NEWSLETTER
A House  Journal of
IEEE Kerala Section
Volume 13 Number 4
October - December 2004

Contents

Chairman's Message
Dairy of Events
Fourthcoming Events
Annual General Meeting
IEEE Code of Ethics
Section Activities
Computer Society Activities
IA & IE and PES Chapter Activities
Students Activities
Women in Engineering Affinity Group
Attention Economy
RFID: An Emerging Technology
Tamper-proof energy metering system
Editorial
GLOBAL NEWS - News around IEEE
IEEE – National Seminar On BIOINFORMATICS

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Chairman’s Message

Dear Members of the IEEE:

In the beginning of 2004, I made you some promises. Looking back, I could say with satisfaction that with generous cooperation and support from you, we in the executive committee have been able to live up to that commitment. During the year, the Executive Committee met in Ernakulam to interact with IEEE members residing in the northern parts of Kerala. We formed a steering group from among those members to take initiative in organizing and conducting various technical events and programs on a regular basis in and around Ernakulam. Since then, this team has been active in conducting a number of technical events of interest to IEEE members in that area. If we could sustain this tempo, we hope to form a Kochi Sub-Section of IEEE in due course. During the year, we were able to revive the dormant IA and IE chapter thanks to the volunteers who were willing to give their time and energy for the cause. Formation of a new Communications chapter in the Section has also been approved. We started the year with 9 student branches. During the year 9 more new student branches got approved. Now it is essential that we sustain this momentum.

In January 2005 the President of the IEEE Mr. W. Cleon Anderson would be visiting us. He would inaugurate the National Seminar on Bio-informatics (BIOS-2005) and also participate in our AGM as the guest of honor.

Let us remind ourselves that to be a member in IEEE is to be a volunteer, to do good without expecting anything in return but satisfaction of a job well done for the betterment of the society, of which we are a significant and vibrant part.

May God bless you and your families in 2005 in an excellent way for beyond your dreams and expectations!

EE. Rajakumar

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Diary of Events

06-10-2004	“Electronic Content Management using RSS and Wiki”, talk by Amarnath Raja, InApp, Technopark, Thiruvananthapuram.
13-10-2004	“Stephen Hawking – The living legend in Theoritical Physics”, talk by A.K Ashraf, LPSC, ISRO, Thiruvananthapuram.
20-10-2004	“Getting started with Extreme Programming”, talk by Abbas K. Sutarwala, Senior faculty, TCS, Thiruvananthapuram.
27-10-2004	“Bioenergy – Technologies & Relevance”, talk by P. Valsaraj, Scientist, ANERT, Thiruvananthapuram.
30-10-2004	“Theory and Practice of Vastuvidya”, lecture by Balagopal T.S. Prabhu, Chairman, Saraswat Academy of Higher Education, Calicut.
30-10-2004	One day programme organized by PES at NIT, Calicut.
03-11-2004	“Identity Theft”, talk by Ravikumar. P, Deputy Director, CDAC, Thiruvananthapuram.
04-11-2004	“E-Commerce”, talk in association with CSI, Kochi Chapter at Kochi.
04-11-2004	“Digital Cinema” lecture by Anand Parthasarathy at Kochi with CSI and ASI.
6,07-11-2004	ESPAC at NSS Engineering College, Pal hat.
10-11-2004	Technical talk on "E-Learning" organized by GOLD.
13-11-2004	Distinguished Visitor Programme on Power Quality by Rao. S. Thallam at Cochin organized by PES Chapter and IA & IE Chapter of IEEE Kerala Section.
16-11-2004	Distinguished Visitor Programme on Power Quality by Rao S Thallam at Thiruvananthapuram organized by PES Chapter and IA & IE Chapter of IEEE Kerala Section.
24-11-2004	"How Organisations Learn", talk by K.R. Ramachandran, Head HR Department, TCS, Thiruvananthapuram.
27-11-2004	Executive meeting of IEEE Kerala Section at 16.30 Hrs, at Harmonieee, Thiruvananthapuram.
11-12-2004	"Neuro-Computers and Industrial Applications", speech by R. Sreeram Kumar, Assistant Professor, Dept of EE, NIT, Calicut at 17.00 Hrs at Kalpaka Auditorium, Calicut organized by IE & IA Society with IE(I) Calicut Local Centre.
15-12-2004	"Crisis Management Through IT Infrastructure Planning", presentation by K. Mani Chandy, Professor of California Institute of Technology, Pasadena at 15.00 Hrs at Travancore Hall, Park Centre, Technopark, Thiruvananthapuram.
21-12-2004	"Mobile Computing", lecture by K.N. Prem Kumar, Head, Broadband Network for the State of Kerala, Reliance Infocomm Limited at Med Seminar Hall organized by IA & IE Society and IEEE NIT Student Branch, Calicut.
22-12-2004	"Electronic Meter Problems and Solutions", talk by K.K. Vasu, Thiruvananthapuram.
27-12-2004	A meeting of Professionals and Industry People at 19.00 Hrs at Hotel South Park, Thiruvananthapuram. Chief Guest: Eugene Magouarou, Vice President, Chamber of Commerce.
29-11-2004	"Electricity Sector - Emerging Technical Trends", talk by N. T. Nair, Technical Advisor, CMS Computers Ltd, Thiruvananthapuram.

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Forthcoming Events
05-01-2005	Executive meeting of IEEE Kerala Section at Harmonieee at 18.30 Hrs.
05-01-2005	"Microsilica for Super Concrete", talk by Kshemendra Nath. P, Deputy Managing Director, Elkem India Private Limited, Mumbai.
17-01-2005	Annual General Meeting (AGM) 2004 of IEEE Kerala at Mascot Hotel, Thiruvananthapuram at 18.30 Hrs. Chief Guest: IEEE President Cleon Anderson.
17,18-01-2005	National Seminar on "Bioinformatics" organized by IEEE Kerala Section at Hotel Mascot, Thiruvananthapuram. Visit of IEEE President Cleon Anderson.
18-01-2005	Meeting of LINK - representatives of all Student Branches of Kerala Section at College of Engineering, Chengannur. Inauguration of "Centre of Excellence".
January 2005	E-Week programme in different Schools organized by WIE Kerala Section.
February 2005	“Neuro-Computers & Industrial Applications”, a talk by R.Sreeramkumar, Asst Professor, Department of EE, NIT, at Kalpaka Auditorium, Calicut organized by IE & IA Chapter of IEEE Kerala.

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Annual General Meeting

The AGM of IEEE Kerala Section will be held at 18:30 Hrs on 17 th January 2005 at Mascot Hotel, Thiruvananthapuram.

AGENDA

Silent Prayer

Pledge – Code of Ethics

Welcome

Annual Report

Financial Report

Chapter Reports

Student branch Reports

Election of Office Bearers for 2005

Felicitations

Address by IEEE President

Address by new Chairman

Future Activities

General Discussions

Vote of Thanks

 

- Sasi P.M

Secretary, IEEE Kerala Section

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IEEE Code of Ethics

We, the members of the IEEE, in recognition of the importance of our technologies in affecting the quality of life throughout the world, and in accepting a personal obligation to our profession, its members and the communities we serve, do hereby commit ourselves to the highest ethical and professional conduct and agree:

 

1. to accept responsibility in making engineering decisions consistent with the safety, health and welfare of the public, and to disclose promptly factors that might endanger the public or the environment;
2. to avoid real or perceived conflicts of interest whenever possible, and to disclose them to affected parties when they do exist;
3. to be honest and realistic in standing claims or estimates based on available data;
4. to reject bribery in all its forms;
5. to improve the understanding of technology, its appropriate application, and potential consequences;
6. to maintain and improve our technical competence and to undertake technological tasks for others only if qualified by training or experience, or after full disclosure of pertinent limitations;
7. to seek, accept, and offer honest criticism of technical work, to acknowledge and correct errors, and to credit properly the contributions of others;
8. to treat fairly all persons regardless of such facts as race, religion, gender, disability, age, or national origin;
9. to avoid injuring others, their property, reputation, or employment by false or malicious action;
10. to assist colleagues and co-workers in their professional development and to support them in following this code of ethics.

 

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Section Activities

ETHICS FOR ENGINEERS

On 08-09-2004 M. Somasekharan, Manager (Admin), T.C.S, Technopark, Thiruvananthapuram, gave a talk on “Ethics for Engineers”. Ethics is a code of conduct. It is a frame-work to operate the business based on certain values. Respect rules and regulations. In business, care must be taken not to sacrifice the interest of the Nation. Be neutral to all political parties. Bribes in the form of gifts, donations and the like must be avoided. All dealings must be with professionalism, honesty, integrity with high moral and ethical standards and be transparent. Professional and Business Ethics, if sincerely practiced will bring about reputation, leadership with trust, enhanced customer based, dedicated work-force and reliability.

MALAYALAM TEXT TO SPEECH

Jose Stephen, Senior Research Fellow, CDAC, Thiruvananthapuram, presented a talk on “MALAYALAM TEXT TO SPEECH” on 22-09-2004. The presentation was an introduction to Text-to-Speech technology and the processes involved in the development of a concatenative diphonic Text-to Speech system for Malayalam, using MBROLA Technique. The main processes in the development of this system were the creation of a diphonic database and text processing. The creation of diphonic databases involves various processes like creating a text corpus, recording the corpus, segmenting the speech corpus into diphones etc. Text processing involves handling of abbreviations, sentence delimiters, numerals etc. and converting text to phonetic language. The Presentation also gave a short description of different approaches for Speech Synthesis and described the emphasis on the importance of natural language processing in development of a high quality Text-To- Speech system. The system developed in name “Subhashini”.

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PROJECT PERFORMANCE

Brajesh C, Project Manager & Head of Project Performance & Learning Group, Network Systems & Technologies ( Nest ), Thiruvananthapuram delivered a talk on “Project performance on Earned value” on 29-09-2004. Earned Value is a management technique. It relates Resource Planning to Schedules and to Technical costs and Schedule Requirements. All work is planned, budgeted and scheduled in time-phased “Planned Value” increments constituting a cost and schedule measurement baseline. It integrates the cost schedule and technical performance for Project Management on a structured and personalized basis. Three elements of data are required to analyse performance, from which more information can be extracted than from two element variance analysis. These elements are (1) Budgeted cost of Work Scheduled (BCWS) (2) Actual Cost of Work performed (ACWP) or Earned Value (EV). The Earned Value is the Budgeted value in terms of cost or man-hours, of work actually completed. Earned value is a powerful approach for evaluating true Project Performance. It also helps to predict the estimated time to complete the project based on the current performance.

RURAL DEVELOPMENT

On 04-10-2004 C.V.Ananda Bose I.A.S, Principal Secretary, Forest & Wild Life, Government of Kerala presented a theme “Cities – Engines of Rural Development”. Cities and villages can not exist in exclusive isolation. Their existence is complementary to one another. The U.N. projection is that by 2020 A.D., 60 % of the world population will be city dwellers. In general for employment, marketing rural raw materials, etc., the migration is from the rural areas to the urban localities. Recently it is observed that a reverse migration because of cost- attractiveness in respect of labour, land and raw materials is taking place. The transformation from manufacturing industrial cities to information management centres, calls for connectivity and appropriate infrastructure. Kerala, which achieved total literacy, can also bring about fulfillment of the vision of “total housing” through determination, dedication and technology-input by Engineers with people-support.

ELECTRONICS CONTENT MANAGEMENT

Amarnath Raja, CEO, InApp, Thiruvananthapuram presented the topic “Electronics Content Management” on 06-10-2004. Earlier the managers of web site were interested in keeping the content to themselves. The new wave of thought is to disseminate content and to let others share one’s original content. The primary aim is to distribute the content that is generated. The content is more important than one’s site. This thinking has led to the rise of content syndication or sharing content among sites. Such content may include New feeds, Event listings, scientific updates, etc. The most popular of the technologies adopted has been Resource Description Framework Site Summary (RSS). The other new arrival at the scene of content management is community content development and publication. In this model many people cooperate and develop a coherent content for everyone to share. The “Wiki”, developed by Ward Cunningham is the single most innovative idea in collaborative mechanism that is sweeping the internet currently.

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STEPHEN HAWKING

On 13-10-2004 A.K.Ashraf, LPSC, ISRO, Thiruvananthapuram gave a lecture on “Stephen Hawking-The Living Legend in Theoretical Physics”. Stephen William Hawking was born on 8 January 1942 (300 years after the death of Galileo) in Oxford, England. He secured first class honours degree in Natural Science (Physics) at University College Oxford. Did research in Cosmology at Cambridge. After leaving the Institute of Astronomy in 1973. Stephen came to the Dept. of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics and since 1979 has held the post of Lucasian Professor of Mathematics. This chair was founded in 1663 based on the will of Reverend Henry Lucas who had been the M.P for the University. In 1663, this chair was occupied by Sir. Issac Newton. Stephen Hawking has worked on the basic laws which govern the universe. With Roger Penrose he showed that Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity implied space and time would have a beginning in the Big Bang and an end in black holes. In unifying General Relativity with Quantum. Theory, he discovered that black holes emit radiation (Hawking radiation) and evaporate and eventually disappear. His book “A brief history of time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes” is quite popular.

EXTREME PROGRAMMING

Abbas K.Sutarwala, TCS, Thiruvananthapuram presented the topic “Getting Started with Extreme Programming” on 20-10-2004. “Extreme Programming” (XP) is a new methodology to improve the process of software development. It emphasizes personal and team practices that lead to reduced defects, better design and more enjoyable programming. The four following practices were elaborated. “Test-Driven Development”, “Pair Programming”, “Quick Iterations” and “Customer on the team”. The XP facilitates maintenance of enjoyable relationships, meeting the schedule, effort & cost estimates and also in getting good value from juniors in the company.

BIOENERGY – TECHNOLOGY & RELEVANCE

On 27-10-2004 P. Valsaraj, Scientist, ANERT presented the topic “Bioenergy – Technology and Relevance”. Bioenergy is environment friendly. It is renewable. Solar energy through photosynthesis gets converted to Chemical energy in plants. This chemical energy in plants can be utilized by direct conversion as heat energy. Also this becomes useful forms of energy through gasification or fermentation. The bioenergy is becoming highly relevant in the present context in which a combination of actors such as population increases, burning of fossil fuels and consequent green house effects.

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IDENTITY THEFT

Ravikumar P, Dy. Director CDAC presented the topic “Identity Theft” on 03-11-2004. Keep a watch out for people standing near you in the checkout line at retail stores, restaurants, grocery stores, etc. that have a cell phone in hand. With the new camera cell phones, they can take a picture of your credit card, which gives them your name, number and expiration date. Identity theft is one of the fastest growing scams today, and this is just another example of the means that are being used. So be aware of your surroundings.

Credit card numbers driver’s license numbers, social security numbers, and other personal identification can net criminals thousands of dollars in a very short period of time. While the financial loss incurred by this type of crime is not always incurred by the consumer, it can significantly traumatize them, and take those months if not years to restore their credit and good name, and may keep them from being able to cash cheques, obtain loans, or even rent an apartment or obtain utilities.

E-LEARNING

On 10-11-2004 presented the topic “E-learning”. E-Learning has become very important in recent times; e-learning is used by companies for keeping their employees current and up-to-date on technologies. It is used in all forms of training, starting from the Initial learning of a new recruit to Certification courses. The talk covered different types of e-learning like synchronous and asynchronous. It also created awareness on the standards that are followed on e-learning.

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Computer Society Activities

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IA & IE and PES Chapter Activities

Distinguished Lecturer Programme on Power Quality

Rao S Thallam was in Kerala from 11 th November to 17 th November 2004. Though the original schedule for DL was only at Thiruvananthapuram, Rao was kind enough to accept our invitation to give a lecture at Cochin also during his stay in Kerala.

Cochin Programme

The Cochin meeting was hosted by PES Chapter and IA & IE Chapter of IEEE Kerala Section on 13 th November 2004 at Hotel Woods Manor, MG Road, Ernakulam. There were two technical sessions and in:

Technical session 1 - Rao gave presentation on Power Quality and Harmonic Application Standards. The presentation on Power Quality reviewed the Power Quality problems, Voltage Sags and Momentary Interruption and its impact on equipments, Dynamic Voltage regulators and Dynamic UPS installations etc. In the presentation on Harmonics – Applications Standards, Total Harmonics Distortion, Total Demand Distortion factor, Application IEEE 519 Standards, Harmonics Measurements etc. were discussed in detail.

Technical session 2 - Two papers were presented by experts from CDAC, Thiruvananthapuram based on their practical experience on Power Quality issues:

1). A case study of Power Quality Issues and Solutions in a Mini Steel Plant by Subhash Joshi and Haneesh A.S. 2). Implementation of Unified Power Quality Controller by Ganesan.P.

The meeting started at 2:00 pm and lasted till 5:45 pm. The attendance was steady through out the meeting. There were 28 delegates for the meeting of which there were 5 IEEEE Members and 23 non-members.

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Thiruvananthapuram Programme

This is the fourth year in succession of the PES Chapter of IEEE Kerala Section is hosting the distinguished lecture program. The tutorial on Power Quality was held on 16 th November 2004 at Hotel Horizon, Thiruvananthapuram. Rao gave detailed presentation on Power Quality and Harmonic Application Standards. The presentation on Power Quality reviewed the Power Quality problems, Voltage Sags and Momentary Interruption and its impact on equipments, Dynamic Voltage regulators and Dynamic UPS installations etc. In the presentation on Harmonics – Applications Standards, Total Harmonics Distortion, Total Demand Distortion factor, Application IEEE 519 Standards, Harmonics Measurements etc.

Altogether there were 29 delegates (of which 5 were IEEE Members) from different fields academia, industries, power utilities, R&D organisations etc. The meeting started at 9:30 am and concluded at 1:00 pm. Rao and his family also visited Cape Comerin, Kovalam Beach, Alleppey Back Waters and Historic places in and around Cochin, during their stay in Kerala. IEEE Kerala Section hosted a dinner on 16 th November honouring Rao and family.

Simon PV

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Students Activities

College Of Engineering Chengannur

(September – December 2004)

Introduction to Robotics under IEEE Robotics Initiative

Anil Ramachandran and Deepu John (final year IEEE members) conducted a two-day workshop for the second and third year members in September. It included topics such as parallel port programming, motors, robotics arms, motion sensors and so on. The participants were given hands on experience on controlling computer controlled variable speed motors.

Electronics classes for first year students

Soby Mathew, Vishnu O., third year IEEE members guided the first year students with their basic electronics class. Ashwath P of the first year spoke on the basic topics while Soby Mathew and Vishnu O. introduced the first year students to advanced topics. This program was conducted in the last week of October.

Internet Familiarization for first year students

Anil Ramachandran also conducted an Internet familiarization class for the first year students in the third week of December. He spoke about basic Internet utilities, various protocols, using Google efficiently, website administration etc. Students were given live demonstration on commands such as ping, tracert, ipconfig etc.

Personality Development Classes

A personality development program was conducted on the third week of December. Vargheese Cherian, a specialist in handling personality developments spent three hours interacting with the students. He stressed the importance of teamwork and apprised the student members who organized the event. Students were made to play various games that truly showed up the need to work as a team and to understand each other’s abilities.

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Elixir ’04 (Spave)

Our student branch successfully conducted Spave ’04 in September 2004. It was a 11-day ‘marathon’ event which saw participation by delegates from 15 different colleges in Kerala. The main events were in the last two days of Elixir; on 20 th and 21 st of September. ‘The Firm’, a quiz competition, invited much applause and participation. Elixir concluded with an open forum for the delegates, the chief guest of which was Gopakumar S, the Student Activities Chair of Kerala section. Many delegates spoke up representing their student branches. It was here that the foundation for link was built. The fest was widely appreciated and applauded.

LINK Activities

Jaison Abey Sabu and Anoop Mammen, second year members of our student branch had visited an engineering college at Thrissur and gave awareness about IEEE. A program was organized by the student branch at Ernakulam in the second week of October. Student members from various colleges in Kerala had come and a full day interactive session with Gopakumar. S was conducted. Various problems faced by the students were discussed and their solutions were discussed.

Nisha Kurvilla, our branch councilor conducted an awareness program at College of Engineering, Adoor. This was conducted in November. Out student branch is now actively guiding the student branch of Gurukulam Engineering College.

 

IEEE STUDENT BRANCH NIT CALICUT ACTIVITIES

ACTIVITIES REPORT

(September – December 2004)

WORKSHOPS / SEMINARS
Sl No	Topic	Speaker/ Resource Person	Date
1	Workshop on Microsim (pSpice)	K S Suresh Kumar, Asst Professor, EED,NIT Calicut	22-24 th Sept 2004
2	Workshop on “ Soft Skills for Engineers”:
	1.Art of Communication	Gopakumar S, VSSC, TVM	25th Oct 2004
	2.Career Prospects	Aju Thomas Abraham, TCS, TVM
	3.Technical Paper Writing	Koshy Vaidyan, TCS, TVM

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TECHNICAL TALKS

1	Work Strategies for Star Performance	Satish Kumar Menon, Head Systems Engineering. MAPS Geosystems, UAE	12 th Aug 2004
2	“ Artificial Neural Networks ”	R Sreeramkumar, Asst Professor, EE Dept, NIT Calicut	17 th Aug 2004
3	Does IT Matter	Saji Gopinath, Associate Professor, Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode(IIMK)	30 th Sept 2004
4	Need for Achievement	T K Suresh Babu, Asst Professor, Mechanical Engineering, NIT Calicut	20 th October 2004
5	Power Electronics – Taming the Electrical Power	C M Varghese, MD, IGATECH , Kochi	27th October, 2004
K P Mohandas Branch Counselor			Arun Singh Secretary

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Women in Engineering Affinity Group

IEEE Student Branch

College Of Engineering Chengannur

WIE Branch was established in the college on 7 th February 2004. The Chief Guest for the inaugural ceremony was Y Annama Vargheese, Deputy Director, Rubber Research Institute of India. As a part of the inaugural function, a quiz was conducted. Four teams qualified for the finals. The best team and the runners up were given prizes by the student branch councilor, Nisha Kuruvilla.

Since the establishment, WIE has been active in the college. As a part of the activities, a Career Guidance Program was conducted on March 3 rd. A large group of students were made aware of the current job scenario and higher education options in the filed of Engineering. The college Principal, V.P. Devassya, Head of Departments, Jyothiraj and Smitha Jyothiraj and the branch councilor, Nisha Kuruvilla answered the queries of the students during this event. The event spanned over two hours.

On September 2004, Githin F Alapatt and Sooraj C.G., second year members conducted a hardware familiarization workshop for the second year students. The participants assembled a computer from scratch. Thirty-five second year students took part in the program. All queries about computer hardware were answered. They also gave a demonstration on installing GNU/Linux OS on the computer.

Sajan Mathew presented a seminar on Carbon Nano Tube displays for the second and third year students on October 4 th, 2004. Thirty students attended the seminar and it was very informative.

The WIE members constituted the Hospitality Committee, which worked for ELIXIR ‘04 (SPAVe), which was held in September. The hospitality extended to the visiting delegates was highly appreciated by them. They were also in charge for following up the responses of the participants for the program.

WIE has proposed to take up Internet familiarization classes for schools in the district in the month of February. Students from various schools in and around the locality of the college will be given hands on experience on Internet and its working.

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Attention Economy

Compiled by: N.T.Nair, Editor, IEEE India Bulletin

How does Yahoo! provide us e-mail service with a whopping 250 MB space, free of cost? The numerous TV channels, in a similar way, provide programmes without charging us. Obviously, the people behind these make money, as otherwise these business models would not have been continuing. The secret is the emergence of a whole new form of economy called “Attention Economy”, where traditional wealth becomes less important than the ability to capture people’s attention.

By definition, economics is the study of how a society uses its scarce resources. And information is not scarce - especially on the Net, where it is not only abundant, but overflowing. We are drowning in information, yet constantly increasing our generation of it. So a key question arises: Is there something else that flows through cyberspace, something that is scarce and desirable? There is. No one would put anything on the Internet without the hope of obtaining some. It's called attention. And the economy of attention - not information - is the natural economy of cyberspace. Attention has its own behavior, its own dynamics, its own consequences. An economy built on it will be different than the familiar material-based one.

There are a good number of people who have become millionaires by devising websites which people want to visit. Their money making secret is quite simple: advertising and sponsorship. It’s just the same as with commercial TV too: we don’t pay to watch the programmes. The programmes are paid for by advertisers, who, in return, get to display their advertisements (ads) to audiences alongside the shows.

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In the same way, we get to access Web services, such as the Yahoo! directory for free. The only price we pay is being exposed to some inescapable ads. Yahoo! is in a great position to scoop up advertising revenues, because it can ‘deliver’ ads to people who are actually interested in particular things. For example, the kind of people who look for information about ‘dogs’ in Yahoo! are exactly the people that dog food manufacturers are targeting.

Numerous other Web services such as free e-mail and free Web space are paid for in the same way. The user is pleased to get these handy services for no payment, the advertiser is pleased to be able to flash their messages directly at the user and the service provider is pleased to take money from the advertiser.

The scarce resource which everybody with a presence on the Internet is struggling for is ‘attention’. On the Net, information or money is not the most important scarce resource. The Web contains oceans of information, but its scarce resource is attention, because there is so much information out there, and everyone has so little time to look at it. The success on the Web is to have lots of people giving attention to a site, instead giving it to another site. Attention is what everyone wants.

Big companies don’t automatically get attention on the Web simply because they have lot of money, create a flashy multimedia Web site, and generate awareness of it through conventional media and promotions. If the site has no engaging content, it will not win attention. If a commercial website does not have the right content, other websites will not link to it, it will not be talked about in e-mail discussions or on newsgroups, and will not be visited by people who matter.

Any website which is full of appealing and regularly updated content has a better chance of getting attention. By getting linked to other websites, and listed in directories, search engines, and magazines, a website can come to command a lot of attention.

Some experts have funnily opined that money will become less important and that attention will be the new wealth. But since money shows little sign of extinction at the moment, perhaps it’s a better use of the basic argument to say that attention certainly does equal wealth in the new economy.

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RFID: An Emerging Technology

Satish Babu, Vice President, InApp Information Technologies, Technopark, Trivandrum

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) refers to electronic labelling and wireless identification of objects. The object to be identified carries a small device called the RFID tag (or transponder) that contains identification data, and which can be queried and/or modified using a reader. The reader is controlled by software that runs on a host computer, and the can be used for various tasks including identification, and modification of data contained in the tag.

In many ways, RFID is similar to bar codes that are commonly utilized. Bar codes are visual, machine-readable representation of data stored in widths and spacings of parallel lines (other representations are also available). Bar codes are readable using bar code readers. First conceived of in 1948, the first bar code reader was designed by an IBM employee in 1952. It took until 1973 for bar codes to enter popular use. The main differences between bar codes and RFID is summarized in the table below.

.	Bar code	RFID
Type of transmission	Optical	Radiofrequency
Size of data	Less than 100 bytes	Up to about 32 kilobytes
Data modifiable?	No	Yes (active tags)
Type of communication	Line-of-sight	Non- line-of-sight
Communication range	A few meters	Up to a 100 meters
Security of information access	None	Programmable authentication
Susceptibility to dust and dirt	High	Low
Collision between devices	Possible	Can be avoided

The first use of RFID is reported to for espionage purposes as long back as the 1940s. They were also reportedly used by the Royal Air Force to distinguish between friend and foe aircrafts. A paper written by Harry Stockman in 1948 entitled “Communication by Means of Reflected Power” laid the foundation for passive RFID tags (see below). RFID tags have been used for animal tracking for conservation purposes from the seventies. This technology is set to enter pervasive use in another 2-3 years.

RFID Tags

RFID is implemented using tags and readers. Tags are small devices that are attached or incorporated into the product or object to be identified. Tags may be affixed to objects using adhesive tape, embedded in packaging, mounted on a belt for use with animals, or even embedded under the human skin. Tags have an antenna to receive and retransmit electromagnetic signals.

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RFID tags are of two types: passive and active

A passive tag does not have a source of power, but uses a minute part of the power radiated by the reader to transmit identification information back to the reader. The tiny voltage induced at the antenna of the tag by the electromagnetic radiation put out by the readers is sufficient for these to make a brief transmission. In most cases, only an Globally-Unique ID (GUID) is transmitted. Since they do not carry a power source, passive tags can be made very small: the smallest size as of today is 0.4 mm x 0.4 mm and thinner than a sheet of paper. The range of passive tags vary from about 10mm to about 5 meters. Passive tags do not have reader-modifiable memories. Passive tags are relatively cheap, costing upwards of US$ 0.25.

Active tags have built-in batteries that last up to several years (some tags use replaceable batteries, while others are throw-away types). These have higher range, and have write-enabled memory that can be modified through the reader. The smallest active tags are now the size of a coin, and have ranges up to several tens of meters.

RFID Frequencies

RFID operates at different bands in the frequency spectrum, and have different operational characteristics depending on the frequency band. There are four bands that are presently available: Low Frequency (125 - 134 KHz); High Frequency (13.553 – 13.567 MHz); Ultra High Frequency (400 MHz – 1 GHz); and Microwave (2.45 GHz).

Low Frequency tags have limited range because of the response signal, which is of extremely low power, gets rapidly attenuated during transmission to below the threshold limit for the reader to detect the device. Decreasing the size of the tag reduces the range. However, low frequency transmission is able to better penetrate through different material than high frequency transmission. Passive tags are generally used at low frequencies.

Active tags are generally used in the case of high frequency transmission. In this case, the range substantially larger than that of low frequency. However, presence of water, ice or metals tend to restrict ranges.

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RFID tag readers can identify tens of tags per second as they enter into the interrogation zone of the reader. In the simplest case, objects move past readers in an orderly fashion, allowing readers to identify the objects (eg., in a conveyor belt).Alternatively, readers are also connected together in arrays to provide coverage for a location (eg., a warehouse). This permits wireless triangulation, or precisely locating a tagged object spatially.

Anti-collision techniques are being refined for trouble-free recognition of multiple tags near-simultaneously. The present limit of concurrent tag recognition is in the range of hundreds, and this is expected to reach thousands in the next 1-2 years (some manufacturers have already claimed simultaneous recognition of thousands of tags).

RFID Applications

RFID applications are still being incubated, and haven't yet gained widespread popularity. Part of the reason is the high cost (tags, readers, and software) while the accuracy and maturity of the technology are also open to question. The tag cost is expected to be lowered to about US$ 0.05 in a few years' time, at which point the market is expected to open up significantly.

Some of the current applications of RFID are provided below:

• Animal tagging, both of wild animals (to identify migration patterns or population counts) and pets
• Anti-theft mechanisms for automobiles (the key contains an RFID tag)
• Bookstore and other retail store tracking of goods
• Apparel tagging
• Identification cards for employees (instead of the magnetic swipe card)
• Forklift pallet, truck, trailer and container tracking
• Cards embedded with tags are used as electronic cash
• Human surveillance
• Supply chain and logistics management
• Baggage tracking in airlines
• Intelligent boarding cards in airline passengers
• Anti-theft mechanisms at retail outlets
• Embedded tags in mobile phones can be used to pay for purchases and for downloading details on advertisements
• Machine Readable Travel Documents (ie., passports, visas etc)
• Driver's licences and citizens' smart cards
• Electronic Product Code (EPC), a universal standard which is in the offing

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Privacy issues

The recent past has seen privacy concerns being raised vis-á-vis RFID technology, as the technology can be used for human surveillance.

When an item is purchased, tags can be embedded in the item in a way that it is very difficult to detect it. The tag can be read at a distance, and the item identified without the owner knowing about it. If the purchase is linked with a credit card, the the item can be tied to the owner.

Web links:

http://www.accenture.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RFID

Illustration 1.RFID Tags

Illustration 2. An RFID-based anti-theft device for cars

Illustration 3. An RFID-based warehouse system

Illustration 4. A garment tagged with an RFID tag

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Tamper-proof energy metering system

A novel concept to prevent electricity theft by installing a current transformer at the beginning of the service main, supplying power from the distribution line to the consumers, has been developed by P.S. Chandramohan, Professor of Electrical Engineering, College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram and Senior Member of IEEE.

The salient feature of the "Tamper-proof energy metering" system is that the power supply would be automatically cut off if the consumer attempts to use electricity through theft. The power supply will also be automatically cut off if any attempt is made to bypass the current coil of the meter and if the consumer tries to detach the low current coaxial cable from the current transformer to the meter. Any attempt to tap power from the service main will also result in tripping.

The power supply will be automatically restored after a slight delay and there is no need for approaching the KSEB authorities. The system comprises a current transformer worth Rs.15 installed at the beginning of the phase line supplying power to the meter installed on the consumer's premises through a twin low current coaxial cable. A temporary patent has been received for the tamper proof energy metering system, which has come for appreciation from the KSEB. The steps to obtain permanent patent for the system have already been initiated. It is possible to add this electronic protection device to the existing meters of all types at a cost of Rs.50 to Rs.120. It can also be made a regular feature of all new meters being manufactured by various companies and installed in the houses.

Communication Society Chapter

As per the letter from Cecelia Jankowski, Managing Director, the IEEE Regional Activities, IEEE Kerala Section – Communications Society Chapter has been formed. The effective date of this Chapter formation is 15 October 2004. Prem Kumar from Reliance is the Chapter Chair. The first meeting of ComSoc is proposed to convene on 17th January 2005 at Thiruvananthapuram to officially elect the Office Bearers and chart out future plans.

Prem Kumar

Reliance Infocomm Limited

A &P Arcade, Sahodaran Ayyappan Road

Ernakulam, Kerala 682016, India

 

WIE Society Activities

WIE activities of Kerala Section during 2002-2003 led for an award for the WIE Society of Kerala Section from the IEEE Regional Activities Board. IEEE Kerala Section congratulates Fathima, Beena, Deepa etc. for their pioneering activities in WIE.

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Editorial

One more year has flown, leaving a moment of grief for the humanity – the Tsunami disaster. A few seconds was all it took. The devastating tidal wave has left a trial of death and destruction in the coastal area of India, Sri Lanka and other South and South-East Asian countries on December 26 th. The worst sufferers are children, women and aged, seriously injured, lost and even orphaned. And sadly it took all.

An eye witness from Kanykumari states, “the head of the arc was an arrow sweeping at a tremendous speed to the left and the widening arc kept approaching the cost. As it hit the coast, we could hear the splintering sound of the buildings smashed by the powerful onrush. Our hotel seemed to shake. As they sped away from the scene of the disaster, the road was all aflutter”.

After a couple of days only we realize that this is one of the largest calamities that the world has ever witnessed with terrifying power of elements in it. The words and pictures witnessed through the media tell us a harrowing story with a most horrifying new experience. This was a sudden, swift and unprecedented, apocalyptic event of hitting shorelines by a moving wall of water without any warning.

The disaster-hit zones need help in bringing relief to all the victims in the worst affected areas. Chaos reigns supreme and despair distorts the faces of the tragedy-struck need immediate requirements like food, clothing, shelter and emergency medical care. Transforming the tears of pain into moments of relief can be seen everywhere. Emergency rescue operations are being extended by Government as well as private agencies to mobilize generous help for the affected, swept away by death and despair. The geographical spread of the tragedy stretched all resources. The real problem to face is to arrange proper sanitation facilities in the relief camps in preventing the spectre of health disaster and then the rehabilitation of the survivors. In Kerala, the calamities of such a magnitude are new and, in general, the experience to face the situation is insufficient coupled with inadequate infrastructural facilities.

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Always lending a helping hand to the victims during calamities by realizing the dreams of the deprived and orphaned is our motto. As professionals, our aim and activities will not restrict on mere immediate assistance in reforms, launching bigger appeals and extending generosity. Referring to the scientific organizations honourable President of India states that “they can evolve an integrated technological solution in the form of sensor, communication system, networking and high intensity tidal wave warning system along with a well-structured communication and control system for disaster warning and management”.

Obviously, our country is well equipped to monitor earthquakes. There are seismographs to register earthquakes, acoustic tide gauges that generate an acoustic pulse from a transducer which can record waves up to a metre high and a marine satellite information system that warns of turbulence in sea. Also Indian satellites must have picked up signs of disturbance when earthquake struck Sumatra. So our centres sensed when earth shook off Sumatra on the morning of December 26 th. They thought there was nothing to worry because undersea earthquakes would not have any problem in Indian coastal areas. At the same time, the equipments in our monitoring centres are not proper warning systems but only cyclone management systems. These earthquake systems can pick up signs of disturbance only giving alertness to these centres. We have no equipment to spot out tsunamis and have no idea about it till it hit Chennai and Sri Lanka. The time gap of almost 90 minutes was sufficient enough to communicate and initiate timely action of evacuation by the disaster management cell to save lives. However, we have no system to evacuate large populations within two hours or even less time. From this experience we have to rethink on the need on the accountability of the signals received through monitoring systems and an effective communication network in addition to the strict adhesion of coastal regulatory zone rules.

We need adequate infrastructural facilities as ‘there is no reason for a single individual to be killed as the waves are predictable’. As a scientific solution, warning centres with sufficient systems are to be developed by preparing its computer models that will vary depending on the size of the country’s coastline. The sophisticated system needs seismographic network to register earthquakes and a tide gauge network that registers the water level of the tsunami. It also requires computer models which would study earlier earthquakes and predict the ones in future. This will enable the scientists to tell how many waves would be generated, what time each wave would arrive and also height of each wave. Through capable communication systems, manageable situation can be set up in the coast before the arrival of the devastating waves.

Unless such issues are sorted out and remedies found out, we will have more sad stories to share in future. Meanwhile, scientists and professionals look deep into the matter to arrive at a solution technologically to provide most essential and efficient warning systems to uplift the disaster management in India from its infancy.

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GLOBAL NEWS - News around IEEE

1. Breathing New Life into Sections and Chapters Bringing a dormant IEEE section or chapter back to life is not as difficult as it may seem, say volunteers who have done it. Mostly it requires a few dedicated members willing to brainstorm ways of attracting others back to meetings and enticing new people to join. Find out more at <http://www.theinstitute.ieee.org/portal/pages/tionline/legacy/inst2004/dec04/12w.bestprac.xml>

2. Members Rate IEEE's Value Results were mixed when the IEEE surveyed its members last year to find out how satisfied they were with the organization's products and services. Members like what they are getting from conferences and local meetings with other professionals, but they are looking for improvement in online access to technical resources and more continuing-education opportunities. Read more at <http://www.theinstitute.ieee.org/portal/pages/tionline/legacy/inst2004/dec04/12w.rate.xml>

3. Workshop Features the Latest in Electrical Safety Electrical safety is an important issue for workers as well as for product designers. The IEEE Electrical Safety Workshop, to be held 8-11 February in Denver, provides the opportunity for everyone involved - electrical workers, engineers, architects, product designers, and managers -- to meet and exchange ideas for preventing electrical accidents and injuries in the workplace. Find out more at http://boldfish.ieee.org/u/workshop3b/01224104

4. Member Renews Online, Wins Notebook Computer IEEE Member Ernest Peterson from Riga, Latvia, in Region 8 (Europe, Africa, and Mid-East) won a Dell Inspiron notebook computer in a random drawing from among the 92 593 members who renewed online before 15 November. A chance for the notebook was offered as an incentive to encourage members to renew their annual memberships online.

5. Dealing with Plagiarism: New Guidelines Plagiarism -- using someone else's work without giving proper credit – is a crime of intellectual property, but one might argue that it is just as serious as a crime of real property. Yet the IEEE's rules of what constitutes plagiarism and how it should be dealt with were not always clear. Read how the IEEE remedied the situation at

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http://www.theinstitute. ieee. org /portal/ pages/ ionline/legacy/inst2004/dec04/12w.pub.html

6. First Aid Kit for Mobilizing Volunteers The IEEE Volunteer Recruitment Toolkit offers suggestions for helping section and group leaders recruit members to volunteer and serve as officers, editors, conference organizers, and other positions. Read more at < http://www.theinstitute.ieee.org /portal/pages/ tionline/ legacy /inst2004/dec04/12w.prod.html >

7. Seeking Student-Run Web Radio Stations If your university has a Web radio station run by students, The Institute wants to hear from you for an upcoming article. Contact Editor Kathy Kowalenko at <mailto:k.kowalenko@ieee.org>

8. Virtual Museum Exhibit Shows How Big Small Is "Let's Get Small" traces the development of microelectronics starting with the invention of the transistor in the 1950s, tracks the miniaturization of electronics through integrated circuits and microprocessors, and ends with today's latest nanotechnology developments. This new exhibit, put together by the IEEE History Center and sponsored by the IEEE Foundation and the IEEE Life Member Committee also describes early vacuum-tube computers such as the ENIAC, which took up an entire room. Read more at < http://www.theinstitute.ieee.org/ portal/pages/ tionline/legacy/inst2004/nov04/11w.history.html >

9. Vijay Bhargava Recognized by Royal Society of Canada When IEEE Fellow Vijay Bhargava journeyed from his native India to Canada as an 18-year-old to study engineering at Queens University in Kingston, Ont., he had no intention of staying in North America. But 38 years later, he's still there. He's become a renowned educator and wireless technology pioneer. Recently, Bhargava's adopted country recognized his contributions to wireless technology by presenting him with the Royal Society of Canada's Thomas W. Eadie Medal. Read more at < http://www.theinstitute.ieee.org/portal/pages/ tionline/ legacy/inst2004/nov04/11w.profilebhargava.html >

10. Member Digital Library Offers Incentive to New Subscribers IEEE members who become new subscribers to the IEEE Member Digital Library during the member renewal period ending 31 December will receive their first month of service free. The monthly fee is US$35. To start your IEEE Member Digital Library subscription or to renew your IEEE membership for 2005, visit <http://ieee.org/renewal>

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11. 2006 IEEE Technical Field Award Nominations Due Nominating forms for the 2006 IEEE Technical Field Awards are due 31 January 2005. To nominate a colleague, visit the IEEE Awards Web site at <http://www.ieee.org/about/awards> or contact IEEE Awards Activities, 445 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, N.J., USA, 08855-1331; tel +1 732 981 9019 or write to <mailto:awards@ieee.org>

12. REGIONAL ACTIVITIES BOARD ACTIONS The Regional Activities Board met on 18 & 19 November in San Antonio, Texas, USA. It was announced that the RAB Assembly elected the following individuals to serve one year terms on the IEEE Regional Activities Board beginning 1 January 2005:

* RAB Treasurer: David Green * RAB Vice Chair, Member Activities: Linda Weaver * RAB Vice Chair, Region, Section & Chapter Activities: Parviz Famouri * RAB Vice Chair, Student Activities: Eduardo Palacio * RAB Vice Chair, Strategic Planning: Evelyn Hirt

Additionally, the following individuals were announced as the 2004 RAB Award Recipients:

* RAB Larry K. Wilson Transnational Award: Hans Schmitt (Germany Section, Region 8) * RAB Innovation Award: Jose Antonio Jardini (Brazil Section, Region 9) * RAB Leadership Award: Nevell Jacobs (Baltimore Section, Region 2); Durgamadhab Misra (North Jersey Section, Region 1); Hugh Rudnick (Chile Section, Region 9) * RAB Achievement Award: Amarjeet Basra (Northern Virginia Section, Region 2); Susan Hamill (Oregon Section, Region 6); Subrata Mukhopadhyay (Delhi Section, Region 10); Daniel Slomovitz (Uruguay Section, Region 9); Howard Michel (Providence Section, Region 1); Steve Watkins (St. Louis Section, Region 5)

13. 2005 IEEE OFFICERS At its 17 November meeting in San Antonio, Texas, the IEEE Assembly elected the following individuals to serve one year terms on the IEEE Board of Directors beginning 1 January 2005:

* Moshe Kam, Vice President, Educational Activities * Leah H. Jamieson, Vice President, Publication Services and Products * Marc T. Apter, Vice President, Regional Activities * Mohamed El-Hawary, IEEE Secretary * Joseph V. Lillie, IEEE Treasurer

14. THE IEEE DISTINGUISHED LECTURERS PROGRAM www.ieee.org/lecturers Have you starting to plan Chapter meetings for 2005?  When planning meetings, keep in mind that the IEEE Distinguished Lecturers Program is one of the most exciting offerings available to the IEEE Society Chapters. The Program is intended to serve as a convenient resource to assist Sections and Chapters in planning high quality programs for their membership. Distinguished Lecturer Programs operate according to procedures defined by the sponsoring Society or Technical Council.  Information on the individual programs is available from a series of auto-retrievable text files. Each file includes the name and contact information for each speaker and the topics that he/she will present. The name, address, phone, fax and email of each Program Coordinator are provided with details of the program's procedures (where available).  To obtain the files, go to www.ieee.org/lecturers, and click "Distinguished Lecturer Program" on the left sidebar. Please direct your comments and suggestions to society-lecturers@ieee.org,or call +1 732 562 3846.

15. IEEE TECHNICAL EXPERTS GUIDE If you need to find an authority for a particular subject area, a good place to start is with the IEEE Technical Experts guide.  This guide is a resource covering more than 500 technical topics and includes contact information for IEEE experts qualified to answer questions or make referrals.   For the alphabetized list, or search function, go to http://www.ieee.org/TEG.

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IEEE – NATIONAL SEMINAR ON BIOINFORMATICS

IEEE BIOS 2005 (Jan 17 – 18, 2005)

BIOINFORMATICS AND ITS IMPORTANCE

Bioinformatics is the application of computational and analytical methods to problems in molecular biology. It employs the tools of computer science and Information Technology for developing databases and algorithms to organise and analyze genetic information.

In the last 50 years, the pool of publicly available biological data has grown exponentially. Genome projects for many different organisms are producing vast amounts of sequence data. These data are characterized by variety and heterogeneity: they are related to different organic structures, environments, and spatial scales, and derive from multiple sources. This high volume of data has necessitated electronic databases to store, organize, and index it. In addition, the databases need specialized tools for scientists to see and analyze the available information, as well as to submit new or revised sequence data

AIM OF THIS NATIONAL SEMINAR

The aim of this National Seminar is to facilitate a better understanding of this contemporary topic and to provide a forum for researchers, academicians, professionals and industrial practitioners to share their knowledge.

Artificial intelligence, data mining, and knowledge representation can provide key solutions to the challenges presented by biological data. These approaches require powerful and sophisticated computational tools to provide efficient solutions to very complex problems. Addressing this challenge will facilitate the way life science researchers access, retrieve, analyze and visualize data and relationships in a collaborative work environment. Exciting opportunities are emerging for integrating molecular biology components of bioinformatics with computational, physiological, morphological, taxonomic, and ecological components.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

Software Professionals, Students and Practitioners of Computer Science interested in Bioinformatics, Researchers in institutes and universities, Bioinformatics project leaders, Statisticians, Computational Biologists, Computational Chemists ,Genomic database administrators, Biotechnology analysts

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REGISTRATION FOR DELEGATES

IEEE Members Rs. 1250/-

Non Members Rs. 2000/-

IEEE Student Members Rs. 500/-

Students Rs. 750/-

Local Cheque / DD should be drawn In favour of IEEE BIOS 2005 Payable at Thiruvananthapuram.

 

On-line Registration

For on-line registration and seminar updates visit our website www.ieee.org/kerala

Registration by E-mail or by Post

Mail to subodh@ieee.org giving details about your name, designation, organization and telephone number. If you are an IEEE member indicate your IEEE Membership number and Type of Member (whether Student member or Member).

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