What i like about EIR

In the internet's stage,

search engines and databases are merely players.

They have their advantages and disadvantages.

And they stay where they belong; in my memories.

I feel that learning more about search engines and databases has really helped me in understanding how to conduct my searches more effectively. Also, they can help me in my future projects and assignments that requires me to do research on. After learning more about search engines and databases, i now know when to use search engines and databases for my research.

Site Visit to iExperience

I went to iExperience on the 14th of July at about 4pm. When i first saw the area, i thought it was going to be boring. However, the introduction video that was played on the user-interface screen allowed me to understand more about iExperience. There are 4 different types of areas: Interact, Work, Live and Learn. These four areas are all very interesting and i liked all the new technology that were introduced to us.

We were asked to test the user-interface screen where someone has to step on the platform and an animated character will appear and talk to the person which can be seen below. It was very fascinating and cool but it was a little buggy and the voice is a little incorrect.

 This is the food machine that only requires an app to work. Basically, the users need to place his/her phone over the item that they would like to purchase and the app will identify the item. They can also select the quantity and the date of delivery which is very advanced.

The 3 pictures above shows users about online shopping. For example, a girl would like to buy some make-up but she cant try them on, using this technology, you can 'try' the make-up. All you need to do is to take a picture of yourself via the mounted camera at the top of the machine and then adjust your mouth, eyes and lips structure. Then select the make-up you would like to try and its done! You also can add visual effects to the picture too to make it look nicer.

This is known as the next gen office. It enables greater productivity and effectiveness as regardless the nature of work, you can use infocomm to work more efficiently. This allows you to use powerful computing resources, work with colleagues and customers in different locations, attend classes without leaving the office and manage facilities and security in the office through video.

This part of the iExperience is my favourite. I feel that it is very advanced and cool. Just by taking a group photo and sending it to your email and then get another software to convert the picture into a bus advertisement on a moving bus is really cool. You can also add your own captions too! How cool is that!

The picture above shows how connecting at home works. In the picture, you can see a grandmother in the hospital talking to her children at home via internet television and further behind in the picture on the other screen is the children's view talking to their grandmother. This is a new thing and besides talking to others, you can surf the internet normally and you can also watch 'youtube' with this! I am quite surprised that it actually works.

I feel that BLING cloud computing interests me the most. I am amazed that you can take a picture of something and then import the picture wirelessly to another computer and make that picture into a movable object like an advertisement on a moving bus.

Personally, I feel that if I were to be able to learn though experience rather than theory, I would be able to understand better. Therefore, I feel that the E-Learning site visit is actually better to me rather than class lessons.

 

One ethical issue covered in Lecture 11 and 12 is blogging ethics. We should only create a blog when we need one and ensure that we do not make spelling or grammar mistakes. We should also provide a citation of the source of the information used on our blog and should submit posts regularly. Also, we should be careful not to blog about our employer, avoid defaming and posting racist or religious comments.

This ethical issue can be applied to my visit to iExperience. Not everyone is really interested in this kind of technology. So if they were to blog about iExperience, they might defaming iExperience and say that it is lousy and give a lot of negative comments. One example is the user interface screen which will activate if a person steps on the platform. Sometimes the interface is bugged and the animated character does not do what it is supposed to do and the speech is not properly configured.

If there were to be any problems that they have experienced there, they should limit themselves from posting comments that might defame them. For example, if they feel that it is lousy and does not interest them, they should not talk more about it or maybe only comment a bit like “ The BLING cloud computing seems to be very advanced but I do not find anything about it that interests me.”

Comparison and analysis

Today, i learnt that there were different kinds of search engines to find our data. Many people in the world use internet to do their research everyday. However, many of them do not know that there are different search tools like search engines, meta search engines, subject directory and database. 


I compared a search engine, Google, to a database, ProQuest Science & sociology, using the topic, Developments and trends in mobile gaming, which was assigned to me.


In the end, i felt that Google was better as there were more articles on my topic compared to ProQuest. Although i actually preferred ProQuest as it was more user friendly and easier to use, Google proved to be better.

a.    Do you think it is more effective to search the invisible web (databases) than using search engines, meta-search or subject directories? Why?

Yes. But it solely depends on the type of database the website is. For example, there are databases  that are on aviation stuff so if you were to search on mobile gaming, you would not get any results. Databases are usually user friendly and have a lot of articles  and sources so i feel that is is more effective to search the invisible web rather than using search engines only if the database have the sources on the topic you are researching on.

b.    Name ONE database which you will use for your research topic. Why?

ProQuest Science &amp. I was surprised that ProQuest actually did not require any Boolean operators as it automatically searched based on only the words i typed into the search bar. It was very good but it did not have much articles on the topic i was researching on. Google was no better when i searched without using any Boolean operators as there were too many results and it was not really effective. But when i used Boolean operators, the search became more effective and articles related to my topic were found easily within the first few pages of the search.

My Introduction~~~

Hello, my name is Melvin Tay Yu Liang. I am currently studying in Temasek Polytechnic Aerospace Electronics Year 3 Sem 1. I previously study in Maris Stella High School Primary and Yuying Secondary School.


My hobbies are watching Anime, playing computer online games, flying remote controlled planes, playing the piano and listening to japanese songs.


About my hobbies, i like alot about animes so i watch animes rather than normal shows and movies, i like animes which has romance or slice of life genres.

Playing computer onlines games is what i usually do when im at home, i like playing games like Call of Duty, H.A.W.X, Mass Effect, Dragon Nest SEA and more.

During my weekends, i will go to my cousin's house to fly remote controlled planes, i will take off from my cousin's roof and fly around in a first person view. I have a mounted camera on my plane so i require a visor if i want to fly far away. The visor enables me to see from the pilot's view and allows me to know where the plane is going. It is a fun experience to fly high into the air and look around Singapore from a bird's eye view.

Playing the piano is another thing i do after school during my secondary school days. If i like a song, i will want to learn and play it on the piano. However, i did not learn how to play a piano before. So i have to ask for help to read the music notes and tell me where to play and i will just learn by visual. Some people say that is a talent but i feel that it is just normal to me, nothing special.

Listening to Japanese songs in what i do everyday. Since i like animes, i usually listen to anime songs. I am kinda wierd as i do not really like english and chinese songs.