What a Good Editing Photo Program Should Always Have

A good photo software program takes a good picture and makes it better. You don’t think a good photographer gets it perfect without using some editing program, do you? Of course, not – they do take great pictures and use a software program and make the photo even better.

Editing functions 

A good editing program does not have to be hard to use but there are some options that they need to have.

Set of editing tools 

Photo editing programs need to have a good set of editing tools. These are used when the photo is good but by just using a few editing tools makes them almost perfect. What type of editing can you use – there are many?

Functions 

You should be able to:

• Crop 
• Exposure 
• Sharpen 
• Rotate 
• Resize 
• Cropping a photo

To crop a photo is to put a fresh spin on your photos. With cropping you can eliminate what is not needed and watch your photo emerge almost perfect. Quickly trimming your photo can do wonders for picture, so cropping is often used.

Cropping is one of the Basic Editing tools. A grid will usually appear over your image. Then you drag the corner handles until you have your desired shape and size. Then you simply click apply and save the photo. Now your picture looks fabulous.

Exposure 

When a photo comes out murky (or a step too light or too dark) you can fix this with the exposure function. Exposure is usually the fix for this problem. Most programs will have simple sliders and by moving them back and forth you can quickly resolve specific exposure issues.

Sharpen 

Clarity might be slightly off and it will make your photo just be a little out of focus. This is when you can use your sharpening tool to make your photos crystal clear. Or perhaps you are trying to set an ambiance that is a little out of focus; you just use this same tool to make the photo have a slight blur.

Rotate 

It looked fine when you were taking the picture but for some reason it now looks upside-down when it is being edited. The rotate tool is there to help to rotate the pictures until you have just what you wanted.

Resize 

This resizing tool will spare you headaches by resizing tools – it can be bigger or smaller, whatever you want. A good program will support common social media, website and print sizes.

Transformative Photo Effects and Filters 

No matter what you are into, a good editing program should be able to make your photo effect match a theme for every image. You can also blend many different effects as possible to give you that perfect photo that will be truly one-of-a-kind.

Black and White 

This is a filter that can make your photo have a touch of class in monochrome – or black and white. Black and white effects can make your photo be silver-screen-worthy in no time.

These are just a few of the many effects that a good photo editing software program will have. Most of them will be included when the Window version of Luminar is finished. Currently Macphun is working on this Window version and has posted the Beta version that you might want to try out.

Google Docs: Big Update Happened with More Editing and Search Tool

Google set to bring a new vital update for the popular Google Docs

For a really long time people were dependent on the Microsoft Office programs to work and share their finding globally. But Google brought a commendable challenge to it through its suite of online office applications and among it the most popular and widely used application is Google Docs. Just a few days ago Google has announced that it will be a big update to the Google Docs which will open a whole new world of opportunities for the users.

This updates has helped in upgrading the online word processing application to the next level. Now more number of users will be able to work, collaborate and edit the documents at the same time. Google understands that modern requirements of the Worksheet processing program should be able to provide a unified control over the collaboration to enhance the productivity of larger teams. This new update will allow users to work on big projects with ease and simply by actively monitoring varied edits or inputs from large number of users. Enhancing the ability of the users in collaborating with large teams is essential as more and more users are working remotely from varied but carefully monitoring the progress or edits made on a single file has always been troublesome. Google Docs will be able to do offers respite to the users in dealing wide amount of edits.

 

What’s new in Google Docs?

This major update has focused on enhancing the editing and collaborative efforts of the users. Now users will be able to see all the team edits at a single place which is known as version history. On one hand users get to every edit made in the document with ‘version history’ view and another option allows them to check every clean version of the document without the presence of the other user’s edits and comments. This is a very thoughtful update as it helps in going back to the older version or understanding which person has made the unwanted edit when a large team collaborates on a single project online.

Another great feature included in this update is the ability to accept or reject all the edits in a single go. This is designed to ensure that one doesn’t spend their time in carefully understanding and going through all the edits made by all the persons appointed on a single project.

 

Challenging the ‘Word’, beating its own game

The latest update will bring almost similar functionalities and features to the Google Docs which is seen on the Microsoft’s Word. In recent time Google has been actively promoting its G Suite as the best reliable work collaboration service which comes loaded with the Docs- a word processing program and Slides – a spreadsheet program. Another awesome feature of the G suite is that it allows users to search for files containing specific words. With the latest update users will be able to make use of the built in explore tab for scanning the files without even leaving any of the program namely Docs and Slides.

Build Your Own Streaming Dash Cam - Do It Yourself

We have always been passionate about home automation and everything related to computers in the home. Most of us love the weather stations that display a lot of information, high-tech clocks that make a calendar and that sounds when you receive a mail, digital photo frames, etc ... Indeed, we find that what exists today is either far too limited or very limited and far too expensive.

Build a Dash Cam with a Raspberry Pi, Two Cameras and GPS

Car video cameras (dash cams) became very popular, where vehicular crash videos outpaced witness testimony in court. Surveillance cameras in cars have become ubiquitous among the driver's daily tools. Increased distractions and shorter care intervals have subsequently led to dangerous traffic. The use of a camera like this means irrefutable proof of guilt in case of being involved in an accident.

We have seen a raspberry Pi used as a dash camera before, but about in Pro techie's they took the same concept, but also have a live-streaming capability provided you can set a hot spot on your smartphone.

Dash cameras are an easy way to record everything you see on your windshield, but they vary …

The dash cameras are a cool, easy way to record everything you see on your windshield, but they vary greatly in price and quality. If you really want to personalize your own, you can make one with a raspberry Pi.

As expected, this configuration has some bells and whistles. It has two cameras, one front and one rear. It also has GPS packaged in it so the camera always knows where it is recording. There is also a button to turn it off and restart it when you need it along with status LED so you know what to do. Of course, most of us probably do not need all this, but it's a fun project, though.

To begin with, you can make use of an old USB camera.
You can combine it with your old USB version and possibly add a GPS.

Hardware - Raspberry Pi model B
OS - Arch Linux
Front camera - Pi camera
Rear USB camera – Any kind of old one
GPS - Adafruit Ultimate GPS Breakout
LEDs - 3 x 3mm
Pi camera mount - From pimoroni
SD card adaptor - pIO microSD card adapter
SD card - Samsung 32Gb micro SD PRO Card Class 10 UHS-I

The camera uses Node.js to set everything up, then takes a picture every few seconds and saves it online using the hot spot on your smartphone. In this way, the flow is available online at any time. To do this, you will need a Raspberry Pi and a camera module next to some form of network access. Beyond that, it is a fairly simple configuration process for the camera itself. When you're done with that, you'll make a viewer so you can see all those images in streaming. This project uses the PubNub application platform, but you can do this project using a free account.

Atomic Movies May Help Explain Why Perovskite Solar Cells Are More Efficient

Perovskites – Cheap/Easy/Flexible 

Perovskites has taken the solar cell industry by storm in recent years. They tend to be cheap, easy in producing as well as flexible in their applications.

Moreover their efficiency in converting light into electricity has developed quicker than that of any other material from under 4% in 2009 to over 20% in 2017, where some of the experts are of the belief that Perovskites Solar Cells could ultimately outperform the most common solar cell material, silicon. However, irrespective of their reputation, researchers are not aware why perovskites solar cells tend to be so efficient.

Research had been carried out with powerful `electron camera’ at the Department of energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory which has now revealed that light whirls atoms around in perovskites, potentially explaining the high efficiency of these next –generation solar cell materials as well as provides clues in making improved ones.

 Aaron Lindenberg from Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences – SIMES and the Stanford PULSE Institute for ultrafast science that had jointly operated by Stanford University and SLAC, had stated that they have taken a step towards resolving the mystery.

He further added that they had recorded movies which tend to show that certain atoms in a perovskite seem to respond to light within trillionths of a second in a very unusual manner.

 

Flexibility Based on Atomic Structure of Material

 
This could facilitate the transport of electric charges through the material and enhance its efficiency. The study had been published recently in Science Advances. When light is said to shine on perovskites solar cell material, its energy tends to displace some of the negative charged electrons of the material.

This is inclined to leave behind `electron holes’ having positive charge where the electrons had initially been located. Electrons and holes tend to migrate in opposite sides of the material thereby developing a voltage which could be utilised to power electrical devices. The efficiency of perovskites solar cell seems to depend on how freely electrons as well as holes tend to move in the material.

In turn, their flexibility is based on the atomic structure of the material. In silicon solar cells for instance, silicon atoms is said to line up in an orderly manner within crystals as well as the smallest structural defects tend to reduce the ability of the material to harvest light efficiently.

As a consequence, silicon crystals need to be grown in costly multistep process under very clean conditions while perovskites are said to be produced with the combination of chemicals in a solvent that tends to evaporate to leave an extremely thin film of perovskite material according to the study’s lead author from SIMES at SLAC, Xiaoxi Wu.

 

Lower Cost/Lightweight

 
He further added that simpler processing would mean lower costs and unlike silicon solar cells, perovskite thin films seems to be lightweight as well as flexible and can be applied with ease to virtually any surface. With regards to perovskites what is it that permits some of them to harvest light in an efficient manner?

Scientists are of the opinion that one of the keys is how their atoms tend to move in reaction to light. In order to get a better understanding, Wu together with his colleagues researched on these motions in a prototype material made of iodine, lead together with an organic molecule known as methylammonium.

 The iodine atoms tend to be arranged in octohedra, eight-sided structures which seems like two pyramids that is joined towards the base. The lead atom tends to sit inside the octohedra and the methylammonium molecule is between octohedra.

The architecture seems common to several of the perovskites investigated for perovskites solar cell applications. The earlier research could have explored mostly the role of the mehylammonium ions together with their motions in transporting electric charge through the material.
 

Light Cause of Huge Deformation in Network

 
Wu had stated that they had found that light is the cause of huge deformations in the network of lead and iodine atoms which tend to be crucial for the efficiency of perovskites. At the Accelerator Structure Test Area – ASTA of SLAC, the researchers had initially hit a perovskite film which was less than two millionths of an inch thick having a 40-femtosecond laser pulse.

One femtosecond is said to be a millionth of a billionth of a second and in order to determine the atomic response, they directed a 300-femtosecond pulse of highly energetic electrons via the material and noticed how the electrons had been deflected in the film. This system known as ultrafast electron diffraction – UED enabled them to reconstruct the atomic structure. The speedy improvement of perovskite solar cells has enhanced them in the photovoltaics world as well as of high interest to the academic community.

While the operational system seems to be comparatively new, there are possibilities of additional research in the basic physics and chemistry regarding perovksites. Moreover, from observations of past two years, the engineering development of perovskite formulation together with the fabrication sequences has given rise to significant increases in power conversion efficiency.

Energy Storage Solution Combines Polymers and Nanosheets

Fresh Lightweight Composite Material – Energy Storage 

 

According to a team of Penn State scientists a fresh lightweight composite material for the purpose of energy storage in flexible electronics, electric vehicles and aerospace application has experimentally revealed energy storage at operating temperatures beyond present commercial polymers.

The said polymer-based ultrathin energy storage material can be produced utilising techniques which are already being used in industry. Professor of materials science and engineering, Penn State, Qing Wang had stated that this is part of a series of work which had been done in the lab on high temperature dielectrics for use in capacitors.

 Prior to this work they had developed a composite of boron nitride nanosheets and dielectric polymers, though had realized that there had been significant issues with scaling that energy storage material up economically’. The defining challenge for several of the new, two-dimensional energy storage materials that are being established in academic labs is scalability or making advanced materials in commercially significant quantities for devices.

Wang has mentioned that `from a soft material perspective, 2D materials are fascinating though how to mass produce them is a question. Moreover, being able to combine them with polymeric materials is a key feature for future flexible electronics applications and electronic devices’.

Functional Dielectric Device-

 

In order to resolve this issue, his lab collaborated with a group at Penn State operating in two-dimensional crystals. Nasim Alem, assistant professor of materials science and engineering as well as a faculty member in Penn State’s Centre for 2-Dimensional and Layered Materials had stated that the work had been conceived in conversations between his graduate students, Amin Azizi together with graduate student of Dr Wang, Matthew Gadinski. He further informed that this was the first strong experiment wherein a soft polymeric material together with a hard 2D crystalline material had come together in order to develop a functional dielectric device.

Azizi who presently is a post-doctoral fellow at University of California, Berkeley and Gadinski, a senior engineer at DOW Chemical had generated a technique utilising chemical vapour deposition in order to make multilayer, hexagonal boron-nitride nanocrystal films to transfer the films to both areas of a polyetherimide (PEI) film.

Thereafter they bonded the films together by utilising force on the three-layer sandwich structure. In the outcome which was surprising to the researchers, pressure itself without the need of any chemical bonding had been adequate in making a free-standing film essentially strong to potentially be manufactured in a high-throughput roll-to-roll process.

 

Hexagonal Boron Nitride – Wide Band Gap Material

 

In a recent issue of the journal Advanced Materials in a paper titled `High-performance Polymers Sandwiched with Chemical Vapour Deposited Hexagonal Boron Nitrides as Scalable High-Temperature Dielectric Materials’, the results had been reported. Hexagonal boron nitride is said to be a wide band gap material having high mechanical strength.

 Its wide band gap tends to make it a worthy insulator, protecting the PEI film from dielectric breakdown at high temperatures, the cause for failure in the other polymer capacitors. Above 176 degrees Fahrenheit, at operating temperatures, the prevailing best commercial polymers begins to lose its efficiency though hexagonal-boron-nitride-coated PEI tends to function at high efficiency at above 392 degrees Fahrenheit.

The coated PEI seems to be stable for over 55,000 charge-discharge cycles in testing even at high temperature. Wang has mentioned that `theoretically all these high performance polymers which seem to be so commercially valuable could be coated with boron nanosheets in order to block charge injection. He further added that he is of the opinion that this would make this technology feasible for forth-coming commercialization.

 

Supported – U.S. Office/National Science Foundation 

Alem has also commented that there are several devices that are made with 2D crystals at the laboratory scale; however the defects tend to make them an issue for manufacturing. With the help of huge band-gap material such as boron nitride, it tends to do a good work in spite of the fact that small microstructural features could not be perfect.

 The first-principles calculations resolute that the electron barrier recognized at the interface of the PEI/hexagonal boron-nitride structure as well as the metal electrodes practical to the structure for the purpose of delivering current was said to be significantly higher than typical metal electrode-dielectric polymers contacts, thus making energy storage materials more complex for charges from the electrode to get injected into the film.

This task had been done by the theoretical research group of Long-Qing Chen, Professor of Materials, Science and Engineering, professor of engineering science and mechanics as well as mathematics – Penn State, Donald W. Hamer. Several others contributing to this work comprise of post-doctoral scholar Qi Li as well as graduate student Feihua Liu in the lab of Wang, undergraduate Mohammed Abu AlSaud in the lab of Alem, senior scientist Jianjun, Wang, post-doctoral scholar Yi Wang together with graduate student Bo Wang who were all from the Chen group at that point of time. This work had also been supported by the U.S. Office of Naval Research as well as the National Science Foundation.