Tricky tech: August 2018

Friday, August 31, 2018

Diamonds were first mined in India

Initially, diamonds were only found in the alluvial deposits in Guntur and Krishna District of the Krishna River Delta. Until diamonds were found in Brazil during the 18th century, India led the world in diamond production.

Rabindranath Tagore also wrote the national anthem for Bangladesh

Rabindranath Tagore is credited not only for writing the Indian national anthem,Jana Gana Mana, but the Bangladeshi national anthem, Amar Sonar Bangla, as well. He was also offered knighthood by the British but refused the honour after the Jalianwala Bagh massacre.

The human calculator

Shakuntla Devi was given this title after she demonstrated the calculation of two 13 digit numbers: 7,686,369,774,870 × 2,465,099,745,779 which were picked at random. She answered correctly within 28 seconds.

The first country to consume sugar

India was the first country to develop extraction and purifying techniques of sugar. Many visitors from abroad learnt the refining and cultivation of sugar from us.

The world's largest producer of milk

India recently overtook the European Union with production reaching over 132.4m tonnes in 2014.

Largest number of vegetarians in the world

Be it because of religious reasons or personal choices or both, around 20-40% of Indians are vegetarians, making it the largest vegetarian-friendly country in the world.

Water on the moon was discovered by India

In September 2009, India's ISRO Chandrayaan- 1 using its Moon Mineralogy Mapper detected water on the moon for the first time.

The Indian national Kabaddi team has won all World Cups

India has won all 5 men's Kabaddi World Cups held till now and have been undefeated throughout these tournaments. The Indian women's team has also won all Kabaddi World Cups held till date.

Shampooing is an Indian concept

Shampoo was invented in India, not the commercial liquid ones but the method by use of herbs. The word 'shampoo' itself has been derived from the Sanskrit word champu, which means to massage.

The highest cricket ground in the world

At an altitude of 2,444 meters, the Chail Cricket Ground in Chail, Himachal Pradesh, is the highest in the world. It was built in 1893 and is a part of the Chail Military School.

A floating post office

India has the largest postal network in the world with over 1, 55,015 post offices. A single post office on an average serves a population of 7,175 people. The floating post office in Dal Lake, Srinagar, was inaugurated in August 2011.

Friday, August 3, 2018

The Future Of VR And AR

Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality are possibly two of the biggest trends in the entire tech world. We saw the rise of VR in gaming applications and mapping software, but what is the future of this technology? How will Virtual Reality impact on our day to day life? Is it going to be a scary matter or is the technology just moving a bit too fast? Let's try to break down the subject in a simple way.

SLAM, The Future of VR

Simultaneous Localization And Mapping is the biggest focus when it comes to development at the minute: this technology is able to instantly translate data from the real world (by using sensors) into the virtual one and vice-versa. This avenue is currently studied by many different mobile app development companies, given the fact that Niantic based its success on a very embryonic version of SLAM, which was translating the surroundings into the app by using a floor algorithm (the same one that is generally used for QWERTY codes).

Simultaneous Localization And Mapping is currently used in TESLA's autopilot and summon, two core elements of the car's technology that let the vehicle process the surroundings in order to avoid crashes, understand how much battery is left and other vital pieces of information.