Saturday, March 9, 2024

Spatial Computing: Where the Digital World Meets Our Own

Spatial Computing:

Picture this: You're designing a new product, but instead of sketches on a screen, a 3D model of it hovers in your living room. You walk around it, making changes on the fly. or imagine trying on a new outfit without leaving your house because a virtual version of it overlays perfectly on your body. These scenarios aren't just a sci-fi dream – they're the kind of experiences spatial computing is making possible.



But What IS Spatial Computing?

Think of it as the next evolution of how we interact with technology. Traditional computing has us glued to flat screens – laptops, phones, etc. Spatial computing breaks those boundaries, bringing digital information and experiences into our three-dimensional world.


The Magic Ingredients

A bunch of cool technologies work together to make this happen:

  • Augmented Reality (AR): Think digital overlays on the real world through your phone or fancy glasses.
  • Virtual Reality (VR): Those headsets that transport you to fully immersive digital environments.
  • Mixed Reality (MR): The most advanced blending, where digital objects interact with your physical space in realistic ways.
  • Sensors & Computer Vision: Cameras and sensors help devices 'understand' their surroundings.
  • AI: Helps to process everything happening in a spatial computing experience.


Why This Is a Big Deal

Spatial computing isn't just flashy tech; it's poised to change how we do a TON of things:

  • Designing and Making Stuff: Imagine engineers collaborating on a car prototype that feels 'real' in the room, or workers getting virtual instructions right in their field of view.
  • Shopping Reimagined: Say goodbye to guesswork when trying on clothes or seeing how furniture fits your space.
  • Learning by Doing: Medical students practicing surgery in a sim or exploring historical sites virtually.
  • Gaming...But Upgraded: When your whole room becomes the game environment, its next-level immersion.


The Road Ahead

We're still early days, but the potential is HUGE. We'll need better hardware (lighter headsets, longer battery life), and intuitive experiences that feel natural to use. Thinking about privacy and accessibility is important too – how do we make sure everyone benefits from this tech responsibly?


Curious? Here's Where to Learn More:

Spatial computing is about to get a lot more attention. If you're a designer, gamer, businessperson, or just plain tech-curious, this is one trend to watch!



Sunday, September 21, 2008

General Ledger

Chart of Accounts and Segments

nAccount structure you use to record accounting transactions and maintain account balances

nIn Oracle General Ledger Chart of Accounts is a Key Flexfield – “Flex” field because, the data segments are defined by the user

nA Chart of account (alternatively called Accounting Flexfield) comprises of various segments that the user defines

nSegments for a certain chart of account could look like – Company – Department – Account

Segment Value

nEach segment of the chart of accounts should have valid values. Values for each segment combine to form an “Account”

An Account could look like “01-TRAVEL-150001”

nValid Values for a segment are defined using “Value Sets”, that stores all values that can be used for a segment

nIn the above example, 01 is a value defined under a value set that is attached to the company segment. The value set may be called “Company Value Set”

Use Of Currencies

nAccounting transactions should have a denominations, like USD, Rs. etc

nThe users should identify applicable currencies and define them before use

Use Of Accounting Calendar

nTransactions should relate to specific periods, like April-04,Dec-04 etc.

nA set of such periods form an Accounting calendar
 
n
nn
Periods are user defined, can be a month, quarter etc. depending on the business requirement
Understanding Accounting Ledger – the Set of Books 
nEvery accounting transaction would be created –
- Using a specific chart of account structure
- For a particular Accounting period and
- Using a particular currency
nA combination of the Accounting Flexfield, the Accounting Calendar and Functional Currency comprise the Set of Books

Monday, September 15, 2008

Oracle Inventory

Inventory

                                                        Figure:1

 Description

Oracle Inventory maintains quantities on hand using a variety of stock maintenance tools, controlled transactions, and planning methods.

Organization and Item Definition
Set up inventory structure.
Group inventory organizations into multilevel, hierarchical trees for managing large organization structures.
Define stock and nonstock parts.
Establish planning and purchasing attributes.
Track inventory by item, item revision, serial number, or lot number.
Transactions and Maintenance
Receive parts from and return parts to suppliers.
Transfer inventory between organizations directly or as in-transit shipments.
Create move orders for subinventory transfers.
Receive alerts or notifications about material shortages.
Add material overhead to the cost of a part.
Conduct inventory cycle counts based on ABC classification.
Record physical inventory counts and adjustments.
Track serial controlled items from receipt through work in process and inventory to the customer sale.
Forecasting and Planning
Generate forecasts for future product demand.
Generate requisitions using the min/max or the reorder point planning methods.
Inv2 
                                                        Figure:2
 
Oracle Inventory Item Definition
An item definition is defined for inventory items (part numbers), engineering items (bills of material), and purchasing items (outside processing). For each item definition, you can specify cost information, unit of measure, lead times, physical attributes, and other pertinent business information related to each unique item.
An item is defined in an item master organization. Then, you assign it to other organizations that need to recognize this item.
 
(N) Inventory > Items > Item Master

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Oracle Applications ERD Standards

erd3

                                                    Figure:1

Oracle Applications ERDs do not use "softboxes".  They use regular rectangles.  This has no impact on reading Oracle Applications ERDs other than the shape change.
At the top of each entity, or Table, will be the Table Name.  Beneath the Table Name is the primary key columns for that Table.  There will always be at least 1 column, and there may be several.
Generally, Oracle Applications does not list mandatory columns.  These are too numerous to include.  However, sometimes for sake of clarity, a mandatory column will be included.  If so, that column will be marked with an asterisk (­).
Note:  Generally, Oracle Applications ERDs use size to indicate importance and relative sizing to other Tables.  This is done in the most generic of uses.  For almost any case, you could easily find a customer, who because of the special case of their business needs, has Tables that aren't sized in the proportions shown. 

erd2

                                                    Figure:2 

 This diagram shows how Oracle Applications ERDs diagram relationships.  Oracle Applications ERDs use solid lines to indicate mandatory relationships where a value entered in the column in the foreign key must match a value in the primary key column.  Applications ERDs use dashed lines (- - - - -) to indicate optional relationships where a value entered in the column in the foreign key must match either a value in the primary key column, or else it must be null. Oracle Applications ERDs also have recursive foreign keys or pig's ears.

The Delete Rule Indicator determines the action to be taken when an attempt is made to delete a related row in a join table. A line through the foreign key constraint, as shown on the above diagram, indicates that this action is restricted.
Note: Oracle Applications ERDs are not always clear on foreign key relationships.  For example, Table 2's primary key is the foreign key into Table 1 even though it may not be part of Table 1's primary key.  As such, the foreign key relationship would be implied rather than explicitly described.

erd1

                                                       Figure:3

Oracle Applications ERDs use an arc.  The arc, shown above with circles and an arc, is used to specify that, for any given row in a table, a value must be entered in one of the arc columns. The remaining columns within the arc must be null.

Descriptive Flexfields

DFF

 

The diagram above shows the Descriptive Flexfields ERD.

Table Name
FND_DESCR_FLEX_COLUMN_USAGES
Primary Keys:
APPLICATION_ID
DESCRIPTIVE_FLEXFIELD_NAME
DESCRIPTIVE_FLEX_CONTEXT_CODE
APPLICATION_COLUMN_NAME
FND_FLEX_VALUE_SETS
Primary Keys: FLEX_VALUE_SET_ID
FND_DESCR_FLEX_CONTEXTS
Primary Keys: APPLICATION_ID
DESCRIPTIVE_FLEXFIELD_NAME
DESCRIPTIVE_FLEX_CONTEXT_CODE
FND_COMPILED_DESCRIPTIVE_FLEXS
Primary Keys: APPLICATION_ID
DESCRIPTIVE_FLEXFIELD_NAME
COMPILER_VERSION_NUM
SEQUENCE
LANGUAGE
FND_DEFAULT_CONTEXT_FIELDS
Primary Keys: APPLICATION_ID
DESCRIPTIVE_FLEXFIELD_NAME
DEFAULT_CONTEXT_FIELD_NAME
FND_DESCRIPTIVE_FLEXS
Primary Keys: APPLICATION_ID
DESCRIPTIVE_FLEXFIELD_NAME
FND_TABLES
Primary Keys: APPLICATION_ID
TABLE_ID
FND_APPLICATION
Primary Keys: APPLICATION_ID

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Data Flow Among Applications

Purchasing to Payables
Data is copied out of purchasing tables into Payables tables when invoices are received and matched against purchase order shipments or receipts.
 
Payables to Assets
When invoice information is entered in the Payables module for an item which will become a fixed asset, such as a vehicle or a building, the MassAdditions process can be used to create asset records from information entered on the Payables invoice. The MassAdditions process may use the Account Generator function to determine the appropriate asset accounts.
Order Management to Inventory
When material is shipped, the Inventory Interface process passes shipment information from Oracle Order Management to Oracle Inventory to decrement inventory item quantities and to record cost of goods sold and a decrease in inventory asset value. This process may use the Account Generator function to determine the appropriate cost of goods sold account.
Order Management to Receivables
Once orders have been shipped, the Receivables interface and AutoInvoice processes may be run to generate customer invoice records automatically from Sales order information. The AutoInvoice process may use the AutoAccounting function described above to determine the appropriate sales revenue, freight revenue, tax revenue, Receivables, and account numbers.
Data Flow to General Ledger
Oracle General Ledger is the central repository for accounting information, receiving transactions from other Oracle applications.
 
Purchasing
The only information passed to General Ledger by the purchasing module is accrued receipt information (asset information for material received but not yet delivered, and liability information for material received but not yet billed).
Payables
The Payables module passes expense and liability information from invoices and cash and liability information from payments to the General Ledger.
 
Assets
The Assets module passes information about asset additions, asset adjustments, transfers, retirements, and depreciation to the General Ledger.
Inventory
The Inventory module passes financial information about material receipts, material shipments, cost of goods sold, changes in inventory asset value due to standard cost adjustments, and changes in inventory asset value due to physical inventory adjustments to the General Ledger.
Order Management
The Order Management module does not pass any information directly to the General Ledger. When material is shipped, order management passes information through the inventory interface to the Inventory module to record the shipment, and Oracle Inventory then passes that information on to the General Ledger.
 
Receivables
The Receivables module passes sales revenue and Receivables information from customer invoices, and miscellaneous revenue, cash, and Receivables information from cash receipts to the General Ledger.
Default Account Sources
To minimize data entry errors, Oracle Applications provides many sources of default account information. These sources provide the default accounts that are utilized for subledger transactions, but can sometimes be overridden on the transaction itself.