Bench Talk

While on a recent trip, I noticed that my phone was having problems navigating and keeping me on course. The phone’s display kept pointing in the wrong direction, and the problem did not seem to be with Google Maps or acquiring a good global positioning system (GPS) signal. Instead, the problem seemed to be with the phone’s gyroscope.

Today’s video gaming industry is big business with total revenues for the industry in the U.S. hitting $23.5 billion last year—a 5% jump over 2014, according to the Entertainment Software Association, the industry lobbying body, which also hosts the Electronic Entertainment Expo trade show. All the major industry players—software and hardware—are reaping profit margins at record levels, with software sales leading with some $16.5 billion a jump of 7% from the 2014 figures and hardware manufactures seeing their best sales ever. The prediction is that this growth trend will continue mainly because software sales are largely viewed as the best barometer of the industry’s growth and overall health.

Current predictions on the future of Internet of Things (IoT) and the Wearables market indicate exponential growth in the years to come. An analysis done by Morgan Stanley in 2013 stated that “75 billion devices will be connected to the internet of things by 2020.” Undoubtedly, some of this growth will extend to sensors.

Have you ever tried to use a switch in an application and wondered whether the difference between the AC and DC rating on switches really matters? ­­There is a fallacy that any switch can be used so long as its current rating exceeds the maximum load requirements in the circuit. Who cares if it’s AC or DC, it’s only a 12VDC system right? Wrong; when it comes to switches, the differences in current-carrying capacity are dramatically different between AC and DC circuits and this is typically reflected in the switch’s AC and DC ratings.

Most of us tend to associate technology in terms of consumer products. For example, if you were to ask the average person what the word “technology” means to them, they are probably going to say things like smart phones, laptops, tablets, or maybe game consoles. Their answers would probably include acronym words like Wi-Fi, 4G, USB, 4K, or words like portable, wireless and Bluetooth. But, seldom will you hear someone talk about technology in medical terms, or more precisely, portable medical devices.

One of the hottest gifts this past holiday season were consumer DRONES. The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) projected one million of these devices were under Christmas trees this past December. The word Drone is one of the oldest official designations for “remotely controlled aircraft” in the American military lexicon dating back to 1935. “Drone” was adopted to refer to these aircraft as in homage to the queen in a bee hive, and became the official US Navy designation for targets for many decades.

Having worked on many different types of industrial robots—SCARA, cylindrical, Cartesian, Articulated—used in semiconductor manufacturing, I can attest to the importance of choosing the right robot motors and ensuring that their speed and torque are optimized. Otherwise, the overall efficiency and productivity of the robot will be compromised.

How would you feel about driving down the highway at 65mph when suddenly you realize that the car that just passed you did not have a driver! No driver, only passengers – a group of seniors running late to their next Bingo game! How accepting would you be to the idea of sharing the highways with throngs of “driverless” cars? And what would be some of the “what ifs” or “ethical issues” you would have with this scenario?

Home automation has come a long way since The Clapper was first introduced back in 1986. Today you can find a plethora of home automation products to augment all of the creature comforts already found in most American homes.

With the exception of changes to the exterior design, to match the flavor of the decade’s décor and the addition of digital readouts, the microwave oven has pretty much remained the same since its inception. That is, until now, with the advent of new high-power LDMOS RF transistor technology, that outdated kitchen appliance we’ve all come to depend on for heating up our lunches might just be getting a new lease on life.