GigaMesh Initiative

In News

• Recently, a total of 15 villages in different parts of the country were identified which may soon be seamlessly connected through a next-generation networking solution.

About the GigaMesh initiative

• The network solution called GigaMesh wirelessly provides fibre-like backhaul capacity and paves the road for 5G.  
  • It is developed by Astrome supported by ARTPARK is world’s first multi-beam E-band Radio that is able to communicate from one tower to multiple towers simultaneously while delivering multi GBPS throughput to each of these towers.
• Range: A single GigaMesh device can provide up to forty links with 2+ Gbps capacity, communicating up to a range of ten kilometres.
• Support: The startup is supported by AI & Robotics Technology Park (ARTPARK), the Technology Innovation Hub (TIH) at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), which aims to chart the future for millimetre wave wireless communication on Earth and in space.
  • ARTPARK is a not-for-profit foundation promoted by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru.

Artificial Intelligence

• It is the science and engineering of making intelligent machines, especially intelligent computer programs.  
• It is related to the similar task of using computers to understand human intelligence, but AI does not have to confine itself to methods that are biologically observable.
• AI would not replace people but create new opportunities in various fields. 
• It works on data, and if we could train our machines, it could do wonders for us in milliseconds by automating processes. 
• AI is creating new opportunities which could not be achieved by traditional technology.

Artificial Intelligence Applications

• Recommendation Engines: Using past consumption behaviour data, AI algorithms can help to discover data trends that can be used to develop more effective cross-selling strategies. This is used to make relevant add-on recommendations to customers during the checkout process for online retailers.
• Automated stock trading: Designed to optimise stock portfolios, AI-driven high-frequency trading platforms make thousands or even millions of trades per day without human intervention. 
• Online shopping and advertising: Artificial intelligence is widely used to provide personalised recommendations to people, based for example on their previous searches and purchases or other online behaviour. AI is hugely important in commerce: optimising products, planning inventory, logistics etc.
• Digital personal assistants: Smartphones use AI to provide services that are as relevant and personalised as possible. Virtual assistants answering questions, providing recommendations and helping organise daily routines have become ubiquitous.
• Machine translations: Language translation software, either based on written or spoken text, relies on artificial intelligence to provide and improve translations. This also applies to functions such as automated subtitling.
• Smart homes, cities and infrastructure: Smart thermostats learn from our behaviour to save energy, while developers of smart cities hope to regulate traffic to improve connectivity and reduce traffic jams.
• Automobiles: While self-driving vehicles are not yet standard, cars already use AI-powered safety functions. The EU has for example helped to fund VI-DAS, automated sensors that detect possible dangerous situations and accidents. Navigation is largely AI-powered.
• Cybersecurity: AI systems can help recognise and fight cyberattacks and other cyber threats based on the continuous input of data, recognising patterns and backtracking the attacks.
• Fighting disinformation: Certain AI applications can detect fake news and disinformation by mining social media information, looking for words that are sensational or alarming and identifying which online sources are deemed authoritative.
• Transport: AI could improve the safety, speed and efficiency of rail traffic by minimising wheel friction, maximising speed and enabling autonomous driving. Tesla Cars use AI.
• Health: It can be used for diagnostic purposes for various diseases, including COVID-19, and could prove very effective in remote areas where adequate health facilities are not available.
  • Artificial intelligence against Covid-19: In the case of Covid-19, AI has been used in thermal imaging in airports and elsewhere. In medicine it can help recognise infection from computerised tomography lung scans. It has also been used to provide data to track the spread of the disease. 

Challenges

• Massive Data Centres Needed: AI requires massive computational capacity, which means more power-hungry data centres and a big carbon footprint.
• More Energy Consumption: According to studies, around 40 % of the total energy that data centres consume goes to cooling IT equipment. Now, to reduce energy consumption, companies are moving their data centres into cooler climates such as Siberia.
• Jurisdictional Issues of Data Pooling: Countries are passing stricter legislations on data security that require citizen data to be stored on servers located domestically, picking colder climates beyond their borders is becoming a difficult option.
  • Privacy Issues: AI uses digital footprints and feeds them in their algorithm to exploit commercially without our consent.
• Displacement and loss of jobs of lower strata: Robotics and AI companies are building intelligent machines that perform tasks typically carried out by low-income workers: self-service kiosks to replace cashiers, fruit-picking robots to replace field workers, etc.
  • Creating New Inequalities: Without clear policies on reskilling workers, the promise of new opportunities will in fact create serious new inequalities.
• Widening gap: Widens Gap between the developing and the developed countries

Way Forward

• Collaborative consortium: It is designed to bring about a collaborative consortium of partners from industry, academia, and government bodies.
• XraySetu: AI researchers at ARTPARK, in collaboration with HealthTech startup Niramai Health Analytix and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), have also developed XraySetu, a platform that can interpret chest X-rays with 98.86 % sensitivity toward COVID-19 within few seconds.
• ARTPARK Innovation Summit: It will bring industry, academia and the government under one roof to discuss important topics such as how to create next-generation connectivity in rural areas, health AI for Bharat, connecting Bharat with Drones, inclusive learning for the future and building AI and research ecosystem.

Source: PIB