Industrial technology

Industrial technology is the field concerned with the application of basic engineering principles and technical skills in support of industrial engineers and managers. Industrial Technology programs typically include instruction in optimization theory, human factors, organizational behavior, industrial processes, industrial planning procedures, computer applications, and report and presentation preparation.
Planning and designing manufacturing processes and equipment is a main aspect of being an industrial technologist. An Industrial Technologist is often responsible for implementing certain designs and processes. Industrial Technology involves the management, operation, and maintenance of complex operation systems.

Medical technology

Medical Technology encompasses a wide range of healthcare products and is used to diagnose, monitor or treat diseases or medical conditions affecting humans. Such technologies (applications of medical science) are intended to improve the quality of healthcare delivered through earlier diagnosis, less invasive treatment options and reductions in hospital stays and rehabilitation times. Recent advances in medical technology have also focused on cost reduction. Medical technology may broadly include medical devices, information technology, biotech, and healthcare services.
Health technology is:

Any intervention that may be used to promote health, to prevent, diagnose or treat disease or for rehabilitation or long-term care. This includes the pharmaceuticals, devices, procedures and organizational systems used in health care.

==Definition of medical tech

Medical Technology extends and improves life. It alleviates pain, injury and handicap. Its role in healthcare is essential. Incessant medical technology innovation enhances the quality and effectiveness of care. Billions of patients worldwide depend on medical technology at home, at the doctor’s, at hospital and in nursing homes. Wheelchairs, pacemakers, orthopedic shoes, spectacles and contact lenses, insulin pens, hip prostheses, condoms, oxygen masks, dental floss, MRI scanners, pregnancy tests, surgical instruments, bandages, syringes, life-support machines: more than 500,000 products (10,000 generic groups) are available today. Medical technology represents only 6,3% of total healthcare expenditure in Europe - a modest share if you consider the benefits for every member of society.

— Eucomed.

The term medical technology may also refer to the duties performed by clinical laboratory professionals in various settings within the public and private sectors. The work of these professionals encompass clinical applications of chemistry, genetics, hematology, immunohematology (blood banking), immunology, microbiology, serology, urinalysis and miscellaneous body fluid analysis. These professionals may be referred to as Medical Technologists (MT) and Medical Laboratory Technologists. 

IT and Indian Agriculture in the Future

                                                                            Technologically it is possible to develop suitable systems, as outlined in the previous sections, to cater to the information needs of Indian farmer. User friendly systems,particularly with content in local languages, can generate interest in the farmers and others This will facilitate modularisation of the task,it may be useful to consider . This places premium on user friendliness anda major. The Krishi Vigyan Kendras, NGOs

                                                     

While developing these systems it is necessary to appreciate that major audience

that is targeted is not comfortable with computers

it may be useful to consider touch screen technologies to improve user comfort levels. It is often

observed that touch screen kiosks, with their intuitive approach, provide a means for quick

learning and higher participation. It is also necessary to provide as much content as possible in

local languages.

                                          Once the required application packages & databases are in place,

challenge is with respect to dissemination of the information

and cooperative societies may be used to set up information kiosks. Private enterprise is also

required to be drawn into these activities. These kiosks should provide information on other areas

of interest such as education, information for which people have to travel distances such as those

related to the government, courts, etc. Facilities for email, raising queries to experts, uploading

digital clips to draw the attention of experts to location specific problems can be envisaged.

working at the grassroots. It is possible to create dedicated networks or harness the power of

Internet to make these services are available to all parts of the country                                            The task of creating application packages and databases to cater to complete spectrum of Indian agriculture is a giant task. The Long Term Agriculture Policy provides an exhaustive list of all the areas that are to be covered. This can be taken as a guiding list to evolve

design and develop suitable systems catering to each of the specified areas.

advantage of having a large number of specialised institutions in place catering to various

aspects of Indian agriculture. These institutions can play a crucial role in designing the

necessary applications & databases and services.

better control and help in achieving quick results. As it is, several institutions have already

developed systems related to their area of specialisation.

                                               For quick results, it may be useful to get the applications outsourced to software companies in India. This will facilitate quick deployment of applications and provide boost to the

software industry in India. In order to avoid duplication of efforts,

promoting a coordinating agency which will have an advisory role to play in evolving standard

interface for users, broad design and monitoring of the progress.

Our country has the

In the post WTO regime, it is suggested that it is useful to focus more on some

agricultural products to maintain an unquestionable competitive advantage for exports. This will

call for urgent measures to introduce state of the art technologies such as remote sensing,

geographical information systems (GIS), bio-engineering, etc. India has made rapid strides in

satellite technologies. It is possible to effectively monitor agricultural performance using remote

sensing and GIS applications. This will not only help in planning, advising and monitoring the

status of the crops but also will help in responding quickly to crop stress conditions and natural

calamities. Challenges of crop stress, soil problems, natural disasters can be tackled effectively

through these technologies. A beginning in precision farming can be encouraged in larger tracts

of land in which export potential can be tilted in our country’s favour.

Transmission Media

A transmission medium (plural transmission media) is a material substance (solid, liquid, gas, or plasma) that can propagate energy waves. For example, the transmission medium for sound received by the ears is usually air, but solids and liquids may also act as transmission media for sound.

The absence of a material medium in vacuum may also constitute a transmission medium for electromagnetic waves such as light and radio waves. While material substance is not required for electromagnetic waves to propagate, such waves are usually affected by the transmission media they pass through, for instance by absorption or by reflection or refraction at the interfaces between media.

The term transmission medium also refers to a technical device that employs the material substance to transmit or guide waves. Thus, an optical fiber or a copper cable is a transmission medium.
A transmission medium can be classified as a:

• Linear medium, if different waves at any particular point in the medium can be superposed;
• Bounded medium, if it is finite in extent, otherwise unbounded medium;
• Uniform medium or homogeneous medium, if its physical properties are unchanged at different points;
• Isotropic medium, if its physical properties are the same in different directions.

Electromagnetic radiation can be transmitted through an optical media, such as optical fiber, or through twisted pair wires, coaxial cable, or dielectric-slab waveguides. It may also pass through any physical material that is transparent to the specific wavelength, such as water, air, glass, or concrete. Sound is, by definition, the vibration of matter, so it requires a physical medium for transmission, as does other kinds of mechanical waves and heat energy. Historically, science incorporated various aether theories to explain the transmission medium. However, it is now known that electromagnetic waves do not require a physical transmission medium, and so can travel through the "vacuum" of free space. Regions of the insulative vacuum can become conductive for electrical conduction through the presence of free electrons, holes, or ions.

Telecommunications

Many transmission media are used as communications channels.

For telecommunications purposes in the United States, Federal Standard 1037C, transmission media are classified as one of the following:

• Guided (or bounded)—waves are guided along a solid medium such as a transmission line.

• Wireless (or unguided)—transmission and reception are achieved by means of an antenna.

Wireless media may carry surface waves or skywaves, either longitudinally or transversely, and are so classified.
In both cases, communication is in the form of electromagnetic waves. With guided transmission media, the waves are guided along a physical path; examples of guided media include phone lines, twisted pair cables, coaxial cables, and optical fibers. Unguided transmission media are methods that allow the transmission of data without the use of physical means to define the path it takes. Examples of this include microwave, radio or infrared. Unguided media provide a means for transmitting electromagnetic waves but do not guide them; examples are propagation through air, vacuum and seawater.
The term direct link is used to refer to the transmission path between two devices in which signals propagate directly from transmitters to receivers with no intermediate devices, other than amplifiers or repeaters used to increase signal strength. This term can apply to both guided and unguided media.
A transmission may be simplex, half-duplex, or full-duplex.

In simplex transmission, signals are transmitted in only one direction; one station is a transmitter and the other is the receiver. In the half-duplex operation, both stations may transmit, but only one at a time. In full duplex operation, both stations may transmit simultaneously. In the latter case, the medium is carrying signals in both directions at same time.

Data storage device

A data storage device is a device for recording (storing) information (data). Recording can be done using virtually any form of energy, spanning from manual muscle power in handwriting, to acoustic vibrations in phonographic recording, to electromagnetic energy modulating magnetic tape and optical discs.

A storage device may hold information, process information, or both. A device that only holds information is a recording medium. Devices that process information (data storage equipment) may either access a separate portable (removable) recording medium or a permanent component to store and retrieve information.

Electronic data storage is storage which requires electrical power to store and retrieve that data. Most storage devices that do not require vision and a brain to read data fall into this category. Electromagnetic data may be stored in either an analog or digital format on a variety of media. This type of data is considered to be electronically encoded data, whether or not it is electronically stored in a semiconductor device, for it is certain that a semiconductor device was used to record it on its medium. Most electronically processed data storage media (including some forms of computer data storage) are considered permanent (non-volatile) storage, that is, the data will remain stored when power is removed from the device. In contrast, most electronically stored information within most types of semiconductor (computer chips) microcircuits are volatile memory, for it vanishes if power is removed.

With the exception of barcodes and OCR data, electronic data storage is easier to revise and may be more cost effective than alternative methods due to smaller physical space requirements and the ease of replacing (rewriting) data on the same medium. However, the durability of methods such as printed data is still superior to that of most electronic storage media. The durability limitations may be overcome with the ease of duplicating (backing-up) electronic data.

Hard disk drive

Interior of a hard disk drive
Date invented	24 December 1954\
Invented by	An IBM team led by Rey Johnson

A hard disk drive (HDD; also hard drive or hard disk) is a non-volatile, random access digital data storage device. It features rotating rigid platters on a motor-driven spindle within a protective enclosure. Data is magnetically read from and written to the platter by read/write heads that float on a film of air above the platters.

Introduced by IBM in 1956, hard disk drives have decreased in cost and physical size over the years while dramatically increasing in capacity. Hard disk drives have been the dominant device for secondary storage of data in general purpose computers since the early 1960s. They have maintained this position because advances in their recording density have kept pace with the requirements for secondary storage.^[3] Today's HDDs operate on high-speed serial interfaces; i.e., serial ATA (SATA) or serial attached SCSI (SAS).

Memory card

Miniaturization is evident in memory card creation; over time, the physical card sizes grow smaller.

A memory card or flash card is an electronic flash memory data storage device used for storing digital information. They are commonly used in many electronic devices, including digital cameras, mobile phones, laptop computers, MP3 players, and video game consoles. They are small, re-recordable, and able to retain data without power.

USB flash drive

A USB flash drive consists of a flash memory data storage device integrated with a USB (Universal Serial Bus) interface. USB flash drives are typically removable and rewritable, and physically much smaller than a floppy disk. Most weigh less than 30 g (1 oz). Storage capacities in 2010 can be as large as 256 GB with steady improvements in size and price per capacity expected. Some allow 1 million write or erase cycles and offer a 10-year shelf storage time.
USB flash drives are often used for the same purposes for which floppy disks or CD-ROMs were used. They are smaller, faster, have thousands of times more capacity, and are more durable and reliable because of their lack of moving parts. Until approximately 2005, most desktop and laptop computers were supplied with floppy disk drives, but floppy disk drives have been abandoned in favor of USB ports.
USB Flash drives use the USB mass storage standard, supported natively by modern operating systems such as Linux, Mac OS X, Windows, and other Unix-like systems. USB drives with USB 2.0 support can store more data and transfer faster than a much larger optical disc drives like CD-RW or DVD-RW drives and can be read by many other systems such as the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, DVD players and in some upcoming mobile smartphones.
Nothing moves mechanically in a flash drive; the term drive persists because computers read and write flash-drive data using the same system commands as for a mechanical disk drive, with the storage appearing to the computer operating system and user interface as just another drive. Flash drives are very robust mechanically.
A flash drive consists of a small printed circuit board carrying the circuit elements and a USB connector, insulated electrically and protected inside a plastic, metal, or rubberized case which can be carried in a pocket or on a key chain, for example. The USB connector may be protected by a removable cap or by retracting into the body of the drive, although it is not likely to be damaged if unprotected. Most flash drives use a standard type-A USB connection allowing plugging into a port on a personal computer, but drives for other interfaces also exist.
USB flash drives draw power from the computer via external USB connection. Some devices combine the functionality of a digital audio player with USB flash storage; they require a battery only when used to play music.

Name	Acronym	Form factor	DRM
PC Card	PCMCIA	85.6 × 54 × 3.3 mm	No
CompactFlash I	CF-I	43 × 36 × 3.3 mm	No
CompactFlash II	CF-II	43 × 36 × 5.5 mm	No
SmartMedia	SM / SMC	45 × 37 × 0.76 mm	No
Memory Stick	MS	50.0 × 21.5 × 2.8 mm	MagicGate
Memory Stick Duo	MSD	31.0 × 20.0 × 1.6 mm	MagicGate
Memory Stick PRO Duo	MSPD	31.0 × 20.0 × 1.6 mm	MagicGate
Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo	MSPDX	31.0 × 20.0 × 1.6 mm	MagicGate
Memory Stick Micro M2	M2	15.0 × 12.5 × 1.2 mm	MagicGate
Miniature Card		37 × 45 × 3.5 mm	No
Multimedia Card	MMC	32 × 24 × 1.5 mm	No
Reduced Size Multimedia Card	RS-MMC	16 × 24 × 1.5 mm	No
MMCmicro Card	MMCmicro	12 × 14 × 1.1 mm	No
Secure Digital card	SD	32 × 24 × 2.1 mm	CPRM
SxS	SxS		Unknown
Universal Flash Storage	UFS		Unknown
miniSD card	miniSD	21.5 × 20 × 1.4 mm	CPRM
microSD card	microSD	15 × 11 × 0.7 mm	CPRM
xD-Picture Card	xD	20 × 25 × 1.7 mm	No
Intelligent Stick	iStick	24 × 18 × 2.8 mm	No
Serial Flash Module	SFM	45 × 15 mm	No
µ card	µcard	32 × 24 × 1 mm	Unknown
NT Card	NT NT+	44 × 24 × 2.5 mm	No

Computer networking device

Computer networking devices are units that mediate data in a computer network. Computer networking devices are also called network equipment, Intermediate Systems (IS) or InterWorking Unit (IWU). Units which are the last receiver or generate data are called hosts or data terminal equipment.

 List of computer networking devices

Common basic networking devices:

• Router: a specialized network device that determines the next network point to which it can forward a data packet towards the destination of the packet. Unlike a gateway, it cannot interface different protocols. Works on OSI layer 3.

• Bridge: a device that connects multiple network segments along the data link layer. Works on OSI layer 2.
• Switch: a device that allocates traffic from one network segment to certain lines (intended destination(s)) which connect the segment to another network segment. So unlike a hub a switch splits the network traffic and sends it to different destinations rather than to all systems on the network. Works on OSI layer 2.
• Hub: connects multiple Ethernet segments together making them act as a single segment. When using a hub, every attached all the objects, compared to switches, which provide a dedicated connection between individual nodes. Works on OSI layer 1.
• Repeater: device to amplify or regenerate digital signals received while sending them from one part of a network into another. Works on OSI layer 1.

Some hybrid network devices:

• Multilayer Switch: a switch which, in addition to switching on OSI layer 2, provides functionality at higher protocol layers.
• Protocol Converter: a hardware device that converts between two different types of transmissions, such as asynchronous and synchronous transmissions.
• Bridge Router (B router): CombineS router and bridge functionality and are therefore working on OSI layers 2 and 3.

Hardware or software components that typically sit on the connection point of different networks, e.g. between an internal network and an external network:

• Proxy: computer network service which allows clients to make indirect network connections to other network services
• Firewall: a piece of hardware or software put on the network to prevent some communications forbidden by the network policy

• Network Address Translator: network service provide as hardware or software that converts internal to external network addresses and vice versa

Other hardware for establishing networks or dial-up connections:

• Multiplexer: device that combines several electrical signals into a single signal
• Network Card: a piece of computer hardware to allow the attached computer to communicate by network
• Modem: device that modulates an analog "carrier" signal (such as sound), to encode digital information, and that also demodulates such a carrier signal to decode the transmitted information, as a computer communicating with another computer over the telephone network
• ISDN terminal adapter (TA): a specialized gateway for ISDN
• Line Driver: a device to increase transmission distance by amplifying the signal. Base-band networks only

Computer software

 

Computer software, or just software, is a collection of computer programs and related data that provide the instructions for telling a computer what to do and how to do it. In other words, software is a conceptual entity which is a set of computer programs, procedures, and associated documentation concerned with the operation of a data processing system. We can also say software refers to one or more computer programs and data held in the storage of the computer for some purposes. In other words software is a set of programs, procedures, algorithms and its documentation. Program software performs the function of the program it implements, either by directly providing instructions to the computer hardware or by serving as input to another piece of software. The term was coined to contrast to the old term hardware (meaning physical devices). In contrast to hardware, software is intangible, meaning it "cannot be touched". Software is also sometimes used in a more narrow sense, meaning application software only. Sometimes the term includes data that has not traditionally been associated with computers, such as film, tapes, and records.

Examples of computer software include:

• Application software includes end-user applications of computers such as word processors or video games, and ERP software for groups of users.
• Middleware controls and co-ordinates distributed systems.
• Programming languages define the syntax and semantics of computer programs. For example, many mature banking applications were written in the COBOL language, originally invented in 1959. Newer applications are often written in more modern programming languages.
• System software includes operating systems, which govern computing resources. Today large applications running on remote machines such as Websites are considered to be system software, because the end-user interface is generally through a graphical user interface, such as a web browser.
• Testware is software for testing hardware or a software package.
• Firmware is low-level software often stored on electrically programmable memory devices. Firmware is given its name because it is treated like hardware and run ("executed") by other software programs.
• Shrinkware is the older name given to consumer-purchased software, because it was often sold in retail stores in a shrink-wrapped box.
• Device drivers control parts of computers such as disk drives, printers, CD drives, or computer monitors.
• Programming tools help conduct computing tasks in any category listed above. For programmers, these could be tools for debugging or reverse engineering older legacy systems in order to check source code compatibility.

Types of software

Practical computer systems divide software systems into three major classes: system software, programming software and application software, although the distinction is arbitrary, and often blurred.

1.System software

System software provides the basic functions for computer usage and helps run the computer hardware and system. It includes a combination of the following:

• Device drivers
• Operating systems
• Servers
• Utilities
• Window systems

System software is responsible for managing a variety of independent hardware components, so that they can work together harmoniously. Its purpose is to unburden the application software programmer from the often complex details of the particular computer being used, including such accessories as communications devices, printers, device readers, displays and keyboards, and also to partition the computer's resources such as memory and processor time in a safe and stable manner.

2.Programming software

Programming software usually provides tools to assist a programmer in writing computer programs, and software using different programming languages in a more convenient way. The tools include:

• Compilers
• Debuggers
• Interpreters
• Linkers
• Text editors

An Integrated development environment (IDE) is a single application that attempts to manage all these functions..

3.Application software

Application software is developed to aid in any task that benefits from computation. It is a broad category, and encompasses software of many kinds, including the internet browser being used to display this page. This category includes:

• Business software
• Computer-aided design
• Databases
• Decision making software
• Educational software
• Image editing
• Industrial automation
• Mathematical software
• Medical software
• Molecular modeling software
• Quantum chemistry and solid state physics software
• Simulation software
• Spreadsheets
• Telecommunications (i.e., the Internet and everything that flows on it)
• Video editing software
• Video games
• Word processing