Electronics For You January 2010 Issue Vol. 42 No. 1 Technology Focus 10 Emerging Technologies to Track in 2010 “We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year’s Day,” said Edith Lovejoy Pierce. With similar sentiments for our readers, the electronics industry and us, we are back at our annual exercise of identifying emerging technologies worth watching this year! It proves to be a very beneficial effort for us as we get a clear picture of what we are likely to be writing about in the next few months. We hope it helps our readers as much—to identify where to concentrate their investments, research, studies and other efforts. This year, we decided to steer away from the standard buzzwords that you would have heard enough of—3G, wireless technologies, mobile applications, nanotechnology, clean and green technologies, cloud computing, and the likes of those. These, of course, are going to continue in the limelight in the coming year too, but since you are sure to have read quite a lot about these already, let us instead take a look at some newer topics such as printed electronics, through-silicon vias, energy harvesting, etc
Construction Video Switcher The video switcher switches automatically between several camera inputs in sequence. Unfortunately, the cost of such video switchers available in the market is too high. Here we have described an affordable and easy-to-build video switcher.	Software Section Sensor Based Path Finder Program in C Micromouse is basically a robotics-based path finder application that consists of a micromouse and a maze having complex tracks. The micromouse is so designed that it can move in dark to reach the centre of the maze using signals received from its sensors.

Circuit Ideas Micro Inverter A simple low-power inverter circuit is described here, which converts 12V DC into 230V AC. It can be used to power very light loads like night lamps and cordless telephones, but can be modified into a powerful inverter by adding more MOSFETs.	Circuit Ideas Security System Switcher The circuit described here allows the security system to automatically switch on when a master switch is in on state. It uses a transducer to detect intruders and a 5V regulated DC power supply provides power to the circuit.

Circuit Ideas Water Pump Controller A water pump controller senses the level of water in a tank and drives the water pump. The circuit described here is built around timer IC1 (555).	EFY Report Electronics Industry in 2010: Power and Telecom to Lead How will be 2010 for India’s electronics industry? Which sectors will generate growth? To get these answers, we conducted an industrywide survey to know the views of the industry veterans. Here’s what they think about the future of Indian electronics industry in 2010

Buyers’ Guide Choosing A Smart Phone Smart phones are small yet powerful handheld devices. These may differ from one another in forms and factors but share one common functionality—to keep the user connected—anytime, anywhere	Career Process Your Career with DSP! Signal processing, especially digital signal processing (DSP)—a highly value-added market with a bit of distinction—opens up a minefield of opportunities for aspirants

Software The Neater and Faster Opening Windows (7) The launch of Windows 7 has created a lot of buzz—amidst end-users as well as technologists and hardware manufacturers. We explore this new Microsoft offering and also the ‘new vistas’ that it throws open	Construction Solid-State Voltage Stabiliser Here, we describe how to make a solid-state voltage stabiliser that does not use electromechanical relays and is suitable for most purposes.

Software Section Sudoku Puzzle Solver Program in JavaScript Earlier, we have published ‘Sudoku Generator and Solver in C++’ article in the June 2007 issue. This program is a Sudoku solver coded in JavaScript, which displays the solution when you fill in numbers in the matrix cells and click on the solve button.	Looking Inside Inside Set-Top Box STBs have enhanced our TV viewing experience through a host of value-added services. This article takes you deep inside a set-top box to provide you a complete overview of its architecture

First Look! • Sleek and Stylish Smartphone • All-in-one Home Pc • Portable Cd/dvd Writer • Slimmer and Lighter Playstation 3 • 3D Notebook • Full-qwerty Smartphone • Noise Cancelling Headphones • Wireless Keyboard with Optical Trackball • Low-cost Laptop • Touch-enabled Printer	Circuit Ideas Electronic Candles Here is a simple circuit that can produce the effect of candle light in a normal electric bulb. A candle light, as we all know, resembles a randomly flickering light. So, the objective of this project activity is to produce a randomly flickering light effect in an electric bulb.

Innovation Vroom Down Chock-a-Block Lanes With iWave Car PC If you are worried about traffic jams, the car PC by iWave System Technologies is the perfect infotainment for you to enjoy the drive back home after a hard day of work	Celltech Touchscreen: The New Language in Mobile Technology It may appear a simple task to buy a touchscreen mobile phone. But with so many features, styles and brands available in the market, you need to know the technology well before you purchase one. Read on to learn more about touchscreen phones that may add a ‘WOW’ to your style and enhance your user experience

Embedded Software Tools Selection for Embedded Systems Software tools greatly influence the entire embedded development cycle from designing to deployment. A proper set of software tools plays a significant role in reducing the time to design, code, debug and test the embedded systems. With the growth in hardware options, demand for more integrated, cross-platform and independent software tools is increasing	IT Zone Storage Sees Many Innovations Storage is no longer a mere device. it is a ‘solution’ comprising hardware and software, and both spaces have their share of innovations

IT Zone Will You Ride Google’s Wave? How would a ‘unified’ communication platform look like? It would look like Google Wave—an e-mail service, an online collaboration tool, or a real-time communication stream, all bundled onto one platform	CD-Theme Logical Circuit Simulators: The first choice of users to check logical correctness Logic Circuit Simulators are software that are a crucial part of any hardware designing and a must before the fabrication is done. The software in this month’s EFY-CD check the logical correctness of hardware at the gate level

Interview “Periodically Consider Replacing Your Old wi-fi router”—Raj Jadhav, VP-Solution Consulting, Tech-Support & IT, D-Link (India) Raj Jadhav joined D-Link in 1994 and since then he has been instrumental in the launch of D-link modems, enterprise-class networking products and D-link care services, and driving D-link certification programmes (DCNE, DCNP and DCCE) in India and SAARC region. His current roles and responsibilities at D-Link India include solution support, consulting, quality services and IT. Jadhav speaks to Uma Bansal, deputy editor at EFY, about issues in implementing wireless networks for homes, with focus on selection of routers and network security	EFY Awards 2009 EFY Readers' Choice Awards 2009 and EFY Summit 2009

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August 2010

Issue Vol. 42 No. 8