Thursday 17 February 2011
Five quick videos from Mobile World Congress 2011 - 3
Friday 11 February 2011
Smarter Cars of the Future
Thursday 7 October 2010
Locating Wireless Devices Where GPS May Not Be Available
Friday 24 September 2010
Mozilla Seabird – A Community-driven Mobile Phone Concept
In response to our open call Billy May, in early 2009, produced a throw-away concept for an “Open Web Concept Phone”. Working directly off of that community feedback, Billy has since finished the exploration with his concept “Seabird”.
The following write-up is by Billy May and explores what an Open Web phone might look like:
The Mozilla Seabird, part of the Mozilla Labs’ Concept Series, is an experiment in how users might interact with their mobile content as devices and technology advances. Drawing on insights culled from the Mozilla community through the project’s blog, a focus quickly developed around frustrating physical interactions. While mobile CPUs, connectivity and development platforms begin approaching that of desktops, the lagging ability to efficiently input information has grown ever more pronounced.
More details here.
Thursday 23 September 2010
Saturday 18 September 2010
Friday 3 September 2010
Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) launches Qi
The WPC has chosen the Qi logo as the international symbol of wireless charging compatibility. Qi—pronounced “chee”, meaning “vital energy” in Asian philosophy—represents an intangible flow of power. Qi is the sign of interoperability between power transmitters and power receivers. All Qi receivers will work with any Qi transmitter. Every electronic device bearing the Qi symbol can be charged on any charging pad or surface marked with the same Qi logo.
In a post last year I mentioned about the wireless chargers. There were few that were released but they are expensive and not sure about the reliability.
The following is from eWeek:
The Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) has launched version 1.0 of its specification for charging handsets and other devices wirelessly, to be marketed under the name “Qi”, and has certified initial products for Blackberry and iPhone devices.
The product announcements come a year after the consortium announced version .95 of the spec. The products, including chargers for iPhone and BlackBerry devices, are to be demonstrated at a WPC meeting later this month.
Qi is based on inductive power transmission, already used in products such as the Touchstone charging dock used by the Palm Pre and the charging station for the Wii gaming console remote control. Such chargers allow a device to charge when placed on a flat surface or in a sleeve or dock. They eliminate the need for the connection of a metal contact connection, such as is found in standard cordless phone chargers.
The consortium, which includes Samsung, Sanyo, Olympus, Philips and Texas Instruments, aims to standardise inductive power charging technology so that chargers can be used with any device bearing the Qi logo. The specification is suitable for devices using up to 5 Watts of power, which the WPC said should cover “the majority of handheld mobile devices”.
“Qi can now be integrated into products. All ingredients for growing the market are now on the table,” said WPC chair Menno Treffers, in a statement.
Initial Qi-certified products are to include a charging sleeve for the iPhone 3GS and 3G and a charger for the Blackberry Curve 8900, both to be launched by Energizer this autumn. Sanyo, ST-Ericsson, National Semiconductor and others said they are working on Qi products.
Prototypes are to be demonstrated at a WPC meeting in Eindhoven, Belgium, from 15 to 16 September. The WPC said it has now begun work on a wireless charging specification for devices requiring more power, including netbooks, laptops, tablet computers and power tools.
The consortium said it chose the brand Qi (pronounced “chee”) to refer to the concept of energy flow in traditional Chinese medicine, not the cult quiz show QI (for “quite interesting”) hosted by Stephen Fry on British TV.
The technology is less ambitious than the system demonstrated this summer by Witricity, which operates at a distance of a few metres, using resonance, which the company claims has green benefits through replacing disposable batteries
From ZDNet:
"It took us only 18 months to develop the Qi standard, and less than one month to see the first products certified. Qi is now the industry's choice for wireless power," said Menno Treffers, chairman of the WPC, in a statement.
Three sets of specifications — for interface definition, performance requirements and test procedure — were handed over to consortium members in July. The only standard released publicly as Qi 1.0 is the interface definition, with the others being restricted to consortium members. The WPC has grown from 27 members in July to over 55 members, including Nokia, LG, Research In Motion, Duracell, Energiser and Texas Instruments.
Wireless charging has great potential to make charging easier for consumers", said Petri Vuori, Nokia's director of mobile solutions research, in the WPC announcement statement. "For full user benefit, a standard ensuring cross-compatibility between different manufacturers' products is required. Qi low-power standard specification release 1.0 is a significant milestone into this direction."
The Qi standard uses inductive charging to transfer up to 5W of power between devices and chargers. There are already products on the market that support inductive charging, but these are tied to particular products, rather than being universal.
The WPC said that it now plans to begin work on a wireless power standard for medium power devices such as netbooks, laptops, tablet computers and power tools.
The group expects the technology to boost the market for wireless battery charging from 100,000 units to 100,000,000 units annually. "Qi can now be integrated into products. All ingredients for growing the market are now on the table." said Treffers.
You may also be interested in the video below:
Wednesday 4 August 2010
Challenges in Mobile phone 'Ad-Hoc' Networks
Monday 2 August 2010
Interdigital's 'Fuzzy Cells' technology for cell edge performance improvement
Tuesday 20 July 2010
Next Generation Wireless Enablers in 2020
Thursday 15 July 2010
Mobile Phones 'Ad-Hoc Networks'
Couple of years back I blogged about MCN and ODMA concept. Another variation of this idea is now in news again.
From the Daily Telegraph:
Australian scientists have created a mobile phone that can make and receive calls in parts of the world that would normally have no reception.
The phones contain a built-in mini-tower that allows them to connect to other phones via Wi-Fi and create their own network.
Researchers at South Australia's Flinders University devised the phones to work in the event of a natural disaster or terrorist attack when normal mobile phone services had been cut off.
Dr Paul Gardiner-Stephen said the phones had been tested successfully in the remote Outback where mobiles cannot pick up a signal.
"There was absolutely no infrastructure or support for the telephones so they were acting entirely on their own to carry the calls," he said.
The phones are unlikely to replace existing mobile systems, but could be combined to create fail-safe communication.
"One of our dreams is that every phone will come out with this one day so that if there is a disaster anywhere in the world everyone's phones will then switch over to this mode as a fallback," Dr Gardiner-Stephen said.
"When the infrastructure is knocked out we still provide good service while the traditional mobile phone network provides no service."
At the moment, the signal between phones is limited to a few hundred yards, but the team hopes to expand the range in the future.
I dont see them becoming reality for quite some time to come but its an interesting concept.
This is not the first time this idea is being proposed. As I have discussed, ODMA was intended to do something similar but did not take off. MANET's are other areas that have been worked on for quite some time and you can find good ideas and journal papers. There is also this paper talking about Ad-Hoc networks for mobiles using Bluetooth.
In fact going many years back, Iridium idea was launched with something similar in mind. I remember reading jornal papers back in 1996 that mentioned that Iridium phones will work like landline phones when you are in your house and will work as cellular when out of house and in an area with cellular coverage. If there is no cellular coverage then it will rely on Satellite communication. Of-course in those days nobody thought data usage will become this popular and so it was focussed on voice. Still I cannot see this happening for many years to come.
Wednesday 7 July 2010
Andrew Gilbert from Qualcomm on 'Future of Wireless'
Andrew Gilbert from Qualcomm at The Future of Wireless International Conference 2010, organised by Cambridge Wireless and held in Cambridge, UK on the 29th and 30th June 2010.
Sunday 30 May 2010
ng-connect LTE car from ALU
The ng connect program ecosystem brings together lots of companies that are collaborating from research to sales and marketing. If you click in the picture above you will be able to see the enlarged image and at the bottom you can see the names of these companies. The car is ofcourse Toyota but I wasnt able to see that in the list of companies.
Thursday 27 May 2010
Police call for remote button to stop cars
'Providing an effective means to remotely stop a vehicle is fast becoming a priority,' Hammond told a European conference. 'The development of a safe and controlled system to enable remote stopping has the potential to directly save lives.'
Wednesday 14 April 2010
Pomegranate concept mobile: With video projector, live voice translator, harmonica, coffee maker, shaving razor, etc
Friday 12 March 2010
Motorola (Concept) Phone that will help capture memories
A bit old new but new for me.
The idea, known as the Motorola 2033 Concept Series, was based around what mobile phones might look like in the year 2033.
The 2033 concept would allow for the device to capture memories directly from the user’s brain, through a process Motorola calls "organic memory capture". And if that wasn't enough, the 2033 concept would also allow users' to completely augment their eyesight through a process called Second Sight.
More concept phones here.
Thursday 25 February 2010
Friday 12 February 2010
A quick Introduction to M2M Communications
The following is from 3G Americas report on 3GPP standards and their evolution to 4G:
By leveraging connectivity, Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication would enable machines to communicate directly with one another. In so doing, M2M communication has the potential to radically change the world around us and the way that we interact with machines.
In Rel-10, 3GPP is in the process of establishing requirements for 3GPP network system improvements that support Machine-Type Communications (MTC). The objective of this study is to identify 3GPP network enhancements required to support a large number of MTC devices in the network and to provide necessary network enablers for MTC communication service. Specifically, transport services for MTC as provided by the 3GPP system and the related optimizations are being considered as well as aspects needed to ensure that MTC devices and/or MTC servers and/or MTC applications do not cause network congestion or system overload. It is also important to enable network operators to offer MTC services at a low cost level, to match the expectations of mass market machine-type services and applications.
The 3GPP study on M2M communications has shown potential for M2M services beyond the current "premium M2M market segment." The example of applications for mass M2M services include machine type communications in smart power grid, smart metering, consumer products, health care, and so forth. The current mobile networks are optimally designed for Human-to-Human communications, but are less optimal for M2M applications.
A study item on M2M communications (3GPP TR 22.868) was completed in 2007; however, no subsequent normative specification has been published. For Rel-10 and beyond, 3GPP intends to take the results on network improvements from the study item forward into a specification phase and address the architectural impacts and security aspects to support MTC scenarios and applications. As such, 3GPP has defined a work item on Network Improvements for Machine-Type Communication (NIMTC). The following goals and objectives are described in the work item:
The goal of this work item is to:
A RAN study item to investigate the air interface enhancements for the benefit of M2M communication has also been recently approved. The study will be initiated in early 2010.
- 3GPP TR 22.868: Study on Facilitating Machine to Machine Communication in 3GPP Systems; (http://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/22_series/22.868/)
- 3GPP TR 33.812: Feasibility Study on the Security Aspects of Remote Provisioning and Change of Subscription for M2M Equipment; (http://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/33_series/33.812/)
- 3GPP's initial thoughts on Machine to Machine communication (http://docbox.etsi.org/workshop/2008/2008_06_M2MWORKSHOP/3GPPs_SWETINA_M2MWORKSHOP.pdf)
- M2M Activities in ETSI (http://www.pole-scs.org/index.php?m=6&l=en&x=file.download&h=0&fileid=57063)
- ETSI Workshop on M2M STANDARDIZATION 4th and 5th of June 2008: Agenda (http://docbox.etsi.org/Workshop/2008/2008_06_M2MWORKSHOP/00M2Magenda_FINALVERSION.pdf)
- ETSI Workshop on M2M STANDARDIZATION 4th and 5th of June 2008: Presentations (http://docbox.etsi.org//Workshop/2008/2008_06_M2MWORKSHOP/)
- M2M: the Internet of 50 billion devices, Jan 2010, Win-Win (http://www.huawei.com/publications/view.do?id=6083&cid=11392&pid=10664)
- 5 Myths about M2M (http://www.slideshare.net/blueslice/5-myths-about-m2m-presentation)
M2M will become really big
Wednesday 10 February 2010
Google real time speech translation mobile in couple of years
Live language translation on mobile phones could be just two years away, according to search giant Google. The company already offers text translation services and voice recognition, and Franz Och, head of translation services, says that work has already begun on combining the two.
The technology would work by translating phrases rather than individual words, and the company hopes that by looking at the huge amount of translated text already online, it can produce systems that are much more accurate than current versions. “If you look at the progress in machine translation and corresponding advances in voice recognition, there has been huge progress recently,” he said.
With over 6,000 languages spoken around the world, however, and only 52 currently on offer through Google’s existing translations services, the service is some way from meaning that language teaching in schools becomes redundant. “Clearly, for it to work smoothly, you need a combination of high-accuracy machine translation and high-accuracy voice recognition, and that's what we're working on,” said Mr Och.
So far, that is not yet possible, and language experts suggested that seamless technology is currently a distant prospect. David Crystal, honorary professor of linguistics at Bangor University, said the problems of dealing with speed of speech and range of accents could prove insurmountable.
'No system at the moment can handle that properly,' he added.