Technology Then and Now
We
all as a mankind of are very proud of Apollo mission 11 that landed on Moon. Do
you know the processing power of the Computer used for the mission is less thanyour smartphone?
The mobile phones and laptop/desktops/tablets we use these days have processing power in GHz.
But the devices are hardly running at their peak usage. Research on
smartphone usage pattern shows that the Phone is in idle/waiting state for 89%
of times.
On the
other side, there are science projects looking at decoding the DNA to find the
cure for AIDS or Cancer, there are projects looking at the skies for signs of
life beyond earth, there are projects to better understand the impact of global
warming on our planet, projects aiming to give early warning of earthquake and
save previous lives. These projects need to analyze huge data and need enormous
computing power often to the tune of Peta FLOPS. But they are running short of
Computing power.
So the
good questions is, How do we help these folks and meeting the supply of
Computing Power?
How about
using the idle/waiting time of our powerful devices for these projects? Can the
crowd-sourcing model for Innovation be extended to Computing power.
The
answer is a big YES.
We all
can help the great brains out their by lending our computing power to them
which is otherwise wasted. All we have
to do is to install the Grid Computing/Distributed computing software made
available for this projects on our devices and that’s it. The piece
of software will use the computing power of your device to process some of the
data of the big projects. Of course, the software is configurable so that you do not suffer
on your work. You can configure the battery level, the CPU usage, the data
usage, the time at which the software can use your device. If the criteria doesn't meet, it will do nothing.
Feeling
excited to join this band! Great, following is the list of Projects looking for
your computing power. Do help them...
The Projects that need your participation
Uses the idle time on your computer (Windows, Mac, Linux, or Android) to cure diseases, study global warming, discover pulsars, and do many other types of scientific research. It's safe, secure, and easy
Foldit is a revolutionary new computer game enabling you to contribute to important scientific research.
SETI@home is a scientific experiment that uses Internet-connected computers in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). You can participate by running a free program that downloads and analyzes radio telescope data.
Be part of a unique scientific experiment by playing games on your phone.
Test your memory, your impulsivity, your attention and decision making. Learn about the neuroscience of every day life.
Do let me know if you are aware of any more such projects, also let me know about your experience with these projects...
