Who? What? Why? Where? When? and How? On your bike
Steve Rogerson’s round-up of last month’s news and events, including some that may have slipped under the radar
I
had a stark example in this past month of just how far mobile technology has come. The occasion was the start in Brussels of a 2100km cycle ride to Barcelona by 30 athletes to monitor the effects of strenuous exercise on people with type-one diabetes. The vital signs of the athletes were monitored round the clock and mobile technology used to transmit the data back in real time for a period of six weeks – two weeks before the event, the two weeks on the ride and for two weeks after.
I hasten to add that I wasn’t one of the cyclists, but the event reminded me of the early 1980s when I did go on the London to Brighton cycle run as part of an Electronics Times’ team.
Mobile technology was still in its infancy and Motorola lent us two of its handsets so we could write about the practical benefits of being able to keep in touch when on the move. These were big
bulky things, one of which was carried by the riders and the other in the support vehicle. The one in the vehicle was fine, as it could be charged by the vehicle itself, but the one we carried had a battery life of less than an hour – that’s not talk time, that’s total switched on time.
As such, we had to agree fixed times when the cycling team would call the support vehicle and had to limit our conversations to yes everything is OK or we are about to have a break in the so- and-so pub. In retrospect, it was probably a good idea that our vital signs were not being constantly monitored as I’d hate to see where our alcohol levels reached. Later the same day in Brussels, I attended the GSMA’s Mobile 360 conference at which one of the hot topics was urban transport systems. Anthony Whelan from DG Connect gave an unplanned practical demonstration of the
Last month saw David Willetts, Minister for Science & Universities, officially open NVIDIA’s new Bristol-based mobile technology engineering facility today. NVIDIA designs and develops modem technology for smartphones and tablets, specifically, the team works on baseband processors and software implementing complex algorithms, that provide 4G LTE (as well as 3G and 2G) voice and data communications on mobile phone networks around the world. According to Willetts, "Bristol is a hub of technology and this new facility will allow the business to continue to expand their research and development, helping them to create new job and growth opportunities to keep the UK ahead in the global race." NVIDIA acquired Bristol-based technology company, Icera Semiconductor, in 2011 for this technology and kept the engineering team in place and has been investing in
problems when he arrived fifteen minutes late for his panel because his taxi got stuck in a traffic jam.
About a year ago, I told you about how Maxim Integrated Products had changed its name to Maxim Integrated, and they were really pleased about this momentous decision. Well, twelve months on they still haven’t quite got the hang of it (in fairness, it is a bit complicated). At a press conference at exactly the same venue in London, the company’s senior vice president Chris Neil again mentioned it but the press releases that where in front of us all said “Maxim Integrated Products”.
Neil gave a fairly long but interesting
presentation, which was broken up at one point by a video. “This will give you a break from me talking,” he said, and then started the video, which was narrated by, hmm, Chris Neil. The press conference was held on the day of the official launch of Apple’s IPhone 5S (I’m still trying to get one – I’ll tell you about that next month). Another journalist was also obviously interested in the device as he asked Neil, at an almost completely unrelated point in the presentation, what he thought about fingerprint sensors. Neil said he
R&D and highly skilled engineering jobs in the area. Since 2011, the Bristol-based team has doubled in size to 196 people with plans to recruit over 50 more in the next few years.
NVIDIA has invested over two million pounds in the new Bristol facility, which has a specially designed and enlarged lab at the heart of the building. It’s triple the size of the previous lab space and will include rework rooms, a shielded room and specialist lab areas as well as customer labs and break out areas. Pete Hughes, Vice President Modem Hardware & Silicon at NVIDIA said: “Bristol is one of a handful of locations worldwide that is a centre of excellence for microprocessor and wireless communications expertise, and it makes sense for NVIDIA to continue to invest in the region to accelerate research & development for our cellular modem technology.
believed there were better ways of bio- identification but said he did like the idea that the sensors also detected the finger’s hydration so it could work out whether it was still attached to the body. Also at the Maxim conference, one of
Neil’s slides had the word “ExecuBve”. Neil explained this should say “Executive” and added: “I guess we are allergic to those two letters coming next to each other.”
And finally, in mid-September, I
received the dreaded press release announcing there were now just 100 days to go before Christmas. And it also informed me that more than a third had already bought their first present. Tablet computers were the present of choice last year and apparently the lucky recipients plan on using them to buy their presents this year. In fact, a quarter of people plan to do all their Christmas shopping online. The best present I’ve spotted so far is the Lego Mindstorms EV3 robotics kit. I was informed of this in a press release from TI (I’m not allergic to those letters) as the kit uses its Sitara processors. So when the nice people at TI get round to drawing up their Christmas shopping list, I hope they will remember this column.
Professional Images
David Willetts, minister for science and universities at the offcial opening of the new NVIDIA building in Aztec West, Bristol. From left are VP Shanker Trivedi; VP and general manager Deepu Talla; David Willetts; VP's Steve Allpress and Pete Hughes.
Playing a musical instrument has never been one of my skills, though I’ve always envied those who can. However, I am quite glad that I did not put in the hours of practice that may have made me reasonable as I’d be well disgruntled to find that robots can do it better. Look at the pieces of tin in this picture. They form a band called Z- Machines and the guitarist uses 78 fingers! The music is available on ITunes and Youtube for those who are interested..
46 October 2013 Components in Electronics
Doctor Who fans will be very disappointed with this picture as it shows the latest version of K9. Well, not exactly. This is actually the K9 Clamp, which maker Hylec-APL claims can speed up the stripping, twisting and connecting of wires. But I bet it can’t fire a laser beam from its nose.
www.cieonline.co.uk
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