Nov 19 2009 9:02PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (4) |
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Several (all right, all) of the comments on the post, “HP announces sensors for its “Central Nervous System for the Earth” (CeNSE),” raised the question of exactly what is the purpose of having a trillion (literally) sensors out there monitoring the world? I had attempted to gloss over this question by linking to a Wikipedia definition of “The Internet of Things,” but I think it’s worthwhile going into a bit more depth on the concept, if only because of the implications it has for future sensor applications.

The Internet of Things is the networked interconnection of everyday objects – soda cans, shoes, refrigerators, you name it – mostly throu...Read More

Nov 19 2009 9:26AM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (7) |
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HP has taken its MEMs expertise, developed to provide fluid sensors for printer cartridges, and uses it to create accelerometers that are up to 1,000 times more sensitive than today’s commercial products. HP’s Big, Hairy, Audacious Plan is to create the central nervous system  for the Internet of Things which it calls the  "Central Nervous System for the Earth" (CeNSE). The tiny and “exquisitely sensitive” MEMs accelerometers are the first CeNSE sensors to be implemented within the R&D program, but follow-up sensors will include light, temperature, barometric pressure, airflow and humidity.

The first unit to go into the field, pictured...Read More

Nov 18 2009 7:51PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (1) |
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There’s an emerging market for power supplies in LED lighting and signage. IC vendors are salivating over the huge market for LED bulbs to replace incandescent and CFL bulbs, which will all need their own ac/dc power ICs. But the largest bulb replacement market of all, replacing the 60W light bulb, will have razor-thin profit margins and most likely go straight to Asian manufacturers. A more promising market for US technology companies focusing on high-power LEDs is signage, displays, and industrial lighting.

You may have seen the Mitsubishi screen at the Dallas Cowboys’ stadium which is billed as the world’s largest LED video display.

This display uses 22,000 Lambda-TDK power supplies,...Read More

Nov 16 2009 9:27PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (8) |
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It turns out it’s possible to trademark a color. For example, T-Mobile owns the color magenta. Really.

Here’s an explanation:

“To clarify, companies like T-mobile can only trademark in the industry sector that they are registered in. So T-Mobile has trademarked the color magenta in telecommunications. The blog ...Read More

Nov 12 2009 11:22AM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |
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Various types of pressure film have been around for a long time in electronics. One use is to monitor how well a heat sink, for example, is contacting pcb surface.

Here’s another application: Monitoring the lamination or calendaring process in batteries. Pressurex is a pressure sensing film that, when placed between the lamination platens the film permanently changes color proportionally to the laminating pressure. You pull the film out, look at the color distribution, and get a pretty good idea of the alignment of mating rollers and lamination platens.

Not too many of us are involved in the actual manufacture of batteries, but many of us design with them, and almost all of us use them. From the Pressurex web site, here are how the lamination process plays out in the major battery technologies:

-- Lithium-Manganese Dio...Read More