Bench Talk

Tips for Building Environmental Monitoring Technology

On August 17, 2016 in Sensors by Mike Parks

Some of the most challenging yet immensely satisfying embedded projects to work on involve observing environmental conditions. From a personal perspective, environmental monitoring projects are a chance to do something good for mankind. Whether tracking the air quality in a building or measuring the contaminants in a far off lake, embedded systems built to monitor the environment can really benefit our world.

Tagged With: sensors

Medical Wearables: A Product Designer Perspective, Part II

On February 26, 2016 in Power, Sensors by Mike Parks

The story of medical wearables is no different than the story of technology in general. Exponential growth in capability commensurate with the shrinking of size and cost of products is simply converging to a point that the costs of fielding preventative measures like wearables is a solid alternative to just waiting until something inside of us breaks and we are rushed to the emergency room. While medical wearables do offer great promise in helping us become more proactive in our healthcare, they are primarily data collection devices that may perform some rather simple data analysis. They will have to tie into a larger medical ecosystem that has yet to fully materialize.

Tagged With: Medical, Power, Sensors, Wearables

What are You Sensing? Pros and Cons of Four Temperature Sensor Types

On November 25, 2015 in Sensors by Manny Soltero

Choosing temperature-sensing products may seem trivial, but with the wide variety of products available, this task can be quite daunting. In this blog post, I’ll present four types of temperature sensors – resistance temperature detectors (RTDs), thermocouples, thermistors and integrated circuit (IC) sensors with digital and analog interfaces – and discusses the pros and cons of each.

Tagged With: Sensing, Texas Instruments

Bikeshedding: The Ethics behind the Driverless Car

On October 12, 2015 in All, Robotics, Sensors, Wireless by Rudy Ramos

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?

Tagged With: Driverless Cars, Ethics, Google

Wearable Devices Enable Portable Medical Device Magic

On September 23, 2015 in All, Sensors by Warren Miller

A new generation of portable medical devices is on the way with capabilities that could dramatically change the way diagnostic and treatment is done outside the hospital setting. In fact, when portable medical devices have access to recent health and wellness information, like that available from wearable devices, it becomes practical to provide a wide variety of treatments in the home instead of in the hospital or with a doctor visit. Now, I’m not talking, at least not yet, about do-it-yourself brain surgery, but there are a wide variety of medical devices that can help us respond to emergency situations to save lives. Let’s see just how close to do-it-yourself brain surgery we can come.

Tagged With: AED, Defibrillator, portable medical, sensors, Wearable

Iris Biometric Authentication and Your Car

On August 14, 2015 in Sensors by Justin Risedorf

Most drivers develop somewhat of a fondness for their vehicles. It’s not always a deep love affair, but definitely a fondness. Whether or not the particular model they are currently driving is their favorite (the proverbial car or truck of their dreams), they almost always end up having a genuine sense of attachment. That’s a very normal feeling, seeing as most vehicles take a considerable amount of investment of money and time. So, it stands to reason that when someone’s car is stolen, they tend to take it rather personally. It is usually talked about in terms of “feeling violated” and other similar comments.

Tagged With: EyeLock

Internet of Stuff

On June 19, 2015 in IoT, Sensors by Arden Henderson

The big buzzphrase today is The Internet of Things (IoT). Things that connect to the internet. Connected stuff. Lots of stuff. And the products that connect to the internet are rolling out at ever increasing rates. Connected cars, connected homes, connected things in homes, connected houses, connected wearables, connected stores for shopping, connected restaurants for dining, connected roads and bridges, and on and on. Hotel robots. Smart stuff. What stuff will be connected? The better question is what will not be connected. Rocks, for example. Wait, someone will market a rock monitor, connected to the internet by forest wifi. When a rock rolls in a forest, does it make a sound?

Tagged With: encryption, Internet of Things, IoT, IPV4 exhaustion, IPV6, privacy, security

Sensors Are a Primary Source for Big Data

On June 19, 2014 in IoT, Sensors by Ian Chen

Consider a conference that is simultaneously transmitted to audiences in three cities. When a presenter asks the audience a survey question, they can respond by simply raising their hands. The total vote is tallied across all three cities and displayed to the presenter and the audience in real time.

Tagged With: Data, Freescale, Internet of Things, IoT, Sensors

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