Wireless transmitters in VHF, UHF 'white spaces' will be tested again
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Despite an admittedly poor showing from the first prototype for a wireless networking device supposedly capable of harmlessly transmitting alongside VHF and UHF TV channels, the FCC said today it's giving the device another go.
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In photo land, a new gizmo extreme white balancing than the traditional white paper. David Becker's PMA coverage continues in Gadget Lab.
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Some wireless gadgets pump music from a computer to a stereo or TV. Others take a broadband connection and make it available to any PC within range.
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Scientists have demonstrated a way of transmitting electrical power through the air, raising the prospect of wireless gadgets such as mobile phones, MP3 players and laptops that do not need power leads to recharge their batteries.
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BALTIMORE--Radio frequency identification may be a hot topic among tech types these days, but proponents of the technology gathered here this week are keeping their exuberance in check.
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(InfoWorld) - Researchers at Mitsubishi Electric have developed a location finding and ranging system based on an emerging short-range wireless technology. The system is capable of determining the location of an object to an accuracy of 15 centimeters over a distance of up to 30 meters and uses the IEEE802.15.4a ultra wideband (UWB) technology that's approaching in the final stages of standardization. It could be used in a hospital, for example, where sensors continuously monitor patients and alert doctors to any problems. The doctors could be sent directly to wherever the patient is in the hospital. The research was presented on Thursday at Mitsubishi Electric's R&D Center here, but the development work has been going on at Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the U.S. The location of an object is found through triangulation, said Jin Zhang, group manager of the digital communication and networking technology lab, at the U.S. research center. This involves measuring the time it takes a transmitted signal to be picked up by several receivers. By comparing the time difference between at least three radios -- the location of which is fixed -- the location of the transmitter can be determined within a two dimensional space, such as the floor of a building or warehouse. It can also work for a three dimensional space with the addition of a fourth fixed receiver, said Zhang. The IEEE802.15.4a standard on which the system operates is being developed for just such ranging and location services with the added ability to transmit high-speed data at low power. Communication should be possible at speeds of between 100Kbps and 26Mbps using the technology, said Zhang. The company's prototype system is currently working at the lower speed. With the location finding and data aspects combined it makes possible a system whereby sensors can communicate between themselves and also with a base computer. Should the sensors alert to something that needs human intervention their location can quickly be determined even if they are part of a mobile device, she said. "The specification is almost finished and will be published in the summer," said Zhang. "After the specification is complete we'll finalize our design. The next step is chip design and system design. She anticipates the publication of the standard will spur Mitsubishi Electric and a handful of competitors to begin working on semiconductors based on the technology. The first commercial products could follow within a year or two.
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To BGAN at the beginning... Blog Suppose you had to test a brand new bit of wireless Internet gear. Specifically, an Inmarsat Broadband Global Area Network satellite modem.â¦
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By Bruce Mohl, The Boston Globe  Feb. 25--Rooftop antennas are back in vogue.   Many homeowners are trading up to expensive television sets and hooking  them up to old-fashioned antennas that can pull in the digital and  high-definition signals of local broadcasters for free.
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Nanoparticles can be activated by radio frequencies.
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CableLabs, the cable television industry's  technology development consortium, announced it is working on an  initiative to develop cable interface specifications for receipt of  off-air digital broadcast signals.
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Dotted around the globe are shadowy, short-range transmitters beaming strange radio messages across the planet. The messages are indecipherable, and often unlistenable. Nonetheless, they have their fans. By Jason Walsh.
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(InfoWorld) - Web Keywords: Article Body: DEMO '07 will as usual give venture capitalists, large high-tech companies on the prowl for the next big thing to buy, and the general public, a closer look at dozens of new technologies, some memorable, some that will be hard to remember just a few short weeks after the conference is over. Global Communications, a company that claims nothing less than the ability to digitize light into six-foot diameter signals to deliver broadcast-quality content will most likely fall into the former rather than the latter category. The company offers two different pieces of patented technology, VUTP Light and VUTP (Video over Untwisted Pair). VUTP Light sits inside a black box that plugs into a fiber optic deployment that can wirelessly transmit from 120Mb to a terabit of data from point to multi-point, just like Wi-Fi. But this technology is obviously on steroids. Â J. Johnson, chairman of Global Communications differentiates VUTP Light from laser by saying that VUTP is the "pure digitization of light" "A laser has a 3-inch diameter. We run six feet in diameter," says Johnson. Not only is it wide, according to Johnson, it also travels well, eight to 20 kilometers without degradation. Using a megahertz frequency in the unlicensed spectrum, it can retransmit broadcast-quality television signals in real time, both standard and HDTV, either wirelessly using VUTP Light or over ordinary copper telephone wire using Global Communications' second product simply dubbed VUTP. One of the problems that the global technology overcomes, says Johnson, is that current technology, such as Wi-Fi, cable, or even satellite, all use a serial port at the back of each piece of electronic equipment on the network. "The serial port can't scale," Johnson said, and because it doesnât use serial technology, VUTP can quickly scale to nationwide use. Access points do not require towers; they can be installed on sides of building. If Global Communications works as advertised, it could be the answer to the last mile issue that has dogged broadband access to the home and businesses for years. However, there is one remaining hurdle that has little to do with technology and everything to do with why Global Communications has come to DEMO: it must have the kind of funding that will get it noticed and, over time, deployed in enough geographies to become a true competitor to the likes of Verizon, Comcast, ATT, Cox, and Times Warner.
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Vendors in the WiMax forum are developing a variation that broadens the spectrum of the wireless technology.
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Consumer groups and broadband vendors want more market competition for wireless spectrum.
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The high bids totalled $3.2 billion in the U.S. Federal Communications Commission&#39;s&#160;auction of wireless spectrum licenses in the 700MHz band&#160;after three rounds and a day and a half of bidding.That figure is far short of the $10 billion Congress and the FCC expect to raise in&#160;the auction, which opened Thursday, but bidding could continue for weeks. In most cases, the high bids don&#39;t yet meet the FCC&#39;s reserve price set for minimum winning bids.A fourth round of bidding will happen Friday afternoon.The 700MHz auctions represent the last large chunk of spectrum available for the FCC to auction in the foreseeable future. The spectrum, now used to carry over-the-air television signals, can be used to carry long-range wireless broadband traffic. Consumer groups have said the spectrum represents the &quot;last, best hope&quot; for a nationwide wireless broadband network that competes with cable and telecom broadband services.For sale is 62MHz of spectrum in the 700MHz band. In late 2005, after a decade of debate, Congress passed a law requiring U.S. TV stations to move to all-digital broadcasts and abandon analog spectrum between channels 52 and 69. The deadline for TV stations to end broadcasts in the 700MHz band is February 2009.After three rounds, 906 of the 1,099 available spectrum licenses had bids, with four more licenses receiving bids than at the end of round two late Thursday. High bids had totalled just under $2.8 billion after round 2, and just over $2.4 billion after round one Thursday morning.The top bid after the third round was $1.49 billion for eight of 12 regional licenses in the C block, a 22MHz block of spectrum covering all 50 states. The bidding for those C block licenses was up from $1.24 billion at the end of the second round. The FCC&#39;s reserve price for the C block is $4.6 billion, and the winning bidders of C block spectrum must allow any legal devices to connect to their network, including mobile phones purchased from other carriers.The second highest bid remained $472 million for the D block, a nationwide 10MHz chunk of spectrum to be paired with another 10MHz set aside for public safety agencies. The bidder of the D block would be required to build a national network to be jointly used by public safety agencies and commercial customers. The high bid for the D block has remained unchanged since round one.Bidding in the auction is anonymous.The A block, a 12MHz piece of spectrum covering parts of New York and the northeastern U.S., also generated interest. The high bid was $119.8 million after the third round, up from $100 million after the second round and $83.2 million after the first round. A similar chunk of spectrum in the E block, also covering the same area, has generated a high bid of $59.9 million after the third round.The high bid for a 12MHz block called the B block, for a local New York City license, stood at $85.6 million after rounds two and three.High bids for five blocks in the Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., areas were between $28 million and $55 million after round three.
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The prototype wireless device intended to in unused portions of the television spectrum has been resubmitted for testing after it malfunctioned in eariler FCC tests.
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A Wi-Fi hot-spot builder develops a decked-out trailer capable of delivering broadband access even in the middle of nowhere. The WanderPod gets its first test run at the launch of SpaceShipOne in the Mojave Desert. By Dan Brekke.