

The announcement made by the company reflects their positive approach in supporting the development of infrastructure of the Hydrogen powered society.

Previously on many occasions, the Japanese Automaker has tried their hand with this initiative of developing hydrogen powered society. One such example is the developmental set up in California. Toyota made huge investments in improving the facilities of Hydrogen fuel cell technology in California and in the North Eastern states of America. Last year, the company extended their support towards First Element Fuels with a loan grant of $7.3 million covering around 19 different hydrogen fuelling stations of California.

The Japanese car making company welcomes the interested companies over negotiable individual contracts for the usage of related patents. However it must be notified that the pledge made by the company on Tuesday covers only the patents related to the fuel cell vehicles which will remain available until 2020 ends, whereas the patents that are related to the production of hydrogen and its supply are kept open over indefinite period of time.

There is a small catch in this pledge although, which is that the Japanese car making company expects the interested companies to share similar technology related information and make their patents related to fuel cell as open. But make no mistake thinking it to be a pre-requisite condition to be filled before approaching for patent negotiations.

Future of this technology: 

The company strongly believes that the first generation of Hydrogen powered vehicles, that are going to get unveiled in coming few years, requires good amount of collaboration between automakers/ car makers, state authorities, power generating firms and the family of researchers. The Consumer Electronics Show 2015 was probably the best platform to be had for such an effort to get initiated and for a whistle to be blown for the start of its on-field implementation.

Wireless Smart Bulbs Could Scare Away Burglars

Light bulbs developed with the Wi-fi technology are becoming popular in the market now. It is effective in reducing the electricity bill as well as in scaring away the burglars. These smart bulbs can change its lightning according to its adaptability to appearance, mood and location. A study led by Qualcomm has reported that these smart bulbs are built in such a way that they will be able to talk to cars and other electronic appliances, could easily turn on and off automatically and change into different shades of colours.

The technology with innovative design

Qualcomm has developed this smart bulb on the basis of a reference design called LIFX. This reference design can glow into 16different million colours. These smart bulbs have the ability to connect with the mobile devices and appliances. This helps the bulbs to lighten in situations or events like gaming, security, healthcare and other applications.

AllSeen Alliance, a group of IoT technology originated by Qualcomm group has developed this base technology of these smart bulbs. These bulbs are helping the world in building up of smart and home automation. It has become very popular in the market and some of the vendors have already booked for this product. The famous security company ADT have already planned to link these smart bulbs with the security systems. When the alarm goes off then the bulb will flash red and blue lights which will alert the people of the house and will scare away the burglars. This could be highly useful in the security system of a house.

Benefits which could be enhance more

The lightning technology of these bulbs could be enhanced more with the machine technology as it will be highly efficient to use at home. The president of Qualcomm, Derek Aberle during a press conference at International CES in Las Vegas said that the technology of these bulbs can also be helpful to cut off the electricity bills as well.

This technology will also help in identifying automatically those bulbs which need replacing. These systems are developed with such technology that will have a smart hub which will show which bulb is not working and need a replacement and will notify it to the right person. This could be very helpful especially in the data centres and in large offices.

Added advantage and the key roles

These bulbs are rising in the market with the certification of “Designed for AllSeen”. These lights have been designed to communicate with the AllSeen certified TVs, washing machines and other appliances which are already popular in the market. An All-Joyn compatible smart car could easily instruct the smart bulb to turn on or off as the car approaches the driveway.

These bulbs come with the Qualcomm Wi-fi chips. Qualcomm has always been famous for its Snapdragon chips which are been inserted into a mobile device. The Iot technology on which this bulb is designed can communicate with appliances, smart bulbs, wearables and mobile devices.

Microsoft Released Its Diversity Numbers, So How Does It Compare?

In the past few years a host of tech companies had their diversity numbers in their work force. But most of the big names of the Silicon Valley had just kept it themselves which includes Amazon, IBM and Orcale. Though there is no obligation on the companies under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 wherein every company is required to file an EEO-1 form and listing all the employment data by race/ethnicity, gender and job category. The government is prohibited from making this data public but companies reveal it in order to boost its reputation and gain favour from the masses. Microsoft has just released its federally mandated diversity data in the public forum.

How Does Microsoft Fares Compared To Other Tech Companies? 

Microsoft has distinct diversity present right at the top order with an African-American board chairman, a female CFO and an Indian CEO. The overall statistics shows the same trend as of any other tech company with 60.6% white employed and 71% of workforce is composed of men.

Male Dominated WorkForce

Microsoft is ahead of Google, Twitter and Apple in terms of having higher number of male workers at a whopping 71%. However Intel is the most male-dominated tech firm in U.S with around 77% male domination and just 23% of females. Microsoft stats clearly state that the female staffs are quite marginalized in on the world’s biggest tech firm at just 29%. However Microsoft has a considerably small workforce at just 128,000 employees worldwide.

Fewer Women Finds Themselves Handling Tough Jobs

The tech companies have shown a trend that even having too many women in the workforce doesn’t guarantee an uplift advance to the higher positions of managers. These are namely a few women in leadership roles in companies like Google, Facebook and Microsoft. Microsoft has created various initiatives and programs to hire more women.

Microsoft diversity stats also show a pronounced gender imbalance in its technical ranks. There are surprisingly only 17% women in the role of programmers, coders and other engineering type roles. Microsoft female tech headcount is better than the Twitter’s which just have 10% female in tech jobs.

A Huge Racial And Diversity Gap 

Microsoft has 61% white, 29% Asian, 5% Hispanic/Latino and just 3% black in its vast workforce. Comparatively Yahoo shows a 50% white headcount and Apple has a greater percentage of minority workers with Hispanic at 11% and black at 7%. Diversity stats has shown that 72.2% of all leadership positions are held by whites in Microsoft while Yahoo has 78% whereas Facebook just has 74%.

Steps and Programs Are Undertaken to Improve the Diversity

Comparing the Microsoft’s diversity stats from last the new report has shown that Microsoft is actively working towards closing the diversity gaps. Though it is been at a snail’s paper as it registered 1% percent fewer white employees from last year. Hispanics saw an increase of 0.5% while blacks and Asian rose by 0.3 % and 0.2 % respectively.

Beamforming

Beamforming – Signal Processing Technique

Beamformingor spatial filtering is one of those concepts, a kind of signal processing technique which is used in sensor arrays for directional signal transmission or reception which is achieved on combining elements in a phased array. It is done in a way that signals at certain angles experience constructive interference while others experience destructive interferences. Beamforming could also be used at transmitting as well as receiving ends to achieve spatial selectivity.

It could also be used for sound waves or radio and has various application in wireless communication, radar, sonar, seismology, radio astronomy, acoustic and bio medicine.To identify and estimate the signal of interest at the output of a sensor array, adaptive beamforming is used by means of optimal spatial filtering and interference rejection. The most effective form of beamforming is dynamic digital beamforming which uses an advanced on-chip digital signal processing – DSP algorithm, in order to gain total control on Wi-Fi signals. Performance has improved on creating several independent signal paths to optimum focus radio energy to and from client devices on a per packet basis. For a two stream configuration, there is a possibility to steer the energy of the antenna array in the independent spatial direction which are associated on both data streams and at the same time avoids interference.

Improves Wireless Bandwidth Usage

Beamforming could also help in improving wireless bandwidth usage and can also increase wireless network’s range which in turn could improve voice streaming, video streaming together with several other bandwidth and latency sensitive transmissions. It is made possible by receivers and transmitters using MIMO – multiple-input, multiple-output, technology wherein the data is sent as well as received with the use of multiple antennas in order to increase throughput and range.

The MIMO technology was introduced first with the 802.11n standard and continues to be an important feature of the 802.11ac standard. Devices which support beamforming, aim their signals on each client, focusing on the data transmission in order that more data could reach the targeted device instead of radiating out in the atmosphere. Beamforming technique can be divided into two sections namely conventional or fixed/switched beam, beamformers and adaptive beamformers or phased array – desired signal maximization mode/interference signal minimization or cancellation mode.

Conventional/Adaptive Beamforming Techniques

Fixed set of weightings and time delays or phasing are used for conventional beamformers for the purpose of combining the signals from the sensors in the array, using only the information with regards to the location of the sensors in space as well as the wave directions. In the case of adaptive beamforming techniques, the information is combined with properties of the signals received by the array to improve rejection of unwanted signals from other directions, the process of which could be carried out in time or frequency domain. Beamforming being computationally intensive, Sonar phased array has a low data rate which can be processed in real time in software which is flexible to transmit and or to receive in various directions at the same time.

 Radar phased array on the other hand has a high data rate which usually needs dedicated hardware processing which is hard-wired to transmit and or to receive in one direction only at a time, though new field programmable gate arrays are quick to handle radar data in real time and could also be quick in reprogramming, like software, blurring the hardware/software distinction.