• Client / Server Applications
• Distributed Applications
• Systems Programming
• Embedded Systems
• Wireless / Mobile

Client / Server Applications:

Client/Server computing is emerging as the most appropriate computing technology in the business world. The similarities between this computing paradigm and the way today's businesses want to operate are so clear that a large number of corporations are migrating to client-server.

Using structured methodologies and proven IT processes helps to reduce complexity, risks and costs associated with client/server development. We will help you develop customized software applications and assist you thorough out the entire software development Life Cycle, including project management, systems analysis and design, software development, implementation and training.

SIGNO has expertise in a wide variety of the latest programming language tools and platforms for client-server application. In a nutshell our strong technical team can help ensure that the client-server products and services we provide meet your expectations.

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Distributed Application Development:

Multiple forces are altering the landscape of application development. The PC revolution continues to make ever more powerful computers available at ever-lower costs, while the Internet is enabling global information sharing.

In business, global competition and the increased pace of change demand rapid deployment of highly adaptable systems. The organizational boundaries that have traditionally constrained applications are giving way to the opportunities inherent in electronic commerce and networked operations. Today, the geography of an application can extend far beyond an organization's boundaries, literally into consumers' homes. It is possible to think of an Internet application needing to handle literally millions of users a scale difficult to imagine a few years ago.

Most companies have not taken full advantage of multi-tiered (n-Tier) architectures. The guiding principles of distributed multi-tiered architectures like J2EE and .net / Windows DNA are Web computing; faster time to market; true interoperability; Scalability, reduced complexity; language, tool, and hardware independence; and lower cost of ownership.

For the distributed applications development, SIGNO employs component technologies like COM, DCOM, Enterprise Java Beans , RMI and CORBA and UML, Design patterns for software Design.

Open Source based Software Development

The Linux operating system, proved to be a revolution in operating system design starting from the release of the very first version up to Linus Torvalds' latest offering. Linux is fast, efficient and stable and so has given birth to the Open Source code development community. The biggest advantage of having open source code based software development is that the Total Cost of Ownership is very low since there is No cost of Licensing the software development tools that are used for the development, Nor there are hidden costs, No shipping, Deployment charges, Its all FREE!

As the open source software development is steadily getting better, the development of the application based on this Open standard free software is catching the attention of many software analysts and consultants.

SIGNO puts full trust on the open-source community. The open source code based products and tools are regularly studied, used, implemented and deployed by SIGNO. We have developed e-Commerce frameworks based on the software environments like PHP and PostgreSQL.

Extensively used MySQL with Perl, PHP for quick web application developments.

Web Authorization software was developed by SIGNO using Perl, Sambar server with the backend as MySQL.
SIGNO has configured Q-mail and sendmail APIs with the Linux 7, 7.1, 6.22 servers and accessing the e-mail using utilities like Pine and mail forwarding like utilities were used.

By serving open source software development clients over the years, SIGNO has now developed the expertise of Remote server administration. Remote installation of Linux, Unix based software.

Experience of third party integration using the server scripting languages.
Setting up the merchant account using the merchant software APIs, configuring the SSL certificates from ISPs, Setting up the system for online money transfer.

Administrating the Apache Server with the proper security settings, access privileges to users and files.
Implemented RSA Encryption algorithms and few encryption libraries like 3DES, Blowfish.
Setup configuration and implementation of SSL, and providing securities and denying the access to the sensitive data.

Berkeley TCP/ IP based Socket programming for the transfer of the Data in proprietary encrypted format.

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1. Standard PCs will replace PLC based systems in many areas of industrial control;
2. Usage of Object Oriented programming languages will result in more efficient and reusable control software than "ladder logic" type programs;
3. Open source software is more advantageous to both end users and developers than proprietary software.

SIGNO has developed the Process Automation software to be implemented in India based manufacturing companies like medisystems, Furnace-Fabrica, Jadhao Gears etc.

Quality Aspect is turning out one of the niche area which most of the companies are looking for. That's why different certification Authorities like ISO and ASTM and ANSI are holding their grounds firm. The Automation software made by SIGNO comply these standards and hence in effect enhances the Manufacturer's reliability. The software made for checking the Quality of the Manufactured product is the most favored product of SIGNO.

The process automation system includes the LADDER Programming for PLC and interfacing of Microcontrollers and PLCs with PC. The monitoring and controlling of real-time industry parameters such as Temperature, Humidity, fire, pressure, force and other physical and electronic parameters can be done. Data Acquisition by specialized ADC cards from vendors like Data-Translation and controlling logic written in C, C++ and Delphi helps making the impulse responsive system more reliable.
The Framework for Such PC interface software is already developed by SIGNO, which is extensively applicable to many manufacturing companies. The Framework includes the PLC/Microcontroller interaction over the Serial port using MODBUS / RS232 / RS485 protocols. The same system framework is made extensible for a Network through the Socket implementation.

Other than industrial automation software development, SIGNO has competencies in following Systems (Real Time) software application development areas:

• Smart Card Solutions
  
  A smartcard is a plastic card containing a small chip that includes a microprocessor and memory. The same size as a credit card, it has gold contacts that allow other devices to communicate with the card. It can contain more data than a magnetic strip and can be programmed to reveal only the relevant information. For example, it could tell a device in a store that there is sufficient balance in an account to pay for a transaction without revealing the balance amount. Encryption techniques secure the data, and the processor allows it to be programmed for different applications.
  
  Some cards can be credited with small amounts of money that can then be spent in stores. The card can be credited with more money when required. It can be used to verify the identity of the cardholder and is much harder to forge than a card with a magnetic strip. Contact less cards can be read remotely.
  
  At SIGNO, R&D work is ongoing to develop further standards and applications for cards, to make them even more tamperproof, and to reduce their cost.
  
  SIGNO is focusing on developing applications for privilege smart cards for various secured membership oriented organizations like Clubs, Associations, Hotels, Resorts, banks and other institutes.
   
• Voice Technologies
  
  SIGNO specializes in following speech / voice technologies: Automatic speech recognition (ASR)
  
  ASR technology (also known as voice recognition) fundamentally functions as a pipeline that converts PCM (Pulse Code Modulation) digital audio from a sound card into recognized speech. The elements of the pipeline are:
  
  1. Transform the PCM digital audio into a better acoustic representation
  2. Apply a "grammar" so the speech recognizer knows what phonemes to expect. A grammar could be anything from a context-free grammar to full-blown English.
  3. Figure out which phonemes are spoken.
  4. Convert the phonemes into words
  
  o ASR technology (also known as voice recognition) reliably recognizes certain human speech, such as
  o Discrete numbers
  o Short commands,
  o Credit card number.
  " Speaker-independent ASR can recognize a limited group of words (usually numbers and short commands) from any caller.
  " Speaker-dependent ASR can identify a large vocabulary of commands from a specific speaker. Speaker-dependent
  " ASR is popular in password-controlled systems and hands-free work environments.
  Text-To-Speech (TTS)
  Text-to-Speech technology generates synthetic speech from text stored in computer files. TTS provides a spoken interface to frequently updated information and information stored in extensive computer databases.
  " Digital Video and Audio
  o MPEG-2 parsing, remultiplexing and splicing
  o Processing of CCIR-601 and HD formats
  o Color space conversion and processing
  o Component encoding conversion
  o Standards conversion
  o Digital audio processing
  o Digital disk recorders
  " Broadcast and Cable Television
  o DVB Spot Insertion
  o Video-On-Demand
  o Set Top Box Development
  o Video Tape Recording and Copy Protection
  o Compositing and Special Effects
  o Film to Tape Transfer
  o Character Generators
  " Digital Image Processing
  o Sampling theory
  o Resampling algorithms
  o Convolution operations
  o Morphological operations
  o Transform domain processing
  o Clustering algorithms
  " Machine Vision
  o Image segmentation algorithms
  o Tracking algorithms
  o Motion estimation
  o Feature extraction
  " Computer Graphics
  o Scan line algorithms
  o 3D hidden surface algorithms
  o Computer animation
  o Plugin development

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Embedded Systems are computers (microprocessors) that are enclosed (embedded) in customized hardware. Examples of embedded control systems would be portable medical equipment, cellular phones, police, fire, emergency communications equipment, laboratory test equipment, robotic equipment and manufacturing monitoring of assembly lines.

Many standard microprocessor designs would include the Intel 8051 / 8052, Motorola 68HC11, Intel 80186 / 80286 or Intel 80386 / 80486 family of devices.

Several applications in the areas of telecommunications, numeric processing, high speed control and instrumentation, and graphics and image processing are digital signal processing (DSP) solutions.
Software for embedded systems has to have a small footprint (i.e. be able to run in a small amount of memory) and often has to work in real-time . Specialised operating systems and languages facilitate the production of real-time software with a small footprint: only the modules required in a specific system will be included. The development environment should include facilities for testing and debugging the software. Emulators can be used to test the software without the target system (especially useful if the target system is not yet available) and related equipment (such as machine tools).

At SIGNO, we are involved in designing , programming and developing embedded software components and systems.
Since 1998 SIGNO has used object-oriented programming techniques and rigorous project management to create software for hardware. Your embedded product / project benefits from SIGNO creating the right abstractions, which means that the code is a clear and efficient reflection of the hardware.

SIGNO engineers know which situations benefit from leveraging high-level tools such as UML and which require to-the-metal programming with assembly language, such as time-critical code sections. It helps that SIGNO engineers understand hardware; they can even read schematics.

Technologies:

• Windows CE · VxWorks · QNX · Embedded Linux · BSD Unix · single board computer SDKs · C/C++ · Java · assembler
• x86 · 68k/ColdFire · PowerPC · ARM · MIPS · DSPs · Ubicom · 8051 · PICs · Z80
• BSPs · applications · device drivers · UML models
• internet infrastructure · broadcast · digital media · industrial automation

Areas of expertise:

• Digital Signal Processing (DSP)
• Motor systems control
• Fluid flow/level sensing
• Temperature sensing
• Pressure, strain, force measurement
• pH and conductivity measurement
• Environmental control
• Custom interfaces

Embedded Systems Software Development Services

 -  Custom driver development for embedded systems

• Extensive development experience with Windows ® CE, VxWorks, pSOS+, and others
• Detailed knowledge of a broad range of hardware technologies
• Full QA staff, including robust test plans
• Large development capacity

 -  Development experience/reference drivers

• Graphics/video BIOS
• Audio/modem
• Network/NDIS
• IDE/ATA
• Touch screen/HID
• Video/video capture
• USB/1394 Specialty display (rotation, multi-monitor)
• PCMCIA
• I/O

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SIGNO assists enterprises in extending their legacy or web-enabled applications to the wireless world. SIGNO leverage expertise in the e-business space to provide robust, scalable, secure solutions to our customers.

Wireless presents daunting application development challenges-a proliferation of devices with different capabilities and display formats, still evolving protocols, emerging standards, new programming languages. It takes skilled, knowledgeable developers who understand and appreciate the intricacies and complexities of advanced technology and who can quickly master wireless application design and development.

SIGNO has been a pioneering and key player in the development of application software for the Windows CE, Symbian / EPOC 32 OS and Palm OS platforms.

Our wireless / mobile solutions span a great variety of technologies and platforms. SIGNO offers:

• Excellent experience in MFC and API under all popular mobile OSes
• Skills with all types of screens, including plain screens and touch screens
• Skills with infrared port, COM port, Network, and all synchronization types
• Custom interfaces, non-standard buttons and toolbars
• Multi-thread support
• Proprietary optimization know-how for storage/speed ratio
• Complex math algorithms under PDA Oses
• Graphic interfaces, file management, Internet software, etc.

Technologies:

• Java™ 2 Platform, Micro Edition (J2ME)
• Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless (BREW)
• WAP/WML/WML Script
• JavaCard
• SMS
• GPRS
• Bluetooth

Platforms:

• Palm OS all versions, including 4.0
• Windows CE all versions
• Symbian (Epoc)
• Pocket PC
• Amiga OS

With an unflinching commitment to excellence. Motivated by an ambition to continually make a mark in the mobile and wireless industry, we extend our expertise to provide customized solutions for the corporate and vertical markets.

 -  For organizations with existing Internet applications, we can help to quickly redesign and extend those applications to the wireless environment.

 -  For organizations that are looking for ways to leverage the wireless Web, our full lifecycle services can help identify opportunities and architect and implement solutions.

 -  For organizations that have already identified their wireless applications, we can deliver the technology, skilled development resources, and project managers necessary to build those applications fast by leveraging its onshore/offshore development model.

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