Ken Novak: Wireless remote data

Fri, 16 Mar 2007 23:08:44 GMT

Self-Assembling Batteries: "Researchers at MIT have designed a rechargeable lithium-ion battery that assembles itself out of microscopic materials. This could lead to ultrasmall power sources for sensors and micromachines the size of the head of a pin. It could also make it possible to pack battery materials in unused space inside electronic devices." Earlier related story: Batteries That Assemble Themselves: "Biology may be the key to producing light-weight, inexpensive, and high-performance batteries that could transform military uniforms into power sources and, eventually, improve electric and hybrid vehicles. Angela Belcher, an MIT professor of biological engineering and materials science, and two colleagues, materials science professor Yet-Ming Chiang and chemical engineering professor Paula Hammond, have engineered viruses to assemble battery components that can store three times as much energy as traditional materials by packing highly ordered materials into a very small space."

Fri, 16 Mar 2007 23:03:52 GMT

Researchers convert heat to electricity using organic molecules: "Arun Majumdar, UC Berkeley professor of mechanical engineering was principal investigator of the study.. [His team] successfully generated electricity from heat by trapping organic molecules between metal nanoparticles, an achievement that could pave the way toward the development of a new source for energy." While it's a long way from marketable form, it would have implications for energy, nanomaterials, and sensors (which need small amounts of energy to function).

Sat, 27 Jan 2007 07:59:01 GMT

Wireless Telemetry Growing to $25.3bn by 2009, as Enterprise Wakes up to Real-Time Efficiency Savings: "wireless telemetry (or AMR – Automated Meter Reading) will [grow] - according to industry analysts Juniper Research - with revenues rising from $11.6bn in 2006 to $25.3bn by 2009. According to Juniper, the substantial rise in revenues - expected to quadruple by 2011 to $40.8bn - will contrast with limited growth in telematics from $6.4bn to $11bn in the same period – owing to current widespread usage in many commercial vehicles due to legislation. Other outlets including security and surveillance, highway and public transport signs, and health care will show encouraging signs rising from a cumulative low of $2bn in 2006 to over $9bn by 2009."

Wed, 29 Nov 2006 19:01:21 GMT

Biofuels via cellphone: "More people would be likely to refuel with biodiesel if they knew where to find a filling station .. NearBio delivers a database of more than 1,000 biodiesel sellers to mobile phones via WAP (wireless access protocol) or text messaging. The free applet and service from WHDC of Nevada City, CA, provides driving directions, the phone number and the blends available at the five closest locations.

Since most of the diesel engines in the U.S. are inside of trucks, truck drivers who can factor biodiesel stations into their routes are the most likely beneficiaries of this service. The number of biodiesel stations is increasing rapidly and NearBio says it will add new locations within a day. "

Tue, 28 Nov 2006 23:21:11 GMT

Taking the Measure: IT and Energy: I've heard these numbers verbally before, but not online; I've asked the author for the reseach citation. "According to researchers at MIT, less than 1 percent of all commercial and industrial companies use advanced technology to measure and manage energy spend. On the other hand, nearly 100 percent of companies use advanced technology to measure and manage telecommunications spend. Now consider that, according to the MIT researchers, the U.S. spend in electricity is about $270 billion per year while the U.S. spend in telecommunications is about $125 billion per year.

Does your company know down to the fraction of a minute how your telecommunications bill is derived? Probably, and you can probably produce pages of reports showing spending by person, department and project. .. Can you also break out by building, department, project and individual worker how your electrical bill is derived? Or your heating bill? Or your air-conditioning bill? I doubt it, but that is where your next round of cost savings resides."

Thu, 26 Oct 2006 18:09:57 GMT

Linksys pocket wireless extender WTR54GS: Geek heaven: this linksys pocket device looks handy for travellers. Converts wired hotel access to wireless, for example, or could extend home network. [Thanks, Scott!]

Sun, 01 Oct 2006 05:55:29 GMT

Windows XP Multiuser Remote Desktop: With a couple file renames and a registry change, XP can run three remote desktop sessions (normal desktop plus 2 more).
Combined with the $20-30 terminals that are available from outlets like www.surpluscomputers.com, and the $150-250 LCD screens, you can extend an ordinary PC to multiple users (with very low power and zero noise to boot).

Mon, 04 Sep 2006 06:09:28 GMT

Linksys courts Linux hackers with WRT54G"L": The ubiquitous Linksys wifi router is now manufactured with a non-Linux O/S (Vxworks) with half the flash and RAM. The "new" linux version is the unmodified old one, that has been modified by many for new features. Some instructions tell how to route from wireless to wired (though I think the latest WRT's may do that without modification just by using their non-gateway router mode).

Mon, 04 Sep 2006 05:59:39 GMT

Powerline Ethernet Adapters: Current (Sept 06) situation appears that residential powerline standard is around 14 mbps, but that different vendors extend it up to 200 mbps max. Carrying HD signals at 28 mbps is an important threshold, with conventional digital video of 20 mbps also important. Netgear does well, as does Zyxel. Both are $100-120 per adaptor. Linksys has older models at 14 mbps only selling for $65 per adaptor or used down to $30. Both Linksys and Zyxel have adaptors for USB at about the same price as Ethernet.

Wed, 01 Feb 2006 17:11:28 GMT

Ech2o System: Wireless soil moisture and micro-climate montoring system.

Wed, 01 Feb 2006 07:00:51 GMT

New HazMat Detection for Super Bowl XL: ""In past years, security personnel have walked around Super Bowls and reported in regularly by radio," said Jeffrey Ricker, CEO of Distributed Instruments, the Sterling Heights-based company that has developed and supplied the software and servers that enable this sensor fusion system to integrate all data in real time. "This year the very small computers they carry will instantly communicate any suspected materials to all members of their network instantly." "

Tue, 24 Jan 2006 20:47:30 GMT

Industrial Telemetry demos wireless compost network: "The BioMESH System includes radio-equipped temperature probes that enable operators of large composting facilities to monitor and regulate the internal temperature of compost. .. ITI has field trials of the BioMESH System underway at multiple compost facilities across the country. ..

The temperature probes integrate temperature sensors with radio modules in sealed, weather proof, caustic proof housings. The radio modules utilize a patented wireless mesh communications protocol to support connectivity to the temperature sensors. The probes operate on battery power and feature a scheduled "sleep" mode to provide extended battery life. The BioMESH housing is made from heavy-duty PVC and stainless steel components."

Tue, 24 Jan 2006 20:42:57 GMT

Sensors watch Barrier Reef coral: Cairns, Australia: "The Australian Institute of Marine Science (Aims) is working with James Cook University on a project called Digital Skins. Smart sensors, developed originally for use in nuclear power stations, are placed in the ocean and also in water catchments on the mainland. They are able to communicate with each other to monitor events such as coral bleaching as they happen. ..

Each sensor in the skin has its own numerical address and operating system. Using a global position system, the sensors know exactly where they are. Parameters such as salinity, temperature and nutrient levels are measured.

Communicating with the sensors is a challenge, particularly for those sensors located out on the reef. Using a technique that was discovered by the British during World War II, microwave signals are sent along the surface of the ocean. Initial tests have seen data sent as far as 70km (43.5 miles) in one hop.

The final link in the chain is grid computing. All these sensors create terabytes of data every day. High-speed links allow the various institutions to share their computing power. "

Thu, 01 Dec 2005 22:27:39 GMT

San Diego Night: With cameras that take pictures up to 4000 megapixels, The Gigapixl Project makes amazingly detailed images. The images expand the scope of "plain sight," and thereby reduce our zone of privacy. [Thanks, Scott ]

Wed, 09 Nov 2005 04:07:35 GMT

Mobile Comms Satellite Launches Into Orbit: Inmarsat bGAN broadband network nearly complete. "The second step in a $1.5 billion program to create a mobile broadband communications network spanning the globe for users at sea, in the air and on land roared into space today. .. When [The Inmarsat 4-F2 satellite] enters service from geostationary orbit 22,300 miles (35,888 kilometers) above Earth next year, the craft will join the Inmarsat 4-F1 satellite that was successfully launched on Lockheed Martin's Atlas 5 rocket in March from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Together, the two craft will deliver broadband communications to 85 percent of the world." Connections are expected at around 400 kbps in each direction.

Also interesting is how it got there. It was launched SeaLaunch, a private company using a floating platform and Ukranian and Russian rockets.

Tue, 04 Oct 2005 07:41:56 GMT

U3 USB Devices Launch at DEMOfall: Sept 2005: "Several device manufacturers on Monday unveiled the first USB drives based upon the U3 standard, a method that enables users to carry, store and launch applications directly from a USB flash drive without installation. The U3 technology was first introduced at CES 2005 in January, supported by a host of software and hardware vendors. However, missing from the list is Microsoft, which has not committed to backing the standard.

In the United States, SanDisk, Kingston, Memorex and Verbatim will be launching smart drives for U3 and several popular applications are announcing software support for the standard. .. Software support includes AOL's Winamp, Cerulean Studios' Trillian, McAfee Antivirus and Skype among others. This support by high profile vendors is helping U3 to gain momentum and spur possible widespread adoption, according to Gartner Senior Analyst Joseph Unsworth. ..

U3 drives will begin to ship from various vendors beginning on October 15 in sizes ranging from 256MB to 2GB. The U3 group also announced it had signed a deal with I-O DATA of Japan to begin producing drives for that market beginning early next year."

Fri, 09 Sep 2005 19:14:29 GMT

Energy Solutions Toolkit for ICT: USAID interactive website for design of ICT's with off-grid power sources.

Sat, 20 Aug 2005 23:22:26 GMT

EnOcean: radio switches and sensors without batteries: Mesh wireless sensor components using harvested energy. OEMed into many companies' products. Spun out from Siemens in 2001.

Wed, 17 Aug 2005 03:54:50 GMT

New projects at Sun: "Sun's Squawk project was noted by Gage. Written in Java, Squawk is intended to provide multiple virtual machines and treat an application as an object, Gage said. Squawk would provide more efficient use of memory and power, according to Gage. Squawk was described on Sun’s Web site as a compact, high-performance Java environment. "This is perfect for wireless sensor devices," Gage said."

Fri, 12 Aug 2005 19:17:36 GMT

Puffin Cam: "The Project Puffin seabird camera is now beaming live-streaming video from Matinicus Rock—Maine’s largest colony of Atlantic Puffins and Razorbills. Matinicus Rock is located 22 miles south of Rockland, Maine. .. The robotic camera was funded by grants from MBNA Foundation and the Disney Wildlife Conservation Fund. The video signal is beamed by microwave 25 miles to Rockland .. When the [visitor] Center opens, visitors will be able to operate the camera. The camera is an invention of Daniel Zatz of SeeMore Wildlife Systems of Homer, Alaska.

The camera is set to move every two minutes on an auto tour of 20 preset locations that show seabird habitat on Matinicus Rock. The auto tour includes the murre attraction program that is using decoys to encourage Common Murres to nest on the island.. The camera turns on automatically at 5AM and runs until 9PM- at which time viewers will be able to see the light sending its powerful beams. .. The auto tour also includes two minutes of observation within an underground puffin burrow. Using infrared lighting, viewers will be able to see the growing chick and its parents. This is the first underground video of nesting puffins to be shown on the Internet. "

Sun, 07 Aug 2005 18:56:41 GMT

When Pigs Wi-Fi: Free WiFi works in rural Oregon: "this chunk of arid farm country appears to be the largest Wi-Fi hot spot in the world, with wireless high-speed Internet access available free for some 600 square miles. Most of that is in eastern Oregon, with some just across the border in southern Washington .. Morrow and Umatilla Counties in eastern Oregon are far ahead of them in providing high-speed Internet coverage to residents, schools and law enforcement officers - even though all of Morrow County doesn't even have a single traffic light. .. [WiFi] is free for consumers and has been up and running for more than a year and a half.

One reason it sprang up here is that a nearby Army depot contains chemical weapons, so there is special concern about what would happen if a cloud of nerve gas escaped from the depot. That fear helped provide a pot of federal money to underwrite safety systems. Usually, the police and fire agencies communicate just by radio, but Hermiston decided to go with a public-private partnership that established a Wi-Fi network. .. all police officers now carry [wireless computers that] download data and receive images from video monitors - and, if nerve gas ever escaped, display the cloud's direction and speed.

Fingerprint readers are now being added to these portable devices so a police officer can almost instantly run a person's fingerprint through a multistate database. And if there's a report of a burglary, the police rushing to the scene can download floor plans of the building, live images from video monitors and information about the alarm system. ..

Hermiston is already starting to introduce WiMax, the next generation of technology after Wi-Fi, offering much higher speeds and greater range."

Sat, 06 Aug 2005 07:17:26 GMT

Robotic Hacking: Folks are now hacking Roomba vacuums, and there's a rumor that its maker, iRobot, will endorse the trend with an API so that third parties will sell add-ons.

Sat, 06 Aug 2005 04:56:35 GMT

MP3300 Tekkeon myPower ALL Universal Rechargeable Battery: Extender battery kit with multiple plugs and power levels. 11.8 oz (330g), 3.28” (W) x 6.80” (L) x .92” (D), lithium polymer battery, 3 hour charging time, claims 5 hours of play time for portable DVD players or 3 hours for notebook computers. $ 99.

Wed, 20 Jul 2005 17:59:46 GMT

Michael Helfrich's Weblog: PodCast Pilot: Recommends the MXL 990 cardioid microphone for quality recording, combined with the USB-powered M-Audio MobilePre preamp.

Sat, 16 Jul 2005 00:08:11 GMT

France Telecom offers ''Big Screen'' Video EyeWear to Mobile Phone Users: "MicroOptical's video eyewear contains two Kopin full-colour, QVGA-resolution (320 x 240) CyberDisplay 230K microdisplays. The sleek eyewear allows users to privately view large-size video or pictures equivalent to a 12-inch screen as seen from three feet away, yet simultaneously view their surroundings thanks to the small size of the frame and MicroOptical's patented optics which allow the user to see around the screen. ..

Orange SA, one of the world's leading wireless companies with 52 million customers in 16 countries, will bundle a MicroOptical binocular video eyewear with Samsung's SGH-D600 cell phone as part of its new "Orange World" wireless multimedia service. The bundled package, unveiled at the recent European Research and Innovation Exhibition in Paris, will be made available to Orange subscribers in October 2005. ..

Built with nanotechnology, the CyberDisplay 230K .. operates at traditional video speeds and consumes only five milliwatts of power." I find the power figure amazing. Display size and power consumption are big limitations to many applications. Looking geeky is a small price to pay for portability.

Sat, 18 Jun 2005 16:32:47 GMT

FreeNX and NoMachine: Fast and secure remote desktop system, like VNC or LTSP but faster and with many features:

Runs single applications remotely
Carries sound as well as screen and keyboard
Has many clients - Linux, Solaris, Windows, Mac OS/X, PXE, Mozilla
Can servers for several OS and can proxy to extend VNC and Windows Terminal Server
Tight compression for fast service over dialup
Uses SSL for end-to-end encryption
Easy to install and demo in Knoppix

(As always, John's got the scoop...)

Sat, 11 Jun 2005 07:43:37 GMT

Wireless reef monitoring: Five senior engineering students at UC Santa Cruz are trying to push the limits of low-power wireless transmission to facilitate the monitoring of remote natural environments. The apparatus they are building will track conditions on coral reefs in distant locations and beam information back in real time to a land-based station. The students named their creation SEA-LABS, short for "Sensor Exploration Apparatus utilizing Low-power Aquatic Broadcasting System." SEA-LABS was originally designed to help UCSC biologist Donald Potts track environmental changes that affect the reefs of Midway, a remote atoll of the Hawaiian archipelago. But SEA-LABS also has the potential to become a low-cost tsunami-warning device, said Matt Bromage, a computer engineering student who acts as SEA-LABS team manager. ..

Now entering its final testing stages, the project should culminate this summer with a trip to the Midway atoll, 1,200 miles northwest of Honolulu, where the students will install and test their waterproof and salt-resistant prototype. .. The core of SEA-LABS is a Programmable Ocean Device (POD), which consists of a processor, a memory storage component, and a battery that can last up to two years, all housed in a waterproof casing about the size of a small wastebasket. The POD can be bolted to the seafloor near a reef. .. The POD has cable connections to sensors that independently record pressure, light, salinity, and temperature. The sensors are small enough to fit in any desired location on or within a reef and can be placed right next to plants, corals, and other reef inhabitants. .. The POD connects to a receiver/transmitter attached to a surface buoy. The transmitter broadcasts the data recorded by the sensors from the POD to a base station on land via a radio antenna. ..

The students use off-the-shelf components and develop nonproprietary open-access software. Depending on the number of sensors attached to each POD, SEA-LABS should cost between $500 and $1,000 per POD."

Wed, 25 May 2005 04:11:30 GMT

Samsung Builds Flash Based Disk Drive: "Samsung says it has developed a way to store up to 16GB of data using Flash memory, a development that could lead to extended battery life for notebook and tablet PCs. Flash memory has a power consumption that is five percent of today's hard disk drive, according to the company. These solid-state disk (SSD) Flash-based drives will also provide faster access to data, at about two-and-a-half times the speed of current notebook hard drives. In tests, Samsung was able to read data at 57 megabytes per second (MBps) and write at 32MBps." That's 2-3 GB/Min, comparable in my experience to desktop HD.

"Flash drives also offer the benefit of less noise and heat emissions. They are also less temperature- and humidity-sensitive, meaning Flash-based drives can be used in a wider array of applications and environments. The disk drive itself will look much like a regular 1.8-inch hard disk drive, meaning manufacturers will have to make minimal adjustments to PC designs in order to incorporate the new drives. .. SSD Flash drives based on the new technology are expected on the market by August of this year." They would be useful in off-grid locations, in developing countries or in sensor apps. I wonder if the price will remain at today's $30-50/GB or will be lower.

Mon, 16 May 2005 16:21:32 GMT

Soros funds mesh nets: "The Champaign-Urbana Community Wireless Network (CUWiN) has been awarded a $200,000 grant from the Open Society Institute, funded by the Soros Foundation, to develop wireless technology to be used around the globe, with a focus on developing nations. The result will be the most advanced community wireless technology in the world. " OJC Technologies is doing the implementation under contract. CUWIN has released an open source beta: "Imagine a free wireless networking system that any municipality, company, or group of neighbors could easily set up themselves. Over the past half-decade, the Champaign-Urbana Community Wireless Network (CUWiN) has been developing an open source, turnkey wireless networking solution that exceeds the functionality of many proprietary systems. CUWiN's vision is ubiquitous, extremely high-speed, low-cost networking for every community and constituency." More background: "To set up a CUWiN network, you burn a CD with the 0.5.5 software later this week and use it to boot a computer with a supported wireless card. The system finds nearby nodes, creates tables, and establishes itself as part of the network. The software is free and open source. "

Fri, 06 May 2005 21:45:58 GMT

Hackers attack IT conference: Clever, nasty, and far too easy. "Hackers infiltrated an IT exhibition last week and attacked delegates' computers with a new type of wireless attack. Security experts attending the Wireless LAN Event in London last Wedesday found that anonymous hackers in the crowd had created a Web site that looked like a genuine log-in page for a Wi-Fi network, but which actually sent 45 random viruses to computers that accessed it.

Spencer Parker, a director of technical solutions at AirDefense .. said that the hackers walked around the exhibition carrying a Linux-based laptop running software that turned it into a wireless access point. Initially, they labelled the hotspot "Free_Internet_Access", then "BTOpenzone" and then "T-Mobile". .. . "It downloads 45 different randomly generated viruses, worms and keyloggers so antivirus software doesn't protect it. It doesn’t recognise the signatures." .. Parker, whose computer was infected by the attack, believes that the Web site was up for half an hour."

Wed, 13 Apr 2005 04:47:04 GMT

Cellular Internet relayed to Wi-Fi: "Enter a little green box, about the size of a videocassette, called the Junxion Box. It grabs a wireless cell connection and turns it into a Wi-Fi signal (it also outputs Ethernet). The result: instant high-speed network." Applications: trade shows; client visits by consulting teams; workers at construction sites; wifi access on public transport. Takes a PC card to adapt to different cell networks. Cost: about $600.

Thu, 07 Apr 2005 22:33:50 GMT

How SMS Could Save Your Life: Cell phones are being used "to manage the treatment of HIV/AIDS in [South Africa] where health care systems are overburdened and doctors are scarce. ..

Therapeutic counselors fill a crucial gap at the Gugulethu clinic, where 525 patients taking ARV drugs are served by just two doctors and two nurses. They visit patients at home and count pills. They take note of conditions that interfere with treatment, such as the absence of food in the house. In short, they are the first line of defense against problems with side effects and drug resistance that can develop if treatment isn't managed properly. In the past, this job involved writing out the cumbersome details of each home visit by hand. But as the clinic data accumulated and the number of patients on treatment grew, the system became unmanageable..

They [now] use SMS to send all of this information to a central database, where Sister Mtwisha can instantly view it on her computer screen. With all of the relevant information compiled neatly in front of her, the irregularities stand out. .. "I used to pick up some faults in the system after a week or a month," she says. "Now I send a message and things are sorted out on the spot, without having to wait." ..

The system, which runs on open-source software, is inexpensive and can easily be managed remotely and adapted for various projects. ..

"If a patient in Gugulethu goes to the Eastern Cape and gets sick and goes to a clinic, they would need to know what drug regimen he's been on, what side effects he had, whether he was hospitalized," she says. "We need to get a system like an ATM where you can get money from every bank. We need something like that for HIV." The Cell-Life project, started by civil engineering faculty and students at the University of Cape Town and the Cape Technikon, has enlisted engineers and computer programmers to provide just that.

Meanwhile, a number of other clinics have expressed interest in using the system, but it has been difficult to raise funds to expand the program. Most donors would rather buy drugs than spend money on systems for distributing them, Rivett says. Instead of donating money, however, she maintains that large companies like Coca-Cola could make an even greater contribution by sharing their knowledge in areas like distribution and product management. "You find Coca-Cola in rural villages everywhere, but you don't find drugs," she says. "The Coca-Colas and the Unilevers can make sure their products get to these places. We need to use these guys to help us get drugs into every single clinic."

Mon, 04 Apr 2005 17:58:25 GMT

U3 - New USB memory/device standard: "U3 makes the promise of anywhere, anytime, any PC computing a reality. By combining the widely adopted storage capabilities of today’s UFDs (USB Flash Drives) with the ability to transport and run applications from a small UFD, U3 ensures truly personal and portable computing. The U3 standard enables developers to create easy to use applications that minimize the complexities of today’s digital life. From your own email folders to healthcare history to fully functional work applications, U3 makes everything available anywhere without having to access multiple devices or lug around a laptop."

Memorex, Kingston, and Verbatim have promised products: "Called a smart USB flash drive, these drives enable consumers to carry all of their personal computer settings, applications and data for use on any PC wherever they go. The new Verbatim smart Store ‘n’ Go USB flash drives will be availabe worldwide [in 2005]. .. The U3 platform includes three components. U3’s hardware specification gives manufacturers the core technology to build their smart USB flash drives. The U3 software developer kit includes sample code, a standard set of application programming interfaces (APIs), and thorough documentation. The U3 Launchpad is a friendly graphical user interface that is used to access and run applications."

This could improve the utility of internet cafes: users can keep an offline personalized environment and secure information store for a small purchase price. Many of today's UFDs play and record sound; with U3, they could rapidly download and upload voice mail at an internet cafe to extend VOIP services (e.g., in developing countries). The U3 could be added to an entertainment device, like an MP3 player, radio, game machine or camera, making the net cost per user negligible.

Mon, 21 Mar 2005 06:55:10 GMT

Solar SeV Finetex Shell: Updated geek jacket, now with solar charger: "The Solar SCOTTEVEST (SeV) combines the benefits of our signature jacket and removable solar panels. The solar panels enable you to recharge most USB compatible devices on the go, either while wearing the jacket or with the panels removed. When attached, the solar panels compliment the jacket’s design. The solar panels charge a small battery - about the size of a deck of cards. The battery powers your device almost immediately after the solar panels are exposed to sunlight. Once the battery is fully charged, the panels can be removed and your portable electronic device can tap into the stored power. Typical charge times in direct sunlight range from 2-3 hours, but direct sunlight is not required." Geek cargo pants also available, teflon coated (but no solar panel...).

Fri, 18 Mar 2005 19:40:43 GMT

AnywhereUSB - USB Over IP: "AnywhereUSB [can] connect USB devices anywhere on a wired or wireless LAN, while eliminating the need for locally-attached host PCs. AnywhereUSB/5 provides five USB ports, which deliver the same Plug and Play user experience as onboard USB ports. Software drivers are loaded onto a host PC or server, enabling remote devices to communicate with the host, without changing existing application software. Peripheral devices can be centrally managed and monitored from a remote server or PC via an IP address." $300 list, $250 through resellers, $200 under advertised developer demo program.

Fri, 18 Mar 2005 19:36:36 GMT

Watchport USB Sensors: "The Watchport Series is the first complete line of Plug and Play USB devices for 24/7 environmental monitoring. Choose from sensors for proximity, distance, acceleration/tilt, humidity/temperature, water and temperature. The Watchport Series also includes the Watchport/V USB camera. .. Watchport Manager application software provides centralized device status and historical data logging, and allows the easy integration of multiple Watchport devices without additional software development. The customizable software can send email, beeper or phone alerts when undesirable conditions are detected.." Devices are small and USB-powered, $200 list, $150-190 through resellers, $130 under advertised developer demo program.

Wed, 16 Mar 2005 04:55:24 GMT

Intel's mesh: 802.11s: "Intel has unveiled its first proposals for 802.11s, a new mesh wireless networking standard.. W. Steven Conner, wireless network architect at Intel and technical editor of the IEEE's 802.11s task group, told engineers at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco .. Although mesh networks are already in use for very large deployments in cities such as Taipei, and in some industry sectors, none of the systems interoperate or are suitable for domestic or office environments, Conner claimed. The 802.11s group, which met for the first time in July 2004, has just issued its first call for proposals, and Intel is keen for the new standard to cover domestic and small business environments.

Intel's proposals build on top of existing standards, such as 802.11a/b/g wireless transmission protocols and 802.11i security, and is compatible with them. It adds extra functions to allow wireless nodes to discover each other, authenticate and establish connections, and to work out the most efficient route for a particular task. This includes the concept of quality of service..

The company is also introducing the idea of Mesh Portals -- devices that know how to connect complete mesh networks to other, potentially non-mesh systems such as classic 802.11 networks, new standards such as 802.11n, broadband access points or different wireless technologies such as Ultrawideband and mobile data sources.

Although some recent wireless standardisation efforts have had problems due to entrenched opposing views, Intel thinks there is little risk of this with 802.11s. The standardisation process is expected to produce a firm proposal towards the end of 2006 or the beginning of 2007, with ratification following a year later. .. Intel is hoping to promote the idea of a core set of standards that work with small meshes of up to around 25 or so reasonably static nodes in close proximity, but in the context of an extensible framework that allows many different mesh models to be implemented. Intel says this should mean anyone with different ideas will be free to implement them, but always in a way that interoperates cleanly with the core protocols. By limiting the initial core functions, the company says, the additional amount of processing required in the network nodes will be easily managed by the existing class of network adaptors and consumer electronic devices, and as no changes need to be made to existing hardware 802.11s-compatible equipment should reach the market quickly. " (thanks, Mauro!)

Mon, 14 Mar 2005 06:31:01 GMT

Opentopia webcams: 1130 webcams available, at random or by location, with an option for animation of a few recent shots.

Mon, 14 Mar 2005 01:05:55 GMT

USB SIM card interface: Tiny, cheap USB device to read and write mobile phone SIM cards, to download or change phonebook entries, messages, and ring tones.

Fri, 11 Mar 2005 09:06:48 GMT

Powerline connectivity: "Three Japanese consumer electronics giants have created a new technology to transport Internet and media signals around the home via the electricity network. .. Sony, Mitsubishi and Matsushita-owned Panasonic have set up the SECA powerline alliance. They have developed a system to transfer 170 Megabits per second of data through the power lines of a home, Panasonic researcher Ingo Chmielewski told journalists at the electronics trade fair CeBIT"

Mon, 07 Mar 2005 20:49:41 GMT

Radio Time: "TiVo for radio? You bet! Just like TiVo, you can listen, pause, fast forward, or move radio as MP3 files with RadioTime software. Listen to your favorite programs --anytime, anywhere. Record one airing or every broadcast of your favorite programs." Wonder if it has made peace with the RIAA?

Mon, 07 Mar 2005 20:45:30 GMT

frontline: high stakes in cyberspace: Paul Saffo in 1995 on PBS: Fun to read the old stuff. Paul Saffo is remarkably on-target, 10 years later. This article mentions "macro-myopia: A pattern where our hopes and our expectations or our fears about the threatened impact of some new technology causes us to overestimate its short term impacts and reality always fails to meet those inflated expectations. And as a result our disappointment then leads us to turn around and underestimate the long term implications and I can guarantee you this time will be no different. The short term impact of this stuff will be less than the hype would suggest but the long term implications will be vastly larger than we can possibly imagine today." I've since encoutered Gartner's Hype Cycle, which they say they started to use also in 1995, with a graphic version of this insight.

I found this when looking for a reference to an aphorism that I think comes from Saffo. The aphorism: Over two years, things change much less than we think they will; but over ten years, they change more than we imagine.

It makes me wonder about the timeframe in between, say 5 to 7 years in the future, when major impacts will be felt from things we know are changing now, despite hype (digital sensors and surveillance) and disillusion (wind and solar power).

Wed, 16 Feb 2005 17:45:46 GMT

FM radio from your PC: "PCI MAX 2005 is a computer card that will .. change your PC into a FM radio station. You will be able to play your audio files (CD, wav, MP3, real audio etc.) from your PC through radio waves directly to your household radio receiver in the next room, in the living room, across your yard, in whole block of flats....or for the entire village/small city. .. The included software (also available at the link below for a quick DL) lets you set the frequency and the output power. " Discussion of alternative products on technocrat.net.

Fri, 04 Feb 2005 18:12:25 GMT

gumstix: Nifty tiny processors that can run Linux, with bluetooth and adaptors for USB and other I/O.

Fri, 04 Feb 2005 18:11:29 GMT

More on the AMD PIC: Cringely offers some info and suggested applications outside the developing world: "the OS is Windows CE. It keeps user changes and personal settings on a separate disk partition so that the main OS partition can be updated at any time back to factory settings from a hidden 'factory reload' partition. It has no legacy interfaces at all (just VGA, RJ11 modem, AC'97 audio ports, and four USB 1.1 ports). It has no fan or even any passive ventilation. It has a 366 Mhz AMD Geode processor, 128-megs of SDRAM, and a 10-gig Seagate hard drive. It is ugly [but] cheap. Think of the PIC as a cheaper, dumber Mac Mini. ..

in the ultra-low-end computer market right now as consumers are starting to use mobile phones to perform functions that might previously have been done with handheld computers like the iPaq. As a result, handheld sales are actually dropping, which in the PC market means the niche is already dead. .. The logical thing to do, it seems to me, is to split the niche into its two component parts -- mobile communication and cheap computing. Phones get the nod for mobility, but HP and Dell could easily pick up the cheap computing segment by selling many sub-varieties of PIC. It is ideal for home automation, for becoming a car video server to end drowning in Dora the Explorer DVDs, for acting as a home Internet gateway, for hosting the inevitable VoIP home PBX -- each a 100 million unit market, and each totally untapped by the big OEMs. .. Given a bit more effort on AMD's part, this little guy could be used to replace fading K-12 PCs all over America at prices that schools can actually afford. The power savings alone are such that an eight watt PIC will pay for itself in under two years. .. "

Cringely links to a page showing an Antiguan hacker's view of the PIC, and the AMD annoucement page that says that Linux will soon run on it.

Wed, 26 Jan 2005 19:48:32 GMT

HumaniNet - Tsunami Relief: "RBGAN working in Banda Aceh area of Indonesia. We have received additional confirmation that the RBGAN will operate in the Aceh area, although it is not within the guaranteed coverage area. Both the World Food Program and International Medical Corps confirm successful connections. (One user reported they were unable to connect.) We received this report on January 14 from an Inmarsat Land Earth Station (LES): "We have been told by Inmarsat that Regional BGAN works in Northwest Indonesia (Banda Aceh Province, Andaman & Nicobar Island). As with Thuraya, it is outside of the official coverage and service is therefore not guaranteed. "

Wed, 19 Jan 2005 06:54:04 GMT

World Wide Panorama - Brooks Leffler - Refuge on the California Coast: Great site at Berkeley for panoramas, starting with Asilomar.

Fri, 14 Jan 2005 16:26:28 GMT

Nuclear test monitoring network useful: Here's a tidbit from Cringeley: "Here is word from a reader in the UK: "The infrastructure for a global tsunami warning system already exists. The system set up to monitor nuclear testing is capable of, detected, and pinpointed the South Asian tsunami as it happened. The monitoring headquarters is in Berkshire, England, and the head of the station had made suggestions in the past that its role be expanded to include earthquake and tsunami monitoring. Better still, the necessary treaties are in place to allow immediate two-way communication between the centre and affected countries. Indeed, they carry an up to date list of contact numbers for key people. What's missing is political will. With that in place organisations, public information, and training can be put in place to make sure any warning is responded to on the ground."' I recall seeing a map of the placement of their monitoring devicesand the satcoms that relay their information (uniformly spread around the planet). Interesting to think of the other uses of that sensor network.

Sun, 09 Jan 2005 18:58:32 GMT

Sensicore: Makes small chip sensor for water quality measurement. Check the "technology demo" button. Based in Ann Arbor.

Wed, 22 Dec 2004 16:54:55 GMT

The Broadband Daily: BPL Hype: A summary of skepticism about Broadband over Power Lines. Links to stories saying that it generates high levels of radio noise that disrupt other spectrum users; it has been tried by many utilities but only one is going commercial with it; and that industry engineers think it won't scale.

Wed, 15 Dec 2004 16:29:15 GMT

medgadget: Great new site for advances in medical devices. Many use wireless links to collect patient data, like the PillCam, and a shirt that collects ECG data and transmits it via a cell phone.

Wed, 01 Dec 2004 16:02:47 GMT

A Mobile Semantic Web: CMU's testbed for mobile apps built on the Semantic Web. "MyCampus consists of several task-specific agents that automatically capture contextual information. Each MyCampus user has a database, called a "Semantic eWallet," which is a repository for users' personal information, such as class schedules, list of friends and classmates, and lifestyle and event preferences. Location data is generated using Pango's WiFi access-point triangulation. All the data is marked with Semantic metadata so that MyCampus agents can make use of it. User's can set access privileges to allow certain people to know where they are at any given moment, or what their schedule for the upcoming week is.

One of the most popular applications is the “restaurant concierge” agent, which recommends places based on a user's dining tastes, schedule, location, and weather conditions. If there's a storm brewing, the concierge will recommend a place that doesn't require stepping outside, and if the user has a study group meeting in 30 minutes, it'll suggest a fast food joint within a block or two.

Recently, a group of students at CMU developed an application for MyCampus called InfoBridge, which lets users post and read "virtual posters" about upcoming events. For example, say a user has indicated that she likes track and field events. She’ll be notified about events as soon as another person makes a virtual poster about it, unless she’s sitting in class. If that’s the case, she won’t be notified until class is over. If she wants to attend the event, she clicks on a link and, because the data has been tagged with Semantic Web metadata, it’ll be added it to her calendar. If there’s a scheduling conflict, it’ll notify her and present her with options. All this data exchange is done with agents -- no human screen scraping." Seems potentially useful for GIS info in remote data-gathering projects also, to notify and sync info that's relevant by location or type.

Tue, 30 Nov 2004 01:01:48 GMT

Urban Atmospheres: A research project at Berkeley/Intel Labs. There are slides from a July 2004 meeting. "Street Talk is a one day event to be held at Intel Research Berkeley focused on understand how the rapidly emerging fabric of mobile and wireless computing will influence, disrupt, expand, and be integrated into the social patterns existent within our public urban landscapes. Urban Computing captures a unique, synergistic moment – expanding urban populations, rapid adoption of Bluetooth mobile devices, and widespread influence of wireless technologies across our urban landscapes. The United Nations has recently reported that 48 percent of the world's population currently live in urban areas and that this number is expected to exceed the 50 percent mark by 2007, thus marking the first time in history that the world will have more urban residents than rural residents. Current studies project Bluetooth-enabled devices to reach 1.4 billion units in 2005 alone. Nearly 400 million new mobile phones are scheduled to be sold worldwide this year alone. WiFi hardware is being deployed at the astonishing rate of one every 4 seconds globally."

Wed, 24 Nov 2004 18:50:12 GMT

Microsoft Takes Lead in PDA Software: "Microsoft Corp.'s software platform for personal digital assistants took over the market lead from PalmSource Inc. for the first time in the third quarter.. Microsoft's Windows CE operating system accounted for 48.1 % of the quarter's 2.8 million PDA shipments worldwide, up from 41 % the previous year, according to Gartner. The Palm OS, developed by PalmSource, took a dramatically steep drop, representing 29.8 percent of the market, down from 46.9 percent in the year-ago period. "

Fri, 22 Oct 2004 18:47:09 GMT

Cringely gets it about BPL: The recent Fcc approval of "broadband over power lines (BPL) is going to totally shake up the Internet industry. .. One thing to remember about electric utilities is that they are very slow and deliberate. They move like glaciers, so it will take awhile for these services to be available at your house. But like glaciers, they are also impossible to stop.

The appeal here to an electric company isn't that $20-30 per month they'll charge for becoming your ISP. What matters to them and what makes this whole thing so important is that it will lead to your electric meter being monitored 24/7. That means utilities can start to offer true dynamic pricing, with electric costs dropping in low demand time periods and dramatically rising with high demand. While that sounds bad, the end result is actually good, since for the most part, profits from electricity sales will be regulated. The real end result is that demand will be better controlled by dynamic pricing, and the utility may just be able to forego building that $2 billion power plant they've been planning and saving for over the past 20 years. Dropping $2 billion to the bottom line has to appeal to any board of directors and, in a tightly regulated environment, will probably lead to overall power rates going DOWN, not up.

So this BPL stuff is mainly about getting smart electric meters and only partly about offering Internet service. But having made the effort to build the network, offer it they will, generally through unregulated subsidiaries." This is particularly interesting for developing and newly industrializing countries that are still building their grids and can design BPL in at the start.

Thu, 14 Oct 2004 17:04:36 GMT

ChampionChip: Cool RFID tag application - runners attach it to their shoes and they're automatically timed at several points along a race. Used in the Chicago marathon where 40,000 runners compete. "The ChampionChip is a high-tech, easy to use timing device. It can provide accurate net and split times for every individual athlete. Once you buy your own yellow chip, you can use it all over the world in almost any event we time."

Sun, 26 Sep 2004 00:50:58 GMT

Wireless Sensors Monitor Volcanic Activities: Roland Piquepaille provides a summary of a new sensor net: "a wireless array of sensors has been deployed to monitor the eruptions of an active volcano in central Ecuador, the Tungurahua. An international team of computer scientists and seismologists installed a small wireless network of five nodes to record 54 hours of continuous infrasound data transmitted over a 9 km wireless link back to a base station at the volcano observatory. As the results are very encouraging, and because these wireless sensors are very cheap, this installation will soon be duplicated to detect eruptions of other active volcanoes. The team expects to deploy larger infrasonic arrays consisting of up to 50 nodes in the next six months either on Tungurahua or elsewhere in the world."

Thu, 23 Sep 2004 18:19:15 GMT

'Smart Dust' for Monitoring Ready for Sale: Nice intro to new products from Dust, Inc. About $5000 for a starter kit with 12 motes.

Sat, 18 Sep 2004 07:15:31 GMT

Magic Bike :: Wireless Access Bike: Fun combination of 'art' and tech: "magicbike is a mobile WiFi (wireless Internet) hotspot that gives free Internet connectivity wherever its ridden or parked. By turning a common bicycle into a wireless hotspot, Magicbike explores new delivery and use strategies for wireless networks and modern-day urbanites. Wireless bicycles disappear into the urban fabric and bring Internet to yet unserved spaces and communities. Mixing public art with techno-activism, Magicbikes are perfect for setting up adhoc Internet connectivity for art and culture events, emergency access, public demonstrations, and communities on the struggling end of the digital-divide."

Sat, 18 Sep 2004 06:52:53 GMT

Reddy's PCTVt: "a $250 gizmo that does a whole bunch of things: a computer, a TV, a DVD player, a videophone -- a PCTVt. "I kept asking myself, What would the device have to do for someone on the other side of the digital divide, to be desirable?"wondered Raj Reddy, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. The answer, he decided, was a simple device that would offer entertainment. This November, Reddy hopes to begin installing the first 100 prototypes of the PCTVt in India and possibly several other countries. Reddy is hoping his project -- with backing from Microsoft and TriGem, the Korean computer maker, and in partnership with the Indian Institute of Science, the Indian Institute of Information Technology and researchers at the University of California, Berkeley -- can prove that it is possible to bring IT to impoverished communities without depending on philanthropy. Because his low-cost computer doubles as a TV and a DVD player, Reddy believes that he will be able to use it as a vehicle to take computing to populations that until now have been excluded. "

Thu, 16 Sep 2004 01:27:55 GMT

Low cost email over satellite: Nice analysis of RBGAN costs by Humaninet. Result is 12-18 cents per average message.

Thu, 16 Sep 2004 01:21:22 GMT

Electrovaya - Powerpad: Laptop extender batteries that fit under the unit and supply power for "up to 12 hours" when fully charged. $200-500.

Thu, 16 Sep 2004 01:17:07 GMT

SunWize Portable Energy System: "The SunWize Portable Energy System converts sunlight into electricity, allowing the user freedom to recharge a handset or other portable device anywhere the sun shines. The system is lightweight, weather-resistant, highly durable, .. UL listed, CE certified and has a system output of 8.5 watts. Built into the product is the patented SunWize OPTI-Meter LCD metering system that instantly measures sunlight intensity and allows optimum placement of the panel. The SunWize Portable Energy System is designed for daily field use. The 9.9 watt solar panel is constructed using a proprietary process in which the highest efficiency, single-crystal photovoltaic cells are permanently encased in rugged, weather-resistant urethane plastic. The panel’s nine-foot cord winds on a spool recessed into the back of the panel. A hinged metal stand folds flush into the panel’s back side. " Can output a variety of voltages. Can be combined with a second panel to double output. Price currently about $360.

Or, on a larger scale, The EN-R-Pak solar-powered portable power generation system, 50w panel bundled with battery to deliver 200w maximum, for about $2200.

Wed, 15 Sep 2004 17:50:49 GMT

Let Your Mobile Do the Pointing: Magnetic sensors make an electronic compass, at low cost. Added to GPS, you can point at things and get info about them.

Fri, 10 Sep 2004 18:14:48 GMT

Lantronix XPort and WiPort : Tiny interfaces that contain an embedded web server. Xport converts a serial device to ethernet; WiPort does wifi. Parts cost $100-150 qty 1 from distribution, developer kits $350.

Fri, 10 Sep 2004 17:34:00 GMT

Power Supply Wattage Calculator: Tool for estimating power requirements for desktop computers.

Wed, 01 Sep 2004 22:11:09 GMT

Philly considers wireless Internet for all: "For about $10 million [to install and $1.5m/yr to operate], city officials believe they can turn all 135 square miles of Philadelphia into the world's largest wireless Internet hot spot. The ambitious plan, now in the works, would involve placing hundreds, or maybe thousands of small transmitters around the city, probably atop lampposts. Each would be capable of communicating with the wireless networking cards that now come standard with many computers. Once complete, the network would deliver broadband Internet almost anywhere radio waves can travel, including poor neighborhoods where high-speed Internet access is now rare. And the city would likely offer the service either for free, or at costs far lower than the $35 to $60 a month charged by commercial providers.. [Similar efforts include:]

Chaska, Minn., a suburb of Minneapolis, began offering citywide wireless Internet access this year for $16 a month. The signal covers about 13 square miles.
Corpus Christi, Texas, has been experimenting with a system covering 20 square miles that would be used (for now) only by government employees.
Over the past year, Cleveland has added some 4,000 wireless transmitters in its University Circle, Midtown and lakefront districts. The service is free, and available to anyone who passes through the areas. Some 1,016 people were logged in to the system at 2:20 Tuesday afternoon, said Lev Gonick, chief information officer at Case Western Reserve University, which is spearheading the project and paying for a chunk of it. "We like to say it should be like the air you breathe, free and available everywhere," Gonick said. "We look at this like PBS or NPR. It should be a public resource."
In New York, city officials are negotiating to sell wireless carriers space on 18,000 lampposts for as much as $21.6 million annually. T-Mobile USA Inc., Nextel Partners Inc., IDT Corp. and three other wireless carriers want the equipment to increase their networks' capacity.

One part of the 15-year deal is cheap Wi-Fi phones for neighborhoods where less than 95 percent of residents have home phones. IDT, which has agreed to market the cheaper phone service in those neighborhoods, would pay lower rates for poles there than other companies would in wealthier areas. .."

Wed, 01 Sep 2004 00:49:59 GMT

Mini-Box.Com: "Mini-Box is a small, lightweight, yet powerful x86 system designed for embedded or general purpose PC computing applications. Consuming under 10 watts, the M-100 is an excellent candidate for low power, small form factor computing requirements. The M-100 is equipped with a backlit LCD, customizable 14 key keypad, front load Compact Flash, USB and audio." Comes with Linux on a bootable CF. Powered by 12v DC.

Mon, 30 Aug 2004 08:16:59 GMT

Robocop Now in Beta: "If you're in New York City when the Republican National Conventions kicks off next week, watch for police officers watching you with extra sets of megapixel peepers. The Federal Protective Service has outfitted patrol officers with helmets embedded with wireless video cameras. The images from the helmet-cams and traditional surveillance cameras mounted in federal buildings are streamed to a headquarters-on-wheels where deployment decisions can be made. ..

The wearable component of the Federal Protective Service's system is more akin to two projects in development at UC Berkeley. As reported on TheFeature earlier this year, smart firefighter helmets will provide emergency personnel with an "augmented reality" display that overlays text and images onto their view through the helmet. Meanwhile, command and control officers can help guide the rescue efforts by sharing the view of the firefighters inside a blaze.

The police system is also quite similar to UC Berkeley professor Ken Goldberg's Tele-Actor, a "human robot" sporting wireless Web cams and microphones. Groups of online participants can collaboratively control the Tele-Actor as "it" moves through remote spaces. For example, in one experiment a class of high school students "visited" a restricted biotechnology laboratory using the Tele-Actor as their collective avatar. "

Mon, 30 Aug 2004 07:40:26 GMT

Mobile Phone Advertising That's Pull, Rather Than Push: Interesting note on ads that engage cellphone users. First, a billboard that shows a you video when you sent it an SMS (and presumably sneaks in an ad). Second, a magazine that encourages readers to photograph the pages and send them in to the publisher to enter a sweepstakes (and presumably pay closer attention to the ads). It's reported that people have been snapping ads already to share images of clothes and hair that they like.

Fri, 27 Aug 2004 16:03:02 GMT

IEEE Internet Computing: Wireless Grids: Distributed Resource Sharing: Wide ranging review articles on wireless mesh and sensor applications.

Fri, 27 Aug 2004 15:59:29 GMT

Futuristic factories make mesh: "Industrial motors (not including facility heating and ventilating) consumed 679 billion kilowatt hours in the United States in 2003. That's 63 percent of all electricity used in industry and 23 percent of all electricity sold in the United States last year, according to the Energy Department. .. DOE figures a wireless sensor network could increase a motor's efficiency by 10 to 20 percent, which corresponds to a total U.S. energy savings of 120 trillion BTUs (35.1 billion kW-hr) per year..

Sensicast has devised a suite of control programs that have frequency "agility" — that is, they seek out the clear frequencies and attempt to evenly spread out the simultaneous communications going on among the nodes on the mesh. ..

Each wireless sensor will operate for years on a single battery charge, but for the future, GE is working on new technology that could harvest the vibrational energy of the motor itself to power the transceivers. Rensselaer, for its part, will be developing a physics-based model that will enable turnkey analysis and lifetime predictions from the sensor outputs of a motor. "

Wed, 18 Aug 2004 06:07:42 GMT

Wireless Sensors: How Not to Replace 1000 Batteries: Nice brief review of long-lived power sources for sensors, including

printed batteries (e.g., Power Paper);
extended shelf-life mini-batteries with a nanomaterial called "nanograss;"
a nuclear-powered battery that uses a speck of nickel-63 and a tiny cantilever of piezoelectric material (nickel-63 has a half-life of around 100 years)
indoor lighting photovoltaics microbattery
"strain energy harvesting" using the stretching of piezoelectric fibers

Mon, 16 Aug 2004 05:49:54 GMT

RFID in Japanese Restaurants: Finally, RFID in the sushi bar -- I've been talking about this for 2 years, finally RFID has gotten practical: At a Tokyo restaurant, under each sushi plate "was a small square shaped bump, barely visible under blue lacquer. It was an RFID chip implanted in the plate. Different chips for different prices. Cool. The tallying up of over 18 plates literally took less than 5 seconds. "

Sun, 15 Aug 2004 17:49:13 GMT

Bluetooth phones are hackable: Recent tests have expanded the list of issues. "Adam Laurie of A.L. Digital Ltd. discovered that there are serious flaws in the authentication and/or data transfer mechanisms on some bluetooth enabled devices. .. Confidential data can be obtained, anonymously, and without the owner's knowledge or consent, from some bluetooth enabled mobile phones. This data includes, at least, the entire phonebook and calendar, and the phone's IMEI. .. Access can be gained to the AT command set of the device, giving full access to the higher level commands and channels, such as data, voice and messaging. " Dozens of models are affected. Combined with new long range antennas, many demonstrations have been done with hundreds of phonebooks harvested, calls made remotely (allowing listening in conversations at a distance), and messages sent impersonating the owner of the phone. The likely fix will be to reduce the time the devices keep Bluetooth open.

Sun, 15 Aug 2004 16:59:47 GMT

Goatse at Defcon: Nasty wifi attack demonstration (with hilarious and disgusting images). A program running on a machine with 2 wifi nic's can inject responses to HTTP (browser) requests, thus impersonating web sites. New vector for phishing? Linked from Bruce Schneier.

Sun, 15 Aug 2004 08:24:27 GMT

The Wireless Robotic Gas Worker: Neat - a wireless snake-shaped robot that surveys pipes for damage and leaks. A useful starting point for other out of the way inspection devices.

Sat, 14 Aug 2004 16:31:09 GMT

NeroSoft TimeTrax: "TimeTrax is an application for the XM Satellite Radio XM PCR PC-based radio. This radio, available for under $50, plugs into a USB port on your PC and lets you tune into over 120 digital audio satellite channels, featuring music, talk, comedy and news. Using TimeTrax, you can now record directly from your XM PCR radio onto your PC's hard drive in WAV or MP3 format." Software automatically breaks songs into separate MP3 files and collects metadata (artist, title, etc). Can be scheduled to retain all songs by an artist, for example. Software free (registered for $20), hardware $50, service $7/mo.

Wed, 11 Aug 2004 06:23:30 GMT

Nokia Lifeblog: Nokia's got the concept that's been around since the 80s Media Lab, of recording your life online -- using their all-singing all-dancing Nokia 7610, of course (has 1 mpixel camera, video, real and mp3 player, voice recorder, triband, bluetooth, smtp and pop3, games, java, etc.)

Mon, 09 Aug 2004 05:47:55 GMT

New Solar Tent Prototypes for US Army (June 16, 2004): "Iowa Thin Film Technologies, Inc., has completed the development of integrated solar technology for three Army tent prototypes. The tents integrate the company's PowerFilm® flexible solar panels directly with the tent fabric. Iowa Thin Film Technologies says that it is the only company in the world that has developed this fabric integration solar technology." Could be equally useful during disasters or in refugee camps.

Tue, 03 Aug 2004 17:53:04 GMT

RSA Security - The Blocker Tag: Selective Blocking of RFID Tags for Consumer Privacy: Clever scheme for allowing consumers to block scanning of tags on items that they have purchased (eg, while in public places), and allowing scanning of those same items when desired (eg, in a medicine cabinet or refrigerator at home).

"One may think of a the RSA® Blocker Tag as "spamming" any reader that attempts to scan tags without the right authorization. (The RSA® Blocker Tag manipulates the reading protocol with the aim of making the reader think that RFID tags representing all possible serial numbers are present.) When a Blocker is in proximity to ordinary RFID tags, they benefit from its shielding behavior; when the Blocker tag is removed, the ordinary RFID tags may be used normally.

Thanks to their selective nature, RSA® Blocker Tags are designed not to interfere with the normal operation of RFID systems in retail environments. They help prevent unwanted scanning of purchased items, but do not affect the scanning of shop inventories. Thus RSA® Blocker Tags are designed not to be usable, for example, to circumvent theft-control systems or mount denial-of-service attacks -- only to protect the privacy of law-abiding consumers."

Tue, 03 Aug 2004 07:40:40 GMT

Sveasoft Firmware Documentation Site: Firmware Guides and Manual for their modification of the Linux in the WRT54G Linksys Router.

Mon, 02 Aug 2004 23:31:32 GMT

Linux on the WRT54G: "This is a mini Linux distribution for the Linksys wrt54g. In about 20 seconds, you can install a small set of Linux tools to your access point's ramdisk. The distribution is geared towards those who are curious about casually exploring the internal workings of this device. The installation is strictly to the ram disk of the box. No permanent changes are made. If you mess something up, power-cycle the box.

Upon completion of the installation, you'll be able to telnet into the box and have a system with basic tools such as syslog, httpd (with cgi-bin support), vi, snort, mount, insmod, rmmod, top, grep, ls, ifconfig, iptables, ssh, iptraf etc. " The author also has tools for accessing the Linux running in the Linksys NSLU2 network storage/USB device. Like the WRT54G, it costs under $100.

Fri, 30 Jul 2004 18:40:45 GMT

High Noon for High Range Wireless: The WiFi Shootout in the Nevada desert, at DefCon this weekend (July 30-31, 2004). Sounds like geek fun, and it'll be interesting to see what they cook up.

Thu, 29 Jul 2004 17:20:46 GMT

GFS Tactical Radio Comms: Application of Groove to emergency group voice comms, at the Strong Angel 2 exercise: "Groove 3.0 feature called Groove Folder Sync (GFS). With Groove 3.0 installed, GFS allows one to share a Windows file system folder with another Groove user without using a shared space as the container. One of the requirements at Strong Angel was to demonstrate how tactical radio communications could be extended to other continents. ..

As police, fire, and other first responder communications came in across the radios, [their voices] would be trapped and converted into MP3. The files were then dropped into a GFS folder which immediately synchronized GFS folders in Baghdad, Washington, and other parts of the globe.

I constructed a .NET app that would monitor folder events and then play these MP3's as they came in. It mimicked a police scanner. A civil affairs soldier sitting in Baghdad could then hear the actual tactical communications as they came in from our exercise in Hawaii."

Wed, 28 Jul 2004 07:55:32 GMT

From woks to wifi: "Make 2.4GHz parabolic mesh dishes from cheap but sturdy Chinese cookware scoops & a USB WiFi adaptor ! The largest (300mm diam)shows 15-18dB gain (enough for a LOS range extension to 3-5km), costs ~US$5"

Wed, 28 Jul 2004 01:09:01 GMT

Telecommunications market access regulation licensing and VSAT authorizations by Access Partnership: "We provide an experienced, multi-disciplinary, multilingual staff to devise and implement a strategy for resolving regulatory, technical, and other trade-related restrictions on five continents. "

Sun, 25 Jul 2004 16:23:38 GMT

WIFI and Route Security: In Strong Angel 2, they tested use of WiFi to aircraft, and among cars in a convoy. The aircraft test had problems, but the car-to-car test worked over 1.5 miles, with streaming video and voice, all p2p with no servers. Interesting app for NGO and military supply convoys.

Fri, 23 Jul 2004 07:08:10 GMT

LocustWorld Mesh Access Points: "The MeshBox is a box about the size of a small video recorder. It has a number of ports for connecting other devices and one or more on-board WiFi radios. It is a multi-purpose device, but its core function is creating wide area wireless broadband. This means that each MeshBox communicates with other MeshBoxes nearby and the internet signal is passed from one box to the next, over the air, until it reaches the final destination. ..

There are no plans to commercialize the core LocustWorld MeshAP device, this will always be available to download from the website as an open product. "

It's a linux application. The standard box has Prism2 wireless, 32mb CF boot media, 128mb ram, 500mhz CPU. Small form-factor and battery-powered boxes available. Example hardware models: standard, outdoor (each about $400).

Sat, 12 Jun 2004 08:24:58 GMT

CyberTracker: A PDA program designed for recording conservation data in the field, even by non-literate users.

Sat, 12 Jun 2004 07:21:03 GMT

True value labels: Interesting idea for camera cell phones as bar code readers. "A label similar to the nutritional facts one on food items in the super market was proposed. It should list all raw material, labor, pollutants, air, miles of transport, ... that went into that product. I think it would be shocking for people to find out how many miles are driven for just a simple strawberry yogurt. ..

There is a service where you can send your smart phone camera picture of a barcode and it sends you back the product number. We don't need the label on the product, with these technologies we can bring the information into the hands of the interested consumer? "

Fri, 11 Jun 2004 16:47:24 GMT

UNOPS offers developing country satellite data: "Satellite Imagery Now Available to UN and NGOs: UN agencies and non-governmental organizations involved in humanitarian assistance, peace-keeping, and post-conflict reconstruction now have round-the-clock global Internet access to satellite imagery as the result of an initiative led by an international consortium that includes UNOPS."

Thu, 10 Jun 2004 01:07:54 GMT

Apple - AirPort Express: Nice new wifi gizmo. Plug it into the wall, it'll find wifi, repeat it, provide it via ethernet, use it to share a printer over its USB port, and use it to provide iTunes audio (e.g., to a stereo). Currently $130.

Mon, 07 Jun 2004 17:34:04 GMT

Balancing Act: A UK company that does African IT media, policy and project consulting. Their African internet developments news service has current and detailed information on developments among carriers and governments.

Sun, 06 Jun 2004 18:29:49 GMT

I have created a new category in this blog to carry notes culled about virtual computing, including virtual machines, virtual storage networks, and distributed and grid computing. Earlier blog entries on grid and distributed computing have been spread between General Networking and Network Software categories. I have a backlog to blog in the new category today; my apologies to subscribers to the whole blog if this isn't your cup of tea...

Sun, 06 Jun 2004 16:46:08 GMT

Damn Small Linux, 50 megabytes of penguin power: "Damn Small Linux is a business card size (50MB) bootable Live CD Linux distribution. Despite its minuscule size it strives to have a functional and easy to use desktop." Pretty neat; could be useful for embedded systems or for virtual machines. Many applications included.

Sun, 06 Jun 2004 15:41:51 GMT

Wireless Sensors Monitor Glacier Behavior: ", an interdisciplinary team of the University of Southampton, GlacsWeb, has deployed a network of wireless sensors inside a Norwegian glacier to record its behavior. This news release, "Sensor Technology Comes in from the Cold" says that the sensor probes, housed in 'electronic pebbles,' are buried 60 meters under the surface of the glacier. And they transmit wirelessly their observations about temperature, pressure or ice movement to a base station located on the surface, which relays the readings to a server in the UK by mobile phone. " (Thanks, Roland)

Sun, 06 Jun 2004 06:49:23 GMT

Camera Phones Help Buyers: Brilliant - use a cell phone camera to scan bar codes in stores to get info about a product. "With the camera-phone scanner, "you can aggregate a lot of different information from different sources just by scanning something. You can do that on your own or at a desktop computer, but then you have to look up a bunch of sources and go looking for all the individual sites and so on." You might get competitive price offers, consumer reviews, or dietary information about a product. Other codes (named QR for quick response, or Semacode) are in use in Japan for transferring business card info, getting directions and local event info, etc.

Fri, 28 May 2004 22:52:37 GMT

What is an AGM battery: Background on absorbed glass mat battery products. In this battery design, acid is completely absorbed into microfiber glass mat separators which are sandwiched between lead plates and typically wound in coils. Advantages:

totally sealed and maintenance free design
more heat and vibration resistant
slower self discharge rate (longer shelf life). A wet battery discharges 15% a month, some AGM batteries discharge only 2-3% a month, so 6 months idle is no problem

Many vendors are online.

Fri, 28 May 2004 07:22:56 GMT

Embedded Linux marches on: "One of the cheapest Linux computers you can buy brand new (not at a garage sale) is the Linksys WRT54G, an 802.11g wireless access point and router that includes a four-port 10/100 Ethernet switch and can be bought for as little as $69.99 according to Froogle. That's a heck of a deal for a little box that performs all those functions, but a look inside is even more amazing. There you'll find a 200 MHz Intel processor and either 16 or 32 megs of DRAM and four or eight megs of flash RAM -- more computing power than I needed 10 years ago to run a local Internet Service Provider with several hundred customers. But since the operating system is Linux and since Linksys has respected the Linux GPL by publishing all the source code for anyone to download for free, the WRT54G is a lot more than just a wireless router. It is a disruptive technology. ..

it isn't what the WRT54G does that matters, but what it CAN do when reprogrammed with a different version of Linux with different capabilities. .. Linksys, now owned by Cisco, not only doesn't mind your hacking the box, they are including some of those hacks in their revised firmware...

Probably the most popular third-party firmware you can get for the WRT54G comes from Sveasoft .. [whose] head techie is James Ewing.. If you have a WRT54G, here's what you can use it for after less than an hour's work. You get all the original Linksys functions plus SSH, Wonder Shaper, L7 regexp iptables filtering, frottle, parprouted, the latest Busybox utilities, several custom modifications to DHCP and dnsmasq, a PPTP server, static DHCP address mapping, OSPF routing, external logging, as well as support for client, ad hoc, AP, and WDS wireless modes. .. The parts of this package I like best are Wonder Shaper and Frottle. Wonder Shaper is a traffic-shaping utility that does a very intelligent job of prioritizing packets to dramatically improve the usability of almost any broadband connection [by prioritizing voice and optionally a particular user's traffic. Frottle also prioritizes traffic.] .. Neither Wonder Shaper nor Frottle are the most elegant solutions, but they work well and they work together on the Sveasoft firmware. ..

The result is a box [that] automatically attaches itself to an OSPF mesh network that is self-configuring. In practical terms, this mesh network, which allows distant clients to reach edge nodes by hopping through other clients en route, is limited to a maximum of three hops as the WiFi radios switch madly back and forth between sending and repeating modes. If you need to go further, switch to higher-gain antennas or gang two WRT54Gs together. Either way, according to Ewing, his tests in Sweden indicate that if 16 percent of the nodes are edge nodes (wireless routers with DSL or cable modem Internet connections), they can provide comparable broadband service to the other 84 percent who aren't otherwise connected to the Net." Cringley then speculates on how to take on phone companies with this.

Thu, 27 May 2004 20:34:57 GMT

Codan experience in Guinea-Bissau Elections: "The National Elections Commission of Guinea-Bissau used new Information and Communication Technology tools to coordinate the legislative elections held March 28 and enable poll workers to verify names and identity card numbers on the voter rolls. .. The project was designed by Sila Technologies (SITEC), a private company, and funded by a grant from the European Economic Community.

About a week before the elections, SITEC had up and running high frequency (HF) radio units in all nine regional capitals of Guinea-Bissau and verified that they could communicate with each other via voice, fax, or data transmission over up to 200 kilometers. Fax transmission was reported to be flawless, and voice communication was functional. According to SITEC engineer Amidu Sila, some level of noise is to be expected in using this technology and frequency range for voice, though this never impeded communication. ..

The company chose radios made by Codan Ltd., model NGT SR, for the project, along with a system that automatically selects and switches between available frequencies to get the best transmission. The HF units reportedly cost around $7,000 each, and the additional link management system goes for about $1,200. Before beginning installation, SITEC had to be assigned twenty available HF-band frequencies, which they chose together with the regulatory agency. Half of the frequencies were for use during the day, and the other half for the different atmospheric conditions of nighttime. Sila thinks that the radio could work over distances as far as 1500 kilometers."

Thu, 27 May 2004 20:24:53 GMT

Relief Technologies: "Relief workers are often encumbered by poor Internet connectivity, fragile or expensive equipment, or security concerns associated with collecting detailed geographic data in areas recovering from conflict. As connectivity expands and the tools get cheaper and more diverse, the specific needs of relief workers in the field are increasingly being met. Companies such as Global Relief Technologies and Groove Networks appear to point the way."

Thu, 27 May 2004 01:15:15 GMT

IT WatchDogs: Devices and sensors for watching places like computer rooms remotely. Tracks humidity, temperature, air flow, light and sound levels, doors open/closed, webcam, etc. Sensors with RS232 under $200, packaged with self-contained web site under $400. Similar but more expensive are NetBotz.

Wed, 26 May 2004 18:20:31 GMT

Yahoo! wifi finder: Directory of wifi locations, including iPass, Boingo, etc. Appears to be US only. Searchable by type of location and distance from a street address. Includes some free hotspots (like public libraries) but doesn't list open access points.

Tue, 18 May 2004 00:27:01 GMT

NASA's Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS): 10 years old, the program continues to provide capacity and sometimes, people, to demonstrate new satellite applications. Education in developing countries is one ongoing area. "The Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS), a significant activity of the Space Communications Program, provided for the development and flight test of high-risk, advanced communications satellite technology. Using multiple spot beam antennas and advanced on-board switching and processing systems, ACTS pioneered new initiatives in communications satellite technology."

Sun, 16 May 2004 19:11:14 GMT

802.11b wireless flaw identified: ""In order to exploit the vulnerability potential attackers only need a common wireless adaptor which retails for about US$35 and instead of using it to enable their computer to access a network, they can change its coding to interfere with transmission. "With this adaptor you can basically totally disrupt any wireless network that uses this technology within a kilometer of its operation in anywhere between five and eight seconds.".. [Professor] Looi said any computer, PDA or notebook could send out the signal if the wireless adaptor was programmed accordingly. ..

Wireless technology is gaining traction and in some countries is used to control infrastructures such as railway networks, energy transmission and other utilities. QUT's School of Software Engineering and Data Communications deputy head, associate professor Mark Looi said the discovery of the flaw should send a warning to high levels of government and industry worldwide. "Any organization that continues to use the standard wireless technology (IEEE 802.11b) to operate critical infrastructure could be considered negligent," Professor Looi said. "This wireless technology should not be used for any critical applications as the results could potentially be very serious.""

Sun, 16 May 2004 16:55:29 GMT

In a Road That's All Eyes, the Driver Finds an Ally: Adding PV cells, LEDs sensors and cameras to road lane markers has many benefits (and could create a mass market for these components). "after perfecting illuminated markers that are embedded in the road surface to guide motorists through bad weather or warn of dangerous conditions, Mr. Dicks's company, Astucia Traffic Management Systems, is going a step further. Its latest creation is an embedded stud equipped with a camera that catches speeders, monitors traffic for criminals or stolen cars and even checks for bald tires on the fly...

illuminated marker would be more visible than a plain reflector, and the idea was that a car passing over the markers would cause them to stay illuminated long enough so that they would provide a warning trail of lights for any vehicles close behind. Working mostly with family members at first, Mr. Dicks produced a prototype marker within two years. He dodged the white L.E.D. problem by combining the glow from red, green and blue arrays. The group not only overcame the limitations of solar cells, but also managed to engineer markers that turned red to warn when the gap between two cars was dangerously small...

Optical systems inside the casing are able to monitor the atmosphere for fog. Electrical resistance detectors can check for standing water. The addition of a thermometer allows the marker to predict ice.

[Now, high-resolution digital cameras inside] the flush-mounted housings [use] a special series of lenses that in effect allow the camera to look upward and forward from its subsurface location. .. Astucia has developed a system that is operating on a highway in Scotland. It employs three embedded cameras to give front, rear and side views of passing vehicles. Other embedded sensors project two infrared beams over the road that are used to time traffic and determine its speed. The images and the speed data travel under the road by cable to a computer. It in turn relays the data by satellite to Astucia's offices. The system is currently being used to monitor traffic slowdowns. When it detects them, it turns on illuminated markers farther up the road as a warning. Mr. Dicks said that its speed measurements were accurate within 0.5 percent, well within the tolerances demanded for traffic enforcement [including catching speeders]. Similarly, he said, the systems can be combined with optical character recognition software to automatically track stolen vehicles or cars believed to be used by suspected criminals..

Mr. Dicks was not the only person with a desire to illuminate to road markers. After a friend struck and killed a pedestrian in 1991 at a crosswalk in Santa Rosa, Calif., Michael Harrison developed a system that uses flashing L.E.D.'s in the road surface to make crosswalks more visible. The company he founded in 1994, LightGuard Systems, now has about 700 installations in the United States. A study of 100 illuminated crosswalks by Katz, Okitsu & Associates, a traffic engineering firm based in Southern California, estimates that adding the blinking L.E.D.'s to crosswalks can reduce pedestrian accidents by 80 percent."

Thu, 13 May 2004 22:04:08 GMT

Stretch Your Signal: Options for extending wifi's range in a difficult or large house, including directional antennas and home wiring systems.

Thu, 13 May 2004 22:00:40 GMT

MTI MicroFuel powers RFID tags with tiny fuel cell: Production to begin under contract this summer. "MTI MicroFuel Cells Inc. will supply the power source for a new product to be manufactured by Intermec Technologies Corp. and used in an inventory tracking system."

Wed, 12 May 2004 00:25:24 GMT

MOTE-KIT 5x4x: XBow has new sensor gear. Kits integrate up to 8 sensors for $2000. Upgrades are annouced to support zigbee. New products:

A power-over-ethernet TCPIP gateway goes for $350.
Low power linux controllers run $700-$1000.
Data collection and alerting software runs $200.
Environmental sensors (eg, for soil moisture) $300-500.
Weather and GPS sensors, $200-400

Sat, 08 May 2004 00:49:16 GMT

PMICRO Temperature recorder: Cheezy wired temperature sensor gear that uses SNMP and ethernet for data collection. Very cheap: $200 per ethernet collection box, wired to up to 16 daisy-chained $15-25 sensors.

Sat, 08 May 2004 00:21:32 GMT

Internet-Enabled Wireless Web Sensor Network (WWSN): "Combining direct sensor inputs and microprocessor based transmitters employing time division multiple access (TDMA) techniques, this system allows large networks of remote transmitters to communicate digital data to a single receiver. A sleep timer with random wake-up allows multiple periodic transmitters to operate on the same communications channel (418 MHz RF) with a very low collision probability. Each transmitter includes sensor signal conditioning, multiplexer, 16 bit A/D converter, microprocessor, and RF link. The transmitters are compatible with a wide variety of sensors, including thermocouples (cold junction compensated), strain gauges, load cells, torque transducers, and displacement transducers (DVRT’s).

The receiver includes a single board computer (SBC) with Ethernet capability, built in XML and HTML (internet enabled) file transfer protocols, and data storage capability. The web server interrogates the SBC from a standard web browser (MicroSoft’s Internet Explorer or Netscape’s Navigator) to receive multi-channel sensor data from the SBC in extensible mark-up language (XML) format." User manual and pricing online, currently $895 for wifi or ethernet base station, $395 for temperature/humidity node, $2495 for 3 node, base station and software."

Sat, 08 May 2004 00:07:34 GMT

How Secure Is Secure? Simple description of 802.11 and other signal processing, and how more advanced signal processing like direct-sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) can enhance security. In effect, the signal can disappear below the noise level, and only be detected by knowing where to look (which frequencies and time slots) in advance.

Wed, 05 May 2004 21:42:20 GMT

Expanded footprint:"Thuraya Satellite has announced that it has expanded its satellite telecommunications southward in Africa, thereby providing blanket coverage to Kenya, Uganda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Rwanda, Burundi, Angola, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, the Seychelles, Zimbabwe, and Tanzania...

Last October, Thuraya announced its imminent expansion into East and South East Asia by the end of this year, in response to high demand and growth opportunities in these new market segments. The expanded Far East footprint includes Brunei, Cambodia, China, East Timor, Indonesia, Japan, Lao, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, the Koreas, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore as well as large area of Eastern Russian Federation. " I wonder if rBgan will come with it, or if rBgan will remain only on the original satellite and footprint.

Wed, 05 May 2004 01:39:48 GMT

Diskless, Low-Form-Factor OpenBSD Systems: "In a previous article we built a tiny OpenBSD system out of a Soekris miniature PC, a bootstrap workstation, and a Compact Flash (CF) card. While this combination works nicely for many purposes, once you have Soekrii scattered all around your network, managing the CF cards can be annoying. Replacing the CF cards with a diskless boot system eases management problems. "

Tue, 04 May 2004 23:27:37 GMT

Lloyd's satellite constellations: "These pages form an index to useful web information discussing [Low Earth Orbit or LEO] satellite constellations. You won't gain a complete picture of what any proposed constellation is capable of, or really in-depth technical details, but you will gain an idea of what the developments in this area are, where the industry and technology is headed - and you will pick up background knowledge of satellites along the way. "

Mon, 03 May 2004 22:11:10 GMT

Smart Mobs: Phones, Radio, Elections in Ghana: "Ethan Zuckerman of Geekcorps notes at etcon panel that the last Ghana election "went considerably more smoothly than the last US national election" due to the use of cellphones and radio to report voting fraud: Whenever someone at a polling place reported fraud, the called the radio station, which broadcast it; the police had to check it out, not having the excuse that they didn't receive a report."

Mon, 03 May 2004 21:44:44 GMT

Pac Manhattan: "Pac-Manhattan is a large-scale urban game that utilizes the New York City grid to recreate the 1980's video game sensation Pac-Man. This analog version of Pac-man is being developed in NYU's Interactive Telecommunications graduate program, in order to explore what happens when games are removed from their "little world" of tabletops, televisions and computers and placed in the larger "real world" of street corners, and cities. A player dressed as Pac-man will run around the Washington square park area of Manhattan while attempting to collect all of the virtual "dots" that run the length of the streets. Four players dressed as the ghosts Inky, Blinky, Pinky and Clyde will attempt to catch Pac-man before all of the dots are collected. Using cell-phone contact, Wi-Fi internet connections, and custom software designed by the Pac-Manhattan team, Pac-man and the ghosts will be tracked from a central location and their progress will be broadcast over the internet for viewers from around the world. "

Mon, 03 May 2004 21:12:15 GMT

"Inverse Surveillance" -- What We Should Do With All Those Phonecams: Steve Mann's ideas of citizen "sousveillance" predated the cameraphone phenomena by nearly a decade. [He has] reknown as the longtime online cyborg. He started wearing computers and sent his "eyetap" camera images to the Web way back in 1994. His first reference to his activities as a new kind of newsgathering date back to the day in 1995 when he followed a fire truck to a fire and sent the pictures from his head-mounted camera to the Web ..

In 2000, Mann and his students streamed images directly to the Web when violence broke out at a demonstration by the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty. If you think about it, this kind of journalism is a breakthrough in at least one dimension: whenever police abused their power in past political demonstrations, they made a point of breaking or confiscating cameras. Whether you are a violent demonstrator or an abusive police officer, it doesn't do a lot of good to disguise your misbehavior by trashing a camera if it has already sent images to the Whole Wide World. ..

"Surveillance" is French for "watching from above," but Mann's ["sousveillance"] is French for "watching from below." If you think about it, there really is little that citizens can do at this point to prevent others from watching, listening, and tracking us – but we are beginning to get the tools to watch the watchers. Mann notes that surveillance is about authorities watching from on high, but sousveillance is a down-to-earth human's eye view; surveillance cameras are usually automatic devices statically mounted on the ceiling, but sousveillance is human-situated and eye-level; activities are surveilled by authorities but sousveilled by participants; surveillance is secret but sousveillance is public."

Here's a practical application: People For the American Way Election Protection: "Volunteer poll monitors make EP an effective advocate for voters and a powerful deterrent to those who would try to deny voters their rights. Trained by attorneys and armed with cell phones that connect them with a lawyers hotline, EP volunteers distribute the 'Voters Bill of Rights at the polls and identify and solve problems as they happen -- not after Election Day has passed." They say they will use cameras in cell phones when possible.

Mon, 03 May 2004 21:03:22 GMT

A Fine Mesh: "public safety organizations such as police and fire departments have emerged as the primary early market for mesh wireless systems. These organizations need instant, secure mobile data connections, but today they are stuck with multiple incompatible legacy systems that don't even provide the necessary capacity. With homeland security a pressing concern throughout the US, public safety agencies are in a position spend money on emerging technologies that solve difficult problems. Corporate and residential deployments may take longer,"

Mon, 03 May 2004 20:45:22 GMT

Electoral Smart Mobs in Kenya: "For the first time, we Kenyans have more or less agreed that this time we have had a fair election with the highest number of voters turning out to vote. One key instrument has been the mobile phone." Uses: Planning, Campaigning, and Results Dissemination.

"We in the ICT field know this is a best practice on how ICTs can help curb rigging, enhance transparency and keep people together. The two cell phone poviders were licensed less than five years ago and cover most of Kenya and have outstripped fixed lines government provider by more than 300% in that short period. Incidentally, no fixed lines were working in all the polling stations I visited further proving the maxim..Africa telecommunications development will be more wireless than fixed. "

Sat, 17 Apr 2004 22:48:21 GMT

Army Awards $32 Million Contract to Improve iRobot's PackBot: Nifty remote control "toy-like" tank. Uses WiFi, Linux, compact flash memory and video camera. Soldiers use it to examine and detonate bombs or mines. iRobot also makes the Roomba vacuum cleaner. The military spec version (400 G of force, sand and mud, 15 mph, etc) sells for $50,000 and up.

Sat, 17 Apr 2004 22:42:00 GMT

Creditel PowerSwipe: "Mobile sales pros, small businesses, and flea marketeers, take note: You can now use a cell phone to take credit card payments anywhere you have access to Nextel's wireless network. The Creditel PowerSwipe is a phone-based credit card machine that frees you from needing a landline to process transactions. .. Creditel claims its security technology makes the system more secure than an ATM machine." $250 plus $12/mo plus .15/transaction.

Sat, 17 Apr 2004 22:38:45 GMT

Danes tag kids with Bluetooth: "Copenhagen's famous Tivoli Gardens opened its gates today for the Summer season and, for the first time, mums and dads do not have to worry about their kids getting lost in one of the world's oldest amusement parks. Tivoli Gardens has introduced a Bluetooth surveillance system .. based on Bluetooth wristbands and 63 access points ..

Parents can buy a armlet for their child for DKK 20 (about $3). Should a child wander off, they merely have to send a SMS requesting information on the particular tag. Shortly thereafter they receive a message back specifying the location of the child's nearest Bluetooth receiver. The access points can pinpoint the location down to 20 metres."

Sat, 03 Apr 2004 07:04:22 GMT

Industrial control systems seen as 'undeniably vulnerable': "In a hearing yesterday on the security of Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition systems, which are used to manage infrastructure such as the electric power grid and oil and gas pipelines, Rep. Adam Putnam (R-Fla.) said the lack of a national strategy to deal with SCADA system security makes the nation "undeniably vulnerable" to cyberterrorism. Putnam is chairman of the House Subcommittee on Technology, Information Policy, Intergovernmental Relations and the Census.

"The more I've learned [about the lack of SCADA system security], the more concerned I've become," said Putnam. "I've learned that today's SCADA systems have been designed with little or no attention to computer security. Data are often sent as clear text; protocols for accepting commands are open, with no authentication required; and communications channels are often wireless, leased lines or the Internet." ..

Gerald Freese, director of information security at American Electric Power, said SCADA systems remain "open books" to any terrorist organization that wants to learn how to exploit them. In fact, U.S. energy companies assisted Pakistan in developing that country's SCADA and supporting telecommunications infrastructure. Modeling the Pakistani electric power infrastructure on the U.S., these companies used many of the same technologies and many of the same vendors to do the work, Freese said.

Richard Clarke and Howard Schmidt, the two former chairmen of the President's Critical Infrastructure Protection Board, acknowledged in interviews that raids conducted during the war on terrorism have uncovered evidence that al-Qaeda has been actively studying vulnerabilities in U.S. SCADA systems
"

Mon, 15 Mar 2004 16:14:09 GMT

WI-FI wireless revolution in South-Africa: A discussion on community wifi networking in South Africa, including tips on defying the regulators, on using wifi for 50km links, and on setting up neighborhood perimeter security systems with webcams and infra red motion detectors.

Sat, 13 Mar 2004 08:00:09 GMT

RFID and sensor tags for sale: "The RFID division of Mannings, a company located in Southport, Merseyside, England, has launched a new system of RFID tags and readers that can monitor machines used in industrial and manufacturing plants. The system features RFID two tag models—dubbed aTAG 1 and aTAG 2—with chips that can be configured to operate in any frequency ranging from 860 MHz to 920 MHz. The reader, which can accept signals from aTAG tags regardless of the chosen frequency, has a read range of up to 100 meters. Measuring 70mm by 64mm by 23mm in size, aTAG 1 has a total of 18 inputs (six analog and 12 digital) that can accept data from a variety of sensors; the smaller aTAG 2 has six (two analog and four digital).

Both tag models come with a temperature sensor, a battery, a battery-level sensor and a flash memory card that enables the configuration of the tag’s frequency and data transmission rate. The memory card also records the tag’s alarms settings for sending out alerts whenever a particular event happens. Battery life can last up to 10 years, depending on the signal and input frequency. The tags can also be wired to power source.

Each aTAG tag is identified by a unique algorithm that lets an aTAG reader pinpoint the tag’s location and, if the tag is moving, its direction of movement. The tag can by connected to temperature transducers, flow meters, pressure monitors, gas analyzers or other instruments that use 4 to 20 milliamp analog or digital I/O outputs. Once the reader receives the data transmitted by the tag, the data can be relayed to a PC or plant monitoring system using a standard RS232 cable.

Mannings and its partner, Handels Ock Konsulthuset Plefo AB, a company in Sweden, say the aTAG system can be integrated into existing building management systems, supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) software systems, or other monitoring software and is also compatible with wireless technology from Bluetooth. .. The aTAG readers and tags cost £40 to £180 (US$72 to US$324) each." The Mannings site has examples of readers for applications like livestock tracking.

Thu, 11 Mar 2004 17:34:15 GMT

Radio E-mail in West Africa: IRC uses a Codan-based HF radio email network, using Qmail and other open-source packages on salvaged computers. "The International Rescue Committee (IRC) has one of their largest operations in Guinea, providing services and support to a population of up to 200,000 refugees quartered in many camps established throughout the country. I became involved with IRC when my wife accepted the position of Country Director for the program in the summer of 2001. ..

The current result of our own Radio E-mail project is that we are now serving mail to over 50 desktops and 150 staff in four offices throughout Guinea. The entire wide area network is serviced behind a single public IP address, at a total ISP cost of $150(USD) per month. Based mostly on existing hardware, the Radio E-mail project has leaped boundaries and opened dialogs for its users that were previously not possible. Best of all, the system has deployed standard network and internet technologies throughout the organization and throughout Guinea utilizing the freely available, best of breed, borderless open-source technologies." Reference is also made to MAFlink, a Christian missionary networking organization with HF, Satphone, and dialup services. They operate HF email networks in Congo, Mali, Haiti, Ecuador and West Papua.

Tue, 17 Feb 2004 21:45:47 GMT

wire.less.dk "is a highly specialized independent team of experts in wireless and internet technology, working with business customers as well as non-profit projects, e.g. community networks and ICT initiatives for the developing world. " They offer the autonokit: "the idea of the autonokit is, to bring together affordable, available wireless and solar standard technology, (hardware and software) test and optimize it for usage under adverse mobile conditions in order to produce a kit for inexpensive and autonomous internet access. "

Tue, 17 Feb 2004 21:22:23 GMT

Low power, low datarate: chip aims for medical implants: "The AMIS-52100 transceiver is the latest member of the low-datarate ASTRIC (application specific transmit and receive IC) product family from AMI Semiconductor. The new chip appeals to sub-500MHz-band wireless applications that require clock and data recovery, and is particularly suited to medical implantable devices. Targeting the FDA's Medical Implantable Communications Systems (MICS) standard and European standards for ultra-low-power active medical implants (ULP-AMIs), the device is optimised for operation in the 402-405MHz frequency band. The band outlines a specific radio frequency range for two-way communication between medical devices to retrieve important information about a patient's status with improved data transfer rates... The AMIS-52100 will be priced at $1.95 in quantities of 50 thousand units, assuming a 20-lead SSOP. Samples and evaluation kits will be available in March 2004. The product is immediately available for ASIC integration. "

Markets "for things like heart pacemarkers and defibrillators is $5.1 billion, growing 10% per year, while that for hearing aids is $2.6 billion. Some of the best solutions now available for grabbing a share of that market involve "low-power, low-data-rate wireless technology" based on "a stand-alone transceiver IC."

Mon, 16 Feb 2004 06:49:59 GMT

Solar wireless road devices: "There are "wireless applications that are also emerging that aren’t personal, but may eventually constitute as important a market—self-powered, embedded, networked, wireless devices. Like the ones that SPOT Devices Inc is bringing to market. ..Road Spot, their product, integrates high-efficiency solar cells with ultra-bright light emitting diodes (LEDs) to create a completely self-contained inroad light that flashes brightly upon activation. Unlike existing inroad lighting solutions, Road Spots install easily without trenching or saw-cutting road surfaces. Furthermore, since Road Spots do not need wiring or external power, they can be used in a multitude of locations. All of which makes them dramatically less costly than existing solutions. .. provide pedestrians about to enter a crosswalk with warning of [They can] approaching vehicles, and can give motorists advanced warning for road crossings, stop lights..

Road Spots communicate with a controller, and with each other, over 2.4GHz, which makes them easy to control, customize, and upgrade—without ever having to dig up the roadway. Even more importantly, wireless communication provides alerts about battery changes or replacement, as well as providing a copious database of operational statistics, such as how often each unit flashes, and how traffic varies by day and by time of time—data that’s otherwise extremely expensive to obtain."

Once on the net, why not these apps: "as part of automated farming solutions, for municipal airports who are currently limited to daylight hours of operation because they can’t afford to install runway lighting, concert venue traffic control, automated parking meter payment, and many more. Not to mention many potential military and homeland security and surveillance applications.""

Sun, 01 Feb 2004 06:53:57 GMT

Sensors of the World, Unite!: Good intro to this topic, quoting an Alun Anderson Economist article, and providing other references. "Another information revolution is emerging, driven by billions of tiny and intelligent sensors able to self-organize into scalable and fault-tolerant networks. Taken individually, these sensors have small brains, but using billions of them is an entirely other story."

Sun, 01 Feb 2004 06:39:08 GMT

Wireless Networks as a Low-Cost, Decentralized Alternative for the Developing World: "Krag's presentation describes the Wireless Roadshow plan: "By teaching the skills with hands-on training, and at the same time building wireless networks in the countries we visit, we hope not only to raise awareness and heighten skillsets, but also gain the experience necessary to build a central repository of documentation and tools, targeted specifically at the developing world." Tomas Krag and Sebastian Büettrich wrote an O'Reilly introduction to Wireless Mesh Networking .

Fri, 30 Jan 2004 00:30:03 GMT

Project 25 (P25): Standards For Public Safety Radio Communications: "TIA is acting as a catalyst for the wireless industry to develop and maintain Public Safety standards for digital equipment and systems that will assist the life-saving and damage-control activities of first-responders at the scene of an emergency or disaster situation. This activity, known as Project 25 (P25), is supported by Industry, Government Agencies and Public Safety Communications Officials alike; including the Department of Homeland Security's National Communications System (NCS), the Department of Defense and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). ..

Recognizing the need for common standards for First Responders and Homeland Security/Emergency Response professionals, representatives from the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials International (APCO), the National Association of State Telecommunications Directors (NASTD), selected Federal Agencies and the National Communications System (NCS) established Project 25 (P25), a steering committee for selecting voluntary common system standards for digital public safety radio communications. TIA TR-8 facilitates such work through its role as the ANSI-accredited Standards Development Organization (SDO), and has developed in TR-8 the 102." Many links to documents and discussion groups on that page and here. Many other groups and projects are easy to find.

Fri, 30 Jan 2004 00:26:41 GMT

Project MESA - Mobile Broadband for Public Safety: "Project MESA is an international partnership producing globally applicable technical specifications for digital mobile broadband technology, aimed initially at the sectors of public safety and disaster response."

Thu, 29 Jan 2004 23:51:58 GMT

FITTEST - WFP Fast IT & Telecommunications Emergency and Support Team: "ICT is the backbone of modern humanitarian work. It is important that all humanitarian workers in Iraq are aware of how to make proper use of radio telecommunications, particularly for organisational and personal security. The United Nations has a common services approach to this issue which includes all UN agencies and is extended to the NGO community." This is the forward edge of the WFP FieldComms group. HIC - Photo Gallery of Iraq work and brochure online.

Wed, 28 Jan 2004 20:38:08 GMT

Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "Dutch firm Philips Electronics said on Monday it was preparing to mass-produce a slim, book-sized display panel onto which consumers could download newspapers and magazines -- then roll up and put away. The 5-inch display, which can show detailed images, can be rolled up into a pen-sized holder. .. Philips said it had created the displays using electronics circuits made of plastics, which power a monochrome display created with technology from E Ink, a privately-held U.S. company from Cambridge, Massachusetts. "We can produce this in batches. It's no longer a research project. We're going to build a pilot line that should be ready in 2005 to make one million displays a year," a spokesman at Philips Research said. Europe's largest maker of consumer electronics and lighting has already shown prototypes of a glass-based E Ink display which will be in the shops later this year. That sort of screen, used in pocket computers, can cost tens of dollars apiece." E-Ink has been under development for years. It requires much less power than LCD panels and works better outdoors or using ambient light, so it's likely to have wide application where power is short. Black and white only for now.

Mon, 26 Jan 2004 23:44:32 GMT

Bhutan VoIP Project Report: "A pilot project to use wireless and VoIP technologies to deliver communication services to rural areas in Bhutan, a small Himalayan Kingdom, was completed with encouraging results. Once initial problems with radio interference from other sources were solved the 802.11b radio network became reliable. This allowed the VoIP equipment to be tuned to accommodate the more variable nature of a wireless network as compared to a wired one. International calls through the PSTN were hampered by a slightly non standard R2 protocol spoken by the local switch. This underscores the importance of adhering to open standards when many subsystems must work together."

Mon, 26 Jan 2004 07:30:50 GMT

Best Western hotels to install free high-speed Internet chainwide: "Best Western International Inc. will offer free high-speed Internet in all 2,300 of its hotels in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean, its chief executive said Friday. "It's the No. 1 amenity requested by virtually everyone, especially businesspeople, said Tom Higgins, CEO and president of the Phoenix-based hotel chain. "High-speed Internet for free is going to be where it's at."

Only about 10 to 15% of Best Western hotels currently have high-speed access, but Higgins said it will be available chainwide by September. "Come Sept. 1, when you see a Best Western sign, you'll know they have it. That's the comfort we want to provide for the traveling public," he said.

In each of the hotels, at least 15% of the guest rooms and public areas will have high-speed Internet access. The company will also make wireless cards available at the front desk for guests who are in rooms without hard wiring. Additionally, the hotel's corporate office will make a toll-free number available around-the-clock for guests who have difficulty connecting to the Internet.

Higgins predicts that other hotels will also be forced to offer free service eventually because travelers have become so dependent on e-mail and Internet services. "Everybody is going to be here. It's just a matter of how soon they're going to get there," he said. "

Thu, 15 Jan 2004 06:16:58 GMT

Nanotubes Detect Nerve Gas: "Naval Research Laboratory researchers have found that carbon nanotubes are sensitive to extremely small concentrations—less than one part per billion—of chemical nerve agents. .. The researchers worked out a simple procedure to fabricate nanotube-based sensors from random networks of single-walled carbon nanotubes and used a prototype to detect dimethyl methylphosphonate, which simulates the nerve agent sarin. The networks of nanotubes form transistors; the presence of a nerve agent increases the nanotubes' resistance to electricity.

The sensors are very inexpensive, require very little power, and could be used to detect sub-parts-per-billion concentrations of nerve agents, other chemical warfare agents, and other toxic chemicals, according to the researchers. They made a prototype sensor contained in a quartz tube one-eighth of an inch wide by two inches long.

The researchers also showed that the nanotube network sensors can be combined with filters coated with polymers that are sensitive to certain chemicals to make sensors that detect specific chemicals. Arrays of the sensors could be incorporated into handheld or remotely-operated devices designed to detect a variety of substances, according to the researchers. Carbon nanotube sensors could become practical within two to five years, according to the researchers. "

Fri, 09 Jan 2004 07:37:02 GMT

Monitoring the Beach House: How remote Internet sensors are being deployed in second homes: "OzVision, an Israeli company that opened an office in Massachusetts in 2002, offers closed-circuit-video and still-photo systems. (The images generated by these kinds of systems can be monitored by the homeowner or by a security company.)" Temperature and security sensors, fire alarms, and remote control of air conditioning or heating are also mentioned. Luxury yachts get specialized systems. Assurance of electric supply is sometimes difficult, so notices of power loss are also important.

Property managers have systems: "Using a Web- and telephone-based program, Timothy Cafferty, the president and general manager of ResortQuest Outer Banks can now warn thousands of people at once that a hurricane is coming, giving them 90 seconds of evacuation instructions over the telephone and requesting that they press a button to confirm that the message was received." They used to make up to 4800 phone calls per hurricane.

Fri, 02 Jan 2004 17:31:23 GMT

Boost for rural UK broadband: "Just before Christmas, the Department of Trade and Industry said it would let internet service providers and community groups use the 5.8Ghz Band C spectrum. .. The Ministry of Defence had resisted opening up the spectrum because it has radar systems operating in Band C of the 5GHz part of the spectrum.

As from 5 January, groups can apply for licences to use the radio frequency from the new communications regulator, Ofcom. The fees have been kept deliberately low, with a cost of £1 per net terminal, subject to a minimum of annual charge of £50. "

Tue, 23 Dec 2003 22:24:48 GMT

Parkervision WLAN adaptors: Products that promise 1 mile open field access, from a $200 access point and $100 PCcards or USB adapters. Compatible with 802.11b and 802.11g as well. Proprietary technology extends the range between their AP and their adaptor.

Wed, 17 Dec 2003 08:58:07 GMT

Engineers Work on 'Smart' Bridges, Roads: "Though still unfinished, the Star City bridge is already loaded with 770 finely tuned sensors, 28 data-collection boxes and a central unit called the brain. Together, they make up what Shoukry says is the smartest bridge in the world. "Smart" bridges and roads that communicate with their makers through built-in sensors are becoming more common as engineers worldwide try to determine whether long-held construction assumptions are correct or whether there are better ways to build. ..

West Virginia's demonstration projects have yielded results. On the Corridor H project, the state learned that concrete slabs 20 feet long are prone to crack, while those 15 feet are not. The state of Pennsylvania, which had problems with cracks on Interstate 81, is changing its slab length based on those results, Roush says. "

Thu, 11 Dec 2003 17:15:30 GMT

Bandwidth Arbitrator: "The Linux Bandwidth Arbitrator was designed specifically to enhance response times for email, chat, and web clients on heavily used networks. Users who consistently download large files are automatically scaled back. This utility has been proven by over 2000 customers to greatly enhance the perceived speed of their networks."

Tue, 02 Dec 2003 02:16:24 GMT

Ready to make a great leap forward: Nice review of Boston-area innovators in energy, sensors, RFID, 3d displays, RNAi, and implanted medical devices.

Wed, 26 Nov 2003 23:52:35 GMT

DIY Solar Electricity: Kits of micro-PV for battery charging and operating electronics in developing countries. Used by micropower advocates in India.

Sun, 09 Nov 2003 09:19:06 GMT

What is an EPIRB ?: "EPIRB stands for Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon. .. This page is intended to explain what is an EPIRB and to work out the advantages or disadvantages of the different EPIRB-systems: 121,5-MHz-ELT, 406-MHz-EPIRB and Inmarsat-E-EPIRBs. The When activated, an EPIRB transmits a distress call which is picked up or relayed by satellites and transmitted via land earth stations to rescue services. There are basically three types of EPIRBs with distinct, important differences.. " These have been used for maritime wildlife tracking, military distress signals, and other applications.

Sun, 09 Nov 2003 08:45:19 GMT

ACeS - ASIA Cellular Satellite: Satphone of choice in South and East Asia. "ACeS sells its services through its National Service Provider (NSP). ACeS NSPs may own gateways in their respective countries and also issue ACeS Satellite/GSM SIM cards with their own brand. ACeS and/or the NSP will appoint distributors or sales agents out of its NSP country to market the ACeS service." Prices 30-50 cents per minute, not that much more than roaming charges in some markets. With an asset tracking system: "ACeS, announces the launch of ACeS-i its Asset Tracking and Fleet Management (ATFM) sevices in Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines. With ACeS-i, you can control and manage any asset anywhere in Asia, under ACeS Garuda-1 satellite coverage."

Thu, 30 Oct 2003 08:39:12 GMT

Brazil delays payment to Raytheon for jungle radars: "The decision by Brazil's government came after delays in the development of a very high frequency (VHF) radio system by Raytheon to serve the $1.4 billion system that monitors drug runners, loggers, and other illegal activities in the Amazon...

It was not clear how this would hinder the full functioning of Sivam, the vast majority of which is already up and running. The Air Force spokesman said that for now personnel were using inferior technology radios. The largest system of its kind in the world, it combines radars, control centers, and aircraft with sensors to create a surveillance web that can monitor illegal deforestation to incursions by unidentified aircraft into Brazil's Amazon.

Raytheon is developing a new radio system which would be especially adapted to the jungle conditions of the Amazon. Perlini said final tests of the radio system would now take place in the first quarter of next year and be fully operational in the second quarter. The Air Force spokesman said only 19 of the 27 radios were currently in place at jungle command centers, which would ultimately improve contact with monitoring aircraft. Perlini said the VHF system was the final part of a huge monitoring system. "It is one part of a very large and complex system," she said. "You know the Amazon is two-thirds the size of the U.S. and you have less roads than in the state of Maine; that adds to the complexity." "

Fri, 17 Oct 2003 17:35:28 GMT

VSAT services finding new customers: 2002 summary of changes in satellite IP markets:

90% of new customers request IP support
"By supporting IP and standardizing certain parts of the technology, [service providers] can deploy two-way VSAT networks with [customer-premises equipment] that costs $500 to $600," Baugh says. He says this would be the floor of the market with users paying about $70 to $200 per month, per site for service for perhaps 128K bit/sec worth of bandwidth.
Gilat's Spacenet Connexstar costs $119 per month for 128K bit/sec upstream and 500K bit/sec downstream with a one-time equipment cost of $1,000.
Hughes is the leading provider of VSAT services in North America with Directway. Starband and Tacyon also sell VSAT Internet access services to individual users. These offerings [appeal to new customers "such as real estate agencies and veterinarian offices"
In the past, most VSAT service providers were interested only in deployments that reached thousands of sites, but there has been a change of philosophy within many providers. Traditional VSAT networks are built based on the amount of bandwidth a company needs and the number of sites that will share that bandwidth. Classic app: reduce the time credit for card authorization, eg "from 15 sec down to 3 sec... A group of 500 stores could share a 128K bit/sec satellite channel and not experience any delays because of the small amount of traffic that's being sent over the network, even though it's regularly used." Price: for 4000 stations, perhaps $60/mo/station, for hundreds of sites, perhaps $100/mo/station.

Tue, 07 Oct 2003 01:44:46 GMT

Lockheed Martin wins airship competition: The PV-powered helium UAV can "loiter with a 4,000lb (1,814kg) multimission payload in quasi geostationary orbit at altitudes around 65,000ft for periods much greater than contemporary unmanned air vehicles. This could be up to a month with a planned prototype unit and approaching a year for an operational variant. Yet, unlike a satellite, the airship could return to base for maintenance.

Lockheed Martin's highly autonomous, helium-filled design is 152.4m long, 48.7m in diameter, with a volume of 1.5 million m3, said Ronald Browning, the company's director of surveillance systems business development. It carries four electric motors with vectorable large twin-bladed propellers, two on each side of the vehicle [with] high strength-to-weight ratio materials for the airship's skin and thin-film photovoltaic cells to generate power [for] propulsion and the 10 kilowatts necessary to operate the airship's payload.

The company is now under a $40 million contract to mature its airship design through a critical design review in mid-2004. "

Sun, 05 Oct 2003 08:00:47 GMT

Sensor Webs Deployments: NASA's installations, including 3 farms and one marine lagoon.

Sun, 05 Oct 2003 07:56:39 GMT

ZigBee Standard Approved By IEEE: "The ZigBee standard, now officially known as 802.15.4, specifies the physical and media-access control (MAC) layers for the network, which can transfer data at rates up to 250 Kbits per second. The specification defines three throughput levels: 250 Kbits/s at 2.4 GHz, using 10 channels; 40 Kbits/s at 915-MHz, using 6 channels; and 20 Kbits/s at 868 MHz using a single channel. The technology can tranfer data at ranges up to 75 meters, depending on the power used and the transmission environment."

Sun, 05 Oct 2003 07:21:05 GMT

RFID Journal - Peer-to-Peer: RFID's Killer App?: "A small Finnish company has taken a novel approach to solving that problem. Stockway has developed a peer-to-peer network that enables companies to share real-time data about products, regardless of the kind of RFID tag used on them. "We don’t track information as such, we track where information can be found," says Lion Benjamins, Stockway's marketing director. .. Stockway's system doesn't create a centralized directory where people can go to find out where files are stored. Instead, Stockway makes the product the center of the system. When a tag is scanned with an WWAI-enabled reader, it lets users know which private network within the system is being used and where distributed information about the product is stored. ..

Another advantage is the system can use any kind of RFID tag or even bar codes. It doesn’t solve the problem of needing standardized tags because business partners sharing information need to be able to scan the same tag. But partners could use the software to begin sharing data today with existing tags and readers, while waiting for their industry to agree on a standard tag. .. The system will have to compete with the Auto-ID Center's EPC Network, which also aims to use the Internet to enable companies to share data, though in a more centralized way. "

Sun, 05 Oct 2003 07:08:54 GMT

Followit GPS+GSM: "With help from a cell phone or Internet can you position your object. Taxi companies, transport companies, car rent and even insurance companies can use the transponder in a wide range. .. Telia, a Swedish phone company, think that more than half of the mobile phone traffic is going to be computer traffic." It's called "matchbox sized", but looks about the same size as a cell phone. Another story : "Called Followit, the £700 device was invented by Olaf Lundberg, a Swede who lost his dog while moose hunting. Mr Lundberg's brainwave was to find a way of squeezing the workings of a GPS satellite navigation receiver and a mobile phone with a battery and two aerials into a box that he could strap to his dog's collar... "At first he sold it through hunting magazines, but then he found it was being used by truck companies to monitor the movement of their drivers through Sweden," .. In a demonstration seen by The Daily Telegraph, the device tracked the position of a car to the street in Winchester where the car was parked, even giving details of the nearest house number. Followit is now being sold to parents who want to keep tabs on their children, pet owners, private investigators, car hire firms, yacht owners, haulage companies, and travellers concerned about losing their luggage. It is also being offered to lone workers, such as community nurses, who can use its panic button if they are attacked."

Sun, 05 Oct 2003 06:48:47 GMT

Back to the Future: New Wi-Fi Bridges Use 1999 Standard [Aug. 28, 2003]: Technical description of WDS bridging that is simple and effective. Summary from the author: "Apple and Buffalo, to name two, allow their access points to work as APs and bridges simultaneously, which can let you create a cloud of access instead of a little pool. It also reduces costs. In a shocking discovery, which I write about in this article, you can use Buffalo and Apple equipment together in WDS mode. Buffalo's roughly $100 access point (WLA-G54) pairs with Apple's $200-$250 AirPort Extreme Base Station, which has all the gateway features you need."

Sat, 27 Sep 2003 01:23:10 GMT

WorldWater Inaugurates Solar Municipal Water System in Cebu, Philippines: "WorldWater the Municipality of Ronda, Cebu, Philippines, will inaugurate the world's first solar powered, prepaid municipal water distribution system on September 27 in Ronda. Former Philippines President Fidel V. Ramos will be the keynote speaker. Ronda is located on the southwest coast of Cebu, an island in the middle group of the Philippine archipelago.

For the first time, a municipal water distribution system utilizes smart card technology as a financing solution for community water production and to remove problems associated with the payment collection process. The Ronda system uses WorldWater's proprietary AquaCard(TM) (Smart Card) debit card system, which operates directly with WorldWater's AquaMeter(TM) solar pumping stations throughout the community. The project was made possible by a commercial loan from the Philippine National Bank (PNB), and required no special subsidies or grants. "

Wed, 17 Sep 2003 20:53:25 GMT

Inverter FAQ - All you ever wanted to know about inverters for solar electric systems. Good reference. Using its recommended manufacturers and models, http://froogle.google.com can find the parts and prices, like this 150w unit for $60, or this 1000w unit for $500.

Thu, 11 Sep 2003 05:44:09 GMT

SolarOne Products and Consulting: "Solar Dynamics announced today the availability of an integrated water purification package for its Harvester mobile solar generator. Each unit is capable of purifying 300 to 1,400 gallons of water per day at a cost of under ½ a cent per gallon, generated solely by the power of the sun. The package can deliver drinking water sufficient for the basic daily needs of 150 to 700 people, whether in response to emergency situations, humanitarian relief efforts, peacekeeping endeavors or micro-enterprise development. A purification package was recently shipped to Sweet Unity Farms in Bara, Tanzania, where it will purify the river water for over 50 families." Other products include small panels for battery rechargng, a personal portable system, and the Harvester module for adaptation to remote site needs.

Fri, 15 Aug 2003 22:03:40 GMT

The Crossbow MDA300CA Enviromental Data Acquisition Card: "is designed to interace directly with remote sensors like Soil Moisture, Humidity, Temperature, Wind Speed, Wind Direction, and Leaf Wetness. .. for Agricultural applications such as Irrigation Management, Early Frost Warning, Pesticide and Fertilizer Application.

Supports Remote Environmental Sensors including Soil Moisture, Humidity, Temperature, Wind Speed, Wind Direction and more. Developed at UCLA’s Center for Networked Embedded Sensing." UCLA Data collection software is available. Crossbow sensor and software kits available online for under $2000.

Fri, 15 Aug 2003 21:54:37 GMT

BW: The Sensor Revolution: "Sensor networks promise a mammoth extension of the Internet. To date, the Web has been a showcase for the human brain. It specializes in the words, numbers, music, and images that mankind produces. With sensors, the network stretches to the far vaster field of global activity. This means such networks can cover every single thing that moves, grows, makes noise, or heats up. ..

York International (YRK ) Corp., which manages ventilation systems for more than 60,000 customers, plans over the next five years to install hundreds of thousands of networked sensors on its clients' air-conditioning units. These will monitor temperatures and automatically send updates to York's offices. That should lighten the workload for York's 2,000 technicians, boosting productivity by as much as 15%.. Tyco Thermal Controls LLC is turning to wireless sensors to cut down on the cost of laying wires in its pipe-heating systems. Such wiring accounts for two-thirds of the expense of installing monitoring systems. During the next three months, Tyco plans to launch customer tests."

Fri, 15 Aug 2003 21:51:30 GMT

MICA: The Commercialization of Microsensor Motes: Profile of architecture of Crossbow sensors and their networks. "The first commercial generation of this platform was dubbed the Rene Mote,´and several thousand of these sensors have been deployed at commercial and research institutions worldwide to promote the development and application of wireless sensor networks. The platform’s development community is based on the open-source model.. Most development work is done in the public domain, and it includes the hardware design and software source code. .. Although there’s no official consortium, the current community includes U.C. Berkeley, U.C. Los Angeles, Intel Research Labs, Robert Bosch Corp., U.S. Air Force Research Labs, Crossbow Technology, and others. ..

MICA developers and U.S. Air Force Research Labs used the new technology to create a wireless sensor network at the 29 Palms Marine base .. An unmanned aircraft dropped about 30 wireless magnetic sensors along a road. The sensors were packaged in a thin layer of foam to protect them from the hard landing on the desert floor. Once safely on the ground, the sensors formed a wireless network and began looking for magnetic anomalies. As a vehicle passed by the sensors, they would detect the vehicle from its magnetic signature. As the vehicle continued along the network, the engineers were able to estimate the vehicle’s speed and direction. The unmanned aircraft returned overhead to collect the data from the network and transmit them to the remote operation command headquarters. The entire development of the application, including the demonstration, took fewer than 60 days."

Tue, 12 Aug 2003 00:41:37 GMT

Iridium service for telementry: "Iridium Short Burst Data (SBD) service is a new data service that enables value-added applications to send and receive short data transactions efficiently over the Iridium network." Designed for resellers to integrate into internet-based services.

Mon, 04 Aug 2003 22:58:06 GMT

Revolutionizing Science and Engineering Through Cyberinfrastructure: Executive summary of NSF Blue Ribbon Advisory Panel report. "The Panel's overarching finding is that a new age has dawned in scientific and engineering research, pushed by continuing progress in computing, information, and communication technology, and pulled by the expanding complexity, scope, and scale of today's challenges. The capacity of this technology has crossed thresholds that now make possible a comprehensive “cyberinfrastructure” on which to build new types of scientific and engineering knowledge environments and organizations and to pursue research in new ways and with increased efficacy."

Mon, 04 Aug 2003 22:49:21 GMT

Redwoods go high tech, and High-tech trees take their own temperature: Berkeley researchers use new wireless motes in forest research: "For years, Dawson's research on the moisture that giant redwoods absorb from fog has involved the installation of 30 pounds of gear - including data loggers, sensors and wires - onto trees that stand 300 feet tall in the redwood groves of Santa Cruz and Sonoma counties. Each [new] wireless sensor, or micromote, measures less than three cubic inches and is capable of transmitting radio signals at 50 kilobytes per second. .. "These devices need to run for months on a size C battery, streaming a variety of environmental data out of the trees for data processing," said Culler. ..

The old, industrial-age sensors cost $3,000, while the Mica sensors -- made by Crossbow Technologies of Santa Clara using UC Berkeley technology -- cost about $250 each. The motes accurately chart temperatures and humidity and show the profound differences between tree tops and branches near the bottom.. Other sensors to be added include one equipped with a tiny probe to measure the interior temperature of the tree and the velocity and quantity of water flowing inside the tree.. "

The redwood grove used in the test are at the UC Botanical Garden in Strawberry Canyon. The researchers plan to expand the wireless network later this year to include redwood groves in Big Basin Redwoods State Park in Santa Cruz County and at a site in Sonoma County.

Project Leader is "David Culler, a UC Berkeley professor of computer science, and his researchers, along with a team led by UC Berkeley computer scientist Kris Pister, who calls the technology "smart dust." While Pister's team worked to make the motes smaller and smaller, Culler wrote an operating system for the tiny computers onboard. He called it "tinyOS." .. Other researchers on the project include Robert Szewczyk and Joe Polastre, UC Berkeley graduate students in electrical engineering and computer sciences, and Wei Hong and David Gay, researchers at the Intel Research Berkeley laboratory. "

Companies: In addition to Crossbow Technologies, "one San Jose company, Digital Sun, is marketing a sensor system designed for gardeners that monitors temperature and soil moisture and waters the plants when they need it. A Massachusetts company, Sensicast Systems, is also marketing tinyOS sensor systems. Bosch and Honeywell are also looking into wireless sensor nets. Wineries are very interested in the possibility of precisely monitoring areas or plants within vineyards, and several are working with Intel on a project. "

Mon, 04 Aug 2003 05:34:34 GMT

World Officials Agree to Share Ecology Data: "Officials from more than 30 countries agreed today to expand monitoring of the atmosphere, the oceans and the land and to create a system for sharing the resulting data. At a meeting here organized by the Bush administration, the officials said the goal of the 10-year effort was to fill in big gaps, primarily in developing countries, in the network of instruments recording earth's vital signs. The resulting benefits, like better crop and weather forecasts, are to be shared by rich and poor countries alike. .. At the meeting here, administration officials said Mr. Bush had committed $25 million as a matching contribution to help developing countries link up to the global network for tracking what Donald L. Evans, the commerce secretary, called "the heartbeat of Mother Earth.""

Thu, 24 Jul 2003 06:21:42 GMT

ICP Global Technologies - Portable Power Products: "For people on the go, finding power for portable electronics is not always as easy as it seems. ICP has now made it possible to run a variety of portable electronics whenever and wherever you need them most. All you need is sunlight." Interesting selection of small DC units that can suction-cup onto vehicle windows, roll-up or fold-up units suitable for backpacking, and larger framed units, most of which can daisy chain up to required power levels. With good packaging for recharging batteries and electronics (cell phones, laptops, etc). Site has links to resellers like batterycentral.com.

Tue, 22 Jul 2003 07:09:15 GMT

Apple Co-Founder Creates Electronic ID Tags: "Mr. Wozniak described WozNet as a simple and inexpensive wireless network that uses radio signals and global positioning satellite data to keep track of a cluster of inexpensive tags within a one- or two-mile radius of each base station. WozNet, he said, will include a home-base station that has the ability to track the location of dozens or even hundreds of small wireless devices that can be attached to people, pets or property. The tags, expected to cost less than $25 each to produce, will be able to generate alerts, notifying the owner by phone or e-mail message when a child arrives at school, a dog leaves the yard or a car leaves the parking lot. " The tags encrypt data, and send at rates under 20kpbs, via any nearby base station, allowing a neighbor's base station, or a community one, to report on your tags.

Wed, 09 Jul 2003 22:34:17 GMT

Waverider: Canadian maker of unlisenced 900 Mhz non-line-of-sight wireless gear. For example, the LMS4000 has "Over-the-air data rate of 2.75 Mbps and access speeds of up to 2.0 Mbps; Operates in the 902 - 928 MHz license-exempt ISM frequency bands; Range of up to 2 miles with indoor antenna, up to 25 miles (40 km) with outdoor antenna."

Wed, 09 Jul 2003 22:24:30 GMT

vivato sells wifi "switches" that use phased array antenna technology to extend the reach of wifi to 1 km indoors and 4 km outdoors. A typical unit is flat, 1m x 1.5m, $9000 indoors and $14000 outdoors. "Subscriber" equipment is ordinary wifi. In June 2003, they raised an additional $45m from VCs.

Wed, 11 Jun 2003 07:38:41 GMT

The Toughest Tablet: "the GoBook Tablet, which weighs in at less than four pounds and sports an Intel Pentium III processor running at 866 megahertz and optimized for low power consumption. Built with mobile field workers in mind, it can withstand rain, snow, extreme temperatures, dust, shock, vibration and exposure to chemicals. That goes above and beyond usual annoyances like a spilled drink or a casual drop.

Aside from that, it's able to maintain three distinct wireless networking connections at once. Depending on your needs, it can connect to Wi-Fi wireless networks, Bluetooth, and wireless phone networks like CDMA and GPRS networks all at once. The standard configuration includes a 30-gigabyte hard drive and 640 megabytes of memory. It will ship in September with a starting price of $2,995, which is higher than other tablets."

Tue, 10 Jun 2003 03:14:24 GMT

SpeedStream.com: Siemens powerline networking that includes a powerline-to-wifi gateway.

Sun, 08 Jun 2003 06:35:44 GMT

Axis Network Cameras: Frequently cited source of ethernet IP cameras, $280 and up.

Thu, 05 Jun 2003 20:37:29 GMT

Human Edge Tech: purveyor of equipment and stories about tech in austere conditions. North Pole expedition blog. NYT article. ".. the Defense Department and firefighting groups were tracking their work with the idea that such methods might be adapted to reduce accidental troop casualties or to track emergency workers in buildings or in dense smoke. Other options allow the outside world to track a trekker's movements. An explorer might, for example, take along a small transmitter like those used to monitor the migrations of rare wildlife, from elephant seals off Patagonia to the reclusive forest elephants of the Congo basin. A French company, CLS, uses satellite networks to monitor the position and condition of explorers carrying the device. The version used by adventurers can send 10 different signals and, with prearranged codes, alert a support team to changing conditions.."

Wed, 04 Jun 2003 05:51:06 GMT

Wireless Mt. Washington: "A Web cam would be a boon to the hikers and skiers. "Sometimes it's snowing up there when it's a perfectly sunny day down below [in North Conway]," Zakon says. "And you get some amazing cloud cover up there." If it was properly done, if it could show enough detail, a Web cam might even be useful in helping guide rescuers to avalanche survivors. The Observatory secured a government grant to install a Web cam that would show the ravine. Observatory members who use the recreation facilities on the mountain also chipped in. Securing funds was the easy part, though. It was left up to Zakon to solve the real problems: how to provision and power a communications link 6,000 feet up a desolate mountain." Solar powered wifi (5 mile range) was the answer, along with special cameras and power controllers.

Wed, 04 Jun 2003 03:42:47 GMT

Honda small field generators: 1 or 2 kw output AC, very low noise My father in law uses the 1 kw unit, the only model permitted in Australian national parks for the low noise and emissions. It's designed to run electronics. It throttles back the fuel usage to match the electric load; uses 2.5 litres of gasoline per 12 hours, plus .5 litres oil per 50 hours. Weighs 13 kg, costs US $800 in Australia.

Wed, 04 Jun 2003 00:49:16 GMT

Global VSAT Forum: Interesting collection of papers on VSAT applications.

Sat, 31 May 2003 05:22:51 GMT

deltathree - The IP Communications Network: "deltathree's products and services can be accessed via a wide range of devices." Recc'd by a satcom provider in the middle east. Also, Go2Call lists many devices: "Use any IP phone/gateway. We recommend these:

Cisco ATA 186/188, 827, 17xx, 26xx, 36xx, 53xx Gateways
Cisco IP phones (e.g. 7960)
Pingtel Xpressa
COM21 VOXport 2020
Quintum Tenor
Elanza Webphone
Welltech
Formosa
Elesign ESC series "

Fri, 30 May 2003 00:35:00 GMT

Applications at Vovida.org: "The Vovida Open Communication Application Library (VOCAL) is an open source project targeted at facilitating the adoption of VoIP .. The software in VOCAL includes a SIP based Redirect Server, Feature Server, Provisioning Server, Policy Server and Marshal Proxy along with protocol translators from SIP to H.323 and SIP to MGCP." Listed in a directory of VOIP products and applications.

Wed, 28 May 2003 18:14:52 GMT

Balloons for broadband: "The system works by floating a helium-filled envelope in the air, which is held stationary and fed signals via a fibre optic [tether cable]. Such a system would offer net access at more than double the speed of most broadband services currently available. " 18 balloons would cover all of Britain. Each balloon hovers 1.5 km up, covering 2000 sq miles (40 km radius), 1-10 mbps subscriber rate, 30,000 subscribers. Company: Skylinc.

Wed, 07 May 2003 21:50:37 GMT

Linux Terminal Server Project: LTSP is open source software for "diskless workstations that boot from a network server. The LTSP is all about running thin client computers in a GNU/Linux environment." Converts minimal old PC's with no disks and bootable network cards to thin linux clients. Good for cheap used gear, should require less power as well. Happy user in Philippines reported in Jan 2003. Full manual available in English, Spanish, 3 other languages.

Wed, 07 May 2003 21:48:05 GMT

Neoware thin client products: Makers of thin clients, some of which have embedded IE browsers. Also sells ThinPC software to convert old PCs into thin clients. IBM resells their gear. Terminal prices $250-500. Some models may run Linux. Also, Wyse had a model 5355SE in 1999 that was Linux based.

Wed, 07 May 2003 18:24:56 GMT

Mobile BGAN satellite broadband access: Good description, with price list. Has Ethernet, USB and bluetooth interfaces. Has laptop-style internal rechargable battery, rated for 24 hours standby or 1 hour full transmit operation between charges.

Wed, 07 May 2003 18:18:47 GMT

Thuraya satellite phones: Good summary of service with prices. "The handset can be used as a Satellite only, GSM only, or auto switching between the two, subject to the type of airtime package chosen."

	Voice	Data at 2.4/4.8 kbit/s	Data at 9.6 kbit/s
To Thuraya	$0.66	$0.94	$1.28
To zone 1	$0.88	$1.08	$1.36
To zone 2	$0.91	$1.19	$1.47
To zone 3	$1.04	$1.32	$1.60
To zone 4	$1.15	$1.43	$1.71
To zone 5	$1.41	$1.69	$1.97
SMS Sending	-	$0.25	-
SMS Receiving	-	FREE	-

Wed, 07 May 2003 06:33:24 GMT

OpenAP - Home: "Here you can find the complete source code, build environment, and instructions for flashing an 802.11 access point with linux 2.4.17. The end product is a linux-based access point providing full wireless services, including multipoint to multipoint wireless bridging (802.1d), while at the same time distributing fully standard 802.11b connections to end users." Another alternative is Sputnik (story on open sourced version here).

Wed, 07 May 2003 00:55:40 GMT

TV journalists' war gear grows smaller, better: " Stockholm-based SWE-DISH Satellite Systems, says several of its SNG systems -- including the IPT Suitcase -- are being used by the networks, at prices ranging from $200,000 to $1.4 million. The U.S. military is also a customer: Troops will use the same units to send live images of the war to the U.S. Central Command control center in Qatar. A competing 75-pound SNG system, developed by Raytheon Corp. and Norway's Tandberg Television for NBC News, costs about $130,000. Eric Cooney, chief operating officer of Tandberg Television, said NBC has several ready for use. "

Tue, 06 May 2003 23:48:12 GMT

VIA-SAT DATA SYSTEMS INC.: "is a privately owned Canadian corporation operating in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It was established in June 1988 as a result of an employee privatization proposal to amalgamate various hydrometeorological data collection programs at B.C. Hydro." Has projects in Asia that do water system data collection.

Tue, 06 May 2003 22:11:54 GMT

Linux Appliance Software Adds 802.11: Netmax appliance software, based on Red Hat, has vpn and firewall features and will add features to become a wifi access point as well.

Tue, 06 May 2003 21:39:20 GMT

Satellite Installation Equipment. Satellite Superstore.

Mon, 05 May 2003 17:33:55 GMT

VSAT 2001 Hughes Network Systems TES: "The following section covers both the TES Quantum and the TES Quantum-Direct systems. " Interesting history of the Hughes satcom product line.

Mon, 05 May 2003 17:13:53 GMT

Pedal-powered e-mail in the jungle: SF coverage of the Jhai-Laos project. They aim at 12 watts for a workstation: "The bike-pedaled generator will power a battery that in turn runs the computer, which sits in an 8-by-10-inch box and has the power of a pre-Pentium, 486-type computer. Felsenstein designed it to run on only 12 watts -- compared to a typical computer's 90 watts -- so the bike power would be up to the task." Makes me think of windows terminals (which I think can also be standalone browsers), running on 8 watts as far back as 1998-2000. They're on sale at eBay for as little as $30 for old models, $150 for recent ones. (Firmware updates are still available at Wyse.)

Wed, 30 Apr 2003 02:06:22 GMT

EPLARS: Some humanitarian and medical units in Iraq are using this self-organizing IP network to communicate in the field. The radios have a 40-mile radius and are typically mounted in humvees. "The Enhanced Position Location Reporting System (EPLRS) provides Marine Forces with a critical command and control tactical data distribution network. EPLRS links the dynamic Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF) Command, Control, Communications, Computers, and Intelligence (C4I) tactical data system architecture with a robust, user-transparent, automatic relaying, and automatic rerouting communications network."

Tue, 29 Apr 2003 08:03:26 GMT

Low power windows terminals: This study and another from wyse, both in 3Q 2001, provide some info:

winterm unit only: 8 watts
add lcd screen: add 18 watts, 26 watts total
CRT is 85 watts instead of 18 (the first study has 85 vs 29)
PC is 85 watts instead of 8 (the first study has 70 vs 10)
A terminal server PC is 100-140 watts, perhaps 5-10 users.

Certainly 3x-4x lower consumption with an LCD instead of CRT (no surpise there), and 7x-10x less for winterm versus PC assuming some server is needed anyway(again, no surprise for smaller power supply and no fan or disk). With one server per 8 users, the advantage of winterm vs standalone PC is about 3x.

Thu, 24 Apr 2003 21:22:14 GMT

ZigBee: "ZigBee was created to address the market need for a cost-effective, standards-based wireless networking solution that supports low data rates, low power consumption, security and reliability. ZigBee is defining both star and mesh network topologies, a variety of data security features and interoperable application profiles.

ZigBee is the only standards-based technology that addresses the unique needs of most remote monitoring and control and sensory network applications. The Alliance's members' low cost, low power solutions will enable the broad-based deployment of wireless networks that are able to run for years on standard batteries for a typical monitoring application.

ZigBee-compliant products operate in the unlicensed bands worldwide, including 2.4GHz (global), 915Mhz (Americas) and 868Mhz (Europe). Raw data throughput rates of 250Kbs can be achieved at 2.4GHz (10 channels), 40Kbs at 915Mhz (6 channels) and 20Kbs at 868Mhz (1 channel). Transmission distance is expected to range from 10 to 75 meters, depending on power output and environmental characteristics."

Sat, 19 Apr 2003 06:07:35 GMT

Martian Technology: Martian NetDrives are completely silent appliances with file service, wifi, ethernet, usb printer sharing, using 55 watts, with linux under the hood. About the size of a ream of paper.

Wed, 09 Apr 2003 06:17:09 GMT

FAO GTOS :: TEMS database: "TEMS, Terrestrial Ecosystem Monitoring Sites, is an international directory of sites (named T.Sites) and networks that carry out long-term terrestrial monitoring and research activities. The database provides information on the "who, what and where" that can be useful to both the scientific community and policy-makers."

Wed, 19 Mar 2003 05:21:49 GMT

Carmanah.com [Self-Contained, Solar-Powered LED Lights]: Among other products, they produce the I-Stop bus stop unit that has solar cells to power:

A patented flashing beacon to notify an oncoming bus that a stop is requested (they say missed stops are the #1 customer complaint);
Security down lighting so waiting passengers don't have to stand in darkness, and;
An illuminated transit timetable for nighttime readability.

"As the i-STOP(tm) is solar-powered, it requires no external wiring, trenching or disruption to traffic patterns during installation. It also enables transit agencies to avoid the time-consuming permit process typical of hardwired lighting systems." And, it could make an interesting model wireless pop...

Wed, 12 Mar 2003 20:48:49 GMT

USDA RUS Rural Broadband Loan and Loan Guarantee Program: "On January 29, 2003, Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman announced the new Rural Broadband Loan and Loan Guarantee Program. For FY 2003, RUS has made available $1.4 billion in loans and loan guarantees to provide broadband services in rural communities. These loans will facilitate deployment of new and innovative technologies to provide two-way data transmission of 200 kbps or more, in communities with populations up to 20,000... " Loan amounts from $100,000 to $5m. Info contact: Roberta D. Purcell, Assistant Administrator, (202) 720–9554, fax (202) 720–0810. Application info: Deborah Jackson, (202) 720–8427. In 2004 and beyond, disbursements are by state allocations. FAQ online.

Tue, 04 Mar 2003 06:12:01 GMT

Electrovaya: "The PowerPad 160 is the ultimate notebook battery, giving you up to 6 times more power than ever before. With the highest energy density of any rechargeable battery commercially available, you won't find this level of performance anywhere else! The PowerPad's SuperPolymer Lithium Ion technology keeps you going with more than a full day of portable power." Lists for about $500.

Mon, 03 Mar 2003 21:52:15 GMT

Alvarion wireless cusotmer stories: "Alvarion has 50% of the global market share for fixed wireless broadband services. Here are three of its customers:

Widwest Wireless (commercial business). 300,000 cellular subscribers in a "property model" -- they bought a license to spectrum. They've setup a subsidiary, ClearWave to handle the wireless. Covers 54 communities in 137 townships in Minnesota. 50 wireless broadband sites using 2.4GHz, usie 5GHz for backhaul. 1,200 customers in first month. Serving towns with as few as 270 people. It costs about $700 to connect a new customer, and the monthly cost for wireline and wireless backhaul runs about $14,500. Installing a new cel costs $2-$6K -- each tower runs about 180 customers. Towers run atop water-towers or piggyback on their cellular towers. Towers are profitable about 18 months after going up.
Owensboro Municipal Utility (publicly owned nonprofit). Serve a market with cable, DSL, and fixed-wireless competition. For rural communities to remain economically viable, they must have broadband. Hence a nonprofit with very low rates. Largest municipal utility in Kentucky. Operating in heavily forested, hill country. Installation is free, residential serivce is $25/month (512k down/128k up).
City of Pratt, Kansas Police Dept (civil public safety operator). Intention is to connect to departmental LANs from vehicles (how do you update the virus definitions in a cop car's PC?) and to replace cellphone with VoIP. 60 sqmi coverage. Gaining 2h productivity/officer/day -- saving $21k/month

Sat, 15 Feb 2003 19:46:18 GMT

Everest cybercafe: "A young entrepreneur in Nepal plans to set up the world's highest cyber cafe. Tsering Gyalzen hopes the internet facility at Mount Everest base camp will open by March. .. Mr Gyalzen, a 33-year-old science graduate, says he is financing nearly half of the estimated $40,000 project himself. A number of foreign firms have offered hardware and other equipment. "

Sat, 08 Feb 2003 15:42:11 GMT

Transportable AC Systems: "GLOBAL SOLAR'S Transportable AC Systems (TACS) provide convenient, reliable electricity in nearly any location. " Flexible, foldable arrays are available for relief efforts or group camps, and personal systems are also available.

Sat, 08 Feb 2003 06:20:49 GMT

80211.net - "80211.net is a Wireless ISP and network development consulting organization. We have extensive expertise in wired and wireless networking, authentication and access control systems, Internet Cafe deployments, apartment complex and multi-tenant building deployments, and wide-area wireless networks with alternative power solutions." Run by Scott C. Lemon in Utah.

Sat, 08 Feb 2003 06:18:26 GMT

1km 802.11b link in Hurghada, Egypt: Hassan Adly writes a very entertaining tale of coke cans, pvc, "brutalized connectors" and getting sick from eating pringles in Egypt. Amazing perseverence and great results.

Sat, 08 Feb 2003 06:11:28 GMT

NoCatNet: "a community supported 802.11b wireless network in Sonoma County, CA. We are also actively developing NoCatAuth, the centralized authentication code." Nice collection of wireless links.

Thu, 30 Jan 2003 05:58:39 GMT

Companies test prototype wireless-sensor nets: ""At this stage, there are over 100 groups around the world that are using the combination of our open-source Motes with the TinyOS [operating system] and TinyDB [database]," said Berkeley professor David Culler, who is also director of Intel Research's "lablette" in Berkeley.. In addition to the high-profile military application, wireless-sensor networks could be put to legions of civilian uses, from environmental monitoring to providing heath care monitoring for the elderly while allowing them more freedom to move about. "This is a new class of computer," said Culler, who predicted that in 10 years, the emerging compute class "will be well-established, and we'll have a whole new set of challenges." "

Tue, 28 Jan 2003 00:17:51 GMT

Spy Planes from MLB Company: Cool "model" airplanes that take video and send back via radio, for tracking things like traffic, natural resource use, disaster situations, and military applications. Used for dropping mesh wireless motes, together with the Berkeley Sensor and Actuator Center. MLB has contributed to a number of other experimental autonomous aircraft. There's a trade association for these vehicles as well.

Thu, 23 Jan 2003 22:37:59 GMT

Remote Satellite: Guide to many satellite and satphone networks.

Wed, 08 Jan 2003 07:28:23 GMT

X-traWeb: Web enabling hardware and software Internet technology provider. Combines equipment and NOC services to utilities to do telemetry and remote control of power equipment. Parent company World Wireless provided equipment to NSF wireless trials. 2002 presentation to electric coops available.

Tue, 10 Dec 2002 18:48:34 GMT

An Ecological In Situ Sensor Resource: links to sensor technologies and vendors, and an overview powerpoint.

Tue, 10 Dec 2002 18:48:33 GMT

An Ecological In Situ Sensor Resource: links to sensor technologies and vendors, and an overview powerpoint.

Tue, 10 Dec 2002 18:46:31 GMT

Sensor Array Projects and Networks: Hundreds of relevant groups and projects, about 40 international, updated January 2002.

Tue, 10 Dec 2002 17:57:10 GMT

Mexico Renewable Energy Program added RE to protected areas: "Between 1994 and 1998, Conservation International, The Nature Conservancy, the World Wildlife Fund, and their local partners received technical assistance and financial support to develop renewable energy projects to enhance the remote operations of their own staff and the activities of their local non-governmental organization (NGO) partners." 25 sites were involved, Sandia national labs participated, Winrock studied and documented as "Green power for green places" (apparently not online, only available by request). Enersol mentions their participation as well: "Also in 1999, the first version of "Green Power for Green Places" was published and distributed by Winrock International. This pamphlet prepared by staff of the Mexico Renewable Energy Program, including Enersol, documents various projects which have incorporated renewable energy to promote biological research, conservation, and eco-tourism in protected areas of Mexico."

Sun, 08 Dec 2002 06:53:11 GMT

Volcanic Study the Wireless Way: Chilean universities have deployed 802.11 gear to link campuses, regional high schools, and seismic detectors underground: "The University of La Frontera (UFRO) in Temuco, Chile and the Universidad Técnica Federico Santa Marma (UTFSM) in Valparamso, Chile already have established a network between themselves and numerous other educational institutions, in a first step toward the proposed volcano study." High school students can join in university classes over the links, as well as access the Internet. "As envisioned by the scientists, special sensors will be buried deep into the ground near the volcanoes. The sensors will monitor seismic activity such as earthquakes near the volcanoes. The also will keep an eye out for changes in the formation of the Earth's surface, by measuring the location of certain points of land over time. .. the sensors will be connected to a basic desktop computer, which in turn will be connected to a special Internet Protocol camera with a USB port. The PC will then transfer data about volcanic activity from the sensor and the IP camera to researchers back at UFRO via the long-distance wireless link. This project should enable researchers to monitor and study the volcanoes without having to physically go on site. If all goes as planned, scientists also will be able to warn the public of potentially disastrous volcanic activity, enabling people to evacuate in advance of an eruption."

Fri, 06 Dec 2002 01:46:46 GMT

e-fro: "Developing the Communities of Wales through Wireless Broadband." Grassroots development of national 802.11b network in Wales, with Dave Hughes' assistance.

Wed, 27 Nov 2002 08:26:09 GMT

Wireless Field Tests: Dave Hughes 1996-7 diary. Scroll down to "Centennial School District of the Town of San Luis " story, which involves Freewave 115kbps gear (more info). Nice to see what was possible even 5 years ago!

Mon, 25 Nov 2002 00:55:46 GMT

Wireless NSF Test Pages: Envirosonics: a first trial of wireless internet reporting of wildlife sounds, in a Lansing-area back yard in Michigan.

Mon, 25 Nov 2002 00:51:00 GMT

Wireless NSF Test Pages: "Prototype Testing and Evaluation of Wireless Instrumentation for Ecological Research at Remote Field Locations by Wireless" : A 1999-2002 NSF project in nature reserves in 4 states finds value in gathering scientific data and reporting it via wireless to the internet. Further work is required to cut the costs of sensors to allow their decentralization. This would allow "collecting light data on the floor of rain forests from many points simultaneously, the ability to monitor water levels in hundreds of 'pipes' in ground areas around lakes, the monitoring of multiple animal, bird, and insect sounds in field areas, the ability to monitor data every few feet up the trunks of large rain forest trees. The ability to deploy very small video capture devices in multiple locations. " Comments on demonstration effects in the local community concerning the availability of broadband internet access, and on science education, are included. More detailed findings comment on preferences for different types of radios. Principal Investigator: David R Hughes (of Big Sky Telegraph fame), Colorado, 719-636-2040.

Sun, 24 Nov 2002 06:47:08 GMT

For Solar Power, Foggy City Maps Its Bright Spots: NYT update on solar cell installations in San Fran, including its Solar Energy Monitoring Network: "Resembling lunar probes on spindly legs, the machines are equipped with sensors that measure solar energy. Readings are transmitted by radio to the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, where engineers plot them on a computerized "fog map" of the city"

Tue, 19 Nov 2002 07:08:21 GMT

Ocean Power Technologies harvests the waves: "the computerized system housed in a watertight canister at the top of the buoy allows an internal piston-like device to supply uniform power, derived from the random, up-and-down motion of ocean waves. In the case of OPT's commercial systems, the power is carried via underwater cable to shore. Each buoy generates about 20 kilowatts of electricity." The PowerBuoys are 40 to 65 feet in length anchored to the sea floor and ride between 4 to 13 feet below the ocean surface. Cost is approx 7 c per kw. US Navy has funded much research to reduce its bases' reliance on diesel, with a system slated for Kauai in early 2003 (graphic supplied; contact Marine Corps Base Hawaii Public Affairs Office at (808) 257-8840). Ocean research may also benefit: "Another prototype developed in conjunction with Rutgers' Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, will allow for battery-charging of some of the institute's ocean monitoring sensors, placed at a distance too remote for cable linkage to onshore power." OPT is located near WorldWater in Pennington.

Tue, 19 Nov 2002 06:46:09 GMT

Wildcatting the wind in Alberta, Canada: "When they find a place they like, they put up a "met mast" -- short for meteorological mast. The slender towers can have anywhere from two to five small spinning wheels, called anemometers, attached to them at various heights. Their rotations measure the speed of the wind, which is then averaged every 10 minutes, captured by computer and either recorded in a data log or relayed by satellite. The towers boast a solar panel and battery to power the data logger. Met masts are a dead giveaway that someone is scouting the wind prospects in that area."

Tue, 12 Nov 2002 07:29:30 GMT

Solar Power used to extend internet access to Native American learning centers: San Diego's High-Performance Wireless Research and Education Network (HPWREN) has installed systems in remote areas of southern California, with solar panels giving "peak power of 320 watts, which is able to continuously power a device consuming around 32 watts. [It] can support up to four 2.4 GHz radios, has five days of back-up power should the panels fail. "

Mon, 04 Nov 2002 08:02:25 GMT

U.S. Export Council for Renewable Energy : Promotes smaller RE projects, including the International Fund for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (IFREE) support for microcredit. Also uses VITA's LEO for collecting telemetry & monitoring.

Sun, 27 Oct 2002 16:58:21 GMT

ROPATEC : Produces "windrotors" for simple and robust small scale wind energy applications. Initial installations are in mountain refuges, remote locations, Antarctic research stations. Claimed advantages:

Independence from the direction of the wind
High wind forces: ROPATEC windrotors produce net power even with storm gusts of over 200 km/h.
Automatic start-up: Even at a wind speed of only 2 m/s (7.2 km/h).
Noise-free
Multifunctional: ROPATEC windrotors can also power water pumps and mills, or else produce pure thermal energy.

Sun, 27 Oct 2002 06:39:27 GMT

'Next-Generation' WiFi: Quick review of “DriveBy Infofueling”, mesh networking and Location-Enabled Networking applications of 802.11.

Mon, 21 Oct 2002 17:30:04 GMT

Alvarion point-to-multipoint Broadband Wireless Access (BWA): Reputed leader in fixed wireless broadband, with a wide range of products, and business reported in China, Cambodia, Brazil, and Eastern Europe.

Mon, 21 Oct 2002 15:30:13 GMT

Professional Wireless Weather Stations from Davis Instruments: System price, including solar cells, typically $800.

Mon, 21 Oct 2002 15:28:31 GMT

La Crosse Technology makes a wireless PC-enabled weather monitoring station, and lists many online vendors of these systems.

Mon, 21 Oct 2002 15:23:40 GMT

Waverider makes non-line-of-sight 902 Mhz systems for rural wireless broadband. Their starter kit includes the base station with a 50-subscriber lisence and 5 enduser modems for $6,995.

Mon, 21 Oct 2002 14:32:35 GMT

Airspan Networks provides wireless DSL systems and solutions to operators around the world with licenses in frequency bands between 900 MHz to 4 GHz, including both PCS and MMDS. The company has deployments with more than 60 operators in more than 40 countries. Airspan's systems are based on radio technology that delivers wide area coverage, security and resistance to fading." In 2001-2002 they announced sales in Nigeria (Warri and Lagos), South Africa, Lesotho, Botswana, Uganda, China, Philippines, New Zealand, Peru, Poland, and Estonia. In West Africa, there's a deal in Ghana and Congo (via africanus.net), and one with Ivoire Telecom for corporate customers in five West African countries (Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Guinea, Benin & Congo Brazzaville). Each of these typically carries under 10,000 subscribers, and a value under $10m. Their 1Q02 revenues were reported to include 39 customers, 8 new that quarter, with 29% US, 36% Africa and Mid-East, and 33% Asia or Europe. Their site also has a list of recent articles about rural and other fixed wireless.

Sat, 05 Oct 2002 05:42:22 GMT

Boise State Radio reaps desert wind: "Boise State Radio recently expanded its listener base by building a wind-powered radio transmitter high atop a Nevada mountain, giving National Public Radio reception to rural listeners in southern Idaho and northern Nevada for the first time. Harnessing the high desert wind became Boise State Radio's only option, since solar energy was too expensive and no commercial power was available on the remote 8,600-foot Ellen D. Mountain, south of Jackpot, Nev." It uses propane for backup power, which is rarely required. Total installation costs were $500,000.

Sat, 28 Sep 2002 16:15:24 GMT

Wi-Fi stretches its boundaries: Proxim's offers an "ISP in a box" product: "priced from about $2,000 to $6,000, will include all the equipment necessary to become a small-scale network provider. The price differs depending on the quality of equipment and add-ons that a buyer may want. Each kit can serve about 250 customers." Other vendors, and w-CDMA and MMDS, are also profiled.

Wed, 25 Sep 2002 06:02:03 GMT

Solar Dynamics Announces Portable Personal Power System: "Solar Dynamics, Inc., a manufacturer of portable solar power systems, announced today the availability of The Cub, a lightweight (13 lbs), portable power source that provides DC and AC electricity for small electronic devices and recharges itself through a 5 watt thin film solar module.. The Cub™ DC version provides 3, 6, 9 and 12 volts of DC. The Cub™ AC/DC version provides both DC power and up to 75 watts of AC power. Both DC and AC/DC versions come with DC power socket adapters and an energy efficient task/flash light. An 8 watt waterproof fluorescent light, wall charger and 12 volt DC charger to charge from a car cigarette lighter outlet are optional accessories sold separately."

Thu, 05 Sep 2002 00:11:32 GMT

orbcomm subscriber communicator: "ORBCOMM Subscriber Communicator" is the term for an orbcomm terminal. Manufacturers can be investigated starting with this google query..

Thu, 05 Sep 2002 00:08:13 GMT

Rom Communications Inc. - "web to wireless" monitoring of fixed and mobile assets: "ROMâ019s MicroCom module is a combination of proprietary hardware and software, which provides "web to wireless" low cost high tech remote monitoring, tracking, data retrieval, and asset management for commercial, industrial, small business and consumer applications." They use Orbcomm and other telemetry infrastructures, with an operating center tying it together. Cybersensor has a similar concept and demonstration.

Thu, 22 Aug 2002 02:07:18 GMT

Automated Media System: "AMS's solar systems can provide electrical power to meet the requirements of film/video crews and expeditions." Ruggedized backpackable battery packs and solar cells are for sale.

Mon, 22 Jul 2002 06:48:18 GMT

Communicating Snowmelt Data Using Meteor-burst Technology: "When a meteor hits the earth's atmosphere and burns up, it creates a trail of ionized or charged particles. This meteor-burst trail can reflect radio waves and thus acts as a natural satellite. When harnessed for communication purposes, meteor-burst technology is less expensive than satellite transmission and nearly as reliable. [It was] used during the Gulf War by the American military.. Because the earth is constantly being bombarded by meteors, a signal or "probing wave" sent by WAPDA's Lahore headquarters usually takes less than a minute to reach a data collection platform (DCP) located in a remote catchment in mountains hundreds of kilometres away.The DCP units are programmed to collect data on an hourly basis and transmit data to the master station when triggered by a probing wave. " Full article has contact info, incl Naser Faruqui, Senior Program Officer, (613) 236-6163 ext. 2321; nfaruqui@idrc.ca and Warren Bell, Principal Hydrotechnical Engineer, BC Hydro; Tel (616) 528-3093; Email: warren.bell@bchydro.com .

Wed, 17 Jul 2002 07:55:47 GMT

Remote Power International: Performs installations of remote power systems in many international locations. Includes

"Management of an ongoing project to promote renewable energy on the 1400 Nature Conservancy properties in US and Caribbean. The primary applications are photovoltaics for powering ranches, research facilities, visitor centers, eco-tourism facilities, .. in remote areas. Secondary applications are solar water heating for buildings and photovoltaics for water pumping, electric fences, instrumentation, weather data platform, to assist in conservation management. "
An April 2002 remote data collection platform in the Palmyra Islands of the Central Pacific.
Testing and monitoring of solar electric systems in PV rural electrification programs in Yemen, China, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and India, for NREL and SELF.

Tue, 16 Jul 2002 01:48:19 GMT

IEEE Feature: Wireless Broadband with non-line-of-sight wireless systems:

How to Exploit Multipath Distortion
Europe and Asia are also potential markets, but Beyer says that even though the 2.4-GHz band is also public in those markets, the limits on radiated power are much stricter there, at 100 mW of effective radiated power compared with 4 W in North America. This makes a huge difference in range and coverage. European and Asian authorities have been petitioned to increase these power limits
The February 2002 FCC report cited a survey from the Strategis Group that only 12 percent of on-line customers were willing to pay $40 per month for high-speed access, a number that rose to only 30 percent when the price was dropped to $25 per month.

Thu, 11 Jul 2002 08:28:19 GMT

Atlantic City Water Utility Installs Wireless Meter Reading: The STAR AMR System from Hexagram "provides two reads per day from each of ACMUA's 8,000 meters.. the utility will eliminate call-backs and estimated reads, provide "virtual" disconnects, control leaks and theft, and accelerate billing. " It's a 3-tiered system:

A Meter Transmission Unit (MTU) is connected to each meter. It's about 6 inches square by 1 inch think, including a 20-year battery. Twice each day, MTUs transmit meter usage information over a licensed, UHF radio channel.
Data Collection Units (DCUs) receive data from up to 1000s of MTUs and send it into a data center, typically by cell phone. DCUs are solar-powered collectors mounted on rooftops, without connection to telephone or power lines.
The Network Control Computers (NCC) aggregate and transfer the data to the utility's billing and customer service systems.

Tue, 09 Jul 2002 06:14:38 GMT

White Mountain Research Station Establishes North America's Highest Internet/LAN: WRMS "installed a solar powered broadband Internet repeater on 14,250-foot White Mountain Peak. This will allow real-time, remote monitoring of scientific equipment over the Internet at the Summit, Barcroft and Crooked Creek and provide instant communication and data access to researchers worldwide."