Bench Talk

Flops in technological development are nothing new, but how do they relate? They were led by bright minds who ignored customer sentiment.

If you’re fortunate enough to have multiple choices for providing broadband considers yourself lucky. Millions of people living in rural areas have only one option: Wireless Internet Service Providers, which serve fixed locations (rather than mobile devices) and transmit to and receive from multiple locations. A little history of this arcane industry reveals why WISPs continue to fill a need.

Near-field communications (NFC) is one of the world’s most useful wireless technologies and is extremely well suited for mobile payment processing. Despite it having all the ingredients for success, it remains woefully under used, with retailers opting for retailer-specific apps.

Bluetooth BlueBorne is just one of many security issues making the news headlines. Hardening security in embedded systems is a tall order, yes, but paramount. For designers of Bluetooth-enabled components, subsystems, and systems, BlueBorne poses the question of how to harden Bluetooth in future products against such threats.

In April 2017, Mouser hosted the webinar "Bluetooth 5: Reinventing Connectivity and Advancing Industrial IoT." This is one of the many great questions that came from that webinar.

Autonomous vehicles could benefit from low power wireless area networks (LPWANs); however, only IEEE 802.11p and narrowband Long-Term Evolution (LTE) standards are being considered.

Industrial RF heating systems commonly use a magnetron for power amplification, but solid-state solutions are becoming a more viable solution.

Microwave ovens use magnetrons because they're cheap and robust. But RF power transistors are overcoming the limitations that keep them out of microwaves. Solid state power could transform the microwave into a full-fledged cooking appliance.

The use of very high frequencies for communication has always been "just around the corner," where, because of significant technical challenges, it's remained for 50 years. Now, faced with scarce spectrum available at lower frequencies, the wireless industry is determined to overcome those challenges.

Few other human-machine interfaces (HMIs) present as many challenges as the modern automobile, so have pity on the weary auto industry designer tasked with trying to come to grips with telematics. It’s only rival in complexity is the commercial airliner, whose flight deck remains chock full of knobs, dials, and switches even after wholesale changes that migrated functions to large touch screen displays like those in the Airbus 380 and Boeing 787 Dreamliner. At least pilots are highly trained, technically astute professionals, however, while drivers range from being technology haters to “enthusiasts” who like to tweak engine control modules for higher performance. Designing an interface that is usable by such a spectrum of drivers has got to be insanely difficult.