Internet of Things (IoT)

It has been reported extensively in the news that Singapore is striving towards being a Smart Nation where people are empowered by technology to lead meaningful and fulfilled lives. The Internet of Things (IoT) is a concept of linking things (devices) through network connectivity in order to support this Smart Nation initiative. This post shall give you a rough idea on IoT.

Introduction (What is IoT?)
•    Inclusion of a microchip into devices to enable connection to a network.
•    Allows such devices to collect and exchange data over the network.
•    Objective is to achieve little or no human intervention.
•    Devices are uniquely identified by Internet Protocol version 6 (IP v6) which is able to scale large number of devices.

Examples of Technologies that enable IoT
1.    Ethernet – General purpose networking standard for fibre network links.
2.    HomePlug – Networking standard for home or building’s power lines.
3.    Bluetooth – Enables mobile devices in close proximity to communicate with one another.
4.    Near Field Communication (NFC) – Incorporated into smartphones for access to public transportation.

Examples of Applications of IoT

1.  Consumer Appliances
•    Enables the owner to control the appliances without being in close proximity (e.g. turning on the air-conditioner to cool the room before reaching home).

2.  Medical & Healthcare
•    Enables remote health monitoring & emergency notification (e.g. pacemakers having the ability to inform the hospital automatically in the event of cardiac arrest).

3.  Transportation
•    Enables communications, control, and information processing across transportation systems (e.g. smart parking system that guides the vehicle driver to the nearest available parking lot).

4.  Environmental Monitoring
•    Assist in environmental protection through monitoring.
•    Ideal for mobility and monitoring large geographic areas (e.g. earthquake & tsunami warning systems) due to wireless sensing.

Challenges of IoT

1.  Precision
•    Inaccurate location or timing causes failure and sometimes danger (e.g. in a vehicle-to-vehicle communication system, inaccurate location causes failure to apply the brakes in time to prevent collision).

2.  Adaptability & Scalability
•    Must be adaptable and scalable through software or added functionality that integrates with the overall solution (e.g. the air-conditioner having the capability to be turned on/off remotely, it should be able to integrate with another application that turns on/off the air-conditioner and other devices at pre-determined timings).

3.  Security
•    Connected to network increases the risk of unauthorised access and attacks (e.g. hacking into the vehicle communication system to disable the brakes as a form of sabotage).

4.  Maintenance & Updates
•    Systems need to be continually modified or updated to meet changing requirements (e.g. a mobile app for communication need to be updated to include a new feature to enable video chatting).

Artificial Intelligence
•    IoT produces sheer volume of data which must be analysed for continuous improvement to the business process.
•    Applying artificial intelligence is therefore necessary to improve the speed and accuracy of analysing IoT data.
•    Examples:
      - Robotic vacuum cleaner that remembers the home layout and determine the most efficient movement to clean the house.
      - Smart thermostat solution that controls energy usage based on the regular temperature preferences and work schedules of its users.
      - Self-driving vehicle that determines the most ideal route to the destination based on map and traffic conditions.

IoT Architecture

There are 4 major layers in the IoT architecture namely:

1. Sensors - Devices that collect and send data.
2. Infrastructure - Facilities that support storage and connectivity.
3. Platform - An application that integrates the various applications (i,e, system of systems).
4. Applications - Suite of applications that support a particular area (e.g. there are applications such as Fire Alarm System, Temperature Control System and Access Control System for Building Management).

The Sensors are connected to the Infrastructure via channels such as Mobile Data, WIFI and Bluetooth. As the objective of IoT is to achieve little or no human intervention, it is therefore necessary to integrate related applications together. Hence, the Platform layer is being introduced. The Platform (system of systems) layer is hosted on the Infrastructure itself and communicates with the various related Applications (such as Fire Alarm System, Temperature Control System and Access Control System) via interfacing protocols such as REST, SOAP and Web Services. With the introduction of the Platform layer, individual group of users that operate a single application are no longer required. Instead, there would be a single group of users that operate this Platform (system of systems) in the command centre.

The key challenges faced by integrating systems include:

1. Visualization - Due to the large number of functionalities that the Platform layer needs to support, presenting the user interface can be a major challenge. Nevertheless, the user interface must be intuitive in order for the system to be successful.
2. Performance - As multitasking (many background processes running concurrently) is highly possible in order to support the large number of functionalities, performance would be a possible issue. The infrastructure must be powerful and application codes must be written effectively to improve performance.
3. Workflow - When different applications are integrated together, there may be business rules that conflict with one another. A good example is the Temperature Control System that switches on the air-conditioner when the room temperature is above 27 degree Celsius. However, when the room temperature is above 50 degree Celsius, the Fire Alarm System would be activated as there is a high possibly of a fire outbreak. In this case, the Temperature Control System would also switch on the air-conditioner as the room temperature is above 27 degree Celsius. Hence, it may be necessary to adjust the business rules accordingly.
4. Analytic - A sheer volume of data would be produced when applications are integrated together. Applying artificial intelligence is therefore necessary to improve the speed and accuracy of analysing these data.

References

1.    Internet of things (Wikipedia)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_of_things

2.    5 Key Challenges Facing the Industrial Internet of Things
http://www.cio.com/article/2872574/it-industry/5-key-challenges-facing-the-industrial-internet-of-things.html

3.    Artificial Intelligence Plus the Internet of Things (IoT) – 3 Examples Worth Learning From
http://techemergence.com/artificial-intelligence-plus-the-internet-of-things-iot-3-examples-worth-learning-from/

Watching Musical @ West End

As an avid fan of western musicals, it has always been my dream to watch musicals at West End theatres. Chanced upon this site while searching for my favourite Love Never Dies musical, I thought the dream of watching my favourite musical at West End could be fulfill.

https://www.londontheatredirect.com/musical/765/Love-Never-Dies-tickets.aspx

Since there was a chat feature in this website and I couldn't find any dates for this musical, I decided to use it to enquire about ticket bookings.

Here is how the chat went.

Theatre Staff A: Good evening, this is XXXXX. How can I help you?

Me: Good evening. May I know the dates which Love Never Dies will be shown at the Adelphi theatre?

Theatre Staff B: Good evening, that was shown 4 years ago. As far as we understand, Love Never Dies will not be coming back anytime soon. We are currently showing Kinky Boots at the Adelphi theatre.

Me (feeling disappointed): Oh OK. Thank you and have a nice day!

After checking on Google, I found out that Love Never Dies is currently showing in Hamburg, Germany and no signs of it coming to Singapore yet. However, its prequel, the all time favourite Phantom Of The Opera will be showing at London's Her Majesty Theatre till end of 2016. I could still consider catching this musical instead.

Nostalgic Childhood Computer Games

Hello Everyone, its the festive season once again! Hope you are getting along well and spending quality time with friends and family during this vacation season. After a super duper hectic involvement for my project, I finally have the chance to write this blog which has been long overdue. Although I really had the urge to write this blog couple of months ago, time did not permit. When I mentioned hectic work, it meant working continuously for 40 hours without rest, which is a record I have broken this year and I shall not ever do that again. Alright, enough of the whining and lets proceed to the main topic for this blog post.

Recently my brother bought a game console from Qoo10 website for only SGD 20.00 which consists of many retro 8-bits games such as Super Mario Brothers. Most games are similar to those found in the old Nintendo NES video game console which is the first one being manufactured by this renowned game maker. If you grew up in the 80s like me, you would have known or probably played games on this Nintendo NES video game console before. Its signature game, Super Mario Brothers has been awesomely successfully and well-known throughout the world.

Although there more advanced and fanciful computer games available today, you probably miss and is thinking of playing your favourite childhood games once again. However, the problem is that your old game console is no longer working or have been sold away. There is no worry on such issues as you can still purchase these old game consoles online. Even without doing so, you can still play them online without installing any additional software. All you actually need is a web browser with the required plugins installed. The only drawback of playing these games online is that you can't save the game and continue playing them later. Nevertheless, playing them even for a little while relive your childhood memories.

Here are 2 such nostalgic games which I wish to share in this blog post.

Super Mario Brothers

Play online at http://www.8bbit.com/play/super-mario-brothers/851

This game which was developed by Nintendo in 1985 became so famous that probably no one who grew up in the 1980s never knew or heard about it. Even the Kris World entertainment system on-board Singapore Airlines flight included this game. I am not exactly sure if this game is still available on the latest version of Kris World entertainment system but I do remember having a hard time playing this game when I traveled on a Singapore Airlines flight several years ago. The processing speed of the Kris World entertainment system were slow and thus resulted in latency during the game play. Secondly, the directional controls of the system were so stiff that the game character, Mario did not move immediately after pressing the arrow button. Even at the main menu, pressing the arrow button to toggle between movies, games, radios and maps were frustrating enough, not to mention about playing games. I really hope that the airline can improve both the hardware and software of this entertainment system to provide better experience for passengers to kill boredom during long haul flights.

Wolfenstein 3D

Play online at http://playdosgamesonline.com/wolfenstein-3d.html

This is the first-person shooter (i.e. the player experiences the action through the eyes of the shooter) computer game that was launched in 1992. It came pre-installed on the first personal computer which my dad purchased when I was in secondary 1 (in the year 1994). During those times, having a DOS-based game running on a personal computer with sound card were considered pretty impressive and I considered myself lucky to own such "infrastructure" for entertainment. The objective of this game was to navigate through an indoor maze (to be exact, in a building consisting of multiple levels and many doors on each level) and ultimately progress to the highest level to fight against the Nazi leader, Adolf Hitler. As a player, you need to find your way to the elevator to get to the next level. Along the way, you would encounter Nazi soldiers (in brown uniform armed with pistol) and special force personnel (in dark blue uniform armed with machine gun). Occasionally, there were wolves that could bite the player to death. There were 4 type of weapons (knife, pistol, machine gun and chain gun) with limited ammunition. The player's health decreases each time he got shot or bitten by wolves and eventually "dies" when the health level hit 0%. However, the health level could be increased by grabbing food (meant to feed the wolves) along the way. The player is also expected to refill his ammunition by killing his enemies (except wolves) or grab any ammunition found along the way. There were many cheat codes for this game which I came to know one of them. A hilarious aspect for this game is that whenever the special force personnel (in dark blue uniform) got shot to death, he would hurl some weird phases (probably in German) before dying.

Just like many people find it hard to forget their first-love, you probably find it hard to forget the first few computer games you played during your childhood. As soon as you click on any 2 of the above-mentioned hyperlinks, I am sure you are likely to be addicted to playing them. Leave a comment if you have played or came across any interesting nostalgic computer game.

Shrinking Pool of Engineers in Singapore

Pertaining to my earlier blog post, Plight of Technical Workers, there is an article published in The Strait Times today (12 July 2015) on the shrinking pool of engineers in Singapore.

Basically the article highlighted several key points as follows.

1. Most school leavers are reluctant to study engineering-related courses so much that our tertiary institutions need to admit foreigners to makeup the shortfall.
2. Other sectors such as banking offer higher salaries attracted many engineering graduates and resulted in the engineering sector having one of the largest number of job vacancies.
3. Many locals feel that engineering involves hard tedious work, contain little opportunity to progress upwards and more importantly an unglamorous job compared to other professions.
4. Although hardware and expertise could easily be procured from abroad, there is a need to develop our own capabilities to maintain and troubleshoot.

As a fellow engineer or rather technical person myself, I fully agree with all the above key points mentioned by the writer who is also an engineer himself. This has been a problem since the time I was enrolled into the polytechnic many years back. Engineering courses were the least preferred choice in local polytechnics and universities so much that they had lenient entry requirements and cut-off points. Certainly, more could be done to attract more locals to take up engineering related courses. 

Meaningful TVCs

While searching for some videos on YouTube last night, I happened to come across a retro TV Commercial (TVC) shown on our local TV channel in the 1990s. In my opinion, a good TVC is one that captures attention and enables viewers to remember vividly in their mind. Thinking of idea to make a good TVC isn't easy as it certainly represents the concept and image of the product or service which is subjected to criticism or worse, a lawsuit. If you observe the TVC trend, those that feature condominiums would usually play a famous song to accompany the video and some wordings to describe the details of the condominium. Obviously, the use of famous song in this case is to capture attention. Whenever the viewer listens to the same song in future, he/she would naturally associate in with the TVC. However, there are also other creative methods like showing a funny scene which can also capture attention and make viewers remember after laughing. This method is in contrast to the traditional "Chinese" method of advertising whereby an artiste will say how good the product/service is which is rather lame.

Disclaimer
I am NOT promoting or reviewing any of these products shown in the following TV commercials.

Solvil et Titus (Pilot)

This TVC features an air force pilot who was blissful married and shared loving moments with his wife during the World War II era. When war broke out, he had no choice but to discharge his duty faithfully. Before boarding his warplane to join his fellow comrades, he gave a watch with the word "天长地久" inscribed which simply means as everlasting or unchanging as the universe. Clearly, this watch represents his token of love to his wife as he might not be able to return safely from war. Perhaps he might intend to be a suicide pilot who definitely not return.

As you can see, this TVC played my favourite Italian instrumental song "La Califfa" (also played in the Ferrero Rocher TVC) in the background with the self-explanatory video describing the romantic story. Everything seem perfect in this case, the story, the artistes who were most popular during that era, the instrumental song and most importantly the concluding slogan "不在乎天长地久， 只在乎曾经拥有" which means “It doesn’t matter whether something can last as long as the earth and sky. What really matters is whether it has ever belonged to you.”.  This TVC was so successful that many of my peers who grew up with me became familiar with this slogan. Hence, I feel that the way this watch was portrayed made it more suitable for a break-up gift instead. What do you think?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8ycB6JLpHk

Other related TVCs:

The lady waiting for her lover that never returned.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFY3sBeG22E

Summary version of the Solvil et Titus (Pilot)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dLetmkEvN8

Lunar New Year Celebration

Time flies and once again, its the time of the year when Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean and perhaps some other East Asian races which we are not aware of celebrate the start of their new year ahead. Being the most important festival in the Chinese calendar, Lunar New Year is probably the most extravagant and widely-celebrated occasion among the Chinese even in our local context.

First of all, being the most suspicious among all other races in Singapore, most Chinese would be curious to find out how they would be doing in the upcoming year ahead. Every year, the TV programme shown on our local channel 8 on Lunar New Year eve never fails to broadcast the zodiac forecast by one of our local grand master. Personally, I feel that we should take such zodiac forecast as a pinch of salt. From my past experience, while the zodiac forecast are not entirely untrue, there are often variations among those from different masters. In fact, every master would tell you that their zodiac forecast which are published are very generalised and there are detailed forecast (often available upon payment) based on one's birth date and timing. If you are curious to find out your zodiac forecast for 2015, visit https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=2015+Zodiac+Forecast+by+Grand+Master+Tan+Khoon+Yong+

As a preparation for the Lunar New Year, spring cleaning must be done to keep the house in clean and tidy mode to usher in the new year and to welcome guests. The next task is to buy goodies such as sweets, drinks and snacks which are getting increasingly expensive over the years. Some people also insist on buying new clothes to wear for the new year.

The reunion dinner which is "mandatory" for everyone (except for those stuck overseas or on essential duties) can be pretty costly due to the sumptuous dishes which Chinese believe in eating would associated with being wealthy. These days, many of us are too lazy to prepare reunion dinner that we have reunion dinner outside. Such reunion dinners at hotel, restaurants or coffee shops are not only costly but also get fully booked so quickly that usually people place their booking at least a month ahead.

Finally when the Lunar New Year day arrives, everyone will be visiting family, relatives, friends and colleagues. Distribution of red packet either from married adult to unmarried children or adults to their elderly parents would occur. Perhaps this is the best occasion to chit-chat to catch up with friends and relatives due to the fact that these days most of us are so busy that we meet our relatives once a year. Besides chit-chatting, another favourite past-time among local during Lunar New Year is to play mahjong or card game which often have higher stakes.

When I was young, Lunar New Year was no doubt the most enjoyable festival in the entire year due to the massive celebration and generous amount of money spent. However, as I grow older, Lunar New Year seem to become less meaningful to me due to the following reasons.

Stressful Reunion Dinner
Preparation of reunion dinner is a hassle and eating reunion dinner outside on Lunar New Year eve is way too costly for the similar amount and quality of food you get on non-festive season. Worse of all, the huge crowd present on that day means a drop in service standards and there is also limited time for diners to consume their dinner as the service staff need to prepare for the next batch of diners. Due to the overwhelming workload, there is also high risk of getting contaminated food as the service staff preparing the food tend to compromise on hygiene under stressful conditions. This also applies to buffet catering services.

Disruptive Public Holidays
As early as Lunar New Year eve, some shops and food stores remained closed from noon time onwards till the second or third day of Lunar New Year. Some Chinese-oriented businesses even remained closed up to a week to usher in the new year which I feel is not appropriate for our city as a key financial hub. I have even heard of some of such companies mandating their employees to consume their annual leaves during this Lunar New Year period instead of granting off-days. As such, people of all races need to buy and stock up groceries before Lunar New Year. Even when food stores are open during this period, the prices are ridiculously expensive (at least 2 or 3 times more costly than usual), not to mention the quality and quantity will not be as good either. Alternatively, one can choose to consume fast food instead which is available at the same price and quantity but must be prepared to face huge crowd and longer waiting time.

Awkward Red Packet Culture
As a young kid, it was perfectly fine to receive red packets as a token of blessing from the elderly during Lunar New Year. However, when one is already earning his/her own income but still unmarried, it is awkward to receive red packets containing money. In fact, I never support this practice and would recommend it to be improvised instead. I have never liked the idea of receiving red packets especially as a birthday gift as it seems insincere due to the lack of the "surprise element" compared to presents. While it does make sense to continue distributing red packets containing money to young kids who are still studying, it would be more appropriate to replace money with chocolates or goodies for red packets given to working adults. Receiving money in red packets for me may seem to be an insult although the intent is never meant to be.

Curiosity & Comparative  - A Major Turn Off
It's part of Chinese culture to be curious, to gossip and compare. When meeting relatives during Lunar New Year visits, most of them would ask tons of questions which is pretty normal but to the extend of intruding one's privacy would be a huge turn off. When one is single, most commonly asked question from relatives is whether you have a partner. When you have a partner, they will ask when you are getting married. When they are married, they ask when you are going to have kids. When you have kids, they will ask which school you are enrolling your kids for and if they are studying, they will ask how well your kids are doing in exams. When your kids are working, they will ask how much your kids are earning and when they are getting married. The viscous cycle goes on. The comparative nature of some relatives is really an arrogant and disrespectful act which we should never follow.

Instead of following the same routine each year, perhaps we should think out of the box and plan for a more enjoyable Lunar New Year. Having BBQ for reunion dinner may be an interesting idea as it encourages bonding which is the primary objective. Alternatively, the idea for everyone to embark on a short cruise trip during Lunar New Year saves the hassle of going around for house visits and includes a complementary reunion dinner which is worth considering.

Regardless of whether you are celebrating or enjoying Lunar New Year, I wish you a happy, prosperous and smooth-sailing year of the Goat ahead!

Valentine's Day

Once again, Valentine's Day is round the corner. On this day, messages of affection, love, and devotion are exchanged around the world but how many of us know how Valentine's Day originated? Well, the origin of Valentine's Day is not exactly known but it was believed to have originated during the Roman empire when all Romans are forbidden to worship Christianity or associate themselves with Christians. However, that did not prevent a humble Christian, Valentinus from practicing his belief. He was later arrested and imprisoned. During the time when Valentinus was in jail, the jailer was impressed with him as a man of learning and requested to bring his daughter, Julia who was blind since birth to him for lessons. Valentinus agreed and taught Julia Rome's history, described the world of nature to her and told her about God. Julia saw her world through Valentinus's eyes and found comfort in his quiet strength. Valentinus was executed on February 14 and before his death, he wrote the last note to Julia, with his signature "From your Valentine". Grateful for his love, Julia planted a pink-blossomed almond tree near his grave. Today, the almond tree remains a symbol of abiding love and friendship.

Besides the almond tree, another modern symbol of love is represented by "love lock" or rather padlock which couples lock to a bridge, fence, gate, or similar public fixture to symbolise their love. Typically, the couples' names or initials are inscribed on the padlock and the key is thrown away to symbolise unbreakable love. This is a growing trend worldwide especially in European cities (particular in Paris where there are 2 love lock bridges) which the municipal authorities treat as vandalism and possibly littering (throwing of the padlock key into river). If you are stuck with ideas of Valentine's Day gift for your loved one, why not consider buying a "love lock" with both your names or initials inscribed? The "love lock" could be placed on the gate of your house door or office cubicle instead of public places. This is a simple and yet meaningful idea and best of all, does not burn a hole in your pocket.