Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Service On Demand (SOD) system; SOD - ZM5
SOD - ZM5
(Zone Marking 5m radius)
- Object detection with Automatics zone status hardware planting
- H/w is a ad-hoc mesh network
- H/w create a zone detect status (clear or danger) (GPS)
- H/w is capable of tampering awareness. No additional object near cleared zone. No removal/shifting.
- Tampered h/w emit signal (can recall Object detect platform, create Area check interest, or remove tamperer)
- Upon h/w deploy, Info relay to remote Monitoring module
- Info used for subsequent resource planning
- Subsequent resource arrive at cleared H/w zone
- Have means to locate the h/w (pencil beam for h/w locating, invisible (IR) means to view the h/w location)
- Only own resources knows the status of the H/w. Need special means to understand/read the H/w
- H/w have means to turn off after self awareness of preset condition (by time, by situation)
- H/w have means to be remotely turn off by Monitoring module
Monday, May 30, 2011
The Best Presentation of the Year
[extracted from a email by Carmine Gallo - communications coach to the world’s most admired brands as well as a best-selling author of books on communication and innovation]
I recently had the honor of judging the World’s Best Presentation Contest for a very popular site called Slideshare. Judges included entrepreneur Guy Kawasaki, digital marketing expert David Armano, along with social media experts Beth Kanter and Jane Hart. Together we reviewed dozens of impressive presentations. I can assure you that one look at the winners and you won’t view your own presentations the same way again.
Presentation design firm, Empowered Presentations, created the first place winner: Smoke, a Convenient Truth. The presentation itself is a call for more action to support global anti-smoking campaigns. I spoke to the designers after the contest had ended to gain more insight into how they approached the topic.
Put your audience first. Designer and Empowered Presentations CEO, Corey Jim, said he is passionate about the topic because his father had passed away from lung cancer. He wanted to create a story using presentation slides that would change people’s lives. The best presentations put the audience first. The fastest way to put your audience to sleep is to begin with an “About Us” slide and to spend the first five minutes talking about yourself, your company or your product. Your audience members don’t care about you—they care about themselves.
Sketch the story. The most engaging presentations have a strong visual appeal and you can’t create visual PowerPoint slides by opening the software. You create visually interesting images by doing what a movie director would do—storyboarding, sketching, drawing. Many experts use white boards or old fashioned pen and paper. Jim uses Post-It notes he sticks to a wall. One useful technique that Jim taught me—stick to one idea per note. Next convert that point to a visual representation of that idea. Finally, create one slide from that idea.
One idea per slide. Many poorly designed presentations cram too much information on one slide, leaving the audience confused, frustrated and bored. For example, in one sequence of slides, Jim delivers the statistic that 1.7 trillion cigarettes are consumed every year in China alone. On one slide we learn that it is the equivalent of 3 million cigarettes a minute. Instead of simply showing the data, Jim combined it with an image of a watch. But the minute and second hands were made of cigarettes. Arresting visuals take thought, and storyboarding.
Take your time. Jim’s colleague, Yancey Unequivocally, says it takes 60 to 90 hours to create a truly impactful presentation. That means you should set aside about ten hours a week a full six weeks before your presentation. This isn’t as overwhelming as it sounds. In most cases, you can create a master presentation or template and re-use the slides with slight modifications for other audiences.
Your PowerPoint presentation is often the one chance you have to influence your audience to action. PowerPoint does not have to dull.
Great presentations can move people and truly inspire.
.
Compact Gimbal Mirror Mounts
STOCK# CCGM-1 CCGM-2
Optics Diameter: Ø mm( Inch ) 25.0(1”) 50.0(2”)
Optics Thickness: Min mm( Inch ) 3.0(0.12) 3.0(0.12)
Adjustable Axis θx , θy
Travel Range ( θx , θy) ± 4゜
Dive type 100 Pitch screw
Weight (kg) 0.16 0.25
Material (Treatment) Aluminum ( Black anodized )
Motor Control - What is Four Quadrant Control?
What is Four Quadrant Control?
Hardware: Motion ControlProblem: What are the four quadrants of operation of a motor drive? How does this apply to my motion control system?
Solution: To answer this question, we must understand a little about the purpose of servo motors and their function as an electromechanical conversion device. Servo motors are differentiated from other types of electric motors by the fact that they are typically designed with an emphasis on smooth, accurate position and/or velocity control, rather than ultimate power output. Servo systems are often bi-directional (CW or CCW), whereas many common industrial motor drives for pumps and fans and similar equipment only operate in one direction. Accurate control of acceleration and deceleration of a motor is another characteristic of servo systems, which is not always found in simple motor control systems. Many motors rely on the friction alone to decelerate the load when power is removed.
If we consider both directions of operation (CW and CCW) and both modes (acceleration and deceleration), we arrive at four distinct areas, or quadrants, of operation. This can be visualized by plotting the velocity of the motor on the X axis of a graph and the direction of applied torque on the Y axis as shown below. Quadrants 1 and 3 represent the motor applying torque in the direction of motion, while quadrants 2 and 4 represent applying torque opposite the direction of the motion. In quadrants 1 and 3 the flow of energy is from electrical to mechanical. The servo motor is converting electrical power from the drive into motion in the system. In quadrants 2 and 4, the motor is actually acting as a generator. The motion of the system is being converted into electrical power, which is then absorbed by the drive.Some motor drives are capable of operating in only quadrant 1, while others will work in quadrants 1 and 3, quadrants 1 and 4, etc. Since most servo drives are designed for accurate control in both directions, many will operate, at least transiently, in all for quadrants. To do this the drive must be able to both source and sink electrical power from the motor.
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Saturday, May 28, 2011
Four Ways to Make Your iPhone Battery Last Longer
A good friend of mine had been complaining that her iPhone 3GS battery was holding less and less of a charge. When we got together at 5 p.m. one recent day, it was at 5 percent full - and it had been fully charged that morning. She had barely used it all day. The phone was apparently running itself dry simply by being turned on.
The single biggest battery consumer is the screen brightness. But it wasn't especially bright on this phone.
So I suggested that she take the phone to an Apple store to get the $60 battery replacement service. In fact, there was an Apple store only two blocks away, so I accompanied her - and found out, upon arrival, that there is no $60 battery replacement service! There's one for iPods, but apparently not for the iPhone.
There are plenty of do-it-yourself and third-party battery-replacement services that advertise online, but the Apple store Genius, named Nicole, said none of that would be necessary. She tested the battery and found that it was perfectly fine!
Instead, Nicole pointed out a few things that were contributing to my friend's rapid battery depletion. I took notes and thought I'd pass them along.
* Push e-mail. This, I believe, was the big one. My friend has seven e-mail accounts, and her phone was checking each of them every 15 minutes. If you turn off the "Push" feature, and set it to Manually instead (in Settings->Mail, Contacts, Calendars->Fetch New Data), then your iPhone checks for e-mail only when you actually open the e-mail app. Your battery goes a lot farther.
(If you have a corporate Exchange account, your calendar and address-book data will similarly be updated only when you open those apps.)
* GPS checks. In Settings ->General->Location Services, you'll see a list of all the apps on your phone that are using your phone's location feature to know where you are. (It's a combination of GPS, cell-tower triangulation and, on some phones, Wi-Fi hotspot triangulation.) All of that checking uses battery power, too. My friend had dozens of apps with Location Services turned on, many of which didn't really need to be on. She turned most of them off.
* Notifications. Similarly, in Settings -> Notifications, you see a list of apps that are allowed to display pop-up notifications (those blue text bubbles that look like text messages). To do that, they have to monitor what's going on with your phone - and that takes juice. Turn off the ones you don't really need.
* Background apps. Nicole the Genius discovered that my friend had a huge number of apps open - maybe 40 of them. She maintained that they were using battery power, too, in the background.
Now, I kept my mouth shut. But I'd been led to believe that background apps are generally frozen into suspended animation precisely so that they don't use battery power. In fact, Apple was criticized when it introduced "multitasking" in the latest iPhone software, precisely because apps don't actually keep operating in the background. Only a few sanctioned features keep running in the background (Internet radio playback and GPS tracking, for example).
Even so, Nicole quit all 40 of the apps that were still open. (To do that, double-press the Home button to open the multitasking app switcher. Hold your finger down on any icon until they all start wiggling. Tap the little X close boxes to manually quit open apps.)
Did the Nicole treatment work? Very well indeed. The next day, my friend's battery, by the same time of day (5 p.m.), was still at 80 percent!
So there you go: How to make your iPhone battery last a lot longer. For free. You're welcome.
[extracted from Yahoo -DAVID POGUE, On Tuesday 24 May 2011, 1:48 SGT ]
Friday, May 27, 2011
Software Transforms Photos Into 3-D Models
The design software company Autodesk will release free software next week that could turn those snapshots into your own personal replica from a 3-D printer. Called Photofly, the software extracts a detailed 3-D model from a collection of overlapping photos."We can automatically generate a 3-D mesh at extreme detail from a set of photos—we're talking the kind of density captured by a laser scanner," says Brian Mathews, who leads a group at the company known as Autodesk Labs. Unlike a laser scanner, though, the equipment needed to capture the 3-D rendering doesn't cost tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. An overlapping set of around 40 photos is enough to capture a person's head and shoulders in detailed 3-D, he says.The software, which will be available for Windows computers only, uploads a user's photos to a cloud server for processing and then downloads the results. The 3-D rendering can be viewed as a naked wire-frame model of the captured scene or a version with realistic surface color and texture. The colored models can also be shared for viewing in an iPad app, while the underlying wire frame can be exported in standard 3-D design formats for editing.Models produced from a well-taken set of photos will be spatially accurate to within 1 percent or less, says Mathews, high enough quality to be used for professional design projects. "You could send that model from your photos to a 3-D printing service to physically re-create what you saw, perhaps at a different scale," says Mathews. In recent years, the cost of 3-D printers and printing services has fallen, with hobbyist machines like the MakerBot and consumer services such as ShapeWays that will print out 3-D models in a variety of ceramics, plastics, and metals.VIDEO
Autodesk's is the first consumer software capable of producing models accurate enough for 3-D printing, says Mathews. Similar projects, such as Microsoft Research'sPhotoSynth, and an app based on the same technology that enables a cell phone to convert its photos into 3-D models, only capture 3-D data good enough to add an extra dimension to the content of photos, says Mathews. The same was true of a previous version of Photofly. "Generating accurate geometry from what we see in the photos is far more exciting."Photofly runs through several steps to distill an accurate model from a collection of photos. First, it calculates the position from which each photo was taken by triangulating based on the different views of certain distinctive features. Once the camera positions have been determined, the software goes through a second round of more detailed triangulation, using contrasting views to generate a detailed 3-D surface for everything visible."This technology and the popularity of cameras and cell phones means there are now a couple billion sensors out there that anyone can use to create 3-D content," says Yuan-Fang Wang, a computer scientist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and founder of VisualSize, which is working on technology similar to Autodesk's.Wang says the technology has become robust and simple enough for the consumer market, but there are still limitations that may frustrate some people. "An object cannot be too plain, because the software has nothing to compare, or too shiny, and it cannot be moving much," he says. Because few ordinary users have experienced the technology yet, it is still unclear how people will handle that, or just which applications will prove popular, Wang adds.Photofly can be used on objects large and small, from bugs to buildings, and can also handle photos from different sources. A video shows a model of Mount Rushmore created from a variety of online images taken by many different people.VIDEO
After seeing a demo of the technology at the TED conference earlier this year, paleontologist Louise Leakey has been using Photofly in Kenya to capture early human bones at high detail. The models provide her team with a way to collaborate with distant colleagues and to record accurate measurements of specimens, such as the spacing and size of teeth, without actually handling them (see a video of a specimen captured by Leakey).Autodesk will also explore using Photofly to capture 3-D models of buildings to speed retrofits designed to boost their energy efficiency. "You can take a bunch of photos and very quickly have a model to make the key measurements needed to figure out what needs to be done to make a building greener," says Mathews.
.
The software, which will be available for Windows computers only, uploads a user's photos to a cloud server for processing and then downloads the results. The 3-D rendering can be viewed as a naked wire-frame model of the captured scene or a version with realistic surface color and texture. The colored models can also be shared for viewing in an iPad app, while the underlying wire frame can be exported in standard 3-D design formats for editing.
VIDEO
VIDEO
Letter to Heng Swee Keat (Minister of Education, Singapore)
Dear Mr Heng,
The recent polls have triggered many dramatic changes, the biggest of which is PM’s consistent refrain for transformation. In this spirit, I’m writing to you to ask whole-heartedly for a transformation of our education system. If not a c...omplete transformation, at least a holistic review of some of the basic tenets by which education policies in this country are made. As a parent with one child in secondary school and another in primary school with contrasting abilities, I have, over the years, become increasingly frustrated and disturbed by many areas of our education system which I feel are not edifying to the development of children. At the risk of sounding like one of those domineering, opinionated mothers, let me try to persuade you, from the point of view of a concerned parent, why a change is due. Education is not a business Many have felt that Singapore in the past few years has been run like a business and this mindset has filtered down to education. These days, teachers are ranked against each other measured by KPIs. If their students don't perform up to par, then they drop in ranking. I assume this affects their appraisal and promotion prospects. Principals are also under pressure to keep up in school rankings (and not just in academics), hence they push their teachers to achieve better results. Here's what happens when schools are run like businesses. Teachers become workers assessed and ranked according to quantifiable output. The principal is like the CEO, answerable to a higher authority based on numbers. Students become products, they are valued only according to the quantifiable output they can contribute, everything else is peripheral or redundant. Everything is reduced to numbers. Therein lies the problem. When you run a business, the focus has to be on results, preferably quantifiable results. Don't get me wrong, I think it's well and good to try and assess the effectiveness of a school. But instead of seeing how we can better assess the effectiveness of schools, we run the schools to make them easier to assess. Education administrators love this because it's so neat, structured and orderly. But the problem is education is about moulding of individuals. And neither individuals nor learning is neat, structured or orderly. The process of education is not and should be like that of manufacturing, taking place in a factory. A friend of mine who volunteered to lead a character module at her son’s school was taken aback when she was asked for KPIs. I have other friends who are teachers have expressed frustration at being assessed purely by how well their students score. If we take this route, there is no "business" value in helping a student overcome his learning disability or giving special attention to a child from a difficult family background because the outcome is not quantifiable. We're leaving it to the assumed social conscience of the teacher and the school to step forward in such instances. But realistically, ensuring ‘A’ students continue to get top grades will likely get priority because it directly impacts on the teacher's KPIs. Obsession with results The inevitable outcome of an education system that is run by KPIs is the obsession with results and by this, of course I mean quantifiable results. What happens then is the focus is shifted from the process of education to the end result of scoring, because that is what is measured in the end. For example, I find that the way many subjects are taught in schools are based on the marking template, understandably because if the objective is to maximise scores, then you teach to fulfil this objective. I’m a corporate writer and one of my biggest pet peeves is the way composition writing is taught in primary schools. Many teachers today are told to mark the language of a composition based on how many "good phrases" are used. In my son’s school, a commercial book of good phrases is part of the syllabus and the kids are told to learn these phrases, even for spelling. These phrases are often so bombastic and pretentious that nobody in real life would actually use them. Yet the students are taught them because “ticks” are given for each “good phrase” and added to their vocabulary score. I remember during a parent-teacher conference, I raised my concerns to my son's English teacher. To my utter surprise, she agreed with me. She said that once the school started imposing the memorising of good phrases for composition, she ended up with 44 scripts of almost identical introductions (mostly about the "fiery sun in the sapphire sky"). Unfortunately, her hands were tied. I know why this is imposed - it's to make marking simpler. This way, schools don't have to depend on the arbitrary standards of each marker and the marker just has to follow a matrix. It's certainly more orderly but don't mistake it for creativity. I don't know any other education system which designs its curriculum around the grading. Shouldn't it be the other way around? To me, attempting to come up with a template for creativity is simply oxymoronic. Ironically, we’ve managed to suck the creativity out of creative writing. This obsession with results extends outside of the classroom. In my daughter’s school, the performing arts groups are given funding according to how well they perform in the SYF. Likewise, bigger budgets are given to sports that bring in medals. The list goes on. What this breeds in the race for medals and results is that schools often prioritise these over values like effort, sportsmanship and character building. Even otherwise worthwhile activities, such as CCAs and community service, have lost their noble intent somewhat, as many students now perform these duties clinically for the sake of window dressing their resume. Valuing people based on academic results As a direct outcome of a school system that emphasises scores above all else and uses these scores to dictate the child's educational path at a very early age, Singaporeans have become obsessed with chasing grades. While I don’t deny grades are important, for many, they have become life-centric, meaning kids spend every waking hour performing tasks that will help them better their score. The mindless pursuit of academic achievement has become so over-arching that many parents are now sending their kids for what I call indiscriminate tuition – tuition in every single examinable subject whether or not the child actually needs it. My daughter is in an SBGE (School-Based Gifted Education) class and her classmates were either from the GEP in primary school or top scorers in the PSLE. So I was startled when she told me that most of her classmates have tuition in 3 or 4 subjects. Tuition has become a crutch - even if the kids are doing well on their own, parents fear the consequences of doing without it. The backlash is that our children’s self-worth and perception have become intrinsically linked to their academic grades. Teachers, peers and possibly parents judge the value of students according to their academic ability. I know children whose self-esteem is low simply because they don’t do as well in school as their classmates. In the “branded” schools, it also breeds elitism because these students deem others less academically-inclined as somehow inferior. When my daughter attended her first day of school in sec 1, many of her new classmates, meeting her for the first time, didn’t ask “what’s your name?” but “what’s your t-score?” This treatment of academic prowess as a “superior” skill can be seen throughout our system. Although we profess to embrace all talents, it’s often lip service. Prefects and student leaders are usually chosen first on their academic ability before their leadership skills. In many DSAs for sports, schools still ask for academic results before they will even entertain the child for a trial. The message we seem to be sending is: we'll look at your other talents IF you have the academic ability. Putting standards above learning In my son’s recent p5 mid-year exams, in one class, every single child failed the math paper. This is a common scenario among some of the popular schools. Obviously, it’s not because the students are intellectually deficient. It’s because the papers are often set at a level designed for only the top 25% of kids. In fact, one question required a method that had not yet been taught to the students. It’s a mockery of the “teach less learn more” motto – does it mean the teachers teach less but the kids somehow have to learn more on their own? No wonder tuition centres are flourishing! I’m tired of hearing the age-old excuse from schools that this will spur the children to work harder. Incidentally, this is not supported by fact. I suspect it's an urban legend spread by schools who wish to justify their "high" standards. I meet many parents and students who are more demoralised than "spurred" by their consistently bad results. What is the point of this? The age gap between my two children is only three years and yet I can see that what my younger child has to learn at his age is markedly more difficult than what his sister had to know. Perhaps this constant accelerating of the educational syllabus is a knee jerk reaction to the influx of brilliant foreign students, but this is no justification. We need to recognise that these kids have completely different motivations. They are here purely to study, to carve a better life for themselves, much as our students work harder when they study overseas. Do we then use these as benchmarks to whip Singaporeans into shape? No education system is a one size fits all but we need to consider the best interest of the majority of students. If half your students fail in an exam, it doesn’t reflect badly on the student – it reflects badly on the teaching. I find that in setting the curriculum and exam papers, there seems to be some semi-sadistic streak in MOE and schools, to trip kids up and make them feel stupid. It's as if someone is saying, "Aha! I managed to set a question that no one could answer!" There will always be a small percentage of brainiacs who can ace any exam, no matter how difficult. That is not a logical benchmark by which to design curriculum or exam papers. Plea for a more meaningful system In the course of my work, I had the opportunity to interview the Vice Dean, Education of Duke-NUS. It was, in my mind, one of the most inspiring interviews I’d ever conducted. In his words, “We don’t just want the straight ‘A’ student. Does having one less ‘A’ make you less of a person? We know Singaporeans are already great at memorising facts – we’re looking for passion, dedication and the ability to see a problem through different angles.” I feel we could use more of that mindset here. Singaporean educators are often proud of our high standards but let's be honest, we're good at ticking off checklists, exams and competitions. We laugh at the laissez faire American system for its laxity but in truth, they have churned out more innovators and thinkers from their messy system than we have (even after adjusting for size and population). I will be the first to admit to occasionally suffering pangs of anxiety when my child doesn't do well in an exam because it's hard to stand firm in the onslaught of a tsunami of kiasu-ism. But at the end of the day, I try to keep reminding myself his character and happiness matter more. I want a kinder system, one that encourages my child to explore the world around him, not closes it up. One that shows him the richness of issues and topics out there, not limits him to four subjects. I want a system where I can encourage my child to enjoy music, art, sports for their own sake, and not with the pre-requisite that he does well academically. I want him to want to help others, and not because it counts towards community service hours in his report book. I want to groom a child with integrity and respect towards others, and I hope others can appreciate him for these values. I am doing as much as I can in these areas but I cannot fight against the education system. I'm writing this in the hope that as you now helm the Education Ministry, you can make the transformation happen. Thank you very much for your time.
The recent polls have triggered many dramatic changes, the biggest of which is PM’s consistent refrain for transformation. In this spirit, I’m writing to you to ask whole-heartedly for a transformation of our education system. If not a c...omplete transformation, at least a holistic review of some of the basic tenets by which education policies in this country are made. As a parent with one child in secondary school and another in primary school with contrasting abilities, I have, over the years, become increasingly frustrated and disturbed by many areas of our education system which I feel are not edifying to the development of children. At the risk of sounding like one of those domineering, opinionated mothers, let me try to persuade you, from the point of view of a concerned parent, why a change is due. Education is not a business Many have felt that Singapore in the past few years has been run like a business and this mindset has filtered down to education. These days, teachers are ranked against each other measured by KPIs. If their students don't perform up to par, then they drop in ranking. I assume this affects their appraisal and promotion prospects. Principals are also under pressure to keep up in school rankings (and not just in academics), hence they push their teachers to achieve better results. Here's what happens when schools are run like businesses. Teachers become workers assessed and ranked according to quantifiable output. The principal is like the CEO, answerable to a higher authority based on numbers. Students become products, they are valued only according to the quantifiable output they can contribute, everything else is peripheral or redundant. Everything is reduced to numbers. Therein lies the problem. When you run a business, the focus has to be on results, preferably quantifiable results. Don't get me wrong, I think it's well and good to try and assess the effectiveness of a school. But instead of seeing how we can better assess the effectiveness of schools, we run the schools to make them easier to assess. Education administrators love this because it's so neat, structured and orderly. But the problem is education is about moulding of individuals. And neither individuals nor learning is neat, structured or orderly. The process of education is not and should be like that of manufacturing, taking place in a factory. A friend of mine who volunteered to lead a character module at her son’s school was taken aback when she was asked for KPIs. I have other friends who are teachers have expressed frustration at being assessed purely by how well their students score. If we take this route, there is no "business" value in helping a student overcome his learning disability or giving special attention to a child from a difficult family background because the outcome is not quantifiable. We're leaving it to the assumed social conscience of the teacher and the school to step forward in such instances. But realistically, ensuring ‘A’ students continue to get top grades will likely get priority because it directly impacts on the teacher's KPIs. Obsession with results The inevitable outcome of an education system that is run by KPIs is the obsession with results and by this, of course I mean quantifiable results. What happens then is the focus is shifted from the process of education to the end result of scoring, because that is what is measured in the end. For example, I find that the way many subjects are taught in schools are based on the marking template, understandably because if the objective is to maximise scores, then you teach to fulfil this objective. I’m a corporate writer and one of my biggest pet peeves is the way composition writing is taught in primary schools. Many teachers today are told to mark the language of a composition based on how many "good phrases" are used. In my son’s school, a commercial book of good phrases is part of the syllabus and the kids are told to learn these phrases, even for spelling. These phrases are often so bombastic and pretentious that nobody in real life would actually use them. Yet the students are taught them because “ticks” are given for each “good phrase” and added to their vocabulary score. I remember during a parent-teacher conference, I raised my concerns to my son's English teacher. To my utter surprise, she agreed with me. She said that once the school started imposing the memorising of good phrases for composition, she ended up with 44 scripts of almost identical introductions (mostly about the "fiery sun in the sapphire sky"). Unfortunately, her hands were tied. I know why this is imposed - it's to make marking simpler. This way, schools don't have to depend on the arbitrary standards of each marker and the marker just has to follow a matrix. It's certainly more orderly but don't mistake it for creativity. I don't know any other education system which designs its curriculum around the grading. Shouldn't it be the other way around? To me, attempting to come up with a template for creativity is simply oxymoronic. Ironically, we’ve managed to suck the creativity out of creative writing. This obsession with results extends outside of the classroom. In my daughter’s school, the performing arts groups are given funding according to how well they perform in the SYF. Likewise, bigger budgets are given to sports that bring in medals. The list goes on. What this breeds in the race for medals and results is that schools often prioritise these over values like effort, sportsmanship and character building. Even otherwise worthwhile activities, such as CCAs and community service, have lost their noble intent somewhat, as many students now perform these duties clinically for the sake of window dressing their resume. Valuing people based on academic results As a direct outcome of a school system that emphasises scores above all else and uses these scores to dictate the child's educational path at a very early age, Singaporeans have become obsessed with chasing grades. While I don’t deny grades are important, for many, they have become life-centric, meaning kids spend every waking hour performing tasks that will help them better their score. The mindless pursuit of academic achievement has become so over-arching that many parents are now sending their kids for what I call indiscriminate tuition – tuition in every single examinable subject whether or not the child actually needs it. My daughter is in an SBGE (School-Based Gifted Education) class and her classmates were either from the GEP in primary school or top scorers in the PSLE. So I was startled when she told me that most of her classmates have tuition in 3 or 4 subjects. Tuition has become a crutch - even if the kids are doing well on their own, parents fear the consequences of doing without it. The backlash is that our children’s self-worth and perception have become intrinsically linked to their academic grades. Teachers, peers and possibly parents judge the value of students according to their academic ability. I know children whose self-esteem is low simply because they don’t do as well in school as their classmates. In the “branded” schools, it also breeds elitism because these students deem others less academically-inclined as somehow inferior. When my daughter attended her first day of school in sec 1, many of her new classmates, meeting her for the first time, didn’t ask “what’s your name?” but “what’s your t-score?” This treatment of academic prowess as a “superior” skill can be seen throughout our system. Although we profess to embrace all talents, it’s often lip service. Prefects and student leaders are usually chosen first on their academic ability before their leadership skills. In many DSAs for sports, schools still ask for academic results before they will even entertain the child for a trial. The message we seem to be sending is: we'll look at your other talents IF you have the academic ability. Putting standards above learning In my son’s recent p5 mid-year exams, in one class, every single child failed the math paper. This is a common scenario among some of the popular schools. Obviously, it’s not because the students are intellectually deficient. It’s because the papers are often set at a level designed for only the top 25% of kids. In fact, one question required a method that had not yet been taught to the students. It’s a mockery of the “teach less learn more” motto – does it mean the teachers teach less but the kids somehow have to learn more on their own? No wonder tuition centres are flourishing! I’m tired of hearing the age-old excuse from schools that this will spur the children to work harder. Incidentally, this is not supported by fact. I suspect it's an urban legend spread by schools who wish to justify their "high" standards. I meet many parents and students who are more demoralised than "spurred" by their consistently bad results. What is the point of this? The age gap between my two children is only three years and yet I can see that what my younger child has to learn at his age is markedly more difficult than what his sister had to know. Perhaps this constant accelerating of the educational syllabus is a knee jerk reaction to the influx of brilliant foreign students, but this is no justification. We need to recognise that these kids have completely different motivations. They are here purely to study, to carve a better life for themselves, much as our students work harder when they study overseas. Do we then use these as benchmarks to whip Singaporeans into shape? No education system is a one size fits all but we need to consider the best interest of the majority of students. If half your students fail in an exam, it doesn’t reflect badly on the student – it reflects badly on the teaching. I find that in setting the curriculum and exam papers, there seems to be some semi-sadistic streak in MOE and schools, to trip kids up and make them feel stupid. It's as if someone is saying, "Aha! I managed to set a question that no one could answer!" There will always be a small percentage of brainiacs who can ace any exam, no matter how difficult. That is not a logical benchmark by which to design curriculum or exam papers. Plea for a more meaningful system In the course of my work, I had the opportunity to interview the Vice Dean, Education of Duke-NUS. It was, in my mind, one of the most inspiring interviews I’d ever conducted. In his words, “We don’t just want the straight ‘A’ student. Does having one less ‘A’ make you less of a person? We know Singaporeans are already great at memorising facts – we’re looking for passion, dedication and the ability to see a problem through different angles.” I feel we could use more of that mindset here. Singaporean educators are often proud of our high standards but let's be honest, we're good at ticking off checklists, exams and competitions. We laugh at the laissez faire American system for its laxity but in truth, they have churned out more innovators and thinkers from their messy system than we have (even after adjusting for size and population). I will be the first to admit to occasionally suffering pangs of anxiety when my child doesn't do well in an exam because it's hard to stand firm in the onslaught of a tsunami of kiasu-ism. But at the end of the day, I try to keep reminding myself his character and happiness matter more. I want a kinder system, one that encourages my child to explore the world around him, not closes it up. One that shows him the richness of issues and topics out there, not limits him to four subjects. I want a system where I can encourage my child to enjoy music, art, sports for their own sake, and not with the pre-requisite that he does well academically. I want him to want to help others, and not because it counts towards community service hours in his report book. I want to groom a child with integrity and respect towards others, and I hope others can appreciate him for these values. I am doing as much as I can in these areas but I cannot fight against the education system. I'm writing this in the hope that as you now helm the Education Ministry, you can make the transformation happen. Thank you very much for your time.
[extracted from an email by : Monica Lim ]
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Service On Demand (SOD) system; SOD - TW50
SOD - TW50
(Trip Wire 50m)
- GPS enable location fix
- Miniature module
- Self torsion trip wire line
- Invisible line
- Can wire across bend
- Electronics tripped sensing
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Saturday, May 21, 2011
Service On Demand (SOD) system; SOD - AVT200
(All round Video Tracking 200m)
- 360 degree all round video feed
- 2, 4, 8 concurrent independent target tracking (auto)
- 360 degree pan tracking (no loss of tracking)
- 90 degree tilt control
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Monday, May 9, 2011
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Service On Demand (SOD) system; SOD - WF500
SOD - WF500
(Weapon Flyer - 500m)
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- Rapid Flying module attachment
- Rapidly attached to weapon
- No calibration needed
- Dual control view (one on targeting; the other weapon view) (MITL confirmation)
- Approach vector preset (assist in target locating)
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Monday, May 2, 2011
Bionic Handling Assistant – flexible and compliant movement
The Bionic Handling Assistant is a light, free-moving “third hand” system. Thanks to its structural compliance, direct contact between humans and machines.
Assistance system for industry and households
This means that the system can also be used wherever humans need non-hazardous support from machines, e.g. in medical technology, rehabilitation and as an aid for the handicapped, as well as in agriculture, private homes and educational institutes. In industrial environments, the Bionic Handling Assistant can be used as a handling system to support assembly processes.
Inspired by the elephant’s trunk
The structure and functioning of the Bionic Handling Assistant was inspired by the elephant’s trunk. Pneumatics and mechatronics serve as the basic technologies for harnessing these natural principles. The use of modern additive manufacturing technologies provides the special production prerequisites for the Bionic Handling Assistant.
Freedom of movement and adaptive gripping
Eleven degrees of freedom open up a host of task-specific transport directions which, in contrast to conventional handling systems, are not restricted to linear axes. Sensors detect the paths and precisely adjust the system. The adaptive fingers grasp objects positively and non-positively and make the system a genuine assistant when it comes to sorting and moving sensitive objects or supporting assembly processes.
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Assistance system for industry and households
This means that the system can also be used wherever humans need non-hazardous support from machines, e.g. in medical technology, rehabilitation and as an aid for the handicapped, as well as in agriculture, private homes and educational institutes. In industrial environments, the Bionic Handling Assistant can be used as a handling system to support assembly processes.
Inspired by the elephant’s trunk
The structure and functioning of the Bionic Handling Assistant was inspired by the elephant’s trunk. Pneumatics and mechatronics serve as the basic technologies for harnessing these natural principles. The use of modern additive manufacturing technologies provides the special production prerequisites for the Bionic Handling Assistant.
Freedom of movement and adaptive gripping
Eleven degrees of freedom open up a host of task-specific transport directions which, in contrast to conventional handling systems, are not restricted to linear axes. Sensors detect the paths and precisely adjust the system. The adaptive fingers grasp objects positively and non-positively and make the system a genuine assistant when it comes to sorting and moving sensitive objects or supporting assembly processes.
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The SmartBird
Aerodynamic lightweight design
The Making of SmartBird
SmartBird is an ultralight but powerful flight model with excellent aerodynamic qualities and extreme agility. With SmartBird, Festo has succeeded in deciphering the flight of birds – one of the oldest dreams of humankind.
This bionic technology-bearer, which is inspired by the herring gull, can start, fly and land autonomously – with no additional drive mechanism. Its wings not only beat up and down, but also twist at specific angles. This is made possible by an active articulated torsional drive unit, which in combination with a complex control system attains an unprecedented level of efficiency in flight operation. Festo has thus succeeded for the first time in creating an energy-efficient technical adaptation of this model from nature.
New approaches in automation
The functional integration of coupled drive units yields significant ideas and insights that Festo can transfer to the development and optimisation of hybrid drive technology.
The minimal use of materials and the extremely lightweight construction pave the way for efficiency in resource and energy consumption.
Festo already today puts its expertise in the field of fluid dynamics to use in the development of the latest generations of cylinders and valves. By analysing SmartBird's flow characteristics during the course of its development, Festo has acquired additional knowledge for the optimisation of its product solutions and has learned to design even more efficiently.
The Making of SmartBird
This bionic technology-bearer, which is inspired by the herring gull, can start, fly and land autonomously – with no additional drive mechanism. Its wings not only beat up and down, but also twist at specific angles. This is made possible by an active articulated torsional drive unit, which in combination with a complex control system attains an unprecedented level of efficiency in flight operation. Festo has thus succeeded for the first time in creating an energy-efficient technical adaptation of this model from nature.
New approaches in automation
The functional integration of coupled drive units yields significant ideas and insights that Festo can transfer to the development and optimisation of hybrid drive technology.
The minimal use of materials and the extremely lightweight construction pave the way for efficiency in resource and energy consumption.
Festo already today puts its expertise in the field of fluid dynamics to use in the development of the latest generations of cylinders and valves. By analysing SmartBird's flow characteristics during the course of its development, Festo has acquired additional knowledge for the optimisation of its product solutions and has learned to design even more efficiently.
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