What is Soft Computing?

Soft Computing is an approach to solving complex computational problems using approximations. Unlike the traditional approach, where complex problems are solved using some mathematical models or computational techniques, Soft computing uses a model similar to the human brain to solve problems. Therefore, it is also referred to as Computational Intelligence. This approach enables solutions for problems that may be either unsolvable or too time-consuming to solve with current hardware.

The goal of Soft Computing is to develop Intelligent Machines that derives a solution to real-world problems which are difficult to solve mathematically. Soft Computing uses the human mind as the role model and therefore it is tolerant of partial truths, uncertainty, imprecision, and approximations. It exploits these tolerances to achieve robustness, tractability, and low-cost solutions.

Soft computing is set of algorithms that learn on its own to derive solutions that are not previously known. In contrast to analytical methods, soft computing methodologies mimic consciousness and cognition in several important respects: they can learn from experience; they can universalize into domains where direct experience is absent; and, through parallel computer architectures that simulate biological processes, they can perform mapping from inputs to the outputs faster than inherently serial analytical representations.

Soft computing constitutes methodologies such as Fuzzy Logic, Neural Networks, Evolutionary Computation, Machine Learning and Probabilistic Reasoning.

Neural Network is a highly interconnected network of a large number of processing elements called Neurons in an architecture Inspired by Brain.

Fuzzy Logic is a generalization of classical set theory. In classical set theory, element either belong to the set or not and hence such sets are called crisp set. But in the fuzzy set, many degrees of membership are allowed( Degrees between 0 and 1).

Evolutionary computation is a general name for a group of problem-solving techniques whose principles are based on the theory of biological evolution, such as genetic inheritance and natural selection.

Machine Learning is a field of computer science that uses statistical techniques to give computer systems the ability to learn with data, without being explicitly programmed.

Probabilistic Reasoning is the ability to handle uncertainty using higher order logic.

I hope you found this useful and if so please share it with the people around you. Comment below your suggestions and doubts. Finally, Thank you.

How Do 3D Glasses Work?

Ever wondered how you get a perception of depth while watching a movie in a theatre on a flat screen by just wearing a glass? By the way, how many of you like me haven’t returned your glasses?  Jokes aside, let's know what is the magic behind this 3D technology?

The main idea behind this technology is to fool the brain by creating a sense of depth by using some special equipment. How we do that? Just a 9th standard physics is by treating the light as an electromagnetic wave. Well, the light wave is randomly distributed and we say that the light is unpolarized. Now if we polarize the light in any one direction and take a polarizer and place it in the direction of light. All the light passes through the polarizer. But, as soon as you start tilting the polarizer the intensity of light gets on decreasing. Light is totally blocked when the polarizer is perpendicular to the direction of the light wave. This is the main idea behind the working of 3D technology.

So, the scene which you see on the theatre screen is actually two scenes offset by a certain value. This is why, when you remove your glasses, the scene looks actually blurred. So, the movie is actually projected on the screen by two different projectors one for each eye. Therefore, when we look on the screen, each eye sees only that part of the scene which is actually intended for it i.e left eye sees the left part of the scene and the right eye sees right part of the scene. How can this be possible?

The answer is the polarization of light. There are two types of polarization Linear polarization and circular polarization. The light coming from the screen to our glasses are circularly polarized. The reason of light not being linearly polarized is that the scene would have blacked out if we had tilted our head.

Therefore, one part of the screen is left circularly polarized and the other part is right circularly polarized. In the same way, one part of the glass is left polarized and the other part is right polarized. Therefore, when both the scenes hit the left glass, it only allows light from the screen which is aligned to it and cancels out the other scene and so does the right glass. This is how each part of the glass sees only that part of the scene which is actually intended for it. This separates the scene and tricks our brain into thinking that we are actually in the scene.

If we actually watch the same scene from two different angles, it creates a sense of depth which is actually the sole idea behind this 3D technology. I hope this makes sense and if not please let me know down in the comments section. Finally, thank you.

What is Ethereum?

Ethereum is a rival to Bitcoin. It is being called the second generation of Blockchain. Ethereum is an open source platform used to make decentralized application, smart contracts and DAO’s (Decentralized Autonomous Organization). Ethereum Platform has its own Cryptocurrency called Ether (Eth). You might be wondering why do we need ether if we already had Bitcoin?

Blockchain has many other applications other than just decentralizing Money. Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer system used to decentralize money. Ethereum is much more than that. Ethereum is decentralizing the world’s computer by allowing developers to built decentralized applications on top of Ethereum platform in a much simpler way. While Bitcoins aimed to disrupt the Banks, Ethereum has the goal of replacing third parties in other fields like finance, registries, voting, etc.

“Bitcoin is first and foremost a currency; this is one particular application of a blockchain. However, it is far from the only application. To take a past example of a similar situation, e-mail is one particular use of the internet, and for sure helped popularise it, but there are many others.” Dr. Gavin Wood, Ethereum Co-Founder.

What are Smart Contracts?

Ethereum basically runs smart contracts that are code snippets written in a programming language such as solidity and serpent. Smart contracts are programs that are automatically executed once specified conditions are met. For e.g. you need to sell a property in return for money, the traditional way would be to transfer papers in the name of the owner and then wait for money. On Ethereum platform, you can write a smart contract that specifies as soon as the property is transferred on to the name of the Owner, the amount should be deducted from the owner’s account and credited to your account. This not only makes the entire process trustworthy but also speeds up the process, also disrupting the need for any middle-man.

What is ether?

Ether is the Cryptocurrency that fuels the Ethereum Platform. Ether is the second largest Cryptocurrency after Bitcoin. Just like Bitcoin, it doesn’t need any third party to process its transaction. Ether is used to pay in return for goods and services required to run any transaction. Like, you have to pay some ether to the person who writes smart contracts for you. Every action on the network requires an amount of gas that’s based on computational power required to process your transaction. You have to purchase a sufficient amount of gas to let your transaction complete, which is paid into the ether.

How do Ethereum Blockchain Works?

The blockchain is a digital ledger that stores every transaction in the form of blocks. It is also called a global ledger. Every transaction after being verified by a group of miners or nodes is attached to the existing Blockchain. The blockchain is like linked-list, every previous block holds the address of the next block attached to it.

Whenever anyone initiates a transaction, code snippets run on the network which is read by Ethereum Virtual machine, as soon as some specific action takes place, there are a bunch of miners who are ready to validate the action. They earn few Ethers in return for validating the action. After reaching a consensus, the block is added to the Blockchain.

There are many applications that had been deployed on Ethereum platform:-

Weifund is one such crowdfunding platform that leverages smart contracts.

Argur is a platform that gives you rewards for your predictions on real-world events.

Provenance makes supply chain transparent by tracing the origin and history of the products, consumers. It can help you make informed decisions when buying products.

I hope, now you have an idea of “What is Ethereum?”. Please subscribe to get the future posts directly in your Inbox. Also, comment down below if you come up with any queries. Thank you.

Types of Displays Explained with Pros and Cons!

There are different kinds of displays in the market available for mobiles phones, TVs, and Laptops. It is important to know about them before buying one. In this post, I will talk about some of the displays currently available in the market that help you decide which one to go for.

Types Of smartphone Displays:

1. TFT-LCD – TFT-LCD stands for Thin Film Transistor LCD (Liquid Crystal display). It is an improvement in the LCD Displays available before. Each pixel in the TFT-LCD Display has its own transistor on the glass itself, which offers more control over the images and color that it renders. This display is found on lower end smartphones, TVs and Monitors.
   
   
   Pros:- Better Image quality, higher Resolution compared with earlier generation of LCD, low Cost, Performs better in direct sunlight.
   
   
   Cons:- Poor viewing angle, consumes more power and hence are not battery friendly.
   
   
2. IPS-LCD – IPS-LCD stands for In-plane switching LCD. It is an improvement over TFT-LCD displays. It delivers better color reproduction and wider viewing angles. It does this by using two transistor for each pixel combined with more powerful backlight. It has a better viewing angle, which is an improvement over TFT.
   
   
   Pros – Wider viewing angle compared to TFT, Lower power consumption, Brilliant picture display, better color reproduction.
   
   
   Cons – Slightly costlier than TFT and hence found on mid-range smartphones.
   
   
3. OLED- OLED stands for an Organic light emitting diode. OLED technology is recently used in mobiles and computers. In OLED displays, a thin carbon film is sandwiched between two conducting layers of anode and cathode. This whole portion is sandwiched between two glass plates. When an electric pulse is applied between two conducting sheets; electro-luminescent light is produced directly from the carbon switched between them. As opposed to LCD displays, which are always backlit, OLED displays are switched off until individual pixels are electrified.
   
   
   Pros:- Faster response times, wider viewing angles, higher brightness, lightweight design, brilliant color reproduction, better battery life.
   
   
   Cons:- does not perform better in direct sunlight due to absence of backlight.
   
   
4. AMOLED- Active matrix OLED is a type of OLED displays that are specifically designed for smartphones. Active matrix means each pixel is attached to a transistor and capacitor individually. This way, when a row and column is activated to access a pixel, the capacitor at the correct pixel can retain its charge in between refresh cycle, allowing for faster and more precise control.
   
   
   Pros:- Higher refresh rate, contrast ratios are greater than LCD screens, Thinner screens.
   
   
   Cons:- Not quite visible in direct sunlight (same as OLED).
   
   
5. Super AMOLED- Super AMOLED is an advanced version of AMOLED displays developed by Samsung. Super AMOLED displays have capacitive touchscreen right into the display, instead of having a separate layer on the top of the display. This makes them thinnest in the market.
   
   
   Pros:- Higher contrast, thinner, more Vibrant color display, more sensitive to touch, higher refresh rate.
   
   
   Cons:- shortened battery life when using vibrant colors.
   
   

This was just an overview of displays present in the market. I will try to explain the working of LCD and LED in a separate post. Please, comment below if you come up with any suggestion. Finally, thank you.

What is Secure Hashing Algorithm? || How to Validate Files Downloaded from the Internet?

What is Secure Hashing Algorithm (SHA)?

Secure Hashing Algorithm is an algorithm developed by NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) and other government agencies to provide better online security standards. It is a family of cryptographic hash functions designed to keep your data secure. It works by taking an input of arbitrary size and converts it into the fixed-sized output. E.g. SHA-1 takes any input of size < 2^64 bits and produces an output of 160 digit hex values. Similarly, SHA-256 takes an input size < 2^64 bits and produces an output of 256 digit hex values.

SHA is designed to be a One-way function, meaning once the input is converted into hash value, it’s nearly impossible to get back the original data. SHA also follows avalanche effect, which means a small change in input causes a drastic change in the output digest; conversely, the drastically different inputs may have same hash value.

SHA algorithms consist of bitwise operations, arithmetic operations, and compression functions to produce the hash values. SHA algorithms follow some fundamental safety characteristics such as Pre-image resistance and Collision resistance. Pre-image resistance feature wards off brute force attack on your data. It basically means reversing the algorithm to get back your password is nearly impossible. Collision resistance makes it extremely difficult to find two messages that have same hash value.

SHA is used by companies to secure your password. As soon as you enter your password on any website, it gets converted into its corresponding hash value and this hash value is stored by the companies in their databases. So, if in any case the database gets hacked, hackers will only find the hash value of your password and not the actual password. Now, due to the algorithm complexity, it’s impossible for hackers to get your original password. In case you think, What if attackers could input the hash value of your password and get access? The answer to this question is No, if attackers try to input the hash value then it’s treated as an input string which is again converted into a different hash value.

SHA is also used to validate files, Software’s, Games, videos, etc. Almost every Company produces an SHA digest for its users to verify their respective downloads. You can find the SHA-2 value somewhere around the link provided to download the file. You can produce the SHA-2 value of the downloaded file by using any software available online than you can match both the hash values, one provided on the website and other produced by you. This is extremely useful to check if your download was tampered in between.

How to validate files, you download from the internet?

1. Download and run MD5 and SHA Checksum Utility.
2. Browse to the location of the file, you need to verify.
3. The MD5 and SHA Checksum utility will automatically run and produce all the hash values like MD5, SHA-1 and SHA-255.
4. Paste the SHA or MD5 hash value from the website to the utility.
5. Click on verify.

You should verify every software or file, you download from the internet.

I hope this information helps. Please comment down below, If you come up with any queries or suggestions. Finally, Thank you.

What is Virtual Reality?

What is Virtual Reality?

Virtual Reality comes from the definition of both ‘Virtual’ and ‘Reality’. Virtual means ‘near’ and Reality is what we experience as a human. So, the term Virtual Reality can be called as “Near Reality”. It is basically a reality emulsion. Virtual Reality is a computer generated a 3D environment which tricks the user senses to believe that they are actually present in the real world. Unlike any traditional UI, VR places the user inside an experience. It is generally done for playing games, watching videos, etc.

How can you experience Virtual Reality?

To Experience Virtual Reality, one had to wear a gadget on head called VR Headsets. There are basically two types of Modern VR Headsets: Mobile VR Headsets and Tethered VR Headsets.

Mobile VR Headsets: These Headsets just needs your smartphones placed into the shells, the lenses separate your smartphone screen into two images for your eyes, and turns your smartphone into a VR Device. You don’t need any extra wires or devices. Google Daydream view and Samsung Gear VR are the two most popular mobile VR Headsets in the market. Mobile VR Headsets tracks your head movement and adjust the environment according to it to immerse you in the environment. Mobile Headsets costs around $100 to $130.

Tethered VR Headsets: You can use tethered headsets to play Games on your PC as well as on Play Station. Tethered VR Headsets had a dedicated display in them instead of a smartphone. They also had built-in sensors and an external camera tracker, which makes our experience far better. Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and PlayStation VR are the most popular tethered VR Headsets. They cost around $500 to $630.

How do Virtual Reality Work?

Virtual Reality works by just tricking our brain into believing that we are in a 3D world. The first way VR does this is by creating a Stereoscopic display. Stereoscopic display just works by displaying an image at two different angles to each eye, creating a sense of depth. Try this, hold your thumb in front of your eye and see it with one eye closed at a time. You would notice the change in position of the thumb as you switch the eyes. Try it by keeping your thumb both far and near. You would notice, the shift is less when the thumb is far away and it’s more when the thumb is near. This is actually the sense of depth.

So, when you wear the Google Cardboard, for example, there is a partition between the two lenses, so that your each eye gets to look at the picture from two slightly different angles and this fools your brain into thinking that it’s looking at a 3D image by creating a sense of depth. Also, your phone has a couple of sensors that track the movement of your head and positions you accordingly in the 3D world or basically exploring unseen parts of the virtual world.

There are lot more things that go in parallel with a stereoscopic display like the Field of view and latency. Field of view is the extent of the visible world that can be seen at any time. For e.g. humans have about 180 degrees of field of view while looking straight ahead. Latency is the time delay between the user movement and the ability of environments adjustment to it. So, for a good Virtual Reality System, it should have wider Field of view and low latency.

The virtual reality system isn’t only about tracking head movements. It should involve our senses and should also interact with us or basically, we should get feedback from the system. The combination of a sense of immersion and interactivity is called Telepresence. Telepresence is the extent to which one feels present in the simulated world. So, a good VR experience causes you to be unaware of your real surrounding and focus on your existence inside the virtual environment.

Immersion deals with display resolution, the sophistication of system’s audio output and a number of sensory dimensions simultaneously present. Basically, Immersion expects a high resolution, very good audio output and all your senses involved in the system. You should able to see, hear, smell and touch things in the virtual world. Interaction is basically navigating in the virtual world. It also includes being able to modify the environment. A good Virtual environment will respond to the user’s action in a way that makes sense.

Applications of VR

VR has many applications in day to day life. The most common is Gaming using Sony PlayStation VR on PS4. Well, it has some other interesting applications as well.

1. Virtual Reality in Education: VR enables students to interact with each other and with a 3D environment which can be used to simplify complex data that is both easy and fun to learn. For e.g. Students can learn about the solar system by actually interacting with the objects itself.

2. Virtual Reality in Military: VR can be used to train soldiers for combat situations or other dangerous situation where they need to learn how to react. The air force can use VR to train their pilots without spending too much money on fighter planes.

3. Virtual Reality in Entertainment:  VR can be used in Games, watching videos or visiting places like museums and theme parks.

4. Virtual Reality in Engineering: VR Engineering includes the use of 3D modeling tools and visualization techniques as a part of the design process. VR enables engineers to view their project in 3D and gain a greater understanding of how it works.

I tried to include everything about VR at the same time not extending the length of the post. Please comments below if you come up any doubts or suggestions. Finally, Thank you. 

What is SEO (Search Engine Optimization)?

What is SEO?

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is a method used to increase the traffic on a webpage. To increase the traffic, search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, should index the webpage or basically find the page and show it at the top of the search results. It is basically designing or architecting the webpage that meets the requirements of search engines.

 So, SEO is basically optimizing a webpage, so as to increase its visibility in the search results.

Why is SEO necessary?

Every Website or Blog Owner needs traffic on their webpage. Every content producer needs genuine audiences to appreciate their work or study their work. Every service provider needs peoples to access their services. Every Seller needs Buyer to purchase their products. Today, in this digital age, almost everything is on the web. So, every website or blog has an address or more specifically a domain address (e.g. www.relate-technology.blogspot.in), and not every individual knows about all the address. So, we need a helper to assist us in finding the websites or blogs that meet our needs. And they are Search Engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc.

For Website or Blog owners, Search engines are the roads to their audiences. The better they optimize their websites or blogs, the better is their chance to appear at the top of search results. Audiences, don’t generally search page by page. The 1^st page of Google search provides enough resources to the audiences, to satisfy them not to click the next page. In this way, If your website or blog is on the First page of the search results, it gets more traffic and ultimately it gets popular. 

How Do Search Engines work?

Search Engines basically performs two important functions:

1. Crawling and Building the Index.

2. Providing Search Users with a ranked list of websites.

So, the major goal of search engines is to accumulate all the websites present on the web in their databases, ranking those websites in order of their Popularity and also their relevancy, and present them in ranked order to the search user.

Search Engines use Crawlers or Spiders to crawl all over the Web and fetch all the links in their databases. Crawlers are Computer Bots, whose primary responsibility is to reach many billions of interconnected documents on the web. Crawlers primarily visit pages known to them already, from there they visit other pages with the help of links present on the current page and thereby visits many other pages through links.

Once the Engines find these pages, they store them in their massive databases, to be recalled later when needed for a search query. The search engines have constructed datacenters all over the world so that pages can be accessed in a fraction of seconds by the search users.

As soon as the user searches a query, engines look for keywords in the searched query and then find those keywords associated with pages in their databases, rank those results on the basis of their relevance and popularity and present the list to the user. Search Engines runs their search algorithms very fast in order to provide users, the relevant results.

How to Optimize our Website?

Optimizing a Website is a huge topic. You can find many tutorials or courses available on the Web to help you with it. Here, I will tell you some very basic tips to qualify for a good Website or Blog.

Firstly, know that Search Engines Changes their search Algorithms very often, so don’t be surprised if the same page of yours had a different rank previously than it has now.

Now, Some Tips to qualify for a good Website:

1. Use Original content. Make it useful for the Audiences.

2. Your Website should have a proper navigation and Hierarchy.

3. Your Websites should have Pages like Privacy Policy, Contact Us, and About Us. It acknowledges Search Engines and Users about your content.

4. You should provide enough metadata like description and keywords to the search engines so that your page gets indexed at the top.

Just remember one thing, CONTENT is the KING. If you provide quality content to the users, you will be definitely somewhere at the top. Along with these tips, make sure to share your posts on Social Networks like Facebook, Twitter, etc. Make a site-map and submit it to the webmasters.

I Hope this information helps. Make sure to comment below if you come across any doubts or suggestions. Thank you.