Accelerometers

Ever turned an iPhone to the side, only to see the screen adjust from portrait to landscape view? Seen the ad for that smart phone where they shake the handset to roll a pair of virtual dice?
Welcome to the world of motion sensing and accelerometers. These are MicroElectroMechanicalSystems. They have the capability to detect and measure motion. They consist of electronic systems combined with very small sized mechanical systems. Microelectronic integrated circuits can be thought of as the "brains" of a system and the micro mechanical system augments this decision-making capability with "eyes" and "arms", to allow microsystems to sense and control the environment.

Beyond game play and screen orientation, the most popular uses for MEMS accelerometer motion sensors in phones include power management and shake modes for control of tracks in music phones, context awareness and pedometers.

The market for microelectromechanical sensors for mobile phones is estimated to grow more than triple from 2008 to 2013, which means more phones will get these features. Lets be on the look out for them. :)

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What I've been doing lately

I was on a one week trip to Bangkok for a Kaizen Workshop with my father for one of his clients. The one week was period of real rejuvenation, mentally and physically. I am back in action today, arrived home just yesterday.

Here is a slideshow of some pics -

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The business of bashing one another

Bashing one another is a common practice in the political arena. But I am beginning observe more such practices of bashing. In the software world, the windows and Linux bashing is as normal as the sunrise every day. But did you also know that bashing at an intense level goes on in other areas as well. For instance, I see that PHP Vs. Ruby bashing has its own strong support groups. And among the IDEs Eclipse vs. Netbeans debate bashing seems to be very strong. I guess objectivity is long lost, literally. A person who is new and wants to know the basic plus and minus of competing technologies/programming languages/programming tools, would be at a total loss to come to any conclusion.

I am not against the act of expressing one's opinions, in the form of a debate or whatever. But what I am seeing is that people end up expressing more of their emotions and forget what they intended to say in the first place.

Personally, I find all this "my IDE is better than yours" argument totally juvenile.

 And I have not tried to head over to look at discussions on other things. I wonder how people fare at that. 

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You realise

You realise what life is when you wait for 170 token numbers to pass by, over a span of 2 hrs and more.
You realize just then that you have no one to talk to.
You realize how much even your legs betray you, refusing to let u stand.
You realize some people go over to the counter just to block it for the next 45 minutes submitting a multitude of application form fees to process.
You realize that the stout man at the counter has been relentlessly tapping away at his keyboard for the last hour and half.
You realize that you have the ability to realize so many things.

You realize that the bank has an LCD tv thats meant to be kept turned off and an LED board thats meant to display "home loans" and "personal loans" alternately and meaninglessly.
That some men dont mind wearing bright red chappals for cream colored three-fourths and sky blue t shirts.
That the Voltas Vertis AC is supposed to blow 16 deg. cold air at 29 degrees.
That the bank also has an oil on canvas of a setting sun to remind you of the time you will leave no matter when you come.
That there are still 24 token numbers to go in the queue, before it is your chance with the stout man, and there's no poetry left.


Me.
Ah, what all the mind does in a state of joblessness.

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Sound of Music | Central Station Antwerp (Belgium) - Must Watch!

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Gasp! My Blog marked as spam!

I got a shocker when I checked mail this morning, Blogger had marked my blog as a spam blog and sent me an email with a link to unlock it. I first thought that mail was from a spammer, who was posing as Blogger. After reading the help pages, I realised this was a genuine spam alert email from the Google guys. I've filled out the retrieve blog form. Hope things get ironed out soon. Until then, if you see a sign saying this is a spam blog, pl bear with me.

And this is to Google,
Dear Google, this blog is definitely not a spam blog, this is where a humble soul called Vatsala expresses her thoughts on various things.

Hope Hakuna Matata prevails again soon. So long

Update 26 Aug 09- Thankfully, My blog is back in action again!

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Zugara Online Shopping App - A new way of attracting customers to online shopping

Buying, more specifically Shopping has changed a lot over the years. I have seen that happening particularly in India, (since I live here). Fifteen years ago, Shopping (as in impulsive buying) used to be restricted to the really rich people. The middle class segment used to do more of buying which was primarily driven by needs and not by wants, and definitely not by any impulse. Shops used to focus on stacking more quantity of goods in ever shrinking spaces. Shops would stack up items from floor to roof and ensure that the pavement was also used as a showcase for the goods in the shop.

Then, changes in the Indian economy changed the way businesses worked, and overall increase in the prosperity and bank balance of the middle class transformed the retail space. Local Grocery shops, "nukkad dukans" and "maligai kadais" turned into one off supermarkets, which have now turned into Retail chains of branded Supermarkets and Hypermarkets. And shopping centres have become Malls. Now, Shopping has become an experience, rather than an activity. And businesses are continuously making making efforts to widen their audience by opening new formats of stores and supermarkets, and making it a successful business model. Kishore Biyani's Future Group and the Big Bazaar story is proof of that. Interesting read about Big Bazaar over here.

Online shopping is a new entrant here in India, and is slowly picking up its roots. Are Indian Business listening to this new innovation by Zugara.com??
Here is an interesting new shopping application launched by Zugara.com .

Here is Zugara's blog post on the new online shopping application - I'm Re-Blogging (in short,copy pasting) the entire contents, in true ReTweeting style, because no one can say it better than themselves. The full credit of the following text goes to weareorganizedchaos.com -

Utilizing Augmented Reality And Motion Capture

June 23, 2009, Los Angeles – Here at Zugara, we’re proud to announce the launch of our newest application, The Webcam Social Shopper. Coupling the functionality of both Augmented Reality and Motion Capture, this application will allow anyone with a webcam to shop online right from within their video feed. We like to think of it as “Augmented Reality meets Utility”. This app allows you to seemingly hold articles of clothing up in front of yourself to see “how they look”. And the Motion Capture allows the app to track your movements so you can interact with the site (e.g. cycle through a product’s various colors/styles or take a picture of yourself so you can get immediate feedback from friends on Facebook) while standing several feet away from your computer’s controls. No extra downloads, no new plug-in, no consumer headache.

To see the application in action, check out our video below.

(UPDATE: If you’re having trouble accessing the embedded video - here is the direct YouTube URL)
Original URL - http://weareorganizedchaos.com/index.php/2009/06/23/zugara-launches-online-shopping-app-utilizing-augmented-reality-and-motion-capture/

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