Clip-on sensors that informs when your plants need water

New Delhi -- The Indian Film Company (IFC) will produce six films on a budget of about 24 million dollars.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the Mumbai-based affiliate of Viacom-18 has decided to explore and engage in all aspects of the Indian film business.

It quoted Sandeep Bhargava, IFC CEO as saying that, "Our slate of s

ix new films is in addition to the 14 films we acquired prior to the AIM (London‘s Alternative Investment Market) listing from group company Studio 18."

TV 18 established Studio 18 about a year ago to engage in all aspects of the film business, but following the formation of IFC early this year, Bhargava said that Studio 18 will primarily focus on "creative and distribution services while its forays into production via the 14 projects have been transferred to IFC, which will hold all (intellectual property rights)."

This ramps up IFC‘s total slate to 20 films, which Bhargava says "will be rolling out over the next two years."

The total spent on these films should reflect about 60 percent of the funds raised on AIM.

Included among the projects is "Little Zizou," the directorial debut of established screenwriter Sooni Taraporevala (credits include Mira Nair‘s "The Namesake").

Lined up for release in August is "Halla Bol" (Make Some Noise), directed by Bollywood veteran Raj Kumar Santoshi, while included among the six new in-production projects are "Loot," directed by Rajneesh Thakur, "Masquerade," directed by Kundan Shah, and "Fruit N Nut," directed by Kunal Vijayakar.

Studio 18 recently agreed to develop comic book characters with the option of turning them into features and other media offshoots with Richard Branson-promoted Virgin Comics, based in Bangalore.

Although the Viacom-18 joint venture is first planning to shortly launch a general entertainment channel, Bhargava says that film content also could be exploited at a later stage, especially from an international perspective. (ANI)

Washington, July 23 (ANI): Scientists at the University of Colorado at Boulder‘s BioServe Space Technologies Center have developed a sensor that monitors the chemical profile of plants and informs farmers if the crops are in need of a drink.

The clip-on sensor, the size of a fly‘s wing, works with a wireless network to alert the farmer when crops need water. They can even start irrigation systems automatically, say its inventors.

"We‘re talking about saving 30-40 percent of water used. If you have an irrigation system that applies water in certain sectors, you could be even more efficient," said Dr Hans Seelig, a research associate at the University of Colorado at Boulder‘s BioServe Space Technologies Center, and the technology‘s inventor.

While the current prototype uses wires, Seelig and his team are working towards developing a wireless version that uses radio frequency identification, or RFID, which allows not only the data, but also the power to be transmitted wirelessly, eliminating the need for batteries.

Seelig said the sensor would be clipped permanently to a leaf during the growing season to monitor moisture content and chemical signatures that can then indicate when the plant is undergoing water stress.

The chemical signs, such as an increase in salt and sugar content in the cells, occur much earlier than physical signs, such as drooping leaves, that many farmers rely on now. As it can only transmit a signal about half a metre away, the RFID tag can do one of two things with the data: it can transmit it to RFID tags nearby, which would then push the signal along to other tags in the network until the data reaches home base, he said.

Alternatively, it can deliver the signal to a nearby base station, which would have enough power (using a battery or solar panel) to transmit the data directly to the farmer‘s computer, he added.

Software on the computer would then analyse the data and could alert the farmer by email or text message. Or the computer could be set up to go one step further and automatically turn on the irrigation system, he further said. (ANI)