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Category: Tech Buzz Page 3 of 10

Application Of Sensors In Various Industries

Sensors are sophisticated electrical devices composed of sensitive materials that detect and respond to electrical or optical signals. They are also variably known as transducers. Usually, sensors operate in a variety of manners and are designed to sense physical properties like temperature or radiation. However, they can also be used to detect motion or proximity.

The industry of sensors is flourishing due to the advancement in material science and engineering. Its application is relevant in virtually all aspects of life to test, measure and control various processes.

Due to research and development activities, sensors have found application in various industries:

1. Importance Of Sensors In Internet of Things (IoT) Solutions: Sensors are one of the most important elements in IoT solutions. For an IoT system to work, a manual or environmental signal input is always required. Sensors collect data from the surrounding environment and are connected to IoT networks after signal conversion and processing. Note that different IoT applications require different types of sensors. Common types of IoT sensors include:

  • Temperature Sensors: These types of sensors have found application in air-conditioners, refrigerators and similar environmental control devices. They measure the amount of heat energy generated from an object.
    Humidity Sensors: Humidity adversely affects human comfort. Also, there are various manufacturing processes that are affected by humidity in the operating environment. This makes it essential to monitor the humidity level through sensors.
  • Motion Sensors: These are popularly used for security purposes as well as in automatic door controls, hand dryers, energy management systems, etc

2. Use Of Sensors In Healthcare Industry: Fitness gadgets and medical devices are extensively using sensors to monitor medical condition and health statistics of individuals. Sensors are also finding their way in technology that tracks progression of a disease. Sensors are also used in devices that finds out how medicines are interacting with patient’s body.

3. Aerospace & Military Applications: Due to the surviving capability of temperature sensors in extreme conditions, it has found widespread use in aerospace and military application.

4. Use Of Sensors In Chemical Industry: Chemical identifications are achieving accuracy as sensors are being integrated into cameras. For example, sensors are used to detect valuable minerals in rocks. This is possible due to the hyper-spectral imaging that gathers information about each pixel of the image. It then determines material and objects despite the complex background.

5. Use Of Sensors In Agriculture: Sensors are used to determine crop quality, pest infestation, effect of weather on crops, sorting of produce, etc. Advancements in sensor technology has allowed agriculturists to have better output which leads to economic benefits.

Most of the innovations in IoT are based on the efficacy of sensors to collect data from different sources.  For more information on how sensors and IoT devices can help your business process, contact Centex Technologies at (254) 213 – 4740.

Factors That Affect Internet Speed

Users, nowadays, enjoy numerous web enabled services for entertainment, education, business, marketing etc. Studies suggest that there were 4,100,667,287 internet users worldwide as on January 1, 2019. As internet has become an integral part of our life; so a good internet speed is of due importance.

Fast internet connection enables you to browse the web, install new programs & software, stream videos & listen to music without any snag. However, a slow internet connection on the other hand can lead to frustration.

Let us gain some insight on factors that affect internet speed:

  • Connection Type: Your internet speed significantly depends on the type of connection available. You can opt for any internet connection type such as modem, 4G wireless, hotspots, DSL, mobile satellite, fiber, cable, etc. Also, the speed of your internet connection depends largely on the technology being used by your internet service provider.
  • Network Congestion: Another reason for a slow internet speed is internet traffic. So, when large number of people are using the internet then the internet speed is bound to slow down. Also, when multiple members of your family are using the internet & hogging the bandwidth by downloading, streaming or playing games online then the internet speed might reduce. Even though, the modern network connections are designed to handle a high volume of connections, the internet speed tends to slow down during the peak hours.
  • Faulty Devices: A slow internet speed might also be a result of your faulty device. An old device with outdated program & software might not be able to support modern websites that feature lot of multimedia content. This may lead to slow buffering. Another reason of a slow connection could be presence of a malware or virus on the device.
  • Location Of Wi-Fi Router: The location of your router also makes a considerable difference on the speed of internet. Factors such as distance from the devices, height at which the router is placed above the ground, proximity to materials that may obstruct Wi-Fi signals, etc. have an impact on the speed of internet. It is always advisable to place your router at a central position away from walls & obstructions. This helps in easy transmission of the signal and reduces the distance to be travelled by it.
  • Presence Of Other Networks: There is a possibility that the internet speed might slow down because of conflicting transmissions in an area having a large number of different Wi-Fi networks.
  • Internet Plan: The speed of your internet also depends on the internet plan bought by you. Choose a plan on the basis of your need & usage as well as the number of people who would share the network connection.

For more information about IT, call Centex Technologies at (254) 213-4740.

Difference Between AR & VR?

PDF Version: Difference-Between-AR-&-VR

How Big Data Impacts Retail Sector

Big data has positively impacted numerous industries including retail sector. It provides a competitive edge to businesses to stay ahead of time. As per a report of Statista, decentralized general-merchandise retailers who use big data to create performance group clusters, saw an approximate increase of 3-4% in their sales. Big data analytics help the companies understand customer’s shopping trends, get meaningful data insights, plan marketing strategies, etc. which can help them improve their bottom line figures.

Let us discuss in detail how big data impacts retail sector:

  • Generating Recommendations: Big data analytics enable businesses to predict customer buying behavior based on their purchase history. This helps the retailers in understanding their product preferences and plan accordingly. Also, machine learning models enable retailers to generate accurate recommendations for the customers.
  • Forecasting Market Trends: Customer’s demographic information and other economic indicators can be used to forecast market demands.
  • Strategic Decision Making: Businesses can consolidate data & generate information for making strategic & informed decisions.
  • Personalized Marketing: Big data enables retailers to perform one-to-one marketing and reach out to the target customer at the right place and at the right time.
  • Identifying Valuable Customers: One major benefit of big data analytics is that it helps the retailers to identify and focus on valuable customers. Thus, businesses can offer them additional discounts for better engagement, enhancing customer loyalty, etc. by capitalizing on the data insights.
  • Right Pricing: Earlier, retailers used to reduce the price of their products at the end of a buying season. However, big data analytics help the businesses in determining when the demand starts decreasing to gradually decrease the prices, thus maximizing revenues.
  • Enhancing Customer Experience: Big data analytics helps in anticipating buyer’s preferences which leads to a seamless customer experience.
  • Designing In-Store Marketing Tactics: Big data enables retailers to adjust & design in-store marketing strategies. It considers factors like foot traffic, in-store checkout & wait time, etc. to serve their customers better as well increase business’s revenue.
  • Utilizing Market Basket Analysis: Big data tools like Hadoop are used to conduct market basket analysis. It helps retailers to analyze the purchase history to understand the combination of products that are usually bought together by their customers.

Every individual has a digital footprint and big data is used to gather insights about an individual’s choices to form reasonable patterns out of it. Big data can be used at every step of retail process i.e. from recognizing target customers, studying their preferences to identifying market demand. Thus, big data analytics play a very important role in retail marketing.

For more information on Big Data and its application, call Centex Technologies at (254) 213-4740.

Benefits & Risks Associated With Digital Currency

In last couple of years, awareness about cryptocurrency (also referred as digital currency) has risen significantly. There are more than 1600 virtual currencies with Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum, Tether & Stellar being the most popular ones.

However, to leverage maximum benefit of this growing currency type, it is important to understand the benefits and risks associated with it.

Benefits Of Using Digital Currency

  • Helps In Avoiding Fraud: This is because virtual currencies can neither be counterfeited nor reversed by the sender arbitrarily.
  • Quicker Settlement: Funds on the credit card can remain locked up for some days, if a customer asks for a chargeback. This might lead to unnecessary delays in payment. So, with virtual currency like bitcoin the settlement procedure is much quicker as compared to conventional credit card settlements.
  • Lower Fees: You might have to shed away a few dollars as transaction fee while making payments through credit card, specifically with international transactions. However, a much lower or sometimes no transaction fee is charged for cryptocurrency exchanges. This is because the cryptocurrency miners are compensated by the network.
  • No Inflation: Cryptocurrency is not susceptible to inflation unlike physical currency which is leashed by its effects because virtual currency is governed by controlled quantity limits & algorithms in the system.
  • More Confidentiality: Credit cards work on a ‘pull’ mechanism i.e. once the payment is initiated by the store, it is pulled out from your account. So, if any cash or credit transaction is made, the bank usually goes through the entire transaction history as a reference document. However, cryptocurrency transactions are much more confidential as exchange of information between the two parties is done on a ‘push’ mechanism. Thus, the recipient will receive the limited information that you wish to send. This helps in guarding off your financial history and prevents it from being exposed at various points in the transaction chain.
  • Access To Everyone: Anyone, in the world, who has access to the internet or mobile phone can deal in cryptocurrencies. This has made it easier for businesses to reach out to the customers all across the globe.

Risks Associated With Digital Currency

  • You Can Be Hacked: The data on the devices of people, who deal in cryptocurrency, faces the risk of being hacked. Cybercriminals often inject a virus, malware or Trojan to lay hands on your private key and steal away the virtual currency. Once you lose your private keys, the funds are gone forever.
  • You Are On Your Own: If someone breaches your bank account or payment card, then the associate bank or payment company might help you recover some or all of the funds. However, in case of virtual currencies there is no help available if the money is stolen from your digital wallet.
  • No Government Insurance: Your funds in a bank or credit union are insured by government i.e. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund protects your funds, in case the financial institute fails to pay it. However, there is no such backup available in case of virtual currencies. So, if you lose your digital money, the government won’t cover up for it.

For more information about IT Security, call Centex Technologies at (254) 213-4740.

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