Vicious Circles

Corruption to wealth polarization,
to penury, to corruption,

to scams, to committees,
to bribe, to bail pleas,

to 2G, to 2.5G,
to 3G, to 4G.

Deforestation, to mines,
to metals, to assembly lines,
to cars, to roads, to further axing of lumber loads.

Research papers, to references
to references, to references ...
To get a:
Degree, to degree,
to degree, to degree ...

But never forget that in the end it's:
Body, to earth,
to body, to earth!

- Ashish Joglekar

The Land Of the Fireflies

The inspiration for this poem comes from the hundreds of fireflies that adorn the wooded green of our IISc campus, especially the area in front of main building.

So here goes...

As I enter the wooded green,

Ah! What's that? A distant gleam

A speckle of light twinkles,

As I move closer I see a glittering sprinkle

One of these beacons whizzes by,

Painting a fiery streak in the sky

The cool air and the warmth of the shimmering flame,

I am lost in thought as I watch the unfolding game,

Their motion is random but with graceful poise,

The brush strokes remind me of the 'Northern Lights'

Surely, stars have descended from the heights,

In this land of the Fireflies!

Ashish Joglekar

A Temple of Worship

Ashish Joglekar

A Temple with Intricate hallways,

Crowned with a weaved canopy of clay,

Rests on stone columns that stand in firm resolve,

It’s vast expanse, the exquisite wooden floor;

A Fiery bright aura drapes its wings,

The symmetry strikes a chord within,

The Temple stands at the heart of our realm;

The epicentre of worship

Has sparked many minds,

Its creator stands testimony

To a century devoted towards betterment of mankind.

Mouse Cursor Position Control - using our face!!

I enjoyed writing a program in C using the OpenCV library wherein I have used certain image segmentation techniques to control the position of the mouse cursor by moving one's head. I have used the Window's Speech Recognition capability to scroll, click or double click.
It works like a touch-less touch screen!

Enjoy the video!




-Ashish Joglekar

The Great Indian Two-Wheeler

I cut through anything that comes in my way as through butter a knife...

Be it highways, lanes, footpaths, BRTS, streams, mountains, or glacial ice, I am an all terrain bike

Fear me as do trucks, buses, bulldozers or tanks that kiss my feet,

I cruise top notch through streets,

Competing with the breeze,

I am all weather proof too, be it hot, humid or the bitter freeze!

You will find the ubiquitous me making a beeline along the curb,

I leave no space void; I fill even the potholes kicking dirt,

Though I am made for two I have the capacity to carry ten,

While the specially shock proofed back seat is reserved by guys for their girlfriends

I sell like hotcakes,

And come in different sizes and make,

On my fuel efficiency claim, I don’t fake!

While not too heavy on the pocket, pollution safety levels I usually break,

But as always nobody denies me a PUC, RTO registration or any other certificate,

I guarantee to take you places on time every time, provided you wear your helmet each time without sighing!

--Ashish Joglekar

My first Mobile Phone App: The flashing tail light!

Cycling on crowded, poorly illuminated city streets can be a nightmare thanks to the recklessness of vehicular traffic. Cyclists, like pedestrians, are known to be accident prone. Lack of separate cycling tracks adds to their predicament. Considering the ubiquitous presence of mobile phones, I realised that these gadgets can be deployed quickly as a safety gadget if used as a tail light. All one needs is a transparent backpack. Install my piece of software on any MIDP2 compatible java enabled mobile phone and enhance your safety as a pedestrian or a cyclist on city roads!

My .jar package can be downloaded here. (I have used Sun's J2ME Wireless Toolkit) Install the app on your phone and you are ready to go!

My Live Score Notifier Gadget

I have come up with this Live Score Notifier Gadget. Sites like cricinfo.com do provide live score updates. To save screen real estate and for pure fun, I built this Live Score Notifier gadget. The Live score is automatically streamed every 30 secs (value can be set by user) and displayed on the Notifier’s LCD panel. Users can decide upon a level of update notification. I have kept it at a minimal wherein only the score and wickets are displayed. One can also display batting and bowling statistics. The update process is entirely automatic. One is only required to indicate the Live match one is following. In the snap it happens to be the Third Ashes Match when Australia saved the day with a final score of 375/5.

Anybody interested in details like code and circuit schematic, do contact via email.

Konkan Trip

Small winding roads make way through thick greens,
As the road curves along it reveals the typical Konkani scene,

There are houses with thatched roofs,
Surrounded by boisterous shoots,

There are evergreen paddy fields,
And stocks of cattle feed,

Through a rare green cover clearing we catch the first glimpse of the sea,
It is a picture postcard perfect scene,
As cool but humid breeze brings an occasional downpour over a distant devrai,

Traces of golden sand indicate that we are nearing the beach,
Soon a rail track glides over the sea,
While a lighthouse over the shore cliff signals our arrival to boats out on a fishing spree,

Konkan is surely the 'jari cha padar' of nature's unfurled 'saree'...
Dotted with peaceful temples and this satisfied look of glee!!

My Propeller LED display

Here is a video of my all new propeller LED display. The display uses six Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs). An IR Tx Rx pair refreshes the display with each motor rotation. The pattern to be displayed (in this case 'OM') is programmed in a uc (I have used an Atmel uc).
I can now display any message on my Propeller LED display!
Enjoy!

(Note: Camera frame rate limits visualization of actual display persistence and clarity.)

Our PC2PC Wireless Interface

Welcome to the Wireless World!

Second Life Real Life Interface Part 2

The Ladder: How to get to the TOP (Ethically)

Build your own ladder to get to the top,
Shape and bolster each individual rung,
For if the foundation is weak, the floor will greet your drop
Use the finest quality wood to hand craft it neat and plumb!

Ensure appropriate spacing between each step,
Under the 'expert carpenter's prep',
You will learn that:
“The ladder should be high enough but not higher than the support on which it leans”
That:
“It should be strong enough to support many like a concrete beam”

Only then should you take the next step of creation,
When you enliven this true feeling of innermost satisfaction.

- Ashish Joglekar

My Second Life - Real Life Interface

It is thrilling to know that anybody logged into Second Life can now control an LED in my room by toggling a virtual switch in SL. Check out this video demonstration wherein I have created a virtual switch in SL that switches an LED (symbolic of any real life appliance) in my room.

Our Mini Project

MCQ EVALUATOR AND BARCODE SCANNER
Team: Ashish, Shaunak, Chaitanya, Sameer

In today’s competitive world our skill sets are put to test in every sphere of life, right from the educational sphere as a student to the professional sphere as a compatible human resource (HR). This ‘fast track’ world demands ‘fast track’ gadgets. Online examinations are catching up to cater to the ever-increasing evaluation needs but they are not always feasible mainly due to the lack of resources. Yet time is at a premium, which necessitates minimization of the evaluation time overhead.
Our gadget bridges this gap by allowing on the spot (handheld) evaluation of MCQ type objective tests. Thus any MCQ examination sheet can be appended with our custom made objective sheet sticker that will be scanned by our device for evaluation. Dedicated answer sheet prototypes can also be provided; low cost mass production of such sheets is possible and convenient to be used for evaluation along with our product. Each sheet will be provided with a unique barcode carrying the Roll No. which can be decoded using the same hardware as that of the MCQ evaluator.
The complete product features a user-friendly computer based GUI that will allow the evaluator to enter the master correct answer record and then display all statistics pertaining to the current papers being scanned. Also, each sheet will be identified by a special bar code based system for easier authorization.

Graphical user interface was created in Visual Basic 6. We started from learning VB from books and implementing simple tools and functions.

Following is a video demonstration of our Project's GUI.
(Commentary by Shaunak)

Vedic boosters for speedy programming

Publication: Times Of India Pune; Date: Apr 21, 2008; Section: Times City; Page: 4


-Laxmi Birajdar

Applying the simple calculation tricks of Vedic mathematics to computer coding is a novel attempt at smart number crunching. That’s what Ashish Joglekar, Ajinkya Kale and Shaunak Vaidya — undergraduate students from College of Engineering, Pune (COEP) — did to come up with an algorithm for implementation of effective coding commands on the computer.

Using the Paravartya Sutra from Vedic mathematics, the trio put across these calculations in their research paper, ‘A Novel Binary Division Algorithm Based on Vedic Mathematics and Applications to Polynomial Division’.

“We’ve used Vedic mathematics to decrease the time taken to execute programming commands on a computer,” explains Ashish.

This particular paper has been taken from their very first research effort at calculations through Vedic maths — “An Efficient Binary Multiplication Algorithm Based on Vedic Mathematics,” — a research paper they presented this March at NCTCT ’08 — a conference on the latest trends in computing technology in Chennai. Apparently, Shaunak and Ashish were the only undergraduate engineering students to have participated in this event, which comprised M Techs.

Vedic maths facilitates quick and easy mental calculations. But what mattered to these students was adapting the mathematical derivations to the computer language of binary system —comprising only two numbers, 0 and 1. “We’ve used Vedic maths to devise a dividend and a divisor, using constants and variables, to arrive upon quotients and remainders that further elucidate the algorithm for quicker computing,” says Ajinkya.

It is not surprising that the mathematical geniuses will show their research during a presentation at ‘The 2008 International Conference on Applied Computing’, which is a part of Worldcomp’ 08 — the World Congress on Computer Science, Computer Engineering and Applied Computing — that will be held in Las Vegas, USA, from July 14 to 17 this year.

Judged on a scale of one to 10 at Worldcomp’s screening, the paper has scored exceptionally well on originality, technical quality, readability and presentation. It has even been recommended as a publishable paper in journals.

Their 20-min presentation has also been included in the prestigious Regular Research Paper (RPR) category, usually meant for papers by PhDs. They were guided by their faculty, Professor A.A. Sawant, head of department of computer science at COEP and Professor Vinayak Joshi in finetuning this research paper.

The students’ exceptional command over mathematics should not come as a surprise. Having educated themselves in Vedic mathematics since childhood, these students value its benefits, especially for calculations in modern gadgetry. “Vedic mathematics calculations for certain programming commands are less complex and don’t require tables of numbers used,” says Ajinkya.

In future,they see themselves making a career in engineering research. “We want to come up with algorithms based on Vedic mathematics for dedicated chips,” Ashish says.



(L to R) Ashish, Shaunak, Ajinkya