PULSE August 2008

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MagazIne

Pulseaugust 2008

The official newsletter of ECEA

Techies Arena....2 Ecea Vista...7 Tutorials...8 Legends...9 Nitty-Gritty...10 Gaiety...11

TETE-A-TETE WITH THE HOD, DECE

EDITORIAL

We gladly welcome you to PULSE, the veritable voice

of the charismatic and vivacious engineers of ECEA.

This year, the new effervescent PULSE team has

ambitious plans, yet pragmatic and implementable. We will have

at least four issues with electrifying technical as well as cerebrum-

stimulating general articles.

The magazine will comprise of five sections with

something in it for everyone from the gizmo fanatics to the

prospective business leaders. Besides the usual Techies Arena,

we have a couple of enlightening tutorials and the new Nitty-

gritty section which will contain all the thought-provoking write-

ups on general engineering, science, management and current-

affairs. The ECEA Vista section will contain all the up to date

happenings in the ECE department while the Gaiety section will

contain all the merriness as the name suggests.

PULSE is a unique opportunity to bring out the creative

genius in you. We are obliged to kindle the fire in you.Wishing you

all the best for your endeavours and commitments in this new

academic year, we welcome contributions on a wide range of topics.

Mail your artefacts to [email protected]

Dr. N Kumaravel, Professor and HOD of DECE, discussed

his views on department activities and many other

things with the PULSE team.

What are your areas of expertise and the papers that you have

published?

My areas of expertise include Digital Signal Processing,

Bio Medical Signal Processing, Medical Image Processing, VLSI

Signal Processing and Artificial Intelligence Techniques. I have

over 30 conference papers and 20 journal papers published in

various reputed international journals such as ELSEVIER Journal,

Journal of Medical Engineering & Technology, IEEE journals,

etc.

Where did you do your graduation, post graduation and doctoral

programme?

I completed B Sc (Physics) from Madurai University,DMIT in Electronics Engineering from MIT, ME in Communication

Systems from Madras University and Ph D in Bio Medical Signal

Processing from Anna University.

What inspired you to take teaching as a career?

The passion and love for Digital Signal Processing, Bio

Medical Signal and Image processing, etc inspired me to take

teaching as a career though I was more inclined to get a job in the

industry during the initial stages of my career.

Can you recall any one incident as a teacher that you will

never forget?

During my

ME course, a reputed

professor from Canada

attended one of mylectures on Digital

Signal Processing

(DSP) and was greatly

impressed. Later, when

higher authorities

wanted a person well-

versed in DSP, the

Canadian professor personally recommended me and insisted tha

no other person could effectively replace me. This was a real morale

booster for my teaching career.

What major change do you propose in our education system?

Our education system must be application -oriented. Equaweightage should be given for theory and practical. Practica

education is the need of the hour. Also, the macro concepts of any

subject must be introduced before we get into the micro concepts

Whats the major difference between students of your time and

students nowadays?

When I was in college, the number of students enrolling

for any course was very less. The students preferred governmen

jobs while the opportunities and awareness was also less.

Nowadays, the number of engineering students per course


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techies arena......

Potential Unleashed by Logic Saturated Engineers2

is enormous. They also seem to prefer private sector jobs rather

than government jobs. Every student seems to be a jack of all

trades. The students acquaintance with world affairs is impressive.

What are your plans for DECE as HOD?

Firstly I am planning to improve the infrastructure of our

department. A couple of new blocks will be built having state of art

laboratories for each specialisation. There will be numerous tie-ups

and MOUs with various MNCs such as Altera, Renesas, Cypress

Semiconductor, Matrix View, etc. There will be a Centre of Imagingand Signal Sciences in collaboration with Texas Instruments.

Research on building low cost equipments for hospitals is also

being carried out vigorously.

What is your message for the ECE students?

The Department of ECE is currently the hottest destination

for the cream of the state. Thus I strongly insist that the students

excel in every possible realm. They should live up to the expectations

of the industry as well as the society.

NANOELECTRONICS

In 1947, the field of electronics witnessed a revolution brought

about by the invention of the bipolar and the field effect

transistors. Since then transistors have become the mainstay of

digital electronics. With the emergence of state of the art IC

fabrication technologies in the last quarter of the 20 th century,

transistors have become so widespread that in any modern IC the

most common and widely appearing component will invariably be

the MOS transistor.

An ordinary NMOS transistor has a very simple structure.

It has three terminals- the source, drain and gate.The gate voltagecontrols the electron density in the channel between the source

and the drain.For large gate voltages, electron density in the channel

is high and current flows from the source to the drain on applying

a bias voltage. However, for small gate voltages current does not

flow since the electron density in the channel is low. This property

allows the transistor to operate as a switch and all digital circuits

exploit this property of MOS transistors.

Today, chip makers are constantly battling to make the

channel length in transistors smaller and smaller. Adding impetus

to this is the famous law in electronics dubbed the Moores Law

which states that the number of transistors that can be packed on a

chip doubles every 18 months. But many scientists expect thatwithin 10-20 years silicon will reach its physical limits thereby halting

the ability to pack more transistors on a chip. A decade ago, it was

this impending roadblock which prompted researchers to look for

other alternatives that consequently opened up new horizons for

research into Nanoelectronics.

Nanoelectronics came to light in 1991 with the discovery

of multi-walled nanotubes by Sumio Iijima of Meijo University and

NEC Research Corporation. While using a high-resolution

transmission electron microscope to study the soot created in an

electrical discharge between two carbon electrodes at the NEC

ARUN GOUD, iV year

Fundamental Research Laboratory in Tsukuba, Japan he found that

the soot contained structures that consisted of several concentric

tubes of carbon, nested inside each other. A year later Thomas

Ebbesen and Pulickel Ajayan, also working for NEC in Tsukuba

developed a highly efficient way of making large quantities of these

multiwall nanotubes. Subsequently, in 1993, Iijimas group at NEC

and Donald Bethunes group at IBMs Almaden Research Center in

California independently discovered single-wall nanotubes.

Nanotubes, which are extremely thin hollow cylinders ocarbon atoms, are considered wonder materials for building tiny

circuits. Theyre strong, nonreactive, tolerant of extreme

temperatures, and pass current essentially without resistance

Theyre also much smaller than any wires in todays electronics

The diameter of a nanotube can vary from a few nanometers up to

tens of nanometers, and can be hundreds or even thousands o

nanometers long. Surprisingly, nanotubes can have either metallic

or semiconducting properties, depending on the geometry and the

direction in which the graphene sheet consisting of carbon atoms

is rolled up to produce the tubes. The semiconductor varieties find

applications in electronic devices as substitutes for active

components like field effect transistors and the metallic ones have

high electrical conductivity and therefore serve as perfecreplacements for metallic wires in integrated circuits. The pas

decade has seen a plethora of research into both types of nanotubes

Today, nanotubes can be grown efficiently by the catalytic

decomposition of a reaction gas that contains carbon such as

methane, with iron often being used as the catalyst. This usuallyproduces a mixture of both single-walled and multi-walled tubes as

well as the metallic and semiconductor varities. The multiwal

nanotubes are tens of nanometres across whereas the typica

diameter of a single-wall nanotube is just one or two nanometres. In

the past this mixture of nanotubes with different electrical properties

hindered efforts to exploit the tubes in electronic devices. But now

a process exists to segregate the metallic and semiconducting

nanotubes. With the current fabrication technology, nanotubes

can be grown to lengths exceeding 100 microns, and in various

shapes such as nanosprings.

Nanotube transistors represent the most promising

application of nanotubes in electronics. Nanotube transistors have

been successfully fabricated and tested using individual multi-wal

or single-wall nanotubes as the channel of a field-effect transistor

(FET). In 1998 IBM came out with the first Carbon Nanotube Field

Effect Transistor (CNTFET). This device had a thin single walled

nanotube connecting two gold electrodes which served as the

source and drain.

The amount of current (ISD

) flowing through the nanotube

channel could be changed by a factor of almost 100,000 by changing

the voltage applied to the gate (VG). When first constructed, mos

Images showing deformation in nanotubes


3/123The official newsletter of ECEA

.....techies arena

of the CNTFETs had characteristics resembling those of a PMOS

device. However, it soon turned out that these devices could be

made to exhibit NMOS characteristics by adding certain chemicals

or heating them beyond certain temperatures.

Interest in nanotubes has increased dramatically in the

present decade. Researchers at Delft University in the Netherlands

have even managed to build CNT Single Electron Transistors (SET)

employing a buckled nanotube. As the name suggests, such a

transistor can act as a switch which can be flicked by just one

electron. Unlike other conventional transistors, SETs do not suffer

from excessive heat build up because of the limited current flowing

and hence there is little degradation in performance. Also

conventional transistors require millions of electrons to operate, so

a single-electron version would enable electronic circuitry to occupy

just a fraction of its present size.

Nanotube transistors are also competing with conventional

transistors over operating speed. Theoretically, nanotube

transistors are estimated to have a speed limit near 1 terahertz(1012

Hz). This is about 1000 times faster than modern computer speeds.

These speeds might have seemed unattainable a few years ago but

it is likely that they may be achieved soon. A glimpse of this was

provided by Peter Burke and colleagues at the University of

California at Irvine. They demonstrated their device which

consisted of a single-walled carbon nanotube sandwiched between

two gold electrodes that could operate at extremely fast microwave

frequencies. On varying the gate voltage in the device, the circuit

was shown to operate at 2.6 gigahertz (2.6 x 109 Hertz). This means

that current can be switched on and off in about 0.1 nanoseconds.

With more and more of such path-breaking research being

conducted regularly, it appears that we may soon be treated to

integrated circuits of CNT transistors consisting of billions of

transistors. IC manufacturers are already vying with one another to

come out with such remarkable feats as manufacturing the first

CNT based processors. That day may not be too far away. But as of

today, the truth is crystal clear - Nanoelectronics is here to stay.

The advances in science and technology are deeply

intertwined. The telescope enables a deep

understanding of astronomy, the microscope brings

UNTETHERED SENSOR NETWORKS

transistors on a cost-effective chip and, therefore, the processing

or storage capacity of that chip, double every year or two, following

Moores law . While it has provided better computing power

researchers are now applying this technology in ways that enable

a new role for computing in science.

Researchers can use the semiconductor manufacturing

techniques that underlie this miniaturization to build radios and

exceptionally small mechanical structures that sense fields and

forces in the physical world. These inexpensive, low-powercommunication devices can be deployed throughout a physical

space, providing dense sensing close to physical phenomena

processing and communicating this information, and coordinating

actions with other nodes(we will see what they are later). Combining

these capabilities with the system software technology that forms

the Internet makes it possible to instrument the world with increasing

fidelity.

Welcome to the age of Wireless sensor networking (WSN).

SCOPE OF WSN

In a 1999 article titled 21 Ideas for the 21st Century

published inBusiness Week, Nobel Laureate Horst Stormer wroteUntethered micro sensors will go anywhere and measure

anything traffic flow, water level, number of people walking by

temperature. This is developing into something like a nervous

system for the earth, a skin for the earth. The world will evolve this

way. This summarizes the indispensable nature of WSN in the

future.

Smart environments represent the next evolutionary

development step in building, utilities, industrial, home, shipboard

and transportation systems automation. Like any sentient organism

the smart environment relies first and foremost on sensory data

from the real world. Sensory data comes from multiple sensors of

different modalities in distributed locations. The smart environmentneeds information about its surroundings as well as about its interna

workings.

The information needed by smart environments is provided

by Distributed Wireless Sensor Networks, which are responsible

for sensing as well as for the first stages of the processing hierarchy

The importance of sensor networks is highlighted by the number of

recent funding initiatives, including the DARPA SENSIT program

military programs, and NSF Program Announcements. Now thats

some really good news for those planning to pursue their Graduate

studies in the US, is that not?

Recent terrorist and guerilla warfare countermeasuresrequire distributed networks of sensors that can be deployed using

e.g. aircraft, and have self-organizing capabilities. In such

applications, running wires or cabling is usually impractical. A senso

network is required that is fast and easy to install and maintain.

Wireless sensor networks satisfy these requirements

Desirable functions for sensor nodes include: ease of installation

self-identification, self-diagnosis, reliability, time awareness for

coordination with other nodes, some software functions and DSP

and standard control protocols and network interfaces

approximately up to 100 ft.

ARUN S, iV year

bacteria into view, and satellites survey the Earths surface,

expanding what we can perceive and measure. Now, we can use

computers to visualize physical phenomena which we cannot

observe through empirical means, thanks to numerical simulation.

This trend has advanced with the prolonged exponential growth in

the underlying semiconductor technology. The number of


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Potential Unleashed by Logic Saturated Engineers4

to mass-produced intelligent sensors and the use of pervasive

networking technology gives WSNs a new kind of scope that can

be applied to a wide range of uses. These can be roughly

differentiated into

monitoring space,

monitoring things, and

monitoring the interactions of things with each other and the

encompassing space.Figure: A Berkeley mote (MICAz MPR2400 series)

What are the types of constraints which specify the

problem? First, energy (battery powered versus continuous power

supply). Wireless communications brings a significant list of

constraints. These include one or multi-hop communications, to a

fixed infrastructure versus no fixed infrastructure; homogeneous

versus non-homogeneous nodes (such as including base

stations); synchronization (via beacons or message passing) and

geo-location; the degree of robustness to interference; and highly

variable radio propagation conditions. Other constraints include

random versus deterministic sensor node placement, and sensor

field density.

We are all familiar with the various forms of Moores Law,such as digital processing power requirements dropping by a factor

of about 1.6 per year. In contrast, Shannons theory and Maxwells

equations govern the required receiver signal-to-noise ratio (SNR,

or Eb/N0) and propagation losses, and these values are fixed.

Consequently, while DSP may increase in sophistication without

an increase in energy requirements, there remains the need to couple

energy between transmitter and receiver. We therefore quickly come

to the conclusion that, in energy-constrained sensor networking,

maximizing network lifetime implies minimizing the

communications. This has implications for virtually all aspects of

the sensor node across the signal processing and communications,

and leads naturally to cross-layer issues and design.

SENSOR NETWORK APPLICATIONS

A typical sensor network application is inventory tracking

in factory warehouses. A single sensor node can be attached to

each item in the warehouse. These sensor nodes can then be used

for tracking the

location of the items as they are moved within the warehouse. They

can also provide information on the location of nearby items as well

as the history of movement of various items. Once deployed, the

sensor network needs very little human intervention and can

function autonomously.

Another typical application of sensor networks lies in

military situations. Sensor nodes can be air-dropped behind enemy

lines or in inhospitable terrain. These nodes can self-organize

themselves and provide unattended monitoring of the deployed

area by gathering information about enemy defenses and equipment,

movement of troops, and areas of troop concentration. They can

then relay this information back to a friendly base station for further

processing and decision making.

Although computer-based instrumentation has existed for

a long time, the density of instrumentation made possible by a shift

than the generation that preceded it.

WSNs appear to represent a new class. They follow the

trends of size, number, and cost, but have a markedly differen

function. Rather than being devoted to personal productivity tasks

WSNs make it possible to perceive what takes place in the physicaworld in ways not previously possible. In addition to offering the

potential to advance many scientific pursuits, they also provide a

vehicle for enhancing larger forms of productivity, such as

manufacturing, agriculture, construction, and transportation.

The architecture and design challenges of WSNs will be

elaborated in the forthcoming issues. Keep sensing until then

The first category includes environmental and habitatmonitoring, precision agriculture, indoor climate control

surveillance, treaty verification, and intelligent alarms. The second

includes structural monitoring, ecophysiology, condition-based

equipment maintenance, medical diagnostics, and urban terrain

mapping. The most dramatic applications involve monitoring

complex interactions, including wildlife habitats, disaster

management, emergency response, ubiquitous computing

environments, asset tracking, healthcare, and manufacturingprocess flow.

CONCLUSION

Over the 50 years of modern computing, we have seen anew class of computer emerge about once a decade, progressing

through mainframes, minicomputers, personal computers, and

mobile computers. Each successive model relies upon technica

advances, especially integration, to make computing available in a

form factor not previously possible. Each has ushered in new uses

for computer technology. Each succeeding generation is smaller

more plentiful, and more intimately associated with personal activity

Nanotubes have an exceptionally high elastic Youngsmodulus of about 1012 Newton per square metre (or one

terapascal) - about five times the value for steel. This makes

them a suitable contender for the material of choice for future

Eureka !

Some well known materials act quite differently at the

nanoscale.Opaque substances become transparent (copper).

Inert materials become catalysts (platinum, gold).

Stable materials turn combustible (aluminum).

Solids turn into liquids at room temperature (gold).

The diameter of a nanotube is about 10,000 times smaller thana human hair.

techiesarena......



mobile phone keypad .It fits neatly in the palm of the hand making

it unobtrusive to use. This patent- pending venture is the outcome

of a two-year hard work by edutainment experts. It would probablyend the treasure hunt for alphabetical letters in the typical QWERTY

keyboard. It is simple to use. To type, you have to just plug in the

keypad via USB port and start typing in the genX sms text slang

you are familiar with. An added advantage is that as you type in

your semantics free sms slang, the Cre8txt software automatically

translates it to proper English.

The context-based word predicting software, an add-on

of this product, would be of immense help in improving your

vocabulary and spelling skills. Furthermore, it aids in fast typing

too. The amount of prediction can also be varied over a wide range.

The device was developed targeting the education market, in which

the current trend is to encourage children learn new words as theytype. The paradox is that higher end mobiles are now moving on to

the full QWERTY keyboard, so the appreciation of its functionality

is up to the individuals typing speed. But, as far as comfort is

concerned, you can snug in the sofa while typing your document.

You can switch between multi-tap and prediction mode. The

software is compatible with all applications that require text input

including the web browsers. The device is compatible with all types

of PCs and Xbox. The word-predicting software runs in Windows

XP / Vista and other Mac operating systems. The word bank can be

amended allowing easy addition and removal of abbreviations. The

entire kit comes with a price tag of $105 (Rs.4400 approx) only. That

sounds a pretty fat amount, but may be with practice you can gear

up for the ubiquitous fast-texting competitions like the one

conducted by Nokia and win a whopping $6000 (250,000 approx).

CELLPHONE KEYPAD FOR COMPUTERS

Sindhu a, iii year

Have you ever thought

of eating a burger and

chatting in the computer

at the same time? After all, the

goal of technology is to ease the

burden of life. An innovative

writing tool, aptly named

cre8txt is a 24 key handheld

keypad that resembles a typical

WHAT IS GPS AND HOW WAS IT DEVELOPED?

Global positioning system is space based navigation and

positioning system designed by US military for soldiers to determine

their exact position. This necessity came out because, US military

is a global force and it needs worldwide coverage for every second.

GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM

O.S.SHEERAPTHINATH, iii year

Thus the GPS receiver was given to each soldier and the military

vehicles were equipped with the receiver.

THEORY BEHIND GPS

Global Positioning System is based upon the principle o

TRILATERATION. The position of an unknown point is determined

by measuring the length of sides of the triangle between the

unknown point and two or more known points i.e. the satellites

The satellites transmit radio signals that are unique to each other

and the receiver measures the time taken for the signal to reach thapoint and calculates the time accordingly. This is the basic theory

behind GPS.

WORKING OF GPS

Lets consider the submarine. It uses SONAR to measure

the distance of an object. It measures the time taken for the sound

waves to reach the object and reflect back. Thus it calculates the

distance. This is called two way ranging. But GPS works on one

way ranging i.e. there is no bouncing back of the signal. The

satellites are the transmitters and the users possess the receivers

to locate their position.

AMBIGUITY WITH ONE SATELLITEGPS Navstar satellite transmits radio signals. The signal is

essentially omnidirectional, although its preferred orientation is

towards the Earth. If we happen to know that the distance to a

particular satellite is precisely 20,000 kilometers , then the only

place in the universe which is precise, is somewhere on the surface

of an imaginary sphere that has a radius of 20,000 kilometres. With

this information there is no way to know where on this sphere we

are located. This problem should be overcome. Hence a second

satellite is introduced.

AMBIGUITY WITH TWO SATELLITES

We can narrow down the search from an

imaginary sphere by adding a second satellite. Lets assume thawe are at a distance of 22000 kilometres from the second satellite

Already we know that we are 20000 kilometres away from first

satellite. On combining the above information, the search gets

reduced. We will be located on the intersection of these two spheres

We still dont know where we are located on this circle. Thus the

ambiguity arises. There comes a need for the introduction of the

third satellite.

POSITIONING USING THIRD SATELLITE

If we add a third satellite with a range of 21000 kilometres

we are almost there. Now the only place in the universe which is

20000 kilometres from first satellite, 22000 kilometres from second

satellite and 21000 kilometres from third satellite is at the only two

points where the three spheres intersect. We know now where we

are precisely i.e. at either one of the two possible points. It is fairly

easy to figure out in which point we are located because one of the

points will be somewhere out of space. The receivers are designed

in such a way that they reject the wrong one. But this positioning

gives the approximate location usually to within 500 kilometres.

Three satellite ranges have given us our approximate

location. Actually it turns out that four satellites are needed to

obtain the accurate information.

automobile industries. In the event of an accident,a car

made from nanotubes will be compressed along the line of

impact and once the force subsides, it can regain its original

shape.

.....techiesarena


6/126 Potential Unleashed by Logic Saturated Engineers

WHY FOUR SATELLITES?

To acquire accurate position, very precise time

measurements are needed. It turns out that it only takes something

like l/15 of a second for a satellite signal from orbit to reach our

receiver on the ground. With radio waves traveling at some 300,000

kilometers per second, only 1/1,000,000 (one one-millionth) of a

second of error in measuring the travel time translates into

approximately 300 meters of error in our position. There is, however,

a way to largely eliminate this problem.

This error occurs because the satellites use atomic clocks

which are precise to one billionth and the receivers use

inexpensive quartz clocks i.e. the receiver clocks and the satellite

clocks are not synchronized. Suppose the receiver clock is one

second faster. Lets locate the object in 2D. In 2D, two satellites are

enough to locate the position. The signal from satellite takes 5 sec

to reach the receiver from 1st satellite and 6sec from 2nd satellite.

Since the receiver is 1 sec faster it reads the time as 6 sec and for the

2nd satellite it reads as 7 sec.The position of intersection of two

spheres change with respect to correct time measurements. The

problem is based on receiver clocks and not in the atomic clocks.

If 3rd satellite is introduced, assume, its 7 sec travel is

perceived as 8 sec travel. It turns out that with three satellite ranges;

there is no place which is six seconds from the first satellite, seven

seconds from the second satellite and eight seconds from the third.

As soon as the receiver recognizes, it changes its clock settings

until the three ranges intersect. This description explains the need

of the 3rd satellite in 2D.

On carrying out the same explanation in 3D, we require 4

satellites for precise and accurate positioning.

BACK TO SCHOOL FOR PROBABILITY...

karthyek rajhaa, IV YEAR

(a) (b) (c)

What would you comment on an event occurring with

probability very close to zero or one? Immediately if

you say that the event will never occur or will certainly

occur respectively, then go ahead. First of all let us have a recap of

the classical definition of probability. The probability of an event

A determined apriori without actual experimentation is P(A) = NA/

N, where N and NA represent the total number of possible and

favourable events respectively. Is this definition clear enough?

First consider a simple problem solved in higher

secondary, finding the probability of getting a sum of 7 in the rollof two fair dice. The possible answers that I would give based on

the above definitions are: (a) possible outcomes of the sum: 2 to 11

and favourable outcome: 7. So N=11 , NA=1 and p=1/11. (b)

possible outcomes the as usual (1,1) to (6,6).Here N = 36, NA =

6 and hence p = 1/6. We all know that the second answer is correct.

Then what went wrong in the first case?!?

Next let us have the famous Bertrand paradox, which asks

you to find the probability of having a chord in a circle with centre

C and radius r, with length greater than r sqroot(3).If the sample

space is infinite, then we can use measures of length, area or angles

(a)If the centre of the chord AB lies inside the circle C1 of

radius r sqroot(2) as shown in fig.a, then l > r sqroot(3). So possible

outcomes = all points inside circle C and favourable outcomes = al

points inside circle C1.Here area measure comes and p = ( 3.14 r^2

4)/(3.14 r^2) = .

(b)Assume that one end (A) of the chord is fixed. This

reduces the number of possibilities but has no effect on p, because

the number of favourable outcomes is reduced proportionately. If

the other end B is on the 120 degree arc DBE, then l is greater than

r sqroot(3) (simple geometry calculations for fig.b).So the tota

possibility is accounted by 360deg and the favourable outcomes

are accounted by this 120 degree. So p = 120/360 = 1/3.

(c)In fig.c, if the centre M of AB is between G and H, then

l > r sqroot(3).AB is perpendicular to FK. The favourable and

possible outcomes are addressed by all points on GH and FK

respectively. Using as their measures the respective lengths r and

2r, we have p=r/2r = 1/2.

Oops! Having three answers for same problem, all of them

seemingly plausible!? Of these ,which is correct? Where is the

bug?

We can see that these discrepancies are because of not

defining the terms favourable and possible precisely. The firs

problem can be addressed by adding a constraint that the events

should occur equally likely. This solves the problem of having 2 to

11 as the sample space, but makes this definition of probability no

usable for practical situations (where the events need not be equally

probable). In the Bertrand paradox, the subtle point that all the

three experiments are different is not made obvious by the

ambiguities involved in the classical definition.

Then how do we have a probability measure? Here comes

the relative frequency measurement which is defined with posterior

results. It is nothing but the ratio of no. of times the favourable

event occurred in the infinite (very large) no. of trials conducted. In

numerous applications it is impossible to determine the probabilitiesof various events by repeating the experiment large no. of times. In

such cases, we use the classical definition as working hypothesis

assuming that the events occur equally likely. The hypothesis is

accepted if the observable consequences agree with experience

otherwise it is rejected. So it becomes clear that what we define as

probability metric in real time applications itself varies.

Now answer the first question, what does probability near

to zero or one mean? If we have p = 0.6, we can state, to a certain

degree of confidence event A will occur. This implies that if an

experiment is conducted 1000 times the n almost certainly the no

techies arena......



of time the event occurs is between 550 and 650.In case of p = 0.999,

if the event does not occur in next trial, we can seriously doubt

whether p=0.999. However we should note that both these

assumptions are made on inductive reasoning. So we can conclude

that objective conclusion of the case having p = 0.999 is only an

inference. No prediction about future events based on experience

can be accepted as logical certainty. Our inability to make categorical

statements about future events is not limited to probability but

applied to all sciences.

The results are presented in single trial if they aredeterministic, and in several trials if they probabilistic. i.e., average

of values obtained in many trials. To prove that a future event is

certain, we must invoke a metaphysical cause, which is not possible

most of the times; and here comes the beauty of probability and

random variables.

This article is aimed at encouraging you to read

Probability, Random variables, and Stochastic processes by

Athanasios Papoulis, which illustrates the above content. It gives

us a clear picture of the basic notions involved in probability and

random variables in a new dimension.

Hi friends A new semester has dawned bright and clear

and the ECEA has already begun its activities for the

semester. For the uninitiated, ECEA stands for Electronics

and Communication Engineers Association and includes all the

students and the staff of the ECE department. Now lets take a

quick recap of the events organized by the ECEA last semester.

A QUICK RECAP

VISION 2008, the mother of all events and the pride ofthe ECE department was successfully pulled off by the ECEA. The

ECEA headed by the ex-president E. Ram Prakasam worked hard to

make the event a blockbuster. There were four crowd pulling

workshops and many interesting events. The events were

innovative and were designed to bring out the best from the

participants. The four workshops were conducted by Cypress

Semiconductors, Texas Instruments, Wipro VLSI and ISRO. The

Cypress Semiconductor workshop on PSOC (Programming Systems

On Chips) was particularly well received.

After the outstanding success of VISION 08, ECEA

conducted a Career Guidance programme for the third years at the

Muthian Auditorium. The event was a big boost to the morale ofthe students awaiting the long grind of tests and interviews for

placement.

THE NEW SEMESTER

The first week of the new semester saw the election of the

new president of the ECEA and its office bearers. The office bearers

are given in the box following this article. We wish them a very

fruitful term at their respective posts. The ECEA organized a

conference in the first week of their tenure itself. The conference

was given by Mr. Ram Mynampati of Sathyam Computers on a very

ECEA CORNER

relevant and useful topic New markets and the emerging trends

in IT. The conference was well received with close to 500 people

attending it.

Next on the ECEAs agenda is the formal inauguration o

ECEA for the new academic year. Thats all for now from this front

folks. Keep an eye on this column for updates on all exciting events

by the ECEA.

Roopini dan, Iii YEAR

Chairman Dr. N. Kumaravel

Treasurer Mrs O.Uma MaheshwariPresident S.Irulappan

Vice-President R.Vignesh

Deputy Treasurer V.Pop Richards

Secretaries S.Velavan

V.Sampath Kumar

Swathi C. Sekar

Organizing Secretaries

AB Batch R.Dhileeban

C.Sowmiya

CD Batch N.Mohan Kumar

T.Sangeetha

Joint Secretaries

AB Batch R.Kannan

S.Lakshmi

CD Batch P.Shanmuga Sundaram

T.Nilofer

Mr. S.Irulappan, ECEA President, shares his thoughts and

novel plans for the upcoming days.

Tell us something about ECEAElectronics and Communication Engineers Association

(ECEA) is a vibrant community of our department, where we share

our knowledge, experience and vision. Comprising all undergraduate

and postgraduate students and all the faculty members of our

department, it has a strength of over 1000 members. Our beloved

HOD Dr.N.Kumaravel is the chairman of the ECEA. The objectives

of ECEA are to bring together all the students of our department

and serve for the welfare of its members.

As the President of ECEA what are your duties and

responsibilities?

Providing dynamic leadership, setting high targets and

achieving them, managing events, fostering innovation anddelegating responsibilities are my agenda as President. ECEA should

serve as an open platform for students to express themselves and

showcase their creativity. My duties and responsibilities lies therein

to create such opportunities for the members of ECEA.

Can you tell us about the events for this academic year?

First of all there will be a formal meet of fourth year students

and office bearers of ECEA with our faculty members which would

serve as an ice breaking session between the faculty and ECEA

office bearers. Next, we have Directivity 08 to introduce the

department to the first year students and show the exciting journey

INTERVIEW WITH THE PRESIDENT, ECEA

.....ECEA VISTA



tutorials.....

ahead of them. This will be followed by the formal inauguration of

ECEA. Next, Project and academic guidance program for the second

years, titled Radiance 08, will inspire them to bring out their hidden

talents. And the career guidance program for the third year students

will help them make right decisions at the right time by enlightening

them of the various career options available.

Then we have the intra-college and inter-college national

level technical symposiums Resonance 08 and Vision 09

respectively. They serve as a platform where students, tuningthemselves to the right frequency, exhibit their talents. They provide

a common ground to share our visions for the future through

innovative projects and ideas that will benefit our society.

So do you have any new plans for this year, different from the

previous years?

We have planned to incorporate several changes in the

functioning of ECEA. This year ECEA is going to function through

teams consisting of members from 2nd, 3rd and 4th year. To increase

mutual interaction between the team members, industrial visits are

going to be arranged for each team. We would also seek industry

sponsored projects for us to work on, thereby increasing the

employability value of every student. To expose our students tocutting edge research going on all around the world, work is

underway to open an IEEE branch in our department.

As a President, what is your message for our friends?

ECEA is a wonderful opportunity for young men and

women like us to mould our personality and groom our skills. I

invite you to make the most out of it. And this year we are determined

to achieve our lofty goals and committed to give 110% of our effort

in terms of hard work and innovation. Share our dreams and lets

create history.

OPENCV

What is OpenCV?

OpenCV stands for open source computer vision library,

developed by Intel mainly used for real time applications. It is a

set of library functions used for image processing and computer

vision in robotics, artificial intelligence, etc. These library functions

can be used in C and Python programming languages.

Why OpenCV?

OpenCV is preferable to other applications like

MATLAB for image processing and computer vision because it

is faster than other applications (its efficiency is equal to the

efficiency of the programming languages which we use generally Cor C++), it can be used with any C compiler like Turbo C++ ,

Microsoft Visual C++, etc. It can be used with Microsoft

Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, UNIX operating systems. Moreover

it is free of cost.

To download OpenCV, use the link

http://opencvlibrary.sourceforge.net

Compiling OpenCV

Using Microsoft Visual C++

To compile the program created in Visual C++ select

Tools > Options, go to Directories tab, choose Include files in the

Show Directories for: combo box and then add the path where

OpenCV include files exists (The default installation location for

OpenCV is C:\Program Files\OpenCV\cv\include\cv.h ,

C:\program files\OpenCV\cvaux\include\cvaux.h, C:\Program

files\OpenCV\cxcore\include\cxcore.h, C:\program

files\OpenCV\otherlibs\highgui\include\highgui.h) and then in

the Show Directories for: combo box choose Library files and

then add the path of the library files in the OpenCV directory

same as above and add the library files.

Using Dev-C++

In Dev-C++ select Tools > Compiler Options, go to

directories tab and then add the necessary include and library files

as in above.

Using GCC

To compile the program using gcc use the following

command gcc I /usr/local/include/opencv L /usr/local/lib/

lhighgui lcv lcvaux lml lcxcore filename.c from a Terminal

The procedure is same for gcc in Linux UNIX and Mac OS X (for

gcc in Mac OS X).

Writing a simple program using C

Loading and displaying an image in a window using OpenCV

#include

void main()

{

IplImage* img1; /*IplImage is the data type

used to store images in OpenCV*/

img1=cvLoadImage(C:\ocv.jpg); //Loads the image to the

variable img1

cvNamedWindow(window1,4); /*Creates a window namedwindow1 if it does not exist

and does nothing if the

window already exists.*/

cvShowImage(window1,img1); /*Displays the image in a

window with title window1

the file format is recognized

using the file extension*/

cvWaitKey(0); /*Waits till the user presses any key

in the

keyboard (this function is used

because the

program will start executing the next

line which

will close the window named

window1)*/

cvMoveWindow(200,600);/*moves the current window to the

specified

point*/

cvWaitKey(0); /*waits till a key is pressed*/

cvDestroyWindow(window1); /*destroys the

window named window1, if no

PRASANNA KUMAR T.S.M, ii i year



argument is given it closes all the

windows*/

cvReleaseImage(&img1); /*Release or deallocates the memory

used for image img1*/

}

The value 4 in the cvLoadImage function indicates that the image is

of any colour, value 0 is used to load gray scale images.

Image formats that are supported in OpenCV version 1.0

are bmp, dib, jpeg, jpg, jp2, jpe, png, pbm, tiff, tif, exr, sar, sr etc.

Video file formats supported are wmv, mpeg, avi, vob etc

Functions useful for analysing video from video camera and files

CvCapture* video1=cvFileCapture(file1) captures an video file

named file1.

CvCapture* video2=cvCreateCameraCapture(0) captures the frames

from a video camera. The value 0 indicates the index of the camera

that is used; if only one camera is used -1 is given as argument.

IplImage* img1=cvGrabFrame(video1) grabs a single frame form

video1 and saves that to image img1 and stores that internally

and cannot be displayed using cvShowImage function but it isused for fast capturing and for synchronizing purposes that are

necessary in while capturing video files from many cameras.

IplImage* img2=cvRetrieveFrame(img1) retrieves the frame from

the image img1 and saves in image img2. This image img2

can be displayed using cvShowImage function.

IplImage* img3=cvQueryFrame(video2) grabs the current frame from

the camera and then retrieves it so that it can directly used with

cvShowImage function (actually it does cvGrabFrame and

cvRetrieveFrame functions)

cvReleaseCapture(&video1) deallocates the video1 from memory.

In life as in death, Field MarshallSam Manekshaw defied al

odds. The man eventually destined to be Indias first ever Field

Marshall was born on 03 April, 1914 in Amritsar. He possessed

the patrician features of a senator and also was a burly man. Sam

was the fifth childin his family. He had four brothers and two sisters

He finished his schooling fromNainitalsSherwood School. Sam

wanted to pursue his higher studies in England but his family wasn

well off to help him. So he was admitted into Hindu SabhaCollege

Amritsar. If he had gone abroad, he often reminisces that he would

have become a doctor. What doctor when queried, he replied

Gynaecologist, just like his dad.

He was a man with intense prodigies. A sincere

acquiescent and charismatic person who never abdicated any form

of responsibility offered to him. Sam alsohad a cover of subtle

attractiveness when he dresses resplendently in his green patrols

and pouch belt. He was a showman par excellence and also the

epitome of generalship. He never spilt out any form of curmudgeon

behaviour on any damn earthling. He wasnt a great sportsman. Heliked gardening, tendering roses, trimming hedges and also

manicuring the lawn.

Sams rise to giddy heights without having commanded a

battalion was unique. The highest point in his career was the

unblemished victory in East Pakistan in the year 1971. His brillian

spy war converted what would have been a UN supervised ceasefire

into a complete capitulation and surrender. He was also honoured

byKing Mahendrawho conferred on himthe title and sword of

honorary General of the Royal Nepal Army.For his selfless service

to the nation, he was awarded the Padma Vibhushan in 1972.

On 27th Jun 2008 this great personality succumbed topneumonia at 94. In wellington his last rites were performed. The

official ceremony was grossly inadequate. The President, Supreme

commander of Armed Forces, The Prime Minister and worse the

Chairman Chiefs of Staff Committee, the Air Force Chief were al

absent. Usually Queen Elizabeth of England sends roses to all her

field marshals ontheir birthdays and also attends their funerals

Here, flags were not even lowered and the affront of an explanation

for this ignominy was that the field marshal is not in the warrant of

precedence. I say thats a lie. We all have time for IPL matches

Ashes Tournament, etc ....but the big guns of the country didnt

have spare time for the war veteran, who spent his entire life serving

our nation.What a shame?

THE WAR VETERAN FROM AMRITSAR

VISSWANATH v, II I YEAR

Triv

iaCorner It is physically impossible for pigs to look upinto the sky

A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.

The human heart creates enough pressurewhen it pumps out to the body to squirt blood

30 feet

Heisenberg is out for a drive when hesstopped by a traffic cop. The cop says Do

you know how fast you were going?

Heisenberg says No, but I know where I am.

You cant kill yourself by holding your

breath

Women blink nearly twice as much as men!

Coca-Cola was originally green

....legends

FAMOUS QUOTES

"The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do

him absolutely no good."

- Samuel Johnson

"There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear

to them except in the form of bread."

- Mahatma Gandhi

An inch of time is an inch of gold but you can't buy that inch of

time with an inch of gold.

-Chinese Proverb



A GLIMPSE OF THE INFLATION RAGE IN

INDIA

Bharanidharan B, iv year

Do you know why a loaf of bread costs $50 million in

Zimbabwe? Do you know why an item which cost 10

paise during our parents time costs Rs 10 now? Moreover,

it seems that the cost of living is surging in India, the profits of

many Indian companies are dipping, the US dollar seems fragileand USA is apparently in a recession. So, whats all the fuss about?

Through this article, lets have a brief look at the nuts and bolts of

inflation and its ramifications in India.

In simple terms, inflation is nothing but the increase in the

average level of prices of commodities and services of a nation.

Lets consider the following analogy to understand inflation in

India. Assume that there is a Grand Prix motor race analogous to the

world, while each car on the track represents a world nation. The

speed of each car indicates the economic growth of a nation. So as

in every race, the ultimate aim of every car is to stay ahead of its

rivals in the race track. Similarly every nation wants to have a better

economic growth than its comrades. Every car wants to travel fastbut if it travels too fast it may skid off the track. Similarly the

economy of any nation having a high growth rate is welcomed but

sooner or later it may enter into inflation.

Besides the high growth rate of India; the soaring oil prices,

high demand for commodities such as steel, skyrocketing food

prices and other such global phenomena are the root causes for

escalating inflation in India. Furthermore, its not that only growing

economies have a high inflation rate. For instance Guinea, one of

the worlds poorest nations, has an inflation rate greater than that

of India, the second fastest growing economy. Several other factors

may also fuel inflation. This may include skirmishes, political

instability, failing crop yield, wide-scale unemployment, natural

calamities, etc.

In India, the second fastest growing economy, more people

want to consume more commodities or goods, so the manufacturers

produce more goods for when the demand is high, the supply is

also high. But to produce more finished goods, the manufacturers

have to buy or consume more raw materials which will in turn lead

to an increase in the cost of raw materials and man power. Thus the

prices of the finished products will be elevated. Those with higher

incomes start consuming more goods which again increases

demand. Thus the prices of the finished goods keep rising further

since the demand is high. This leads to inflation. Eventually manypeople want the finished goods, but all of them cannot afford it.

The worst affected are the working class since they are denied

access to the basic amenities of life while the middle class will have

to cut down on expenditures to make both ends meet.

In the analogy considered previously, whenever a car

travels too fast it slows down so that it can stabilise. Similarly the

growth rate of a nation may slow down so that it can stabilise its

economy, and when this is continued for more than six months it

enters into recession. This is what is happening to USA. A prolonged

recession may in turn lead to a depression.

Inflation rate, the yardstick of inflation, is calculated on

the basis of either WPI (Wholesale Price Index) or CPI (Consumer

Price Index). The former is used by nations like India, Philippines

etc while the latter is used by USA, China, Japan, etc. In simple

terms, inflation rate is the percentage change of either WPI or CPI

WPI is an indicator designed to measure the changes in the price

levels of commodities that flow into the wholesale trade

intermediaries while CPI is a measure of the weighted average o

prices of a specified set of goods and services purchased by

consumers.

To understand the significance of inflation rate, lets

consider the following example. Suppose, one invests Rs 100 in

India (where the inflation rate is around 11 %) and the interest rate

is 5% per annum. The investor gets Rs 105 at the end of the firs

year. Since the inflation rate is 11 %, an item that costs Rs 100 today

will cost Rs 111 a year from now. Thus what the investor would buy

with Rs.100 this year, he would only be able to buy withRs.111 nex

year. Therefore the investor is actually losing money because the

inflation rate is more than the rate of investment. Similarly inflation

is also the reason why an item which costs 10 paise during our

parents time costs Rs 10 now.

The consequences of inflation are traumatizing. For

instance, 4 out of 5 people are unemployed and basic amenities of

life are denied to majority of the people in Zimbabwe where the

inflation rate is a whopping 355,000%. The junta controlled Myanma

and the war-torn Iraq are no exceptions. In a nutshell

unprecedented inflation causes undesirable woes.

Compared to the 355,000 % of Zimbabwe, the 11 % inflation

rate of India may seem nugatory. Sceptics even say that its not the

actual inflation thats causing all the trouble in India, but its the

way that inflation is calculated since Indias uses the WPI as

opposed to the CPI which is used by any other major economy

Taking into consideration that the working class accounts for morethan 50% of the population in India while more than 20 million

people live under the poverty line, even a small change in the

economy may thwart the progress of our nation though one can be

assured that the economist of repute, Dr. Manmohan Singh would

do his best to have the situation under control.

T

his is the catch-word that has attained the status of a

shibboleth. The much clichd Subprime crisis more often

than not should be viewed with a wider connotation attached

to it. Its a crisis fuelled by the avarice and the greed of many sub-

prime lenders. The term sub-prime is invariably attached to mortgage

which is something like borrowing money usually from banks to

buy off or build a house. What could have triggered the crisis that

has become a monster and vitiating the already volatile markets

and presumably bolstering stagflation?

The greed toreap short-time profits is culpable

Why would subprime lenders put themselves in this precarious

position? The simple answer is that they thought they had a system

to mitigate their risk while still making a profit. After they got the

borrower to sign on the dotted line, the lending institutions

SUBPRIME CRISIS

Saravanan p , iv year

Nitty-Gritty....


11/12



gaiety.....

helping mankind to realize journeys

extending light years into space.

Now, can you identify my face?

( 3)During the Great War between Illianers and Tairens, a

thousand Tairen soldiers were captured as prisoners of war by

the Illianers and were doomed to death in a most horrible way by

the evil King of Illian. They were made to stand in a circle and

were numbered from one to thousand. A sword was given to the

first soldier and he was asked to chop the head of the secondand give the sword to the third. The third will kill the fourth and

pass the sword to the fifth and so on. This process will continue

until only one man was left. Can you guess who that lucky guy

would be?

(4)How would you find the approximate radius of the earth by

just using a five minute stopclock? By the way, I love watching

sunsets.

(5)Eighty one horses are to participate in horse races. Only nine

horses are allowed to participate in a single race. Can you find

the minimum number of races that must be conducted, in order to

find the fastest four horses among the eighty one?

(6)Many modern TV's draw power even if turned off. The circuit

the power is used in does what function?

(7)When yellow light is incident on a surface, no electrons are

emitted while when green light is incident, electrons are emitted.

If red light is incident on the surface, then what is expected ?

(8)If Intels quad-core processor is called Xeon then what is the

name for AMDs quad core processor?

(9)Many engineering books state Marconi as the inventor of

radio. But Mr.X had obtained the patent for it in 1900 which was

shockingly reversed and given to Marconi in 1904(partly because

of the latters powerful financial backing).Finally in 1943,the US

Supreme Court declared Mr.X as the primary inventor of Radio

and rightfully so, for Marconi had used 17 patents owned by

Mr.X. Who was Mr.X?

17. Electronic Gadget that rocked the music world (4)

18. Defines Telecommunication standards (4)

21. On seeing Aragog, the giant spider, a baffled Ron inverted

himself digitally(2)

22. Expand the first letter of 19 down (5)

23. Electronic gaming company (2)

26. I had plum and date to get modulation of voice (9)

DOWN

2. Inverted Chlorine loves oscillations (2)3. Edible Circuit (4)

4. Gets logical address using physical address (4)

5. Heard of computational complexity?

6. Makes DRAMs volatile (9)

7. Put on your footwear properly for better performance (9)

11. As opposed to a generator (5)

12. Get a taste of digital logic (5)

14. Head of a crowbar can be used to observe signals (3)

19. Programming language for ASICs (4)

20. Part of a connected datastructure (4)

24. Contribution of electronics to the entertainment industry (2)

25. Tail of US capital did a volte-face to store data (2)

editors

Arun Chekhov I & Bharanidharan B

principal correspondents

Anish A

Arun Goud

Arun S

Harish Guruprasad

Karthyek RajhaaSaravanan P

third year generators

Prasanna Kumar TSM

Roopini Dan

Sheerapthinath OS

Sindhu A

Visswanath V

[email protected]

Mail your entries to [email protected]. Exciting prizes

await the first few entries with maximum right answers.

CLUESACROSS

1. They flow against the current (9)

8. Who said only humans had brains? (2)

9. Medium used for brief communication (5)

10. Jupiters companion qualifies microprocessors pins (2)13. Converts characters to numbers (4)

15. Bell Labs (4)

16. A handy processor (3)

CROSSWORD

Ganesh c & Arun Chekhov I, IV year

Documents

PULSE August 2008