NPTEL - Web Video courses from IIT's and IISc

NPTEL - National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning, a project funded by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) of India.

The main objective of NPTEL program is "To enhance the quality of engineering education in the country by developing curriculum based video and web courses".

Seven IITs and IISc Bangalore together created web courses on different engineering subjects and made them available for all other students around the world.


In the first phase of the project, supplementary content for 129 web courses in engineering/science and humanities have been developed. Each course contains materials that can be covered in depth in 40 or more lecture hours. In addition, 110 courses have been developed in video format, with each course comprising of approximately 40 or more one-hour lectures. In the next phase other premier institutions are also likely to participate in content creation.

The courses can be accessed at http://nptel.iitm.ac.in/

The video lectures of various courses can be directly accessed from Youtube at http://youtube.com/iit

World’s first optical drive for cell phones

That's really suprising an optical drive for a mobile phone but it is true.

Vmedia Research, Inc. unveiled its mobile entertainment media technology at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Vmedia™ is an innovative miniature optical disc format designed to bring the quality of a big screen experience and the simplicity of home entertainment to mobile consumer electronics.

The technology consists of the ‘Vmedia disc’ that plays on the world’s smallest blue laser optical drive, the ‘Vmedia drive’. The disc – 32mm in diameter and cased in a slim cartridge – would retail at the same price as a DVD and have the same release dates.

Despite the tiny size, the company claimed that there wouldn’t be a loss in quality: A single disc can hold a complete feature-length movie at 576p resolution by combining blue laser technology with advanced video (H.264) and audio codecs (AAC).

The first generation of the single-layer Vmedia disc has a capacity of 1GB, which will hold the typical movie plus extra features such as out-takes, mobile phone wallpapers and ringtones. The storage could go up to 2GB once the company comes out with dual-layer discs in 2009.

Designed to withstand the rigours of today’s mobile applications, the Vmedia drives are resistant to shock and vibration, and also feature low power consumption, company officials said.

Vmedia has tied up with Indian mobile company, Spice Mobile. The company’s chairman Dr B K Modi introduced the Spice Movie Phone – the world’s first Vmedia-enabled mobile phone – at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Spice will be distributing Indian and Hollywood content on Vmedia throughout South Asia. “We believe the Movie Phone will become the most popular multimedia communications platform worldwide and may even change the way we all view movies, just as the iPod changed the way we listen to music.” he said.

That's great Spice Mobile is the first company to launch a phone with the optical drive.