Raktim Singh

Facebook Youtube Linkedin

What is Brain-Computer Interface with examples

Raktim Singh
-
0
What is Brain-Computer Interface with examples

A brain-computer interface (BCI) is a system that captures brain signals, analyzes them, and translates them into commands. These commands are relayed to an output device to carry out a desired action.

History and development in BCI

Hans Berger, a German psychiatrist, is credited with the invention of electroencephalography (EEG). In 1924, he used this method to record the electrical activity of the brain, commonly described in terms of brainwaves.

Our human brain consists of around 86 billion neurons (the cells in our brain). They use electricity to communicate with each other. Neurons are constantly talking with each other.

For communication, one group of neurons send an electrical signal to another group of neurons.

This electric signal or electrical activity can be detected with EEG, with sensors attached to the scalp that tune into those bursts of energy and record them as waves.

With EEG test (which is generated with the help of computer), we can detect and measures the electrical activity in our brain.

The EEG has usually been described in terms of frequency bands: 

1.     Gamma greater than 30(Hz)

2.     BETA (13-30Hz)

3.     ALPHA (8-12 Hz)

4.     THETA (4-8 Hz)

5.      DELTA (less than 4 Hz).

Gamma brainwaves have been equated with ‘peak mental state’.

When our brain is doing simultaneous processing of information from different parts of the brain, learning, problem solving etc. then more Gamma waves are generated.

On the other hand, more Delta brainwaves are generated when we are sleeping, in a dreamless state.

Alpha waves fall in the middle and is associated with relaxation state. Deep breathing, meditation etc. helps in increasing the Alpha waves.

As we can see now, our brain keeps on generating different electric waves for various activities (during problem solving, speaking, writing, responding to someone, excitement, meditation, relaxing or sleeping).

Till now, it was very difficult to make a meaning of these waves. But recent advances in medical science as well as with the help of machine learning, we can derive a meaning out of these brain waves.

Whom it will help

Now that we know, our brain produces different type of brainwaves for different activities.

If we can capture these waves and send that to a digital devise, many meaningful activities can be done….literally just by thinking about it.

Brain-computer interfaces allow people to control machines using their thoughts. The technology is still largely experimental, but its possibilities are vast.

For example, it could help people with paralysis regain control of their limbs.

It will help people with disabilities. People paralyzed by physical injuries or neurological disorders could use BCIs to communicate and regain control of their limbs.

  1. We can think of smart chips/micro-electrodes, which are implanted in the brain. Post that, one can operate external devices such as computers or robotic arms with just their thought.
  1. This will help people with spinal cord injury, brainstem stroke, and ALS to control a computer cursor simply by thinking about the movement of their own paralyzed hand and arm.
  1. It will Augment human capabilities and human-computer interactions. BCIs could accelerate and simplify interactions between humans and machines in various fields like education, defense and space.
  1. BCI can be used as a neurofeedback tool to improve cognitive performance. It can help a person, who is dealing with mental depression.
  1. It can identify if a person is having low attention level or feeling stressed out or drowsy. Surely beneficial for drivers and pilots.
  1. BCIs can detect the mental state of a worker and adjust nearby devices accordingly ….smart homes to smart atmosphere…
  1. Researchers are also experimenting with “PASSTHOUGHTS” as an alternative to passwords. Soon, we might log into our various devices and platforms using our thoughts.

BCIs have the potential to allow seamless authentication and change our understanding of security.

  1. One company, “NextMind” is developing a brain-computer interface that translates signals from the visual cortex into digital commands. It’s brain-sensing technology with machine learning algorithm translates brain neuron’s activity into digital command.
  2. We can see the emergence of new games, where one can really get into mind-war.
  1. The applications of brain-computer interface spread across multiple and diverse fields like medical, smart environment, education and self-regulation, games and entertainment,
  2. It can open usher a new world of creativity.
  3. It can help in our social interactions.

Types of Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) System

  1. Invasive BCIs

Invasive BCI requires surgery to implant electrodes under the scalp for communicating brain signals. Here the main advantage is that one can get accurate reading. But its downside includes side effects from the surgery, scar tissue etc.

  1. Semi Invasive BCIs

Semi Invasive or Partially invasive BCI devices are implanted inside the skull but rest outside the brain. They produce better resolution signals than non-invasive BCIs and have lower risk of forming scar tissue in brain.

  1. Non-invasive BCIs

The term “non-invasive Brain-Computer Interfaces” encompasses all the technologies that allows for brain-to-computer stimulation without needing to penetrate the skull. Most non-invasive Brain-Computer Interfaces, or BCIs, simply rely on electrodes that are strategically placed onto certain areas of the scalp in order to record brain activity.

How it works

Our human brain consists of around 86 billion neurons.

The most common approach to quantify brain activity is to measure electrical signals on the scalp that result from neural activity in the brain. This is called Electroencephalography (EEG) and more specifically measures the voltage between electrodes and a reference.

Advances in machine learning have also helped in the advancement of BCI. Machine learning is playing a big role here as it filters out “noise” and help detect meaningful patterns for interpretation.

Deep learning techniques can also help identify common, subject-independent patterns to improve accuracy and dramatically reduce user-specific training time.

Components of brain-computer interface

BCI system consists of 4 components.

1.Signal Acquisition

2. Feature Extraction
3. Feature Translation
4. Device Output

  1. Signal Acquisition

As part of this, using various sensors, analog signal from the brain is captured. This signal is then filtered and amplified in order to remove the noise from the signal. After this, the signal is digitalized using an “Analog to Digital converter” and transferred to the processing unit.

  1. Feature Extraction

Feature Extraction is the process of extracting the unique features from the received signal.

  1. Feature Translation

As part of this, the extracted feature is passed through the feature translation algorithm (FTA). FTA converts the received signal to an appropriate command to the output device.

  1. Device Output

The output of the feature translation unit is provided to the specific output device. This output helps in operating the external device. This can include functions such as body part or robotic arm movement, letter selection, cursor control etc.

Companies Involved in brain-computer Interface

 

These are some of the companies, which are involved in BCI.

  1. Blackrock Neurotech
  2. BrainGate
  3. Synchron
  4. Reality Labs
  5. Neuralink

Next Steps

In my opinion, we will see “Mind Augmented Reality”….The next in Augmented, Virtual ,Mixed …Extended Reality.

BCI allows its user to control some aspects of a computer with just their thoughts.

Imagine a scenario where with a thought, we would be able to relay a live stream of what we see and hear, to anyone else across the world. No need of any camera here.

Our eyes will capture the scene, which will get converted into brainwaves and transmitted through smart chip/sensor placed at our scalp.

No touch, just a thought to execute a command.

We human, have a great thing, which sets us apart from other species. And that is our ability to think and  imagine.

In coming days, we will be able to create whatever a human mind can think of.

With Brain-computer interface, whatever a human mind can conceive, technology can create that.

In my opinion, BCI has lot of potential.

  1. It will surely help person with disabilities.
  2. It will help a person affected with depression or facing mental health issues.
  3. Along with other authentication mechanisms, BCI can add one more layer of authentication (with the help of ‘passthought’).

This will help in Metaverse.

In Metaverse, it’s difficult to establish a real person from his digital twin.

Someone may have copied the biometric details of the person and created a digital twin. But now with BCI’s passthought, a real person will authenticate himself.

Today, as part of biometric, only external body part data can be captured.

Your brain and thoughts can’t be hacked, and no one can create Digital Twin, which contains your active brain.

So along with already available methods, BCI (and ‘passthoughts’) can help a real person to authenticate himself.

  1. As our mental activity is getting recorded, we can think of a scenario, where your dreams get recorded (after taking your consent).
  2. One person can communicate with another person, through thoughts…no visible cues.
  3. A new way of social interaction.
  4. We should see many new developments in Metaverse, which will be powered by BCI.

Metaverse contains immersive technologies and aims to offer a better experience to user. Brain-computer Interface, can play a big role here….Many things can be done…just with your thoughts…

8. BCI works in both ways that is sensors can capture the activity, which is happening inside the brain. Also, those same sensors or smart chips can also provide inputs to brain.

It can help in creation of alpha brainwaves. That will help a person in calming down. BCI can help human in generating more positive and creative thoughts.

Brain-computer interface can create a very powerful entity by combining artificial intelligence with brain’s natural intelligence.

Things to watch out for

  1. This technology is still in nascent stage. Lot much work needs to be done, before it can be taken for mass use.
  2. There can be moral and ethical issues related to this. We need to tackle this properly by putting proper governance during its development.
  3. Corresponding chips and non-invasive surgery need lot of work for this technology to reach its full potential.
  4. As with true with any technology, we need to cautious about BCI also. It’s also having its pros and cons. We need to decide, how best to harness the power of BCI for the betterment of human growth.

Conclusion: What is Brain-computer Interface

Brain-computer Interface is a part of computer science that gauges the central nervous system activity to create a direct communication link between a computer and the brain.

Though this technology is still new, but it holds lots of potential. With brain-computer interface, we can perform any activity, just with our thoughts.

This also holds lot of potential in Metaverse as BCI can help in authentication as well as new way of social engagement and gaming in Metaverse.

 

Metaverse in Education : How Metaverse will Transform the Education sector

Raktim Singh
-
0
Metaverse in Education : How Metaverse will Transform the Education sector

Metaverse in the Education sector

The metaverse creates a computer-generated reality parallel to the physical world with help of AR/VR/MR, wearables…and many other things.

Here people can interact with the digital environment/equipment/objects as well as other users.

Metaverse consists of 2 words. Meta & Verse. “Meta” means “beyond,” and “verse” stands for the “universe.”

In metaverse, the physical and digitally simulated worlds overlap & provide us a very engaging experience, while sitting at our home.

Virtual interactions become similar or even identical to our experiences in the physical/real world.

People get virtual identities with avatars and can interact with other persons in their respective avatars.

The metaverse doesn’t refer to any specific type of technology. It’s a combination of them.

One of the main features of the metaverse is an ‘enhanced, engaging experience’.

And this is a very beneficial feature for our education sector.

The metaverse will allow full immersion into a ‘simulated classroom environment’. Here students can interact with the learning content as well as with other students/faculty members…

We can create very dynamic, impactful, engaging, highly interactive, and often emotionally realistic content.

Now let’s understand the salient points of the Metaverse in education

  • More collaborative & immersive experience: Due to the pandemic, many schools have shifted to online education. But we still need to harness the power of this.

To start with teachers can prepare online lectures, which students can watch in their free time.

During regular hours, a class in metaverse can be organized. In this class, all the students along with the teacher join. This can be a doubt resolution session.

Based on the progress of each student on ‘earlier prepared online lecture’, the teacher can come to know, not only what a student has learned but how he has learned.

That way, they can help those individual students with more refreshed courses around the difficult topics.

Also, in the current online system, teachers can’t look at each student’s face.

Many times, a puzzled look on a student’s face, helps in knowing that students have not properly understood the concept.

Also, in a real class, many times, students first look at each other and ask doubt/questions.

It’s a normal human tendency. Everyone thinks that their doubt/question is very silly & remains silent/keeps quiet.

But in the metaverse, teachers can look at students, students can look at each other and ask doubts/questions. A total immersive & engaging experience.

  • Skill development with the latest equipment: As of now, many schools face the challenge of buying new machines/equipment for training.

Also, in case, they are able to buy one, students are advised to treat that machine/equipment carefully lest it breaks down.

In metaverse, ‘Digital Twin’ of those latest machines can be created. Students can learn on these ‘ simulated machines’.

They can open the machine, play with it. Remember as this is a simulated machine, it can be created again with almost no extra cost.

On Similar lines, these ‘Digital Twins’ in metaverse can be shared with schools, which are in rural areas/don’t have a budget.

Many schools can come together, own those machines/equipment on metaverse & share among their students.

It will also be very useful for medical students. An artificial human body can be created, on which medical students can perform surgeries & other operations and learn.

 

  • Learning History, astronomy, geography: In the metaverse, museum-like ‘Louvre Museum’ or ‘Hermitage Museum’ can be re-created.
  • Students can visit those museums ( by sitting at their home) and learn about our ancient culture. Or they can take a walk near ‘Eiffel Tower’, visit ‘Antarctica’, ‘North Pole’…. Travel in time to experience the life of ancient civilizations, see & participate in historical events, examine thousand-year fossils or just visit the galaxy, including Moon & Mars.
  • Soft Skills: As of now, we all understand the importance of soft Skills but both learning & teaching that is very tough. In our ancient times, pupils used to go to ‘Gurukul’ and stay there together.

This used to help in the holistic development of a student.

Now this can be handled in various ways – (Metaverse in Education )

  1. We can create a ‘real society’ like environment in the metaverse. Students can travel in that. It’s a ‘Simulated Real world’. Students on their own (along with other team members) can visit them. Based on their behavior in this world, like..whether they are ready to help a person who may be into an accident in the metaverse, how they are behaving with various society members, are they working with each other …we can learn about them & teach the importance of soft skills accordingly.
  2. Like this, many other experiences can be created. Be it decorating a room with exotic pieces or wandering in a new country.

We can gauge the various skills of the team members. Are they team players, are they able to work in ambiguous situations, students who lead & take proactive steps, students who just want to remain aloof. 

  1. Students can join conferences, which are attended by students from various countries. It will give them good exposure & help them in building their confidence.
  • Gamification: As per studies, we know that students enjoy & learn more when anything is taught through gamification. Metaverse can be the perfect platform for that.
  • Various concepts related to physics (gravity, velocity…), chemistry (various chemicals. Creation of cloud.) & Many other concepts can be easily explained & taught in this gamified metaverse world.

Also, this gamification experience is totally personalized. As per the strength, the learning ability of a student, he can participate in the game accordingly. No more stress of studies ..no more bullying or stigma of lagging behind. It can really make learning a ‘joyful experience’. Should we call this edutainment?

  • Accessibility: Metaverse opens the door for everyone. Be it an elder person or person with special needs. Anyone can join metaverse & explore this beautiful world, travel to mountains, various other counties & learn. All these educations (and experiences) can be provided at their own home.

Also, it can fill the gaps between rich & poor, urban & rural. Everyone can share & get access the latest machines/technology/….& good exposure to all the important things. This will help in the holistic development of a student.    

Conclusion: Metaverse in Education 

We need to look with fresh eyes at our education. A lot more can be done & metaverse has the potential to help us achieve this.

Be it accelerated learning, better curriculum, ability to learn about latest happening or exploring the ancient world, a richer personalized learning experience for students or edutainment.

We also need to keep an eye on security, privacy, overall regulation & governance.

We are still some time away from this metaverse world. We surely need better bandwidth & speed (5G/6G), better wearables & enough check & balance in making sure that, one should not get addicted to this.

As of now, we are able to understand the concept, this may be the right time to design the beneficial use-cases for metaverse & put proper governance. 

We need to utilize the positive benefits of the metaverse and fill the gaps of the current education system.

 

Explained : Metaverse in Banking Industry – How does it Work ?

 

Metaverse Real World Examples : Why Metaverse is Next Goldmine ?

Raktim Singh
-
0
Metaverse Real World Examples : Why Metaverse is Next Goldmine ?

Metaverse: How various Industries can benefit from this

The metaverse is a shared virtual 3D world, or worlds, that are interactive, immersive, and collaborative

So metaverse is a persistent virtual world where people can work, play, shop, interact with each other, from anywhere using a wearable (which can be a virtual reality headset, gloves, full-body jacket, augmented reality glasses,..).

“The Metaverse is a massively scaled and interoperable network of real-time rendered 3D virtual worlds which can be experienced synchronously and persistently by an effectively unlimited number of users with an individual sense of presence, and with continuity of data,

such as identity, history, entitlements, objects, communications, and payments,” defines venture capitalist Matthew Ball in the foreword of his outstanding nine-part essay on metaverse — The Metaverse Primer.

Experience Economy:

We human beings always looked for a better experience. So, explain this further, we need to understand that basic human needs are

  1. Nutritious food
  2. Clothes
  3. Home for shelter
  4. Healthcare/Medicines in case of illness.

But, today, we crave much more than this & ready to pay for this.

For example, we are ready to pay more for delicious food, even better if that food is served in place, which has a good ambiance.

We are ready to pay more as we want to have a better experience.

We want to listen to music, want to watch movies, watch sports/games or attend rock-concert. Again here, the underlying principle is that we want to have a good experience.

On a similar note, many people enjoy perfumes, oil with aroma.  Or diving a car & travel to distant places.

We enjoy watching sunrise or sunset, waves of sea, scenic beauty of mountains….

We can say that after meeting basic human needs, we all look for good, engaging experience.

Over the years, Technology has also helped in getting/relishing this good & engaging experience.

In the first wave, the introduction of radio has helped us to listen to music.

Introduction of TV & movie theatre had helped us to watch movies/dramas/tennis match without going to stadium…The introduction of the telephone has helped us to talk with our distant friends & relatives. 

In a later phase, with help of the internet & web2.0, we are now getting used to listening to music on our mobile phones by various APPS, watching movies through OTT apps, or enjoying interacting with others with various social media platforms.

Remember, we have availed these by paying for those devises or paying our attention/time (& in turn watching various advertisements).

The main point is that we have always welcomed & paid for ‘any entity, which can provide us a better, engaging experience.  

Here are the Main Opportunities to apply metaverse in  

1. Nutritious food

2. Clothes

3. Shelter

4. Medicine
Another is

1.       Delicious Food in nice ambiance

2.       Higher education

3.       Different modes of entertainment

4.       Holiday Travel

5.       Healthy Conscious

6.       Owning a house

7.       Increased Social Life

8.       Owning various house essential

9.       Branded Clothes
10.       Exotic food at best restaurants

11.       Owning property at holiday places

12.       Niche ways of engaging entertainment

13.       Gadgets

14.       More spending on luxurious items
15.       Delicious food

16.       Better clothes

17.       Education

18.       Basic Entertainment

19.        Essential travel

20.       Housing sector

21.       Limited social life

 

As highlighted in the boxes shown above, after completing basic needs, we all want to fulfill those needs in a better way & also look for a better experience.

Our overall evolution has also happened in the same way.

I believe, Metaverse is the next step in this direction.

Which industries will benefit?

The main point to note is that as of now, Metaverse is touted as the next big tech thing.

Remember technology is an enabler only. Though it may get some early adopters (who want to use this cool new technology), unless it offers real value to customers, it will not scale.

Also, we need to be careful of just porting the current online content on Metaverse.  During the 2000 Internet boom, this was the mistake. Many companies just ported their offline (brick & mortar offering) on the Internet.

The customer was not able to appreciate the value.

With WEB2.0, a customer was able to interact & a plethora of other things were done, which provided real value to the customer.

In my opinion, we will see 2 trends here.

  1. In some cases, people will want to enjoy a better experience, while sitting at their home. Instant gratification along with engaging/interactive experience.
  2. The other will be an augmentation of physical experience, which is enhanced with Metaverse.

Shopping experience: 

As of now, we have 2 options for shopping.

  1. We can go to a physical shop & buy. Or
  2. Buy from an online platform. Though buying online helps you in showing various items (which possibly may not be available in a physical shop), but this shopping experience is ‘little cold’.

 

Let’s say, someone wants to buy jewelry. You love going to store along with your friends/relative, discuss with them about the item, you want to buy, try that item, discuss with shop-owner before buying.

On a similar note, if you are planning to buy clothes for a function, you go along with your friends/relatives, joke & tease each other, discuss with them, ask the shop-owner & then buy the garment of your (dare I say everyone’s choice)

Same is true for many other items (Items for home décor, furniture, electronic goods…)

Now in Metaverse, you will be able to do/experience all these, while still sitting at your home.

Travel Industry: We will see 3 cases here.

  1. People will be able to view/enjoy scenic mountains while sitting at their homes. This will surely help the elder population, people with special needs, who can now experience/enjoy a holiday, while being at home.
  2. On similar lines, before traveling, people will be able to get a full immersive experience of the hotel, where they will be staying, tourist places, they will be visiting.
  3. Augmentation of Metaverse with Real-world: Imagine, you are near a mountain & without climbing, you can view the peak of the mountain. You feel the crisp air, the fragrance of flowers, and the scenic beauty of the peak of the mountain. 

Or you want to do para-gliding from top of the mountain but quite afraid. No issue. Just be at top of mountain. And in the metaverse world, enjoy doing para-gliding.  

Imagine, you go to a resort near the sea. You can always do ‘real scuba diving’ 

But you will not be able to go to the bottom of the sea. Now With

Metaverse, you can just swim at the surface of the sea & also

can watch sea life , which is at the bottom of the sea.

 

Today, in many forts, palaces, ‘Light & Sound’ shows are organized, which takes the audience into the past & talk about the history of those important places (the earlier empire, earlier social life….) Now imagine, you also become part of that empire, able to talk/interact with people of an earlier era.   

Sports & Entertainment:

You were not able to purchase the tickets of the upcoming match or rock concert. You can always watch that on TV. But what about, joining that rock concert in Metaverse …..singing /dancing /shouting with other audience…. Crowd.

Maybe you can attend Oscar’s award function in metaverse & watch/interact with you favorite movie stars/celebrities.

Healthcare: We can help our friends, who may be going through tough times, having trauma/depression. A pleasant experience can be created, which will help smoothen the fray nerves.

Gaming Industry: Online gaming is already a big business. With metaverse, players will get a better, more engaging & interactive experience. 

Training across Industries: Almost all industries will benefit from Metaverse. Training in an ‘almost real’ environment with ‘simulated objects’ can be provided.  It can be training in the military, healthcare or manufacturing, aviation industry or skill development for people of all ages.

As no real physical object is involved in training, this can be a very cost-effective solution for repeating training. Normally in a training,

you need to use a real physical object (say a physical machine), students learn about the machine by doing experiments on that machine. Many times, this renders the machine useless for the next set of training.

Again, here also, training can be conducted in a classroom (and recreating the factory experience in Metaverse).

Or students can go inside the factory, smell the shopfloor & work on various machines, which are created/simulated in the metaverse.

Others: There are many other industries, which will benefit from this. Remember, we go to many places (restaurant, amusement park, movie theatre, shopping arcade.), to have a good time.

As mentioned earlier, like other cases, you can order food from a restaurant & enjoy the ambiance of that hotel, while still sitting at your home.

Or you can really go to a hotel, which will create an atmosphere of your choice. A personalized experience …. blending the real world (restaurant) with Metaverse.

Conclusion:

We always look forward to instant gratification & engaging experience. We love our privacy but still want to have a social life, which is suited to our taste.

Metaverse will be able to provide all these. But we are still far away from this.

To get a great Metaverse experience, we will need better wearables, better bandwidth speed & many more creative use-cases.

Use cases, which will offer real value & an enriching experience. 

Share on the Comment what You think about the Metaverse case study.

 

 

What is Technological Singularity and What Will Happen After The Technological Singularity?

Raktim Singh
-
0
What is Technological Singularity and What Will Happen After The Technological Singularity?

What is Technological Singularity

The technological singularity is a point in time at which technological growth becomes uncontrollable and irreversible. This can result in unfathomable & unforeseeable changes to human civilization.

To understand technological singularity(what is the technological singularity), we also need to understand, the term called  ‘intelligence explosion.

That is an upgradable& self-improvement cycle of intelligent improvement.

After, each new and more intelligent generation, which is appearing more and more rapidly, It will cause an “explosion” in intelligence. This will result in a powerful superintelligence that will surpass all human intelligence.

This term ‘Singularity; was first introduced by  John von Neuman ( Hungarian mathematician and physicist)

In 1980s, I.J. Good, a British writer, predicted that human brains would develop technology to support human minds. He coined the term “intelligence explosion.” 

Although technological progress has been accelerating in most areas, it has been limited by the basic intelligence of the human brain, which has not changed significantly for centuries.

However, with the increasing power of computers and other technologies, it might eventually be possible to build a machine that is significantly more intelligent than humans.

The technological Singularity(Technological Singularity Definition)
is a time when artificial intelligence surpasses human intelligence.

A Technological singularity is a feared event that will disrupt human society.

To summarize, as new innovations build upon previous innovations and this growth curve reaches the tipping point, there could come a time where humanity is able to build a Machine (with improved Artificial Intelligence) that is on par with the cognitive and functional abilities of a human.

This is referred to as Technological Singularity(when will the singularity happen). After this, an era of uncontrollable and irreversible advancement can start, which can result in unfathomable changes to human civilization.

This could be humanity’s last invention. It may result in complete annihilation or unthinkable prosperity.

What is Technological Singularity: The Intelligence Explosion

The current revolution in AI ( or Intelligence Explosion) has happened for these 3 main factors

  1. Increase in computing power due to high-performance GPUs & decrease in cost for building new/improved machines using this computing power

As per Moore’s Law, the number of transistors in a densely integrated circuit double about every two years, thus increasing the computing power in hardware. The doubling has led to graphic processing units (GPUs), which in turn has made parallel processing possible.

This massive computing power (with superior GPU, parallel processing & cloud computing) is helping machines to recognize patterns in a hoard of data.

  1. Availability of labeled data

In this connected world, all our devices are becoming intelligent devices thanks to IoT (Internet of Things).

Also, all our activities are getting tracked/recorded in the online world. So basically, humans & machines, both are generating an enormous amount of data, which is getting stored in the online world (along with description). That is, our shopping habits, personal preferences, food habits, travel details…..Machine details ( cars, A/C, aero-plane engine details) etc.

Also, we are able to store all types of data (structured as well as unstructured data).

Again, the availability of ‘cheap data storage systems’ & BIG data processing power is helping in the analysis of this ‘abundance of labeled data’.

This data is used to train programs to recognize scenarios and improve in a desirable task.

  1. Innovative ways of training a program

Armed with tons of data and ample computing power, deep learning has made a comeback in the mainstream AI arena.

Now with this machines are learning on their own, especially with reinforcement learning ( which is subset of machine learning).

Artificial neural networks are used to train programs to make intelligent programs without the need to manually code them. Machine Learning is powering many of the most commonly used applications today, enabling cars to drive themselves, detecting cancer cells in X-rays and so much more.

Our current AI capabilities have shown outstanding performance in narrow tasks, better even than humans, at times.

But now, this exponential technological growth points to a possible time when computers surpass humans, not only in narrow tasks, but also in general cognitive faculties. There could be a time when a program is on par with human intelligence and reaches artificial general intelligence (AGI)—the point of Singularity.

Possible scenarios

  1. With enormous computing power and the ability to design and upgrade itself, Super Intelligent Machine could constantly grow more intelligent. It could turn hostile towards us and annihilate the entire species.

The result of this Singularity would be an artificial super-intelligence, one who could essentially play Superpower  on this planet.

  1. The singularity presents both an existential threat to humanity and an existential opportunity for humanity to transcend its limitations.

Machine ( & AI) work on reward function.
It doesn’t know , what is right or wrong. Given an aim, it tries to achieve that & if it is able to achieve that properly, it get rewarded in positive way.

So it learns in that way & tries to maximize it’s reward.
Now, it we can codify ‘the right outcome’ & put an reward, AI will try
to maximize that.
The superintelligence could design completely new ways of doing
things that are essential for us to survive, including breakthroughs
in energy generation, transportation, housing, farming, and global warming, etc.
Challenge is ‘ how to codify what is morally right’. We (human) learn this over period of time by observing our parents, siblings, friends ,society & than form our own view.  

That superintelligence could design completely new ways of doing things that are essential for us to survive, including breakthroughs in energy generation, transportation, housing, farming, and global warming, etc.

It could help us become a multi-planetary species and unlock physical capabilities currently beyond our wildest imagination.

.         If we manage to tame it in some way, it could usher in an era of enormous prosperity for the world, the likes of which humans have never experienced.

Even if we think we’re playing with fire (some governments around the world have banned the pursuit of AGI), the benefits are far too great for organizations to back down. The rewards of a human-level digital intelligence far outweigh the risks that it poses.

  1. In his book, ‘The Singularity is Near.’ Ray Kurzweil, a recipient of the National Medal of Technology, predicts that “by the 2030’s, we will connect our neo-cortex, the part of our brain where we do our thinking, to the cloud”

The concept of humans connecting to such a vast amount of data is one of the main theories that drive the singularity theory (AI singularity already happened) and futurists such as Kurzweil and billionaire Elon Musk who started the company Neuralink on the premise of connecting humans and AI technology. Musk’s technology is slated for human trials in coming years. 

As per, Kurzweil, we would be linking our consciousness to machines for medicine or entertainment & this will help us to live longer by supposedly living in the cloud’, our consciousness surfing cyberspace with no end and existing as pure consciousness without a need for a human body.

We, humans, have tried to augment our biological bodies. Be a tattoo to improve our looks, hearing machines for ears, eyeglasses for better viewing, microscope to see things in details which can’t be viewed by naked eyes, loudspeaker to raise our voice or a pacemaker for our heart.

We can also think of the scenario, where we may be able to augment our brains also.

Can this result in making sure that human brain, augmented with certain non-biological instruments, is always ahead of machines?

  1. The human brain is still a complex subject, not fully understood by all experts. We have a subconscious mind; we have dreams. Also, human being has empathy, consciousness & common sense. Though machines will be able to surpass mathematical abilities, will they be able to possess these other soft skills, on par with humans? Without ‘common-sense’ (which in itself is difficult to describe) or so-called intuition, is it possible that Intelligence machines will destroy each other?

 

Conclusion: What is Technological Singularity

The technological singularity is the point in the future, by when our technology, particularly AI will evolve beyond our understanding and (potentially) control and will eventually surpass human intelligence.

As per, Kurzweil’s law of accelerating returns, the pace at which technology evolves speeds up drastically over time due to a common driving force pushing it forward.

His theory is that the acceleration can be quantified in the ‘returns’ of the technology by variables such as speed, performance, efficiency, and power.

Also, we have already witnessed, 2 AI winters. Whether we will again see a AI winter. If things are fully automated, whether we will still invest in AI & allow it to progress further. No-one knows.

 But most of us, would find the idea of a future where machines are smarter than people or merge with them, frighteningly (similar to some Hollywood movies..).

Technological Singularity (when will singularity happen) is a powerful concept.
This will force us to revisit our thoughts ( What is mind, what is consciousness, can we define, what is morally right, what does it mean to be human & our purpose).

But we can also think that it can be a beginning of a machine-led era, which is simply the next stage in our technological evolution and is something that will ultimately improve humanity. 

You can also check

What is WEB3.0 by Raktim Singh

 

Explained : Metaverse in Banking Industry – How does it Work ?

Raktim Singh
-
0
Explained : Metaverse in Banking Industry – How does it Work ?

Metaverse in Banking Industry

 The metaverse combines various aspects of social media, online gaming, AR (augmented reality), VR (virtual reality), 3D, hologram, and cryptocurrencies to allow users to interact virtually.

It’s a virtual-reality space in which users can interact with a computer-generated environment and other users.

I see bank & banking having 4 stages while moving into the metaverse.

Stage 0:

This is the current stage. We are already seeing, people buying lands on metaverse. They are investing in NFT. Here NFT is acting like a collectible.

So, in banks, as part of Wealth Management, we will see, NFT, cryptocurrency, ‘Land in metaverse’ as new asset classes.

Based on the customer’s risk appetite, bank’s overall ecosystem & government regulation, more money will flow into these new asset classes.

We also see, a Mutual fund, which will pool money & invest in basket of NFT, ‘Land on Metaverse’. Many people will be able to own, part of NFT, piece of land on Metaverse by investing in this Mutual Fund.

Stage 1:

In this stage, banks will offer an immersive banking experience to their customers, who still want to visit a bank.

So, these customers will be able to visit their bank.

In this immersive experience, once a customer visits a bank, he will see other bank customers chatting/talking, bank staff helping other customers.

A bank in the metaverse: Here, where customers can be engaged and provide more insights and personalized attention with virtual assistance.

 It can enable customers with a 360-degree view of their current position, the various status of their requests, new offerings, and many more.

The customers and banking employees will be represented as avatars in the digital space, and they will have access to all of the can create the services offered by the bank.

Customers will have a personalized chat with any bank personnel for any service.

So, for customers, no more waiting in the queue. Though as of now also, we can have a video call with our Relationship manager, it doesn’t give a total 360-degree view.

Also, if RM has to explain something on paper/do whiteboarding, it’s difficult for both customer & Relationship Manager.   

This friction/inconvenience will be removed in Metaverse.

Metaverse Cloud : Instead of each bank building their own metaverse, banks will try to join hands & offer a ‘Banking Metaverse’ on Cloud.

In that, various banks & some other merchants will be participating & customers of different banks need to visit only this ‘Banking Metaverse on Cloud’.

Gamification of banking: Also, bank will offer gamified solutions to their young & other customers.

This will help the young in learning basic banking operations. Also, it will help others to understand the various complex investment product like Structured Products.

Risk Profiling of a customer may include some of his behavioral aspect on Metaverse.  

Reduction in physical branches & Call-centers:

As of now, many banks have various physical branches. In my opinion, the bank will reduce its physical branches & move towards the metaverse.

On a similar note, in many cases, the bank support teams (helpdesk, call-center etc..) are not customer-friendly. Banks are trying to use Chatbots, AI, automated messages, etc. to somehow improve efficiency & engagement.

In my opinion, the bank will close/reduce these call centers and will start providing help/support to customers in the metaverse.

By reducing physical branches & various call centers, banks will be able to invest in Metaverse, which will provide a better experience to customer.

Bank of America, UBS bank & London traders with Microsoft HoloLens smart glasses have already started this journey.

Win-win for all.

Stage 3:

Banking has to move, where the customer is or better to say, where the customer wants to spend money.

We have already seen examples of that.

Today, when you buy something on the internet, after you have selected the items, you can pay on that website by your Banks card, net banking. So banking is available on the online shopping website.

On similar lines, you will see that on various websites, which help you choose a house or car, various banking offers are shown to you at that point of time.

To reemphasize, banking has to be there, where the customer is doing a purchase or going to make a purchase decision.

That’s the reason, we have seen, so many ‘Payment companies’ coming up in the last decade. They are helping you to do payment transactions when you need & where you need.

Taking this forward, as more people will spend time & make purchasing decisions on Metaverse, banks need to provide facilities to complete those transactions.

So, if someone is buying ‘virtual land’ in the metaverse (say on DecentralLand), banks need to help in buying that land in the metaverse.

Based on the regulation, it may happen that banks will provide him a loan in that metaverse crypto-currency (say MANA) or allow the customer to convert the fiat currency into metaverse’s cryptocurrency.

Payment & micro-loans will again play a big role initially. The bank should be equipped to facilitate payment or loans disbursal in Metaverse.

In any payment transaction, these 3 things are important

  1. The identification of buyer & seller or the 2 parties, who want to transfer funds.
  2. The identification of goods or services for which fund transfer is happening, so if you are buying a costume for your avatar or buying some points in an online game.
  3. Agreement on transaction information.

In the real world, for payments, we use cards/net-banking and mobile phones as carriers to recognize people, and recognition methods include encrypted currency, biometric information, etc. On the secure carrier, users store their unique identification code.

In the Meta Universe, we need to think about a secure medium. And this will be an interesting space to watch.

We need to predefine, develop and implement a solution for metaverse, which will serve all the crypto transaction and crypto investment needs.

 

 

Stage 4:

Moving to this stage will depend upon many factors including, government regulations, a really secure system, willingness of current tech giants to participate.

Hallmark of this stage will be the democratization of data & Defi (Decentralized Finance).

Though, WEB3.0 has already our journey in this direction (for the democratization of data as here each individual will be able to own his/her own data).

So, no big tech giant watching, about my daily life including, what I purchase, which place I travel & how do I spend my money.

Taking this further, the bank will not hold my data. I will be able to share my data, with whom I want & extract a better product and better deal.

There may not be a central bank currency.

As fewer intermediaries will be involved in a transaction (say fund transfer), the cost of a transaction itself will come down.

We will see more collaborative P2P (Peer To Peer) Lending. On similar lines, a direct purchase & sale transaction between 2 parties using blockchain & cryptocurrency.

As the central theme of banks is to provide ‘Trust’. With the adoption of blockchain, people may trust transactions & currencies, where the underlying technology is blockchain.

Many Government will  introduce CBDC ( Central Bank Digital Currency) and  will tell citizens to do transactions through CDBC. 

Reason being, currently government earn revenue by levying taxes on various goods. To maintain their revenue, CBDC will help central banks, respective governments. 

Conclusion:

In the past, we have seen the emergence of many technologies. Some technologies have benefited us immediately, some came back after some time & some just died down.

How metaverse will involve. This is a big question & only the future will tell.

But given the – Interest of Big tech companies in this space

Possibility of new normal post the pandemic where people still want to avoid travel but expect immediate gratification while sitting at home 

A young population who is already more aware of online than offline ..playing more online games as well as being much more conversant on online social media

We can safely deduce that Metaverse will be an interesting space to watch.

And if more people start spending their time, attention & money on metaverse, banking needs to move to Metaverse. 

Banks not having a presence on metaverse will be left out…and will not be able to participate in this new creator economy.

 

Are You Ready for the Metaverse? Explained with Real Life Metaverse Examples

Raktim Singh
-
0
Are You Ready for the Metaverse? Explained with Real Life Metaverse Examples

Metaverse Examples : What is Metaverse – Explained with Metaverse Examples

The metaverse is combines aspects of social media, online gaming, AR (augmented reality), VR (virtual reality), 3D, hologram, and cryptocurrencies to allow users to interact virtually.

Here, AR, overlays important & relevant information, visual elements, sound, and other sensory input onto real-world settings to enhance the user experience.

Important point is that it understands the context of the user & does the enhancement/augmentation in the context of the user so that the user gets a ‘almost’ real experience.

In VR, one gets entirely virtual and enhances fictional realities. 

Metaverse (Examples of the Metaverse) is an online space where user interactions are more multidimensional.

Instead of just viewing digital content, users in the metaverse will be able to immerse themselves in a space where the digital and physical worlds converge.

So they can watch, hear, talk with other persons/friends, smell the fresh morning breeze or get a taste of a cookie.

Metaverse Examples from Real world:

Though full immersive metaverse is still far away, some companies have already attempted to create an environment, which can give a ‘feel’ of the metaverse.

Mentioned below are some of the examples, which exist as of now & provide a near ‘metaverse’ experience. Note that I have taken details of these from the Internet or company website.

  1. Virtuworx: It is a virtual event, training, and remote work platform designed to maximize engagement and productivity.  In an uncertain world, Virtuworx provides you with a platform that delivers real experiences and real human connections while saving time, money and reducing your carbon footprint.
  2. Sleep No More: Another great Metaverse example is Sleep no more. It’s a successful immersive theatrical production created by the innovative British theater group Punchdrunk. You can enjoy this in New York. It tells the story of Shakespeare’s Macbeth intertwined with Alfred Hitchcock’s 1940 film adaptation of Rebecca.

The New York production is set in the fictionally named McKittrick Hotel, a converted warehouse with a set consisting of over 100 cinematically detailed rooms distributed over the seven-story space.

Audience members are masked upon entering the experience and instructed to explore but not to speak.

The audience proceeds to wander through the space as they please and soon discover actors who, mostly through dance, enact the story over the course of the three-hour performance.

  1. Magic Leap, Inc.: It’s is an American startup company that released a head-mounted virtual retinal display called Magic Leap One. It superimposes 3D computer-generated imagery over real-world objects, by “projecting a digital light field into the user’s eye”, involving technologies potentially suited to applications in AR and computer vision.
  2. OVR Technology: It has introduced the Architecture of Scent(AOS) to bring olfaction to VR through hardware, software, and “scentware” components. Here, technology allows you to do things that are too dangerous, expensive, or ludicrous to do in real life. Olfactory engineering is the design of scents. Yes, you can smell your surroundings, the aroma of delicious food, or A mixed aroma of coal, soft burning flames, pine needles, and dry wood.
  3. Paradiso: This Metaverse example is an immersive theater experience and interactive game. Here Special effects such as 3D technology and actors are used during the experience to enhance gameplay. Paradiso is a narratively driven escape room in New York.

The intimate show leans into the aesthetic of noir film, combining technical theater techniques with theatrical actors. Audiences of up to 10 at a time puzzle their way through multiple immersive sets, discovering characters along the way and working together to escape before their 60 minutes are up.

 Metaverse Examples: Where Metaverse will be used

  1. In Military: Here metaverse can be used in 2 ways.
    1. Soldiers returning from WAR, face a lot of depression, stress, anxiety, guilt feeling.  That condition is called PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder).

Through Metaverse, an environment can be created, which replays the war scenes. Soldiers can get immersed in that environment and here a happy ending can happen.   

b). Training of new soldiers can be done, in the metaverse. They need not go to ‘real war’ to learn about various techniques. The metaverse environment can enact/create a ‘real war’ like situations, with enemies, landmines, bombs…. They can learn, how to take care of themselves as well take action on enemies wherever applicable. No physical landmine, bombs etc. are required. So, this experience can be repeated multiple times, till soldiers gain expertise.

2. In Medical care:

    1. Doctors can learn about surgery & many other things in ‘Medical Metaverse’. Again, as no ‘real human being is involved in Medical Metaverse’, this experience can be repeated multiple times.
  2. We will be able to treat patients, who have different type of phobias.
  3. If someone is very afraid of climbing, high buildings, a Metaverse can be created where that person can try climbing high building/mountains.
  4. After multiple rounds, that person will become confident and his fear of ‘heights’ will go away.
  5. Similarly, a person under grief, depression can visit a Metaverse(Examples of Metaverse) where she will be able to experience a world full of joy. That world can contain, all the elements, which that person enjoy. Beautiful places, calming music, cheerful persons and lot more.

 

  1. Elder & Special need people:  It’s difficult for elder people or person with special needs to travel to their favorite locations. Now with metaverse, they can get that experience. It can include travel to Paris to view the Eiffel Tower, the scenic beauty of Switzerland or scuba diving under seawater & watching beautiful marine life.
  2. Education: During education, an immersive experience can be provided for better learning. This can include a factory tour where students can touch, feel various equipment or a tour of farmland.

Also, sitting at your home, you can attend classes, which are getting conducted by world-renowned experts in other countries. You can do experiments along with your researcher.  

  1. Shopping Experience:  One of the most frequently discussed benefits of the metaverse is that it will enable customers to experience products at brick-and-mortar locations without leaving their room.  Consumers Can Test Products Prior to Making a Purchase. Also, while travelling in Metaverse, you will be able see your favorite shop near you or at your favorite location. If a company knows that you like it’s products, it will place it’s shop near you in metaverse. Also, a ‘real’ shop like experience can be created. So near your ‘favorite’ shop or near that shop, there can customers, chatting/talking/walking & a shopkeeper, you will help in product selection, answer your queries.

This experience enables users to gain firsthand knowledge of how the products feel and how they will add value to their lives.

And yes, your surrounding will be the same as what you experience in shop. So there will be other customers, who will be buying, shop owner who will chat with you & explain the product in your native language.

  1. Attending sport matches, Rock concerts : Earlier we used to watch plays in theatres, watch sport matches in stadium.
    Later, we started watching these on TV, cinema halls.
    This is our evolution.So next stage can be, watching these activities in metaverse.By sitting in your room, you can now watch a cricket
    match or attend a music concert in Metaverse.You will get ‘almost’ the same experience. Cheering crowds, Music,
    excited spectators…sing along with crowds & artist..
  2. Repair & Maintenance: In case, any of your home accessories or car, have any problem, no need to go to the workshop. Companies will provide/create metaverse, where you along with technician can enter, that technician can look at your car & help you in repairing that car.
  3. Office Live: Current pandemic has made it difficult for people to travel/roam around easily. Even in the new normal, people may want to avoid traveling too much.

In metaverse, they will be able to attend office meetings, where team members across the globe can join, explain their ideas, do whiteboarding & showcase their product. In this immersive world, one can touch the product, participate in the whiteboarding of the ideas.

  1. Social Life: You want to meet your friends, hug your relatives, want to go on a picnic with your loved one, climb mountains or play games. Yes, you can experience all these in the metaverse.

If you want to learn more or experiment with Metaverse, try/read about AltSpaceVR, Oculus Rooms or “Rec room”.

Also Check

What is the Metaverse? Metaverse Explained

What is WEB3.0 by Raktim Singh

Raktim Singh
-
0
What is WEB3.0 by Raktim Singh

What is WEB3.0: 

The basic principle that WEB3.0 will follow is decentralization. No central authority to dictate, hold or govern the usage of the data.

Today, when you login into any social media platform, you provide your identity details (like email id, name, password…).

That data is stored with that Social media company, along with your other data (like what you watched, what you liked, which pages you visited).

This data is not with you, but it is with that big company.

Now imagine a world, where your identity is securely stored on a blockchain platform. Now you have control of your data (your identity…your email.)

So we can say that WEB3.0 is a decentralized internet, which runs on blockchain technology.

Deep diving into WEB3.0

Web 3.0 will be trustless, self-governing, verifiable, and robust and includes built-in payments in the form of cryptocurrencies.

Apart from Decentralization, ‘Digital Identity & ‘Presentation of Data in Semantic form’ are also important features of WEB3.0

Read on….

  1. Decentralization

Here, applications are not centralized but run on a peer-to-peer (P2P) network via a blockchain.

It focuses on upgrading the backend of the internet.

2. Difference between WEB1.0, WEB2.0 & WEB3.0

Web 1.0: It was static in nature. You can read the various pages, which were listing data/information.

Web2.0 :

With Web2.0, you are able to interact that is you were able to read & write. Think of all social media platforms, which came into the picture after WEB2.0.

Also, Web 2.0 was more focused on the front end.

 It allows users to interact with each other through different platforms. But users are not in control of their own data.

Also, big companies, owning websites can track them without the necessary approval from the user. 

Also, with this rich personal data, big companies can ‘monetize/use’ this data.

This happens by always showing your totally personalized advertisement & keep on hooking you/engaging you into the platform.

You are almost glued to this 24/7.  

WEB3.0 :

Web3.0 will allow users to have read, write, execute & ownership permissions.

Web3.0 is focusing more on backend database which can help users to create quality content & have control on the data.  

It includes platforms built by developers or companies with which people can not only interact but also take part in maintaining the platforms or build new applications on top of it.

Web 1.0 and web 2.0 are defined by the HTTP protocol. The protocol enables resources to be accessed (via a URL) and also files, particularly HTML documents.

It is a client-server protocol that currently provides the foundation of all data exchanges over the Internet. The term client-server means that there is a requesting side (a client – usually a web browser) that calls for information from a server (a computer that serves up information).

The protocol works by virtue of Domain Name Servers (DNS) servers.

With Web 3.0 that mechanism will change.

In Web3.0, instead of the current DNS system, IPFS ( InterPlanetary File System) will be used.

The IPFS is not centralized around a group of root servers like the HTTP protocol. The goal in the design of IPFS, which originated from blockchain technology, is to create a peer-to-peer file system (Remember BitTorrent)

IPFS separates the act of seeking information from the act of retrieving it. It does so through content addressing.

In content addressing, you apply a hashing algorithm to some content (such as a web page) and it generates a unique key that acts as its address.

Now, you provide the network with that address, and a server that holds the information sends it to you.

  1. Monetization of data :

With Web 3.0, users are not just content generators but participants in the network.

With Web3.0, users have complete control over their data and can use it as per their own choice. Users are also free to determine the value of their work after it has been added to the network.

This is not possible in the current Web2.0 (as big tech companies are holding & controlling the user data/content).

Web 3.0 model can also allow users to be compensated for their contributions.

So, after you have uploaded a photo or written an article, you may get rewarded with tokens (cryptocurrency).

So, no central authority while dealing with financial transactions.

  1. Digital Identities :

Blockchain has advanced the cause/journey of Digital identities & this is also a feature of Web 3.0.

In WEB2.0, we have heard a lot of incidents of cybercrime (identity theft to click fraud & much more).

As the connection between two computers is not properly authenticated, and currently cannot be authenticated, it can lead to cybercrime.

In Web3,0, everything that is involved in such an interaction had a verifiable identity.

Hence it will reduce the probability of fraud and deception.

With Digital IDs, individuals can only have one verifiable identity, since each ID has to be linked to a unique credential, like a birth certificate. Similarly, organizations can only have one verifiable identity.

  1. Presentation of data in a semantic form : 

Web 3.0 will also improve the presentation of data (that in a semantic form).

To get an inkling of this, try using Google’s Knowledge Graph (which places blocks of organized data to the right of some of your search results).

Berners-Lee had coined the term ‘Semantic Web’ to describe a web in which machines would process content in a humanlike way (i.e., a “Global Brain” where all data would be connected and understood both contextually and conceptually).

Try searching say ‘India vs the USA ‘ on google as well as on WolframAlpha. You will be able to appreciate the difference between the output results given by both.

WolframAlpha was released on May 18, 2009 and is based on Wolfram’s earlier product “Wolfram Mathematica”, a computational platform for calculation, visualization, and statistics capabilities.

Here, users submit queries and computation requests via a text field. WolframAlpha then computes answers and relevant visualizations from a knowledge base of structured, curated data that comes from other sources ( other sites, books, papers..)

Try searching on current search engines for a specific product ( Say Best deal for a 20 KG washing machine for delivery in 2 days).

You will get a lot of web links.

But that is not good from a consumer perspective.

The consumer is looking for a range of information, offering possible choices.

That kind of capability will be part of Web 3.0 by virtue of semantic technology. It will save buyers and sellers a good deal of time in the sales cycle.

Companies to watch for

  1. Steem : It is a blockchain-based blogging and social media website. Users can gain a cryptocurrency, STEEM, for publishing and curating content. 
  2. Brave Browser: Brave is a web browser focused on user privacy/ This browser is powered by the Basic Attention Token (BAT). It is decentralized, with different nodes serving content to the browser users.
  3. Filecoin : It aims at replacing current cloud storage providers like Dropbox and Google Drive by creating a decentralized file storage system that is very secure and private.
  4. Livepeer: It’s a decentralized video streaming protocol where everyone who participates gets paid for it.

In this protocol, broadcasters can earn tokens from their viewers to share quality content, while the nodes who run the network also get paid tokens from both broadcaster and viewer.

 

What is an Automation Engineer? What does an Automation Engineer Do ?

Raktim Singh
-
0
What is an Automation Engineer? What does an Automation Engineer Do ?

What is an Automation engineer?

An automation engineer uses technology to streamline, improve & automate various manufacturing, software or other processes.

To sum it, they are professionals in engineering automation, who make the existing processes as efficient as possible.

Their primary duties are to analyze and design innovative automation systems (automation system engineer).

A professional in automation engineering is responsible for controlling the production and delivery of products by using the latest technologies and tools available.

They design, develop, optimize, and manage the systems. 

An automation engineer (what is an automation engineer?) needs a creative & analytical mind. The person needs to properly understand the process before they can automate it.

What does an Automation Engineer do?

Automation engineer works with other teams (production, sales, inventory management, testing,…) to develop new system, which can automate the current work/processes.

They plan meetings/discuss with other stakeholders to determine how they’ll automate a system and control the process after automation.

After discussion & reviews, they lead the implementation of changes or new technology and oversee the quality assurance process

They plan & change existing technology so that it needs less human interaction, and they monitor the performance of the changes they make.

In that process, sometimes, they design & implement entirely new technology to automate a system.

An automation engineer spends most of their time designing and developing new technologies, such as algorithms and algorithms for computer programs.

 An automation engineer is a professional with knowledge on how to design, develop and implement automated processes to improve the efficiency of companies and manufacturing facilities.

These engineers have a very clear objective – how can automation be used to optimize current manufacturing processes?

Automated engineering (what does an automation engineer do?) is centered around that. The goal is to make a positive impact on an organization, but a lot goes into that.

To complete the overall duties and tasks, it is necessary to create tests to determine how things work and formulate theories and ideas.

Any areas identified for automation will likely need to be monitored for health and safety in close coordination with others.

Points to watch for

  1. One of the important points to achieve successful result is that one should review the existing process & reduce waste/redundant process. Else, you may end up automating wrong/redundant things.
  2. Don’t automate just for the sake of automation. Discuss with other stakeholders & establish the real benefits of automation. It can be    a. Reduction in human effort & overall cost
    1. Improved quality as now machines/system is doing all the work
    2. b. Faster ‘Go to Market’. As now things are automated, they can be executed 24/7 and may be in parallel also. This may cut down, overall elapsed time.
    3. c . Improvement in profit.

 

  1. Remember that initially, one need to do investment, while planning automation. But in the long run (especially for the repetitive tasks), it will result in good ROI.
  2. It may be difficult (or costly), where human decision/cognitive skills are required. In those cases, clearly identify the steps, which should be automated & plan for overall collaboration along with human.
  3. Automation can & should be done across the organization. It should not get limited to only production or engineering group. Aim should be to automate all processes, which are repetitive in nature. It can be in Sales ( say for Lead capturing), in HR ( during recruitment ) or production.

Skills Required to be an Automation Engineer

An automation engineer should be well equipped with many skills that allow them to design systems that are reliable for their clients (internal or external). Automation engineers (skills required for automation engineer) must have the following basic skills:

Problem Solving Skill– 

Candidates ideally thrive in a job that is centered on problem-solving and allows them the autonomy to develop solutions for hard, technical problems.

Any successful automation engineer needs to be able to work at both the micro and macro levels in order to achieve success.

Analytical Skill – 

One of the roles of an Automation Engineer is constant analysis, from monitoring current processes to testing and interpreting new automation ideas.

Therefore, those who enjoy numbers, math, and applying the skillset to challenging processes will be positioned to succeed in this field for years to come.

Observing & Understanding of Specific Equipment/Processes – 

Specific experience or knowledge of specific equipment/processes may be a requirement.

One should be able to observe, understand & plan new things. 

Understanding the type of equipment used in a food processing plant, for instance, is likely to be sought after if you are applying for a job in this industry.

Communication Skill – 

Communication between the team and other engineers will be essential for Automation Engineers. Reporting on how processes are working will play an important role in the job, so demonstrating automation both verbally and through reports, email, and meetings will ensure it is of maximum use to an organization.

Innovation– 

In addition to the seemingly technical and scientific requirements of automation engineering, it requires an unlimited amount of creative thinking in order to come up with solutions and ideas for innovation in automation. 

Inventing solutions to inherently complex processes should not be a source of anxiety for engineers.

Automation engineers’ skills

The skills required for automation engineers (work of automation engineer) are both technical and soft. To succeed in your role, you will need to have a good understanding of the hardware, software, networks, and business units you’re interacting with. 

It will also be necessary for you to have experience with mobile, web, and desktop operating systems as well as for analytics, robotics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. 

Automation engineers typically possess (but are not limited to) the following skills:

  • Robotics and automation
  • Machine learning and artificial intelligence
  • Experience with programming and coding
  • Managing projects
  • DevOps, Cloud, and Agile
  • Some software languages like python, C#, ruby, Java, Javascript, SmashTest

What is the Metaverse ? Metaverse Explained

Raktim Singh
-
0
What is the Metaverse ? Metaverse Explained

What is Metaverse

The Metaverse is a networked/shared 3D Virtual world, which is immersive, intuitive, interactive, and collaborative.

Our physical universe is a collection of places (or worlds) that are connected in space. Like that metaverse can be thought of as a collection of worlds (but which are virtual).

Metaverse is a virtual world, where people can connect, attend meeting, watch various places, play games, watch movies….

It allows users to be present at a place virtually without being present in real. That is, being at your own home, you can virtually join/attend meeting at some other country.

Here, an Avtar is created which can be accessed by us, on behalf of us by sitting anywhere.

The word “metaverse” is a combination of two words “meta-” and “verse”.

The word “meta” is a prefix of Greek-origin meaning “beyond’ while “verse” comes from the word “universe”.

Author Neal Stephenson used the word ‘metaverse’ in his 1992 science fiction novel “Snow Crash,”.

In this novel, he envisioned lifelike avatars who met in real.

Since then, various developments have happened toward a real metaverse, an online virtual world that incorporates augmented reality, virtual reality, 3D holographic avatars, video, and other means of interactions & communication.

You can get a feeling of a metaverse in online game universes such as Fortnite, Minecraft, and Roblox.

If you have watched, Ernest Cline’s Movie “Ready Player One”, you can get an inkling of the metaverse. In that movie, OASIS was a virtual reality simulation world.

 Metaverse…Decoded

These are various technologies/objects that make up the metaverse can include

  1. Virtual reality—characterized by persistent virtual worlds that continue to exist even when you’re not playing
  2. Augmented reality that combines aspects of the digital and physical worlds. Note that these spaces can be accessed by PC, game consoles, phones or VR/AR headsets.
  3. Video & Hologram
  4. Hologram
  5. NFT & blockchain technology
  6. Ultra-fast speed broadband
  7. Wearable including headset, gloves, jackets….
  8. Cloud infrastructure
  9. Software tools to create other avatars & maintain user-generated content
  10. Programming language like Lua

Apart from the technical requirements, the metaverse includes various user experiences including, but not limited to, entertainment, gaming, commerce, social interactions, education, and research.

Metaverse also contains a digital economy, where users can create, buy, and sell goods.

And, in the more idealistic visions of the metaverse, it’s interoperable, allowing you to take virtual items like clothes or cars from one virtual world to another.

Right now, most platforms have virtual identities, avatars, and inventories that are tied to just one platform, but a metaverse might allow you to create a persona that you can take everywhere as easily as you can copy your profile picture from one social network to another.

In the future, we can envision that metaverse’s users will be working, playing, and staying connected with friends through this.

Within metaverse, they may be attending concerts, exclusive movie previews, conferences, dance shows, traveling to other countries, going to sea-beach…

Properties of metaverse:

These are the properties of the metaverse

  1. It should be scalable
  2. Interoperable: These virtual places will be persistent. So various objects and identities of those objects can move through them
  3. It should be rendered on a real-time basis
  4. 3D virtual worlds
  5. Synchronous
  6. Persistent: In current online games, you can pause the game or finish the game. But in metaverse, it’s always running.
  7. Unlimited number of users
  8. The individual sense of presence
  9. Continuity of data

Important players behind Metaverse

No one owns the metaverse itself. Like today, nobody owns the internet. But these are important players, who are involved in the metaverse

 

  1. Meta: The tech giant formerly known as Facebook has already made significant investments in virtual reality, including the 2014 acquisition of Oculus. It envisions a virtual world where digital avatars connect through games, work, travel, or entertainment using VR headsets.
  2. Microsoft: The software giant already uses holograms and is developing mixed and extended reality (XR) applications with its Microsoft Mesh platform, which combines the real world with augmented reality and virtual reality.
  3. Epic Games: They had developed Fortnite (online multiplayer game), hosted virtual concerts by Ariana Grande & Travis Scott.

 

  1. Roblox : This platform,  houses scores of user-generated games, including role-playing offerings like Bloxburg and Brookhaven, where users can build homes, work, and playout scenarios.
  2. Another virtual universe beloved by kids, Minecraft is essentially the digital equivalent of Legos, where players can create their own digital character and build whatever they desire. 
  3. Nvidia Omniverse

Nvidia has launched its Omniverse platform. The company has taken an open-sourced approach to invite enterprise clients to try out the omniverse. Developers can build, license, and distribute apps with over 200 pre-built extensions.

Concept of Virtual Real Estate & Usage of NFT

You can buy virtual land in metaverse & get that ownership confirmed by having NFT related to that land.

On similar lines, you can buy other digital items on metaverse and get/buy NFT for that.

Major Metaverse platforms for these are

  1. Decentraland
  2. The Sandbox
  3. LeapN

 

People have already bought plots in these metaverse platforms by spending more than a million dollars.

This may sound strange. But remember, 40 years back, no one would have thought that buying a proper domain name on the internet (say domain name like Digital, Education, Money, ….) will cost so much.

Today, if you want to buy a domain name containing any popular keyword like ‘Digital’, ‘Learning’, ‘Wealth…you have to spend a lot of real money.

Same way, today people are buying virtual lands on metaverse, in the hope that they will be developed that land (build something on top of that) and they may be able to re-sell that land at higher prices.  

How the money is coming

This metaverse offers an almost real-world-like feeling, where one can play games with his/her friends, make social contacts, attends musical shows etc.

By sitting at your home, with metaverse (by wearing headset/glasses/gloves.), you can feel like traveling to another country, sea-beach…. attend events, buy things etc.

With newly & improved wearables (including headset & gloves), one can get a feeling of really watching a show, contacting other people.

So, people may remain logged in this place for hours.

As this is the place, where the majority of people will be hooked into & given personal attention, various companies will use this place to showcase their new products.

Earlier companies used billboards & newspapers/magazines for advertisement. Later some portion of that moved to Radio/TV.

After the internet came, companies started showing their products on various internet platforms. This includes various advertisements shown to you on various social media platforms.

On similar lines, it is expected that with customer’s attention/time moving on Metaverse, companies will also do advertisements on Metaverse.  

Apart from advertisement money, people who love online games will spend money to buy points/characters, etc. on metaverse.

Here artists/musicians can perform virtual shows & you need to buy virtual passes to attend those events.

Various fashion companies can create virtual apparel for people’s avatars to wear in metaverse surroundings.

One may want to appear very differently on metaverse and may end up buying various clothes (skins..) on this metaverse.

Conclusion

The metaverse is a hyper-real alternative world for you, which coexists along with the physical world.

 In this ‘virtual world’, you can get simulations that are the same as human emotions & gestures.

Its blends the physical world with augmented, and virtual reality. Here individuals can communicate and transact with each other and with digital 3D items.

It contains the entire social and economic structure that exists in both the actual and virtual worlds.

Avatars, content, and goods may all travel around freely. It’s a living experience, which is always running (unlike current online games, where you can pause or finish the game).

What is Automation testing And What are Automation Testing tools ?

Raktim Singh
-
1
What is Automation testing And What are Automation Testing tools ?

What is Automation testing And What are Automation Testing tools ?

Automated testing involves the use of automation tools.

Here, we use an independent software tool to execute test cases & compare actual results against predicted results/outcomes.

With automation testing, one can increase efficiency, reduce cost, and improve the quality of the software being tested.

What is Automation testing?

Automation testing is a way of doing continuous integration and automated testing. This is done, without any manual intervention.

The aim is to have a series of scripts that will continually run the tests, run the builds or produce reports. 

This software testing method uses scripted sequences that are executed by testing tools.

 

The scripts can be run with an automatic scheduler which will automatically produce the next step in the process, even if earlier test step has identified a defect in software code.

(Code which is getting tested). Upon identification of defects, these defects are added to the defect management system.

The use of automation testing will grow as more teams move to agile software development.

Test automation involves automating various parts of software without having them observed by humans.

The software ensures all aspects of the design work properly without humans spending hours manually testing each component. 

 

Pesticide paradox: If the same tests are repeated over and over again , eventually the same set of test cases will no longer find any new bugs. This is called Pesticide paradox.

To overcome this pesticide paradox, the test cases are required to be reviewed and revised.

According to the latest survey, it was found that 96.5% of the people involved in the survey stated that automation testing and scripting is a very important QA skill to grow and achieve success in the industry. 

Now, let’s turn our attention to what are automation testing tools, including a closer look at what they do, the benefits, and more.

What are automation testing tools?

A tool for automating testing is those that allow you to define your testing tasks and then perform them on your behalf.

Automating performance test runs means that they can run 24 hours a day, allowing the testing process to speed up due to the ability to test code without human intervention.

However, the ideal situation is for this to occur with little oversight from humans. 

The availability of automation testing tools for both desktop computers and smartphones enables engineers to test across many platforms. 

Now, let’s examine the steps involved in automated testing.

Important Steps in Automated Testing?

The automated testing process includes all the set of activities that are performed during the automation of different software applications.

We will learn each phase from the requirement understanding to the automated scripting and the integration phase.

  1. Requirements understanding

Understanding the requirements is the first step in test automation. The scope of automation and the right tool will be determined based on the understanding of the business requirement.

  1. Defining the scope of automation

Before you start the automation process, it is important to define the scope of automation. You should understand what is to be automated and why?

 

  1. Selecting the right tool

The selection of the appropriate tool depends on factors such as project requirements, programming expertise, budget, etc.

  1. Framework creation 

 

A framework is required to construct robust test automation suites. Test scripts can be reused, maintained, and made robust using these frameworks.

  1. CICD Integration

However, nowadays, nearly every product or service-oriented company relies on CICD – (Continuous integration and continuous delivery) to run test cases on demand. 

After setting up the system, you can schedule the test suite to run each night or to run the test cases whenever needed. 

In addition to triggering the test cases automatically after deployment as part of the CICD pipeline, the automation suite can also trigger them with configuration records.

Why should we automate testing?

Automated testing has the following advantages:

  • The overall execution time is reduced with automation testing. It is faster to execute automated tests than to execute manual tests.
  • The project is less expensive and requires fewer resources since a script created once can be re-run an unlimited number of times with no change to the application.
  • During manual testing, it would not be feasible/very difficult to handle such a large amount of input.
  • Automation testing helps increase the number of test cases that can be run concurrently. This can help in reducing the overall elapse time of testing/certification cycle.
  • Automation testing can increase the depth / scope of the tests.
  • Automation testing can be scaled without extra work.
  • Manual, human testing is prone to human error. But as we use software tools, automation testing is ‘almost’ error free.
  • Burnout associated with repetitive tasks is eliminated by automation testing

 

What are Automation Testing tools :Best Automated Testing Tools

Many test automation tools are available for free and for sale on the software market. We should select the right tool based on several factors, including project demands, budgets, the skill level of our resources, etc. Some of the best and popular test automation tools in the market are:

  1. Selenium
  2. Katalon Studio
  3. UFT One
  4. Tosca
  5. TestProject

6.    Cucumber  

7.    IBM Rational Functional Tester

8.    TestComplete

Wrapping Up : What is Automation testing And What are Automation Testing tools?

Test automation is crucial for improving quality with speed. It is possible to automate some testing, but not all.

A considerable amount of investment is also required. You must choose the right mix of tests with so many available. 

You can also Check

What is Control System Engineering? All about Control Engineering

 

 

 

1...394041...45Page 40 of 45