Other Emerging Technologies

Chapter 7
 Learning Outcomes
After accomplishing this lesson, Students will be able to:

○ Explain Nanotechnology and its application in different sectors.

○ Explain Biotechnology and its application in different sectors.

○ Explain Blockchain technology and its application.

○ Gain insights about the Cloud computing and its applications

○ Gain insights about the Quantum computing and its applications

○ Explain how Computer Vision works and its application

○ Describe Cybersecurity, types of cyber security threat and its benefits

 Nanotechnology
● Nanotechnology is science, engineering, and technology conducted at the
nanoscale, which is about 1 to 100 nanometers

● Nanoscience and nanotechnology are the study and application of

extremely small things and can be used across all the other science fields,
such as chemistry, biology, physics, materials science, and engineering
Fundamental concepts in Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
● One nanometer is a billionth of a meter or 10-9 of meters (0.000000001)

● Nanoscience and nanotechnology involve the ability to see and to control

individual atoms and molecules

● As small as a nanometer is, it's still large compared to the atomic scale

○ An atom has a diameter of about 0.1 nm

○ An atom's nucleus is much smaller about 0.00001 nm

Fundamental concepts in Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
● You and everything around you are made of atoms
● Nature has perfected the science of manufacturing matter molecularly
● For instance, our bodies are assembled in a specific manner from millions
of living cells
● Cells are nature's nanomachines
● At the atomic scale, elements are at their most basic level
● On the nanoscale, we can potentially put these atoms together to make
almost anything
Fundamental concepts in Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
Nanoscience is defined as:
the study of phenomena and manipulation of materials at atomic,
molecular and macromolecular scales, where properties differ
significantly from those at a larger scale
Fundamental concepts in Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology is defined as:

the design, characterization, production, and application of structures,

devices, and systems by controlling shape and size at the nanometer scale
Fundamental concepts in Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
Materials made at nanoscale have enhanced properties such as

● higher strength

● lighter weight

● increased control of light spectrum, and

● greater chemical reactivity than their larger-scale counterparts

Applications of Nanotechnology in Medicine
● Customized nanoparticles the size of molecules that can deliver drugs
directly to diseased cells in human body

• When it's perfected, this method

should greatly reduce the
damage treatment such as
chemotherapy does to a patient's
healthy cells
Applications of Nanotechnology in Electronics
● It has some answers for how we might increase the capabilities of
electronics devices while we reduce their weight and power consumption
Applications of Nanotechnology in Food
● Companies are developing nanomaterials that will make a
difference not only in the taste of food but also in food safety and
the health benefits that food delivery
Applications of Nanotechnology in Agriculture
● Nanotechnology can possibly change the whole agriculture part and
nourishment industry anchor from generation to preservation, handling,
bundling, transportation, and even waste treatment
Applications of Nanotechnology in Vehicle Manufacturers
● Much like aviation, lighter and stronger materials will be valuable for
making vehicles that are both quicker and more secure

● Burning motors will likewise profit from parts that are all the more
hardwearing and higher temperature safe
 Biotechnology
● It is the broad area of biology involving living systems and organisms to
develop or make products, or

● Any technological application that uses biological systems, living organisms,

to make or modify products or processes for specific use

● At its simplest, biotechnology is technology based on biology -

biotechnology harnesses cellular and biomolecular processes to develop
technologies and products that help improve our lives and the health of our
planet
Biotechnology
● Brewing and baking bread are examples of processes that fall within the
concept of biotechnology:

use of yeast (= living organism) to produce the desired product

Biotechnology
● In modern biotechnology, researchers modify DNA and proteins to
shape the capabilities of living cells, plants, and animals into something
useful for humans

● Biotechnologists do the modification by sequencing or reading, the DNA

found in nature, and then manipulating it in a test tube – or, more recently,
inside of living cells.
Application of biotechnology: Agriculture
● Genetically Modified Organisms such as Crops, Animals, Plants, Fungi,
Bacteria, etc have traits such as pest resistance, insect resistance, weed
resistance, etc

● Genetically modified crops are formed by the manipulation of DNA to

introduce a new trait into the crops.
Application of biotechnology: Medicin
● Genetically modified insulin known as humulin helps in the treatment
of a large number of diabetes patients

● Gene therapy is a technique to remove the genetic defect in an embryo or

child. This technique involves the transfer of a normal gene that works
over the non-functional gene
Application of biotechnology: Aquaculture Fisheries
● Improving the quality and quantity of fishes

● Through biotechnology, fishes are induced to breed via gonadotropin

releasing hormone
Application of biotechnology: Environment
● Used in waste treatment and pollution prevention

● Environmental biotechnology can more efficiently clean up many

wastes than conventional methods and greatly reduce our
dependence on methods for land-based disposal
● Some bacteria thrive on the chemical components of waste
products
 Blockchain Technology
● Blockchain is a growing list of records, called blocks, that are linked using cryptography

● A blockchain is, a time-stamped series of immutable records of data that is managed

by a cluster of computers not owned by any single entity

● Each of these blocks of data (i.e. block) is secured and bound to each other using
cryptographic principles (i.e. chain)

● Each block contains

○ a cryptography hash of the previous block,

○ a timestamp, and

○ transaction data (generally represented as a Merkle tree)

Blockchain technology
Blockchain technology
“Blocks” on the blockchain are made up of three digital pieces of information
1. Information about transactions like the date, time, and dollar
amount of your most recent purchase, for example
2. Information about who is participating in transactions.
Instead of using your actual name, your purchase is recorded
without any identifying information using a unique “digital
signature”
1. Information that distinguishes them from other blocks
Blockchain technology
When a block stores new data it is added to the blockchain
○ A transaction must occur
○ That transaction must be verified
○ That transaction must be stored in a block
○ That block must be given a hash
Blockchain technology
● By design, a blockchain is resistant to modification of the data

● It is an open, distributed ledger that can record transactions

between two parties efficiently and in a verifiable and permanent
way
● Once recorded, the data in any given block cannot be altered
retroactively without the alteration of all subsequent blocks, which
requires the consensus of the network majority
Blockchain technology
● The blockchain network has no central authority

○ it is the very definition of a democratized system

● Since it is a shared and immutable ledger, the information in it is

open for anyone and everyone to see
● Anything that is built on the blockchain is by its very nature
transparent and everyone involved is accountable for their actions
Application of blockchain: The sharing economy
● With companies like Uber and Airbnb flourishing, the sharing economy is
already a proven success

● By enabling peer-to-peer payments, the blockchain opens the door to

direct interaction between parties, without any intermediary

● Leading to a truly decentralized sharing economy

Application of blockchain: Crowdfunding
● Crowdfunding initiatives like Kickstarter and GoFundMe are doing
the advance work for the emerging peer-to-peer economy
● Blockchains helps in creating crowdsourced venture capital
funds
For example, the Ethereum-based DAO (Decentralized
Autonomous Organization), raised an astonishing $200 million
USD in just over two months
Application of blockchain: Governance
● By making the results fully transparent and publicly accessible, distributed
database technology could bring full transparency to elections or any other
kind of poll taking

Ethereum-based smart contracts help to automate the process

Application of blockchain: Supply chain auditing
● Distributed ledgers provide an easy way to certify that the backstories of
the things we buy are genuine

● Transparency comes with blockchain-based timestamping of a date and

location
Application of blockchain: File storage
● Decentralizing file storage on the internet brings clear benefits

● Distributing data throughout the network protects files from getting hacked
or lost
 Cloud Computing
● Cloud computing is a means of networking remote servers that are
hosted on the Internet

● Types of cloud infrastructures

Public Cloud

Private Cloud

Hybrid Cloud
Cloud computing: Public Cloud
● A third-party provider manages the servers, applications, and storage much
like a public utility

● Anyone can subscribe to the provider’s cloud service

Cloud computing: Private Cloud
● The computing infrastructure exists as a private network accessible over
the Internet

● A business or organization would typically use a private cloud

● The network might be hosted on their on-site data center, or through a

third-party provider
Cloud computing: Hybrid Cloud
● Here private clouds are connected to public clouds, allowing data and
applications to be shared between them

● Hybrids can offer more computing capacity for a business application

when the need for its spikes

● Hybrids also enable applications to keep sensitive client data in a private

cloud but connect to end-user software in a public cloud
Cloud computing services
● Cloud computing services can focus on

infrastructure,

web development or

a cloud-based app

● These are often regarded as a stack; all are on-demand, pay-as-you-go

Cloud computing services
● Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
gives you management of the whole deal: servers, web development tools,
applications
● Platform as a Service (PaaS)
offers a complete web development environment, without the worry of the
hardware that runs it
● Software as a Service (SaaS)
allows access to cloud-based apps, usually through a web browser interface
Advantages of cloud computing
● Much like with any utility, a business benefits from economy of scale,
which means cheap computing power
● Because a cloud provider’s hardware and software are shared, there’s no
need for the initial costly capital investment
● Businesses save on the electricity required 24/7 to power and cool that
computing infrastructure
● Cloud providers have vast resources of computing power, they can
allocate these resource whenever required with just a few mouse clicks
Advantages of cloud computing
● Cloud providers source on a global scale, so they can deliver the precise
bandwidth, storage and power business needs when it needs it
● The cloud allows you and multiple users to access your data from any
location and at any time
● With cloud computing a business processes its data more efficiently,
increasing productivity.
● Maintenance is much cheaper, often free, so reliability is rarely a worry
● Cloud computing allows CEOs to focus on running their business
 QUANTUM COMPUTING
● Unlike classic computers, quantum computers derive their computing
power by harnessing the power of quantum physics

● Give clients access to a quantum computer over the internet, and you have
quantum cloud computing
Quantum Computing
● Currently, the only organization which provides a quantum computer in the
cloud is IBM. They allow free access to anyone who wishes to use their 5-
qubit machine

● Google provided the fastest quantum computer with 53 qubits and speed
of 200 seconds computation while the supercomputer took 10000 years
Quantum computing
● What is qubit and how many do you need?

Qubit is short for a sequence of quantum bits

● With a classic computer, data is stored in tiny transistors that hold a

single bit of information, either the binary value of 1 or 0

● With a quantum computer, the data is stored in qubits

● A qubit can exist in two states at the same time

This phenomenon is called superposition

Quantum computing
● A qubit can have a value of 1, 0, or some value between

● Two qubits can hold even more values

● Before long, you are building yourself an exponentially more powerful

computer the more qubits you add
Advantages of quantum computing
● Quantum computers will be able to make complex calculations that
would only overwhelm classic computers
● Quantum computing could help in the discovery of new drugs
by unlocking the complex structure of chemical molecules
● Other uses include financial trading, risk management, and supply
chain optimization
● With its ability to handle more complex numbers, data could be
transferred over the internet with much safer encryption
 COMPUTER VISION
● It is an interdisciplinary scientific field that deals with how computers can
be made to gain a high-level understanding of digital images or videos

● From the perspective of engineering, it seeks to automate tasks that the

human visual system can do
Computer vision
Computer vision tasks include methods for

acquiring,

processing,

analyzing and understanding digital images, and

extraction of high-dimensional data from the real world in order to

produce numerical or symbolic information
Computer vision
● Understanding digital images means the transformation of visual
images (the input of the retina) into descriptions of the world that can
interface with other thought processes and elicit appropriate action
● This image understanding can be seen as the disentangling of symbolic
information from image data using models constructed with the aid of
geometry, physics, statistics, and learning theory

● Computer vision is building algorithms that can understand the content

of images and use it for other applications
How computer vision works
● Acquiring an image
Images, even large sets, can be acquired in real-time through video, photos or
3D technology for analysis
● Processing the image
Deep learning models automate much of this process, but the models are often
trained by first being fed thousands of labeled or pre-identified images
● Understanding the image
The final step is the interpretative step, where an object is identified or classified
Types of computer vision
Image segmentation

partitions an image into multiple regions or pieces to be examined

separately
Types of computer vision
Object detection

identifies a specific object in an image

Types of computer vision
Facial recognition

is an advanced type of object detection that not only recognizes a human

face in an image but identifies a specific individual
Types of computer vision
Edge detection

is a technique used to identify the outside edge of an object or landscape

to better identify what is in the image
Types of computer vision
Pattern detection

is a process of recognizing repeated shapes, colors and other visual

indicators in images
Types of computer vision
Image classification

groups images into different categories

Types of computer vision
Feature matching

is a type of pattern detection that matches similarities in images to help

classify them
Applications of computer vision
Optical character recognition (OCR)

reading handwritten postal codes on letters and automatic number plate

recognition (ANPR)
 Applications of computer vision
Machine inspection

● rapid parts inspection for quality assurance using stereo vision with
specialized illumination to measure tolerances on aircraft wings or auto
body parts

● looking for defects in steel castings using X-ray vision

Applications of computer vision
Retail

object recognition for automated checkout lanes

Applications of computer vision
Medical imaging

● registering preoperative and intraoperative imagery or

performing long-term studies of people’s brain morphology
as they age
Applications of computer vision
Automotive safety

● detecting unexpected obstacles such as pedestrians on the

street, under conditions where active vision techniques such
as radar or lidar do not work well
Applications of computer vision
Surveillance

● monitoring for intruders, analyzing highway traffic, and monitoring

pools for drowning victims
Applications of computer vision
Fingerprint recognition and biometrics

for automatic access authentication as well as forensic applications

 Cybersecurity
● It is the protection of computer systems from the theft of or damage to
their hardware, software, or electronic data, as well as from the disruption
or misdirection of the services they provide

● The field is becoming more important due to increased reliance on

computer systems, the Internet and wireless network standards such as
Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, and due to the growth of smart devices, including
smartphones, televisions, and the various devices that constitute the
Internet of Things
Cybersecurity vs Information Security
Cybersecurity is often confused with information security
● Cybersecurity focuses on protecting computer systems from
unauthorized access or being otherwise damaged or made
inaccessible
● Information security is a broader category that looks to protect
all information assets, whether in hard copy or in digital form
Cybercrime
● The term cybercrime is used to describe an unlawful activity in
which computer or computing devices such as smartphones,
tablets, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), etc are used as a tool
or/and target of criminal activity
 Cybersecurity measures
Staff awareness training
● Human error is the leading cause of data breaches, so you need to equip staff
with the knowledge to deal with the threats they face
● Training courses will show staff how security threats affect them and help them
apply best-practice advice to real-world situations

Application security
● Web application vulnerabilities are a common point of intrusion for
cybercriminals
● As applications play an increasingly critical role in business, it is vital to focus on
web application security
 Cybersecurity measures
Network security
● Network security is the process of protecting the usability and integrity of your network
and data
● This is achieved by conducting a network penetration test, which scans your network for
vulnerabilities and security issues

Leadership commitment
● Leadership commitment is the key to cyber resilience. Without it, it is very difficult to
establish or enforce effective processes
● Top management must be prepared to invest in appropriate cybersecurity resources,
such as awareness training

Password management
● You should implement a password management policy that provides guidance to ensure
staff create strong passwords and keep them secure
 Types of cybersecurity threats
Ransomware
● It is a type of malicious software
● It is designed to extort money by blocking access to files or the
computer system until the ransom is paid
● Paying the ransom does not guarantee that the files will be recovered or
the system restored
Malware
● It is a type of software designed to gain unauthorized access or to cause
damage to a computer
Types of cybersecurity threats
Social engineering
● it is a tactic that adversaries use to trick you into revealing sensitive
information
● They can solicit a monetary payment or gain access to your confidential
data
● Social engineering can be combined with any of the threats listed
before to make you more likely to click on links, download malware, or
trust a malicious source
Types of cybersecurity threats
Phishing
● it is the practice of sending fraudulent emails that resemble emails
from reputable sources
● The aim is to steal sensitive data like credit card numbers and login
information
● It’s the most common type of cyber-attack
● You can help protect yourself through education or a technology
solution that filters malicious emails
Benefits of cybersecurity
● Business protection against malware, ransomware, phishing, and social
engineering
● Protection for data and networks
● Prevention of unauthorized users
● Improves recovery time after a breach
● Protection for end-users
● Improved confidence in the product for both developers and customers