It’s a Sunday but you can’t get out. There’s a government-induced curfew in your area and you are bound to stay indoors. What do you do?
You video call your buddies and speak for hours on an end. Eating the same dishes together and maybe even watching some films together! How technology has bridged the distance between our loved ones.
But do we know who blessed us with the novel feature of video calling?
Nasir Ahmed is the god-sent man who is behind the feature that lets us see our loved ones!
The man is best known for leading a group of researchers in the mid ’70s to develop DCT (Discrete Cosine Transform), a technological technique that helped to make video conferencing possible.
Yes! The man who was your saviour during the lockdown, the man who made your first video date possible and the man who let your loved ones be right next to you even though they are miles away.
Interestingly, Nasir Ahmed is from India.
Yes, he was born in Bangalore; did his early schooling from Bishop Cotton Boys School before he went to University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering for his graduation. This was followed up by his masters which he received from University of Mexico. Nasir is Professor Emeritus of electrical and computer engineering at the University of New Mexico. His LinkedIn page clarifies that Nasir worked for the university for nearly 18 years before retiring in 2001.
Nasir and his team’s work on DCT is used in numerous commercial applications, including high-definition digital TVs, teleconferencing, and other image-sharing platforms.
Recently, Nasir and his wife, Esther were introduced to the TV Series This Is Us as a tribute to the inventor who made video calling possible. At the end of the latest season 5 episode, titled “In the Room,” the writers paid tribute to Nasir and Esther right before the credits rolled. Sharing a collection of photos of the couple, the writers wrote, “You don’t know his name, but Nasir and his team are responsible for keeping us connected today.”
Thanks to Nasir’s work, all of us are connected in these tough times of the pandemic.
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