The team of engineers with their mentor H R Nandi Vardhan
Bengaluru :
A team of engineering students has developed a glove that converts sign language into voice, helping people with speech impairment communicate better.
The smart glove, named Mudra ,converts gestures recognised under Indian sign language into spoken English.
The prototype that can convert gestures into speech
The prototype was developed by the students of Amrita School of Engineering — Abhijith Bhaskaran, Anoop G Nair, Deepak Ram and Krishnan Ananthanarayanan — as part of their final year project.
“In Sanskrit, mudra means gesture,” says Krishnan.
The idea for the project was born when the students were discussing the problems faced by the differently-abled. “As engineers, we wanted to give back to society. That is how we came up with this idea,” says Anoop.
Explaining how the device works, he says, “The flex sensor in the glove predicts the orientation of the fingers. The gyrometer, accelerometer and magnometer predict the movements of the hand in a 3D space. The sensor processes this data and produces audio output through the speaker.”
“We will start developing the device in two to three weeks,” he adds.
The team took 16 weeks to build the prototype and spent Rs 7,500. The glove can currently recognise numbers 1 to 10, and gestures corresponding to words such as morning, night, goodbye and thank you.
It can detect four different positions of each finger, and as many as 70 gestures can be configured. “We have begun validating its social feasibility. The preliminary results are very encouraging,” says Abhijith.
A lot of research went into the project, chips in Deepak. “We didn’t know how to go about it at first. We then studied about various sensors, their uses and the materials that can be used.”
The team claims that there are no side effects of using this glove and it is as comfortable as a riding glove.
H R Nandi Vardhan, assistant professor, Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, mentored the team. “Initially, we thought of using a camera. But we realised that the cameras would be expensive and non-portable.”
While the gloves are only in the prototype stage, the team is looking for people to invest in the product. Once the cost is minimised, it can hit the markets.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Bengaluru / by Akhila Damodaran / July 23rd, 2016
Rail Wheel Factory gets nod to supply wheels to Kolkata Metro
Bengaluru :
The Rail Wheel Factory (RWF) in Yelahanka has been given the green signal to supply wheels to Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation. This marks the first time any Metro Rail in the country has opted for cast wheels for coaches, opening up a whole new market for the factory.
The clearance was given on Monday by the Research Design and Standards Organisation, Lucknow, an organisation under the Ministry of Railways, Rajeev Gupta, General Manager of RWF, told Express.
“We will be providing wheel sets (wheels and axles) for the coaches of the Kolkata Metro, which are being readied at the Integral Coach Factory in Chennai. They will initially be supplied for the trial runs of three coaches of a Metro train, which would be 24-wheel sets,” the GM said.
This followed three months of negotiations and paper work between the Kolkata Metro and RWF. The trial runs could take place over a year since it is a whole new experiment being undertaken of using cast iron wheels for Metro coaches. “When it is successful, we will be permitted to supply wheels. We could bag an order to supply between 500 and 1000 wheels,” Gupta said.
When asked about the chances of it passing the trial runs, he said, “We will sail through it. We have successfully conducted the Finite Element Analysis test, which is a simulation test done emulating a train running at high speed.” The fastest Metro trains run at a speed ranging between 60 to 70 kmph. “Our wheels run at 110kmph regularly and all Rajdhani trains have them. They can touch up to 130 kmph,” Gupta said.
RWF, the country’s largest manufacturer of wheels sets, had approached Delhi Metro Rail Corporation and Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation in connection with the supply of wheels. “However, since Metro trains only use forged iron wheels which are imported, RWF was not able to convince them to make it a wheel-supplier.” It has the capacity to manufacture nearly 2 lakh wheels and 72,000 axles by casting technology.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Karnataka / by S. Lalitha / July 22nd, 2016
The Centre for Ecological Sciences at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc.), Bengaluru, will prepare the biodiversity mapping of Permude Gram Panchayat area soon, according to T.V. Ramachandra, a scientist at the centre.
Speaking at a workshop on ‘Biodiversity and natural resources’ organised by St. Aloysius College here on Saturday, he said that a survey of biodiversity under the jurisdiction of the panchayat would be conducted for two days from Sunday.
Mr. Ramachandra said that there was a proposal to set up industries covering the Permude Gram Panchayat area under the Mangaluru Special Economic Zone. The government could take a call based on the study report by the IISc.
He said that gram panchayats should prepare a people’s biodiversity register under the Biological Diversity Act, 2002. It is a gram panchayat-level register that documented local biodiversity and the local community’s traditional knowledge on biodiversity including its conservation and traditional uses. But most gram panchayats in the country did not prepare it. The register helped gram panchayats take decisions.
Replying to a question from a participant, Mr. Ramachandra disagreed with the government’s claim that the tree cover in the country was increasing.
“They [some government officials] are considering even area under paddy as tree cover,” he said adding that independent researchers should come forward to conduct a field study and prove how some of the claims of government officials were misleading.
Unless independent researchers proved the reality with accurate data, the government believed the data provided by its officials.
“They [government officials] are giving wrong data. There is a need to counter it with facts,” Mr. Ramachandra said adding that tree cover in many districts was coming down. “For example, it was down by 45 per cent in Shivamogga district,” he said.
Mr. Ramachandra said that there should be seven trees per person.
The three-day workshop organised by the college included field study for its students. A team of resource persons from the IISc. spoke on different aspects of biodiversity.
They spoke on documentation of biodiversity, data management and publication. The students and faculty of the college were informed about the methods of assessing village biodiversity, undertaking biodiversity studies of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.
Swebert D’Silva, principal of the college, was present.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Mangaluru / Special Correspondent / Mangaluru – July 24th, 2016
Age is no barrier for Nidhi Nair, Aanchal Agarwal, Suchrithaa Rajkumar, Vidhi Kothari and Anushka P Nair. The 14-year-olds won the People’s Choice Award across all categories and bagged second place in the middle-school category at the coveted Technovation Challenge 2016 in San Francisco, USA.
This was not the first feather in their cap. The girls were also in the team that earned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appreciation in the Digital India and Save the Girl Child initiatives.
For the People’s Choice Award, the 9th graders of New Horizon Public School (NHPS), Indiranagar, competed with 400 teams from across the globe to devise an Android app they call ChangEd, that stood for Change for Education through Donation. Through this app, NGOs working in the education sector could sign up and have their projects funded through donations. The product enabled users to donate even small change using payment gateways like Paytm.
ChangEd used its inbuilt intelligence to route the donations to NGOs, based on factors like urgency of the demand and amount required.
Suchrithaa Rajkumar said: “It was great exposure for us. It taught me how to deal with unexpected situations.” Teammate Vidhi Kothari agreed: “It was great to meet so many worshippers of technology .” The team started preparing a model of the app when they were in the 8th grade and submitted their idea in 2016.
They received the award on July 14 at the competition organized by Adobe Foundation, CA Technologies, Google, Verizon, Intel, Oracle, Dropbox, United Nations Women, UNESCO and MIT Media Lab.
“This is not just any achievement. It signifies a triumph of girl power and teamwork… These are the precise values we try to inculcate in students at NHPS,” said Sandhya Raman, principal.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Banglaore / TNN / July 19th, 2016
Dredging of Bhutanal tank under way near Vijayapura.—Photo: Rajendra Singh Hajeri
The century-old Bhutanal tank here is all set to get revived by October as the work to fill the tank is nearing completion.
Lorries and earthmovers have been engaged in dredging the tank and a pipeline is being laid to draw water from the Krishna. “The dredging work is expected to be completed by August 15 and the pipeline laying work by October. The tank, constructed in 1911, is being revived for the first time,” Rajendra Rudagi, Assistant Engineer, who is monitoring the project, said.
He told presspersons during a visit here on Friday that of the 3.94 lakh cubic metres of silt, 2.75 lakh cubic metres had been removed. Mr. Rudagi said that the tank was spread over 322 acres while the catchment area covered around 87 km. He said that the tank had four rivulets from which water flew to it during the monsoon. “One rivulet comes from Torvi village, two from Ittangihal village and one from Kardendoddi village,” Mr. Rudagi said. The official said that as these water sources were closed for decades, the rivulets were being cleaned for easy flow of water to the tank. Mr. Rudagi said that filling the tank would not only help supply drinking water to the city but also recharge the ground water in the catchment areas.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Karnataka / by Staff Correspondent / Vijayapura – July 16th, 2016
Bengaluru biker becomes first Indian to compelete the Trans Am Bike Race in US
A practice that began as an 18-kilometre cycle ride to school every day in the suburbs of Manipur’s Thoubal district has culminated into Thoudam Opendro Singh becoming the first Indian to complete the Trans Am Bike Race (TABR) in the US, covering a distance of 4,400 miles in less than 25 days. A resident of Bengaluru for nearly two decades, Opendro is an avid cyclist , who has been regularly taking part in long-distance biking tours in and around Karnataka as well as in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.
Describing his recent feat as a fantastic experience, the 38-year-old technical professional says, “TABR is an annual self-supported, ultra-distance cycling race across the US that follows a specific trail, covering 10 states. I rode from the north-west coast to south-east coast of the country with a group of bikers. The race started at Astoria in Oregon and went on to Idaho, Montana and Wyoming in the north, Colorado, Kansas and Missouri in the central part and Illinois, Kentucky and Virginia in the east. Yorktown in Virginia was the finish point.”
From idyllic countryside to hilly terrains as high as 11,500 feet from the sea level, this race packs quite an adventurous trip, according to Opendro. “During the initial days of the journey, we either camped at a particular location or tucked ourselves into sleeping bags outside petrol pumps or other public places. But later, when the weather started becoming colder at high altitudes, we halted at motels overnight and then hit the road in the morning,” he adds.
So, do you think resorting to bicycles can be a solution to Bengaluru’s growing traffic and pollution? “Although Bengaluru is expanding in area, when it comes to commuting space, the city is rapidly shrinking. We have a lot of cycling enthusiasts in the city, and clubs and groups supporting them. But to make cycling a regular mode of transport, more constructive efforts need to be made and common people made me aware of the benefits of the cycling,” he sums up.
www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Bangalore / Reema Gowalla / July 16th, 2016
Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology has become the first government hospital in Karnataka to set up a robotic machine to perform critical oncological surgeries.
The Centre has contributed Rs 12 crore for the Rs 16-crore machine known as Da Vinci Xi Surgical System, with the institute bearing the rest of the cost.
“This machine can perform critical surgeries in sensitive parts of the body including stomach, without causing any pain or infection. Since it does not involve any side effects, patients are cured soon,” said institute director Dr K B Lingegowda.
Head of the surgery department, Dr Krishnamurthy said, “All kinds of surgeries can be performed with ease using the robotic machine including oesophagus, rectum, prostate and uterus cancer.”
Cost not an issue
Dr Krishnamurthy added that the cost of the surgery was very high with the tools used in the surgery alone costing between Rs 80,000 and Rs 1 lakh.
“However, the cost is not an issue for patients getting treatment at our hospital under various government schemes,” he said. Dr Krishnamurthy said doctors will visit Korea to train on the machine and added that on an average, the machine can perform two surgeries a day.
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> City / DHNS – Bengaluru, July 14th, 2016
Writer R.K. Narayan’s house in Yadavgiri, Mysuru, which is being developed into a memorial on the lines of Shakespeare’s house in Stratford-on-Avon in England.
by June Gaur
Brand Mysore is set to get a fillip with the restoration of R.K. Narayan’s Yadavagiri bungalow opening up exciting possibilities not just for tourism but also for scholarship, part of the city’s raison d’ etre. Ironically, this comes at a time when Mysureans are locked in a battle to save Chamundi Hill, foremost among “the really worthwhile things” in the city as listed by R.K. Narayan (RKN).
One Vijayadashami, prodded by his grandmother, RKN pulled out a brand new notebook and wrote down the first sentence about his town. ‘It was a Monday and the train had just arrived at Malgudi station.’ India’s best-known fictional town was born.
From this home in Lakshmipuram, he sallied forth every day without fail into “the loved and shabby streets” (Graham Greene) of Malgudi (Mysore). The city of talkers yielded rich material for his characters. His destination was the town centre at K.R. Circle and Srinivasa Stores, from where he got a special kind of lavanga without which he couldn’t write, and M. Krishnaswamy & Sons on Sayyaji Rao Road, who supplied him with the tools of his craft. He made several stops along the way, antennae on the alert for stories. There was always time for stimulating conversation with the people he met. Indeed, as he notes in his 1974 memoir, My Days, many pressing issues of the day, “were settled on the promenades of Mysore.”
A backbencher at the Maharaja’s College from where he graduated, Narayan honed his writing skills and powers of observation working as a stringer for a Madras newspaper, The Justice. The joint family he lived in shored him up financially. When he decided he wanted to be a full-time writer of fiction in English, Narayan knew he was opting for a vocation that had not been heard of in India. In the 1930s, there was no literary tradition he could fall back on; no publisher or audience waiting to receive his first novel, Swami and Friends.
For years the manuscript sat on various publishers’ desks in England. A despondent Narayan gave up hope of ever finding a home for his “ugly orphan” as he called it. Yet somebody other than his grandmother believed in him. That was Kittu Purna, a friend from Mysore studying at Exeter College, Oxford. Purna disregarded Narayan’s entreaty that he “weight the manuscript with a stone and drown it in the Thames.” He did go to London however, and, with a phenomenal heave of the imagination, landed the manuscript, not in the Thames but at the door of one of England’s great writers: Graham Greene. Charmed out of his skin by the sheer theatre of Narayan’s little provincial town and its delightful people, Greene saw to it that Swami and Friends was published in England.
A series of wonderful novels, 14 to be exact, and scores of Narayan’s short stories written over a period of 60 years, are set in Malgudi. For many, the town, nestling somewhere between the forested Mempi Hills and the Sarayu River, is the real hero in his fiction. In its creator’s lifetime, speculation about Malgudi’s exact location fuelled an industry of research and never failed to amuse him. A New York researcher even went so far as to compile a map of Malgudi, a cartographic fiction of course, which pleased the author and was published in his 1981 collection, Malgudi Days.
Did Mysore inspire Malgudi? Most of Narayan’s contemporaries, among them Dr. M.N. Srinivas and H.Y. Sharada Prasad, thought so. Ramchandra Guha thinks it’s the town of Nanjangud while former ambassador A. Madhavan sees typical Mysore signposts of the 1960s in the Boardless Hotel, a popular eating joint of those times, and the ubiquitous jutkas, then the undisputed kings of the road.
While the exercise of matching up Malgudi with Mysore continues to draw the nerds, RKN himself was always non-committal on the subject. Though he did take a BBC crew around Mysore to familiar landmarks such as the Chamarajapuram Railway Station, where his story apparently began, he insisted that Malgudi existed only in his imagination and, therefore, he was free from the constraints that chronicling an actual place would impose. “I wanted to be able to put in whatever I liked and wherever I liked – a little street or school or a temple or a bungalow or even a slum, a railway line, at any spot, a minor despot in a little world. …..I began to be fascinated by its possibilities; its river, market-place, and the far-off mountain roads and forests.”
Despite the ambivalence here, there can be little doubt that many of RKN’s memorable characters were inspired by the real life people he met in Mysore. Syd Harrex, the Australian poet and Narayan scholar, once told me he’d met Cheluva Iyengar, undoubtedly the model for Mr. Sampath, at the writer’s Yadavagiri house for an interview recorded in 1972. Syd recalled that RKN had gifted Cheluva Iyengar a copy of Mr. Sampath – the Printer of Malgudi and had inscribed it so – ‘To Sampath the original.’
Cut to the present and the mammoth task confronting the authorities with regard to converting RKN’s home in Yadavagiri into a fitting memorial for the writer. Ten years ago, when the Sahitya Akademi held a seminar in Mysore to mark Narayan’s birth centenary, scholars visited this intriguing double-storied, cream-coloured house. In the semi-circular first floor study with its eight windows and criss-cross grills, they lingered to let imagination take wing, picturing the bird-like figure of the writer hard at work spinning the Malgudi magic that brings the world to Mysore’s doorstep.
The recent centenary celebrations have reinforced Mysore’s reputation as a University town. No doubt the decision to involve the University in establishing a Research Centre for archival and scholarly materials pertaining to R.K. Narayan will also involve Dhvanyaloka, the Centre for Literature and the Arts set up by the late Prof. C.D. Narasimhaiah (CDN). R.K. Narayan, scholars from India and around the world have always homed onto Dhvanyaloka where Prof. CDN guided countless numbers painstakingly through their research. The tradition has continued with CDN’s family, all English teachers, and CDN’s pupils from the University of Mysore who pioneered research into Indian Writing in English, having picked up the baton.
Among the resources which should be available here are T.S. Satyan’s priceless photographs of the writer, including one of him playing cricket in the compound of his Lakshmipuram house. A Trust run by Satyan’s family now takes care of all his work. However, one hurdle which will somehow have to be circumvented is the fact that all the writer’s manuscripts are with the Boston University Library, preserved in air-conditioned lockers. Only recently, in an expression of goodwill, the US has returned precious artefacts to India. Surely, Boston University can be persuaded to part with at least a fraction of the Malgudi man’s work from their archives. And hopefully, we’ll be able to take good care of this gift.
However, Mysureans looking to perpetuate RKN’s legacy please be a
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Feature Articles / July 13th, 2016
Mysuru Warriors, the city’s cricket team and Kalisu Foundation today handed over a library to Sharada Vilas Government Higher Primary School on Sewage Farm Road in Kanakagiri here.
Speaking after inaugurating the Library, R. Guru, Chairman, NR Group, makers of Cycle Pure Agarbathies and Owners of Mysuru Warriors, said that public participation was vital for development of Government schools and a library is of great value to the overall development of a child.
He also observed that the Sharada Vilas Government Higher Primary School was so good that parents around the school were taking their children out of private schools and admitting them to this school .
Vikram Muthanna, Managing Editor, Star of Mysore, who was one of the chief guests, appreciated the efforts of Mysuru Warriors and Kalisu Foundation in establishing a well-stocked library and added that the teachers must encourage students to not only use the library but also maintain the library and increase the number of books.
The Library has more than 2,000 books, which include pictorial books on Science, Math and General Knowledge.
This is the fourth library established by Kalisu Foundation in Government schools. Earlier this year, Mysuru Warriors in association with Kalisu Foundation had established a library in Kuvempunagar Government school.
Balachandar, Convenor, KSCA, Mysore Zone; South Zone BEO B.N. Shivaramegowda, School Principal Ravish, Mysore Round Table Chairman Mayur Shah, Kalisu Foundation’s Nikhilesh, SDMC President Narayana and others were present at the inaugural function.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> General News / July 13th, 2016
Spotlight On RJ Disha’s Morning No. 1 Photo: Sudhakara Jain
Radio Jockey Disha Oberoi tunes in with Morning No. 1 and sums up the latest laurel her show has received, thanks to Namma Bengalureans
Each one of us would jump at the opportunity to represent our city and country in any way possible. That’s exactly what Radio Jockey Disha Oberoi did at the recent New York Festival for World’s Best TV & Films. The host of Red FM Bengaluru’s morning show Morning No.1, Disha brought home accolades and a medal for the country and city, with the show’s recent social initiative ‘Bengaluru’s Most Wanted’.
Bagging the bronze medal under the Best Human Interest Story category, the show was an endeavour to felicitate the people of Bengaluru who have been doing selfless work for the city behind the scenes.
Elaborating on the award, Disha says it happens every year in Manhattan with over 30 countries participating from across the globe. “The kick here is as a kid, I’ve always wanted to wear the Indian jersey and play a sport or be a bomber pilot for the Indian Air Force. But I couldn’t do either. So this was the closest I could come to wearing an Indian jersey, putting my country out there and represent.” She adds that this was also a way for people to realise that this is very progressive radio from India. “It’s a bigger playing field. And we have scope to grow.”
For the award, they sent three entries. “One was about a gentleman called Mahadev whose job is to dispose unclaimed dead bodies. The interesting thing is he had his sense of humour intact. He said he’s not scared of dead bodies, but rather scared of the ones who are alive! He was a funny man and he made me feel grateful for my life.” The second was a real-life personal account of a lady who was on the same flight as Neerja Bhanot, the flight crew member who saved hundreds of lives in the Pan Am Flight 73 hijacking in 1986. “The narration by the survivor was of personal interest to me since I was flight crew too,” Disha says. The third was an interview with Air Marshal K.C. Cariappa, the son of Field Marshal General K. M. Cariappa, the first Indian Army Commander-in-Chief.
“K.C. Cariappa was a prisoner of war in the 1965 Indo-Pakistan War. The head of Pakistan had served under his father. So he called the father and asked if he can send his son back. The General said all the PoWs are his sons and he wanted them all back. He brought out the spirit of our Army. These are all moving stories with strong emotions,” she adds.
Moving on to talking about the show, an animated Disha says: “When people get on radio, they get excited that they have a couple of minutes on air. A good conversation and a good laugh can change your day.” She adds: “Radio is the only medium that is truly and wholly live. It’s as live as you can keep it. The show is exclusive to Bengaluru – we talk primarily about the city. And it’s for everyone. After all you can’t define a typical Bengalurean today. The city has people from everywhere. It comes with the weather, food and the easy life. Bangalore is cosmo and so is the show.”
How much do you let loose on the show? “I am not allowed to be myself a 100 per cent,” replies Disha with a glint of naughtiness in her eyes. “Most of it is me. Only when the listener comes on and I don’t know what they are talking about, I let them take the lead.”
“A lot of my personality gets enhanced by the people I speak to. I’m a sucker for good conversations. And the people who call are fascinating. For instance, a barber who opens his shop at 7 a.m. and his first customer hasn’t yet come, so he calls to say hello. For me, somebody is Hosur in a small dingy shop is connecting with me. Or even a guy in a car who’s upset about potholes and traffic. I get to talk to so many people, I consider myself very lucky.”
When asked to tell her story, Disha gets nostalgic and says she never really planned to be where she is now. “I was flying for an airline as cabin crew. A friend complimented my announcements and said I should give radio a shot. I was on a six-month sabbatical, travelling, so I walked into a radio station and asked if I could do some ads. They agreed and led me to voiceover artiste Niladri Bose. It was an audition for an RJ. He put me in front of a mike and told me to talk about whatever I wanted. So I went nuts. I was surprised when I came out and he said I can take the job. It happened so naturally, I didn’t plan it.” Having moved from Chennai to Bengaluru six years ago and having dabbled in everything from journalism to flight crew and triathlon to squash, the RJ says the show is just like her. “I don’t have a plan for a future, and that’s what’s worked for me and the show.”
“I have the power to give people some of the sweetest memories of their life. Radio is the most personal medium. When a person is listening to me, I am talking to him or her directly – that can be any of the 18 lakh people in the city.”
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> Metroplus / by Allan Moses Rodricks / Bengaluru – July 11th, 2016
