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Not so long ago drones became affordable enough for ordinary users. Now videos from drones are mainstream. However, drone world is really versatile, starting from industry drones and ending with FPV drones. Today I would like to tell about nearest release of DJI and its consequences. 

On 2^nd of March DJI will present their first FPV drone and it will be the last niche that they will cover. Before that, to fly on an FPV drone you had to build it by yourself. It was time-consuming and money consuming. Next problem is small time of flight, with new DJI FPV drone has 20 minutes of flight time. New drone comes with glasses and controller what helps to make connection more efficient, because all this parts work in one ecosystem. Thus, we see new level of FPV drones. Initial cost is 1300$, for drone, controller and glasses it is cheap enough if compare to self-made drones. 

What about specs?

Camera has 142-degree angle. It shoots in 4k 60fps, thus, I may guess, it has sensor from Mavic Air 2, with quit good quality. It is needed to reduce the price.

In my opinion, the greatest advantage is gimbal that helps with stabilization of an image. 

Finally, speed – 60-90 mph, relying on rumors. This makes DJI’s a great competitor in FPV world. 

Summarizing my thoughts, I’m really happy with this, because DJI made ultimate FPV drone for everyone, what widely opens FPV market. This market was growing rapidly last year, but release of DJI’s drone will boost it drastically. 

Sources: https://dronedj.com/2021/02/23/everything-about-djis-new-fpv-drone-specs-pictures-controller-more/

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There are a lot of myth going around cameras, thus producers use it to make their product more appealing to sell more. So, as a photographer, I would like to destroy these myths. 

Three main parts of camera: sensor, lens and processor.

Sensor: 

Many people think, that the more MP camera has, the better its quality. However, it’s not, quality really depends on size of matrix(sensor) of the camera. So, the conclusion is: the more light (fatons of light) sensor receives, the better quality of an image. Basically, when a sensor receives more information, quality of a picture increases. Sensor is divided into pixels to receive this information. However, when producer says, that our camera has 100MP it doesn’t mean, that it is better than 12MP camera. It is all because of physical scale of matrix.

 Why pixels should be bugger in most cases? 

We need bigger pixels for night shoots, when there is lack of light(information). However, even in day light it can be noisy, because there are many small pixels, that can’t collect information as good, as bigger ones can. 

For what do we need more pixels?

Greater number of pixels helps to make pictures more detailed. Also, it makes work of digital

zoom much better.

ISO is next really crucial factor: 

It is about sensitivity of a sensor. The higher number, the more sensitive sensor to light, the 

Lighter the image. However, when you up ISO number, more noise appears. And it also doesn’t 

mean, that in day light you should keep ISO on 100, every camera has its own BEST ISO 

number, this is known as “log”. This helps to expand dynamic range – number of dark and light 

pixels. In this case sensor collects more information about light and dark points instead of color, 

thus, final image is almost grey, nevertheless, it is much easier to correct colors. 

These are main SENSOR sizes:

Other ways to make image better is optics: 

It measures in focus length and aperture. Aperture is extent to which it is opened. The bigger 

number, the more opened it is. When it is fully opened, sensor receives the biggest amount of 

information and “bokeh” effect appear. For sure, final result also depends on quality of these 

lenses. 

Focus length:

The closer focus point is to sensor, the wider image you have. This correlation is shown on this picture

The last but not least parameter is shutter speed, in simple words it is the time that sensor 

receives the information about light.

Here is the example:

What do we see? Companies use hype slogans about quantity of MP, however, there much more features that effect on the final result. 

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In this topic I would like to cover these questions:

What is Defi? Its advantages and disadvantages. What to expect in the future?

  In a nutshell, DeFi (Decentralized Finance) is the system (applications) that can work separately from financial institutes, making all actions peer to peer such as transfers, trading, using blockchain. The main coin on which DeFi is based on is Ethereum.

  What are the guarantees? Because financial institutes ensure users from fraud and they act as trust guarantees. Products based on DeFi work using smart contracts. These are online contracts with your terms. If any terms are violated or fulfilled deal will be closed. This system gives opportunity to get rid of middleman. 

 What are the main functions: 

• You can lend money or get loan, one of benefits is flash loans (extremely fast), common financial institutes can’t offer such an option. This is known as “yield farming”
• Trading without middleman
• Savings account 
• Buying derivative assets.

What are disadvantages: 

1.Predictable ones: 

Uncertainty: crypto market is still developing and there are many problems with it, thus it can work not as good as it could. 

Risks: only you are responsible for mistakes.

Smart contracts issues: it can be an issue, if there are any mistakes in code of a smart contract.

2. Unpredictable:

Although it is Decentralized, it is still in hands of developers

I guess, government won’t give a chance to develop this to such a level, when people will start using it instead of ordinary financial institutions.

Advantages:

1. Secure from environment triggers, such as covid, because all physical contacts are reduced to zero. 

2. Quick operations: getting a loan will take no more than a minute, when in a bank you should send a lot of time. 

3.Owing to smart contracts human factor is dramatically reduced. 

4. Reduced cost owing to absence of a middleman. 

5. You can’t lose the “smart contract” or it can’t be stolen, because it is extremely difficult to hack it.

Summarizing it, I would say that it is future, however, there are many pitfalls that can bury this idea. What is more, I’m curious whether it will be legal or not, because it is great competitor for state. 

Reading Time: 3 minutesRecently, Canoo has presented an all new Electro Van for entrepreneurs called MPDV. It is second release of this company. First EV was made mostly as a family van with 7 seaters arranged as a boat, it was called “loft on wheels”. This project was made with the involvement of Hyundai. What is more important, this van is constructed on “skateboard” platform, will be the first true steer-by-wire vehicle on the market, the benefit of it is customizing body of a vehicle which is based on this platform.

Nevertheless, today I wanted to say a few words about new Canoo’s Van:

Features:

Firstly, it is fully electric and looks really futuristic.

Secondly, it has AI on board, which helps to analyze road conditions and helps to control the vehicle.

What is more, it has flat paneled body. This EV is mostly aimed on entrepreneurs, what means that this feature will help to make advertising of a company on vehicle more convenient and stylish.

Finally, it fully customized, it means that it can be configured for small caffe, food truck, flower shop and so on?

Main specifications:

First of all, MPDV is made on “skateboard” platform from previous generation, what helps to customize the size of this vehicle.

MPDV2(bigger version) will have 450 cubic feet of space (you can fit there 36000 tacos).

Both will be powered by a single motor on the front axle outputting 200 horsepower and 236 pound-feet of torque.

Battery pack options for MDPV1 are: 40 kWh (130-mile range), 60 kWh (190-mile range) and 80 kWh (230-mile range). What is really decent for city cargo van. 80.0-kWh battery pack will take 28 minutes from 20 to 80 percent.

Main competitors:  

In my opinion, it seems to be the best variant in EV marker, because main competitors are Ford and Mercedes that just implemented electric engine in old looking body. What is more, they are far more expensive. In comparison to futuristic looking Canoo they have less chances. Moreover, Canoo implements great deal of technologies that make work easier.

Benefits for:

Entrepreneurs:

Firstly, relatively small price for basic model – 33000$. Another benefit is that it is electric what is more economical when you refuel your car, what helps to save money.

Environment:

As it is a car for workers it spends far more time on roaming city than ordinary usage, thus it will help to reduce emission of harmful gases in the atmosphere.

Summing it all up, I can easily state that it is perfect vehicle for entrepreneurs which help to save money and environment and I still admire the design, it is stunning. Waiting for its worldwide distribution.

 

https://techcrunch.com/2020/12/17/canoo-targets-last-mile-delivery-with-its-second-electric-vehicle/

https://www.canoo.com

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canoo

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a34994595/canoo-electric-delivery-van-revealed/

https://www.barrons.com/articles/canoo-revealed-a-new-ev-thursday-investors-arent-impressed-51608229714

Reading Time: 3 minutes“Anything that can be connected, will be connected”.

Today I want to cover a topic concerning Internet of Things (IoT). Definition of IoT refers to constant wireless connection between physical devices that are sharing and collecting data from all procedures. Basically, it is connection of all electronic devices into one whole network where the are interacting with each other. Application of such a technology gives an opportunity to make work of devices more organic and simpler.

 

The best example of implementing such a technology is “smart home”. Let’s imagine you have TV, light, coffee machine and heating the are connected to each other. Isn’t it perfect when you set up alarm clock and it rings you wake up with started algorithm which turns on heating in shower, starts making coffee, opens window and so on. Sounds nice, but it is more convenient when you add sensors in this system. Now let’s assume you have your own garden which you have to water. With IoT it is so easy, sensors measure moisture in soil and if it is less then set level it turns on watering system which raises soil moisture and then sends all information on your phone. Moreover, collecting and analyzing all this data helps to make all these operations more precise.

Benefits:

Benefits of such a technology are saving time and money. Now you don’t need to control light, because it turns off and on automatically, don’t need to wake up earlier to do routine actions. In addition, devices that are connected to one network know how to work in more efficient and economical wat, thus it helps significantly in saving money.

 

Threats:

The main threat is security. Situation: you have cameras for security system that are connected for your phone and send signals if something suspicious appears. However, it is not a problem to hack your phone and receive all your private information from your life. What is more, when these devices are in one system, hacking one unit automatically gives you access to other devices. Potential criminal can set high temperature in your house, turn off the light and many other actions. Thus, crucial part of IoT is security of this system. Second thing that scares me are personal advertisements. This system collects all the data from your house, that’s why companies that produce parts for smart house can sell your personal data for more income.

Nevertheless, you have to keep in mind that IoT is not only about “smart home”. This technology can be easily implemented into cars to reduce traffic problems. Or, for instance, car has CPUs in every part of it and if any problem occurs it sends information to a service center to complete all the works faster.

 

Summing It all up, this technology will continue to grow up, especially in such a situation, but, firstly, problem with security has to be eliminated. not help to work smarter and with more control.

Sources: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_of_things

https://www.zdnet.com/article/what-is-the-internet-of-things-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-iot-right-now/

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/internet-of-things-what-is-explained-iot

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jacobmorgan/2014/05/13/simple-explanation-internet-things-that-anyone-can-understand/?sh=3be52f061d09

https://internetofthingsagenda.techtarget.com/definition/Internet-of-Things-IoT

Reading Time: 2 minutesCorrectly diagnosing diseases takes years of medical training. Even then, diagnostics is often time and money consuming process. This puts doctors under strain and often delays life-saving patient diagnostics. In this worldwide health crisis, the medical industry is looking for new technologies to monitor and controls the spread of COVID-19. And on of technologies that can solve that issues finding the proper treatment, is Artificial Intelligence. For instance, tracking the spreading of disease, choosing the proper treatment .

 

Benefits of AI:

1. Early detection and diagnosis of the infection. AI can quickly analyze irregular symptom and other ‘red flags’ and thus alarm the patients and the healthcare authorities
2. Monitoring the treatment. AI can build an intelligent platform for automatic monitoring and prediction of the spread of this virus.
3. Projection of cases and mortality. This technology can track and forecast the nature of the virus from the available data. Further, it can predict the number of positive cases and death in any region.
4. Development of drugs and vaccines. Many of the analytical processes involved in drug development can be made more efficient with Machine Learning. This has the potential to shave off years of work and hundreds of millions in investments. What leads to faster and more efficient production of drugs.
5. Reducing the workload of healthcare workers. It helps in early diagnosis and providing treatment at an early stage using digital approaches and decision science, offers the best training to students and doctors regarding this new disease. Furthermore, when AI lowers monotone workload of medical workers, they can provide more efficient treatment, based on individual approach.

AI machine learning models and algorithms can identify potential drug leads currently unknown in medical science and far faster than humans. While such systems will never replace scientists and clinicians, they can save both time and money.

The ability of machines to solve complex biological puzzles more rapidly than human experts has prompted increased investment in AI drug discovery by a growing number of large pharmaceutical companies.

To sum it all up, AI can significantly improve treatment consistency and decision making by developing useful algorithms.

 

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/08/ai-artificial-intelligence-emerging-disease-treatment-covid-19-therapeutics-benevolentai-cures/

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/landig/article/PIIS2589-7500(20)30192-8/fulltext#seccestitle120

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1871402120300771

 

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As a resident of Belarus I would like to cover a topic connected with usage of modern technologies on protests against illegitimate president. Nothing new people are adapting due to new technologies easily, but for a tall governance structure it is much harder, consequently there is a large gap between technologies. These technologies are:

The pivotal tool is telegram channels on telegram. To fully understand the scale of its usage, I have to mention that at one moment the main channel NEXTA was the biggest channel in the world among news channels having more than 2 million subscribers. This channels help people to coordinate in the city. Since telegram isn’t under restriction and can’t be blocked in Belarus governance is in a losing situation. The only thing they can do is blocking the internet, what causes enormous loses for them and businesses.

Cyber attacks on governance. Belarusian situation has created a lot of talented programmers and IT specialists because of lack of jobs there. Thus, hackers organize attacks on governance webpages and banking systems. Also they are working on uncovering of names of military structures participating in killing and torturing of people.

Governance webpage

Recognition of faces. “You have no face”  is facial recognition algorithm for doxing riot police which was developed by Belarusian specialists. Developer Andrey Maximov uploaded a video illustrating the work of a computer program that “unmasks” Belarusian law enforcement officers. The algorithm is capable of recognizing the face of a person involved in suppressing protests, even if it’s hidden by a mask, cap, or balaclava.The algorithm’s interface: it highlights the riot police officer’s face and runs it through a database of photographs of law enforcement officers. However, it doest work as good as possible making a lot of mistakes, but also it is useful technology.

illustration*

To sum up, I would like to say, that all this technologies help people to pressure on the governance without losses of people lives. Moreover, protests in Belarus are estimated as peaceful, therefore this technologies are necessary to help them remain the same.