' Maker Faire '

‘ Maker Faire ’

• P.Natarajan.

It is now almost a month since our arriving U.S. We find time running on high speed race as we build a schedule of visiting places, people and participating in events. Sunday, the 29 July 2018 saw us taking part in ‘Detroit Maker Faire’ at Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation. The exhibition (Dearborn MI ) was open on July 28-29, 2018. ' Maker Faire ' is a gathering of tech enthusiasts, hobbyists, crafters, educators, tinkerers, commercial exhibitors and so on. All of these ‘makers’ come to ‘ Maker Faire’ and show what they have made , and to share what they have learned. Maker Faire was launched in 2016 in the Bay Area and in New York and later round the globe. About 200000 people annually visit the two flagship ‘Maker Faire’ places.

GE Digital is one of the proud participants, others include Henry Ford Motor Company, 3D Printing, Mathematica, Young Makers and Coding (Robotics) Ham Radio, Camp Pencil Point,  Viva Amiga, Modern Quilts, Tesla Coil Quartet, to mention a few.  The motivation for us to visit the Maker Fairer was GE Digital where our son works in Detroit MI.     

GE Digital, being a genius at play, exhibited a stall of  Virtual Reality on VIVE plus Aviation Technology, and related technological areas. Software development for VR System is their expertise or speciality.

We observed visitors to GE Digital Stall stood in a long queue to wear the Vive head system to see and wonder how much virtual reality show it was. The show carried the visitors on move across the blue ocean where number of Wind Mills creating a 12 MW power appeared as a virtual reality. There were such number of themes creating a wonderful display providing a memorable feast to the eyes with a refresher rate of 90 HZ and 110 degree field view and 1080 X 1200 pixels revolution for each eye.

Virtual Reality headset uses room scale tracking technology allowing the user to move in 3D space and use motion-tracked hand held controllers to interact with the environment. Access is available to an exclusive support line and a deluxe auto strap. A front facing camera allows the user to observe the surroundings without removing the head gear. The software used identifies the moving or static objects in the room and acts as a part of a chaperone by creating a virtual wall display to shield the user from any obstacles.

Vive base stations, which serve as lighthouse tracking system, consist of 2 black boxes and create a 360 degrees of virtual space to a 15 feet by 15 feet radius.

As we were about to leave the pavilion, good news was received that GE Digital was adjusted as the best stall in Make Faire and my son being one of the key players in the ‘ VR Show’ was doubly happy for the sustained efforts put in by their team. A piece of information I may say here was that our grandson (8 years old ) sat in the 3D printing stall and got his name ‘ NEEL’ printed with the help of the coaches in the stall.

A special mention needs to be made about the exhibition by Ford Motor company  for the fantastic row of cars aligned in rows where they had drawn the attention of the visitors by boldly displaying the special security devices built into the ‘  LINCOLN ’ limousines for use by different Presidents of United States of America from time to time.

There were other attractions in the ‘Maker Faire’ like magic show, circus events,’ Fireball Emission’ through tall chimneys erected specially for letting the fire and smoke high into the sky.This game was played by a group of children by throwing a ball at the same time targeting the center of concentric circles placed in front of them, As the ball touched the individual targets, ‘a ball of fire’ emanated from the respective chimney with a thud while the boys applauded for the success of their combined group actions.  

We moved to the lunch area earmarked for the Makers and had a refreshing lunch with soup, pizza, salad and a soft drink. We left home by 9am. and it was almost 6pm. when we returned home. A good day and a good outcome to share with my friends.

pn

                                                                                              

'Harmony is Virtue'

‘Harmony is  Virtue’

• P.Natarajan.

A day before, we had been to IKEA in Canton MI and the first thing attracted me was the slogan board welcoming the visitors. It read “ Welcome to IKEA, It is great to see you”. As we went around shopping, we entered a ‘model living room’. Two other apt displays struck me one reading as “ The Living room is a Place where Life Happens”. and the other “ A Big Sofa to Bring Us All Together”. A quote immediately transpired in my mind. It is about harmony and I remember it right “ Harmony is when the sum is greater than its parts”. Pythagoras, the renowned mathematician, has written

“ Virtue is Harmony”. Visit to IKEA has prompted me to take up this essay titled as “Harmony is Virtue”. Pythagoras saying reminds me that maths and music have harmony and when you play music, you feel like solving a maths problem.

The Universe is complete and whole. The people are just a microscopic part of the Universe. Each of us is complete and whole as well, as we are, who we are and where we are.  We live with integrity. We live in harmony with fellow human beings. We are conscious about what we say and what we do.

How we lead our inner life is reflected in our outer life also. Negative energy and such associated thoughts block the harmonious path. Course correction is imperative for success.

Balancing act is another requirement of keeping harmony. There are ups and downs, success and failure in the journey of life. We learn by experience the balancing act and not to get disheartened or cowed down. We may have to go for counselling in extreme cases to overcome depression.

Change is the order of the day. The Sun rises and falls. The Moon waxes and wanes. The seasons change periodically. We learn to live with the changing patterns and time to live in harmony with the nature.

Harmony is to live in Einstein’s time. As work expands, Time also expands. We can expand time by doing what we love and condense by doing the opposite, This mantra when faithfully followed keep us in harmony without remorse. We realize that we live in the present moment, neither in the past nor in the future. The present is a gift to us, To survive in peace,harmony, united and strong, we must have one people, one nation and one flag. Each gift of nature possesses its own radiant energy and bound together by cosmic energy. In work places, man and machine need to be in harmony.

Living in harmony is a conscious choice of how we want to live. Happiness is when what you think, what you say,and what you do are in harmony. When we abide by law we create beauty and harmony. When we don’t, disharmony and chaos bound to prevail. For instance harmonics in power system in current or voltage arises with non linear loads and heats up the equipment, conductor, and the likes.

Accord, amity, agreement, peace, amiability, unity, rapport, like mindedness are synonymous to harmony. Harmony helps the healing process.

I wish to remember two quotes to sum up the significance of harmony:-

1. “ When there is righteousness in heart, there is beauty in character. When there is beauty in character, there is harmony in home. When there is harmony in home, there is harmony in the nation. When there is harmony in nation, there is peace in the world.” - A.P.J.Abdul Kalam.
2. “ Music creates harmony out of the chaos, rhythm imposes unanimity upon the divergent, melody imposes continuity upon the disjointed and harmony imposes compatibility upon the incongruous” - Yehudi Menuhin

pn