PRESENT-DAY PATENT- A PREVIEW

Initiatives to cut down paper usage in the organizational or educational context are greatly supported these days with the aim of conserving trees. One such initiative is the information communication using smart notice boards, which would otherwise involve excessive paper utilization and wastage. Usually, these smart notice boards display digital information with interactive tools, rendering flexible reading to the reader. However, there is a limit on the memory required to store the information on these boards and there is also a possibility that unauthentic information could be circulated. A recent invention from Uttaranchal University, has evaded out these shortcomings by incorporating the Internet of Things (IoT) technology. The invention involved a digital display, a speaker and a few buttons as the edge devices with a control module. Additionally, the invention was integrated with a control software, which allowed the controlled display of information being stored in the cloud. As per the invention, the user can view the information in the digital display or he/ she can scroll between multiple notice grids in the display using the buttons, which are managed by the control module. The added advantage of the system is the use of a speaker to utter the textual information in the display as speech and to alert the deadline of a notice. Hence, the invention offers a simple, flexible and structured means to display and alert about the daily happenings in an organization without paper consumption. However, there are also security, privacy and storage issues threatening the IoT device deployment, which the similar future inventions should pay attention to. Image courtesy: www.freepik.com