STS 1

A COLLECTION OF REACTION PAPERS ON TOP 10 EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES OF 2011

Mojahid A. Manapa-at

May 21, 2012

Social Indexing Facebook; who among us intellectuals dont know about this famous social networking site on the internet? I started using Facebook on 2008 and my main purpose on using it is to gain information about my friends and classmates. I expected it would help me communicate to them more easily. Yes it did. Nowadays, Facebook helps me much in gaining information from school activities, assignments, news, communicating inside the country and abroad, etc. Last 2011, Facebook launches its new Timeline profile interface. The interface is designed to make it easy to navigate much of the vast amount of information that the social network has gathered about each of its users, and to prompt them to add and share even more in a way that's easy to analyze. Aside from Facebook, Google.com is another website that interests me. It is a web search engine that indexes different websites from the World Wide Web. It presents the user a list of search results which consists of information such as web pages, images, videos and other type of files. How does a Google index these websites? Google mathematically indexes the Web by scanning the hyperlinks between pages. Pages with many links from other sites rise to the top of search results on the assumption that such pages must be relatively useful or interesting. Facebook now has this indexing service given to their users which they called Social Indexing. In social indexing, Facebook is providing websites, peoples, business establishments, companies, organizations, and institutions a Facebook page. In this page is a Like button, a thumbs-up logo for which Facebook users shows their appreciation of the page by simply clicking on the button. After clicking on the Like button, certain information about the page will be posted on the users Timeline saying that the user likes that page. It is indeed an advantage for the owner of the page since it was a form of advertising their product or something. The code behind the Like button is available to any site that wants to add it to its webpages, again an easy way of advertising. This method of figuring out connections between pieces of content is fundamentally different from the one that was used by Google. In Google, websites are indexed by how many people are visiting a certain page. As a user, it may happen that the page provided by Google is not really what you are searching for. In social indexing, you gain searches by how information is related to you with your friends. Still, Facebooks social indexing is not that powerful to replace Google in indexing websites.

Google, as a competitor, acknowledges this new type of indexing. It also launches a near-clone of the Like button, which it calls "+1." This lets people signify for their friends in Googles own social networking site, Google Plus, which search results or web pages they've found useful. Google rankings can be manipulated by internet experts by flooding backlinks to other websites linking to their websites. Also, I am hearing of this software called Bot which is used to raise the rank of a certain website on Google searches. In Facebooks social indexing, it is nearly impossible to generate likes from users without intent of liking a page. This makes social indexing less vulnerable to manipulations.

Smart Transformers Nowadays, electricity is considered as one of the basic necessities of human. We use electricity in home, in school, office, and now, even in transportation. We have phones for messaging and voice calling. We use our computers to check emails and access the internet. We watch television for news and entertainment. We turn on lights if its dark. We turn on the electric fan when its hot. We use fridge to have cold drinks and store foods. In all this stuffs, we use electricity. Electricity really makes our life easier. Each consumer pays for every amount of electricity he uses. The price corresponds for the cost of generation and transmission from the electric power plant to our houses. A device that takes a big role in the transmission of electricity is what we call a transformer. It is responsible for stepping up and stepping down voltage. From the power plant, the voltage is stepped up so that less current flows unto the line thereby giving less transmission loss. The voltage is then stepped down upon distribution in our houses. In electrical engineering, it is important to have a balance distribution of power on a delta or Y configuration. This principle helps in reducing line loss but it is not implemented all of the time. This was because of the non-uniform, non-stable distribution of power on each household. This is one of the main problems of electric power distribution. One way of addressing this is to adjust each transformer on the electric grid time at a time and balancing the load of each respective sector in the community. This process is nearly impossible because it is very time consuming. Also, transformers nowadays are adjusted by means of large electromechanical switches and that there is no means of remotely adjusting each transformer on the grid. Best hypothetical means of solving this problem is to make a way of remotely accessing each transformer on the grid from a central server, just like how a central office remotely accesses a base station in a communication path. And maybe, automatically that each transformer adjusts to changes on loads of each household. One from the top 10 emerging technologies of 2011 is this potential technology called Smart Transformer. This is a not yet developed device that may be a solution on the problem of electric power distribution. This is a compact transformer that can respond almost instantaneously to fluctuations I supply and demand. Also this transformer responds not only to AC but also on DC. The best of it is that it can be electronically controlled.

When this kind of transformer is fully developed, it can contribute great in reducing electrical line loss and so decreases the cost of electricity that a consumer pays. But still, the technology smart transformer has not been developed yet. All we can do at this point of time is to be responsible in using electricity. Turn off lights and appliances when not in use. Save electricity.

Gestural Interfaces Over centuries, innovative methods and new technologies are developed and opened up. Some of these technologies are due to theoretical research, and others are for commercial research and development. Gesture-based interface is a great thing not just for inventors, but also for students like us who are raised in a modern world. Since we are young, we have been open to the idea of having a digital world where everything is advance like what we use to see in movies and television. The latest movie that I have watched that features this gestural interface is this 2011 film, Real Steel. In there, a robot named Atom is controlled by means of copying the movement of his user as seen by his eyes. Robots in the movies are used in gaming which they call WRB, World Robot Boxing. I did appreciate this movie very much. I can say that this movie opened up my mind about what can happen in the near future regarding to technological advances. Alexander Shpunt developed this kind of technology through few ways to sense depth, primarily the time of flight by determining the distance from a sensor by measuring how long it takes for light or sound to bounce off an object. Nowadays, some devices such as Microsofts Kinect have this ability to recognize gestures. It is really fun to experience this kind of technology. With this technology in the market, people will be encouraged to engage in high-technology devices and gadgets. This will improve the quality of gaming and entertainment. Still, it remains unclear whether this technology meets the needs and capabilities of the community. We all know that technology is the purposeful application of information in the design, production, and utilization of goods and services, and in the organization of human activities. I think this development in technology can help ease daily routines for some but not for everyone. Also, it can cause problems for the community.

Synthetic Cells There existed several ideas on how life existed. Two of such are the Theory of Evolution and the Theory of Creation. Science, which adheres to the theory of evolution, believes that humans are the products of natural selection. To science, life on this planet began as a single cell which became more complex as time passes. While religious persons, who adhere to the theory that man was divinely created believe that something cannot exist from nothingness. They believe that there exists a God that creates mankind. Humanity is a unique and special creation of God. Thats how religions believe. There are many things that result in misconception between science and religion such as abortion, euthanasia, family planning, etc. The technology on synthetic cells adds to those. It is a potential issue that can result in another misunderstanding between the two parties. Synthetic cells technology concerns with evolution of cells. With Synthetic cell technology, it is possible to artificially produce biofuels, drugs and other industrial products. But with this technology fully developed, it can lead to the creation of artificial life which is a great philosophical and religious concern. I as an intellectual person appreciate this immerging technology. I believe that with this technology introduced to the society, it can contribute to compensating the daily needs of people. With this, new drugs and vaccines can be developed and manufactured for todays uncured diseases. It can also help in providing a new source of energy decreasing the dependency of people on fossil fuels. The technology is useful if it is only used for these purposes. But then, no one can stop some individuals and institutions from experimenting on other possible things that can be done with this technology. Maybe 10 years to 20 years from now, scientists can incorporate this to the lives of human. Maybe it can bring to reality the idea of mutation. Just like what science fiction films are known for, such as the movie X-men. If this happens, it can be expected that this will cause problems and troubles. Religious groups and organizations will greatly oppose to this technology being fully developed. They will say that it is in contradiction to the way of life. This is not the way that the Quran or Bible tells us to live. This can also lead some people to Atheism. That is, some will say that life isnt really a creation of God but a natural creation. The advancement of technology compensates the need of humans. But let us not use it intensively.

Cloud Streaming Buffering. . . Have you ever got pissed whenever theres lag when you stream videos on your mobile phone? Mostly does and I am no exception to this rule. So, here comes this innovative technology called Cloud Streaming and as they say, this solves the problem. Cloud Streaming in simpler definition means bringing high-performance software to mobile devices. Imagine how cool this stuff works. According to Steve Perlman, developer of the said technology, they created a way of compressing a video stream that overcomes the problems marring previous attempts to use mobile devices as remote terminals for graphics-intensive applications. It could eventually make applications such as sophisticated movie-editing or engineering-design tools accessible on hundreds of millions of Internet-connected tablets, smart phones, and the like and not only professional animators and architects would benefit. I think this technology, as one of those seeking for superior services, is what we are looking for. Theres actually not a need for 4g connections when this technology becomes available at the market. Also, looking on a wider perspective, maybe the time will come when these heavy and space-consuming laptop computers are all fit in our pockets through smart phones. Furthermore, as an Engineering student, the use of computer aided design software is inevitable since we also have to cope with advancement of technology and make good use of it, right? Then, there will come a day when designing becomes handy - I never even imagined using CAD on a tablet but I think that sounds interesting. And on final note, I think the biggest use of this wonderful technology is that Computer Gaming will be at its best! There could be no more enjoying than playing in front of the monitor like in real time no more buffs, no more lags. The advancement of technology nowadays really compensates the needs of the human beings. Now that we are used to fast-breaks, fast-foods, fast-lives, so does technology heres to a FASTER streaming.