الاتصالات

متأثراً بإصابة والدته بالصمم، ركز الشاب الكسندر جراهام بيل الإسكتلندي أبحاثه على علم الصوتيات، ليقدم إلى البشرية إختراعه العبقري الذي عُرف لاحقاً باسم “الالياف البصرية”. بيل انطلق في البداية عبر تصميم أداة تستطيع نقل الصوت مسافة تجاوزت 200 متر عبر استخدام الضوء. هذه الأداة هي عبارة عن حزمة من الألياف، تسير بداخلها الأصوات على موجة الضوء، محققة سرعة تقترب من سرعة الضوء من دون أي خسارة في الإشارة.

وهكذا عُرف جراهام بيل باعتباره الأب الشرعي للألياف البصرية، التي تطور استخدامها بعد نحو 130 عاماً من اكتشافها من قبل العبقري الاسكتلندي، لتستخدم اليوم في نقل المعلومات عبر مسافات شاسعة، تتجاوز المحيطات والبحار وجميع العقبات التي قد تفرضها الطبيعة.

الألياف البصرية

كيف تعمل هذه التقنية، وكيف يتم تصنيعها؟ يستخدم الزجاج العالي النقاء في صناعة الألياف البصرية أو الضوئية. وتتميز هذه الألياف بأنها على عكس “الكابلات” المصنوعة من النحاس، إذ يمكنها نقل الإشارة والبيانات من دون حدوث أي خلل، فالإشارات المُحّملة على الضوء تنعكس بسلاسة على الزجاج. ويتم تجميع الألياف في حزم وتبطينها بغلافٍ واقٍ من البلاستيك لحمايتها من عوامل الحر والرطوبة التي قد تؤدي لتلفها.

تدعم كابلات الألياف البصرية الكثير من أنظمة الإنترنت والتلفزيون والهاتف في العالم، ومن خلالها يمكن تحقيق سرعة عالية في نقل البيانات تصل إلى 20 جيجابت في الثانية. ولقد اكتسبت الألياف البصرية في السنوات الأخيرة إقبالاً واسعاً، حيث تستخدم في اتصالات الإنترنت المحلية. إذ تعتبر الألياف الضوئية وسيط فعال للاتصالات بسبب مرونتها، وتكمن أهميتها في اتصالات المسافات الطويلة. وتستخدم الألياف إلى جانب نقل البيانات في نقل الصور. ويجهد الباحثون في العمل على رفع سعة بث الألياف، والاتجاه نحو خدمات الحزمة العريضة، وذلك بهدف مواكبة النقل المكثف للبيانات والصوت والفيديو.

تستخدم الألياف الضوئية ليس فقط في مجال الاتصالات، بل في صناعة الكاميرات الرقمية المتعددة المستخدمة في التصوير الطبي إلى جانب الكاميرات المستخدمة في التصوير الميكانيكي.

تطور نحو الفضاء

تطورٌ جديد في عالم الإنترنت، ينتظره العالم يتمثل في التحول من الكايبل والألياف الضوئية فايبر إلى الإنترنت الفضائي عبر الأقمار الصناعية. يتمحور هذا المشروع، الذي تقدمت به لجنة الاتصالات الاتحادية الأميركية وإحدى الشركات الخاصة، حول بناء أقمار صناعية توفر اتصالات إنترنت عالية السرعة للأرض. ويصل عدد الأقمار المنوي إطلاقها قرابة 800 قمر صناعي، من شأنها أن توفر تغطية عالمية عالية السرعة للإنترنت. إذ تعتمد على أن سرعة الضوء في الفضاء أسرع بنسبة 40 في المئة من سرعته في أسلاك الألياف الضوئية.

The modern world we live in is now connected more than ever before. In the age of technology, people are almost constantly online and rely on devices they use every day to communicate, manage, and handle their daily tasks.

What is an Ethical Internet?

In its simplest terms, ethical internet is described as moral principles online – in this case, both the positive and negative impact the internet plays in your everyday life. With the internet evolving and changing every day, tech companies and internet users need moral principles that govern their safety, privacy, and lives online. In other words, much like the world thrives and lives on certain moral principles, the challenge now is to develop necessary and fundamental ethical regulations of the internet.

Internet users make use of the internet in a variety of ways, from social media to shopping online, settling cash transactions, searching the web through search engines, downloading music, gaining knowledge, playing games, and much more. With ethical internet, tech companies try to understand what internet users want from the internet and how it ultimately benefits them in return for the information they provide it.

With the internet being a major part of everyone’s lives, most are well aware of the risks associated with it. As a result, there’s been a spotlight cast on Silicon Valley tech companies that call on them to implement ethics and set in stone deep security measures in protecting user information. Privacy, big data, and internet access are some parts of the equation that make up this big umbrella that surrounds every part of our lives.

Privacy

Privacy is one of the most fundamental concerns that surround the ethics of the internet and the users that encompass it. The ethics of internet privacy is difficult to comprehend especially when users find themselves signing into a website and agreeing to its privacy settings to then having the website change those very same settings. Tech companies should address these concerns and work on protecting all their users’ information from all threats and security breaches.

Seeing that the world has evolved into a hyper-connected world and the Internet of Things, invasion of internet privacy should be strictly avoided. In this case, the question that comes to mind is how does one determine what is legal, illegal, and most especially ethical? Whilst it’s legal for advertisers to inspect our online habits for the intention of becoming targeted consumers, the ethics claims how far is too far when it comes down to our activities being monitored?

Big Data

Apple CEO, Tim Cook, raised his concerns on empowering users and their data, explaining that users should always be in the ‘know’ on how, why, and where their data is being used at all times. He argued that data belongs to users and that they should have “the right to have personal data minimized, the right to knowledge, the right to access, and the right to security.” Cook went on to state that privacy is a human right for all and advocated that all tech leaders join the bandwagon.

With tech giants like Facebook coming under fire for data privacy crisis – facing numerous data breaches and lawsuits for sharing data with unauthorized apps – goes to show how far and wide big data is. With increased surveillance, companies need to ensure their sophistication in handling and dealing with massive information, management, and data.

Internet Access

Ethical internet goes further to tackle the issue where individuals and citizens don’t have access to the internet or even a broadband connection. Much like education, the UN has acknowledged that internet access is a basic human right. The fact that millions around the world don’t have the access to go online and search the web is an ethical matter that governments and corporations should tackle for their citizens, youth, and last but not least educational institutions. It is really ethically imperative that all people have equal access to the internet no matter their background.

What makes ethical internet so important?

Many internet users feel a cloud of mistrust surrounding their lives online and so what societies at large need now is a set implementation of ethics for the vast body of technology they use. Without ethical internet, tech companies will sooner or later subject themselves to failure as trust is an integral part of the equation to keeping those same internet users by guaranteeing and eliminating surveillance.

With the world increasingly gaining traction in the digital world, internet users need governments, companies, and consumers that are well aware and forcefully push for a more dynamic and harmonious ethical internet. It is a priority that should drive conversations in order to protect them all not only in the digital space but follow through to their lives as well.

Many service and manufacturing sectors have been developing and implementing swaths of technologies that make use of the Internet of Things (IoT). IoT is when different parts of a mechanism or production/logistics line are connected to each other, communicating in real-time and ensuring the most efficient, secure and highest quality output for a service or product.

One area that IoT and artificial intelligence (AI) has been thriving is with freight trucks that deliver raw materials, as well as finished products across the world and beyond borders. Even though people jump to self-driving trucks whenever AI is mentioned in conjunction with trucks, the implications of connected trucks do not necessarily mean replacing human drivers, but instead greatly optimizing their performance and efficiency, and thus helping companies’ bottom line.

Connected Trucks

Today’s connected trucks include as much as 400 sensors and cameras, allowing for constant data collection and analysis across the world’s many freeways and thoroughfares. To help analyze and make use of all the data collected, special software that are compatible with many if not most freight truck brands has been developed.

This software’s complexity surpasses that of commercial jet liners, given the many variables such as traffic and weather conditions, as well as private cars and public transport that freight trucks share the road with and need to perfectly be in sync to. The trucks’ “brain” is connected to the telecom network, but also via Bluetooth to its sensors as well as a GPS system to pinpoint and track each truck’s location and route.

Optimal Fleet Management

Freight companies and departments only make money when their fleet is in motion. That’s why delays caused by routine or unexpected maintenance can cost a fortune and lead to delays that might disrupt delivery of materials or goods. Connected trucks and their vast array of sensors allow both drivers and dispatchers to access real-time data about each truck, and ensure the ideal window to run maintenance on every vehicle, and potentially predict and resolve problems before it’s too late and they cause a disruption in freight schedules.
Third-party apps are also available on the dedicated stores for each connected truck network, allowing each company to choose the right fleet management option for them and maintain efficient schedules for maintenance and upgrades without extended periods of downtime. An additional layer of convenience is when a vehicle needs to head to the shop, the system automatically schedules appointments with workshops that can fix the problem. This ensures that the workshops aren’t over booked, and routine maintenance and check-ups are planned and spaced out, lessening the possibility of a workshop being overwhelmed because of unexpected problems that connected truck networks can now identify early on.

Traffic Management

Even though driverless trucks will not completely replace human-operated ones anytime soon, driverless technology can still complement human drivers’ work and ensure a safer, more efficient drive for trucks across the world.

The recommended distance between freight trucks is at least 50 meters, and that’s due to many factors such as a driver’s reaction time after seeing a brake light, which is around 1.4 seconds. AI can react in as little as 0.1 seconds, which means that a convoy of freight trucks can decrease the space between them to as little as 15 meters. So, a convoy of 3 trucks that would normally take up 150 meters of highway can now take just 80 meters, almost half as much as it normally would.

An added advantage to autonomous driving integration into connected trucks is considerable reduction in CO2 emissions, with an average of 7% less fuel consumption for a 40-ton truck. This is partly due to better reaction times and more efficient coordination between a convoy of freight trucks. However, the main advantage of closer trucks is the slipstream effect, which happens when trucks are closer together and the effect of air resistance becomes considerably less for trucks behind the lead vehicle. These savings make a 40-ton freighter even more fuel efficient per ton than the average passenger car.

The Future is Here

Several truck fleets around the world are already incorporating connected trucks into their convoys, with considerable cost-cutting and increased efficiency already materializing. In the foreseeable future, more and more trucks will be connected, ensuring safer road performance and more efficient fleet management schemes. The IoT has many promising applications, and what seemed like science fiction only a few years ago is already a reality on many roads today.