nadia's world of current technologies

Monday, October 1, 2007

Digital Watermarking Technology

The issue of unauthorized copyright has been prominent for several years. Now with the use of the internet, it is 100% more easier, quick and cost effective to copy and upload information. Since the web has become a platform of distribution of multimedia content, people can now modify and manipulate files, ideas, and then claim it is their own property. Unauthorized copying occurs in numerous domains such as entertainment and electronic business. There are many methods to prevent copyright, yet these methods fail to protect files from external "attacks". Thus, a new key technology was established for ownership rights: the Digital Watermarking. Digital Watermarking is based on an old technology: Watermarking, which is the method of implementing a message or pattern, is only visible if held to light. To protect printed text documents, logos are printed in the back. However, the Watermarking only prevents replication of physical objects. Digital Watermarking is a similar technique but for digital content, it is a low energy signal embedded in another signal (to hyper link and doc that explains the idea of the technique) enforcing intellectual property. It exists two types of digital watermarking : visible and invisible. Visible watermarking is a watermark that is visible in the visual content, invisible watermarking, on the other hand, cannot be detected by juts viewing the digital content.

Advantages of Watermarking Technology

Since the internet has become the primary source of piracy, several companies are reluctant to distribute material electronically, because they may fear their work may be plagiarized, yet with the Digital Watermarking, organizations can electronically sign their work, thus the technology works as a digital signature. Furthermore, it is a technology that suits all types of organizations, either national or international, simply because it targets an issue that can occur everywhere. Using a Digital Watermarking ensures the organization that the work belongs to them, in case of juridical problems, organizations can prove through watermark that they are not plagiarizing. Finally, organizations would feel more comfortable sharing ideas and information with other cooperations or even customers without feeling insecure.

Disadvantages of Watermark Technology

Even though digital watermarking seems to be the perfect technology for copyright, yet nothing has guaranteed that it will be secured, at any time new filter may come an interfere with the system and copy the data. In addition, interferences may occur to identify to whom the work belongs to.

References:

Bruce, Allan M. "A Review of Digital Watermarking." 2 Nov. 2001. Dept. of Engineering. 30
Sept. 2007 .
"Digital Watermarking: a Technology Overview." Wipro. 2001. 30 Sept. 2007
"Digital Watermarking." Digimarc. 2007. 30 Sept. 2007 .

"Digital Watermarking." Wikipedia. 2007. 30 Sept. 2007 .

Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) Technology

Nowadays technology seems to be everywhere, we can have access to the internet at home or while waiting for the bus. It seems we can have access to the internet at any time, the only element missing is a Wireless connection. The WiFi, also known as Wireless Fidelity, is a wireless technology providing internet connection from a radio transmission of internet protocol to our computers. To transmit the data from the internet connection to the host computer, wireless networks use radio technology called IEEE 802.11a. This radio technology refers to the network area of WiFi, the more radio technologies there are, the broader the network is. The wireless technology was originally established for cable replacement, it soon began to be popular. Since 2003, WiFi is available in several public areas including restaurants, coffee places and even new computers are programmed to have WiFi wireless connection.

Advantages of WiFi technology

The initial purpose of WiFi was to replace cable establishments in order to access internet in spaces where cables cannot run. Since internet is a vital component for the majority of businesses, having access to the internet outdoors, facilitates communication between members of the organization. They can communicate at any given place; they no longer need to be in the office or home to access internet.
Furthermore, in large organizations WiFi allows computers to be interconnected: be in a group network and share internet connection. Therefore, the costs of network deployment and expansion is reduced.
For mine organizations for example, WiFi offers cheap standardized components and tools to create a safety and productive environment. Since mine companies cannot build big machines, they need optimization in order to have productivty growth. They use WiFi to stay in contact with wokers working in mines. This process allows them, at a competitve price, to have all the necessary information fast and ensuring the workers are safe.

Disadvantages of WiFi Technology

Organizations do the majority of their work on the internet, in case of a problem with the wireless connection, the organizations cannot pursue their work resulting in important loses. Furthermore, security is not guaranteed, even though wireless industry experts promise to establish a more secure network, WiFi can represent a threat for several organizations, whom interact mainly with the internet. Since accessing a wireless network is easy, especially in large areas, often different networks interfere and the information of the organization is displayed on the other networks. Therefore, privacy is unveiled.
WiFi network is only available in North America hence, when business men travel they either need an operator registration or pay additional money to access internet through European/Asian internet cable lines.Resulting in additional costs. Finally, even though there exists an important number of wireless networks, the further away you are from the access point, the worse the quality and the speed is. Therefore, organizations need to stick to their environment to have a high speed internet connection, not much flexibility is yet offered.

references:

Perry, Rebecca. "Wireless Fidelity." Technology Review. Sept. 2003. 28 Sept. 2007
"Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) Technology." ITAA. Jan. 2004. ITAA's Innovation. 30 Sept. 2007

Sunday, September 30, 2007

Multi-touch technology

“Minority Report becomes a reality” Jefferson Han

When the movie Minority Report came out, several people were more amazed by the technologies seen in the movie than the movie itself. In fact, in several scenes of the movie, the characters use a technology allowing them to have a direct interaction with the computer's screen; they can pause, zoom in or out, or even change the complete setting of the display. This is an example of an interface-free, touch driven computer screen. What was only made for a science fiction-movie, became reality soon thereafter. Multi-Touch technology has been known for a few decades, however, the majority of touch surfaces deployed were single touch; only earlier this year a young scientist has developed the touch screen interface, also known as a Multi-Touch. Multi-Touch technology is a human-computer interaction technique which enables users to interact with the system with more than one finger. It uses both pressure and movement sensors to allow a direct manipulation, there is no need for any external devices such as a mouse or a keyboard since the technology is able to recognize multiple simultaneous touch points including hand gestures and physical objects equipped with optical tags. For example, by having a Multi-Touch display, there is no need to press different buttons to enlarge a picture, instead, we could manage the same directly by touching the screen, with both of our hands to personalize the picture; therefore, the technology provides a rich interaction of multiple fingers or hands, which means multiple users can interact with the device at once.

Advantages of Multi-Touch technology

The advantages of a Multi -Touch technology for organizations are all the opportunities one single device can offer.It is an intuitive device, they are no instructions, allowing organizations to have a complete flexibility on how to work with the device. Therefore, each organization can customize its home page in order to suit its target market. The Multi-Touch technology is fast and we are able on one device to exploit skills and knowledge we have acquired by living in today's society. Finally, due to the direct interaction, we can navigate maps, data and photos. Hence, it decreases several operating costs because all the necessary tools for marketing are provided with Multi-Touch technology; resulting in a competitive advantage for businesses who might use it. Furthermore, several people can work on the same surface, improving communication and cooperative work. As we all know, the more an organization is working as a team, the more likely is the organization to succeed.

Disadvantages of Multi-Touch technology

Since the multi-touch technology is a new technology, the price to purchase the technology ranges between $5000 and $10000 per unit, making it expensive for small businesses. It may lower down the cost of marketing for some businesses, but for others who may not emphasize marketing at the same degree, may find it expensive to invest in it. Furthermore, this technology may not suit all businesses; before applying it we have to make sure that it is beneficial for the organization.