This week, I’ll be presenting my paper on “A simple procedure for measuring gain of very electrically small antennas” at the 2014 Loughborough Antenna and Propagation Conference. Gain measurements of very electrically small antennas (VESAs) present special challenges. These antennas radiate with poor efficiency, and great care is needed to […]
Yearly Archives: 2014
23 posts
Today, I am presenting a seminar on some diverse topics for the folks in the Antennas and Electromagnetics Research Group at Queen Mary University, London. Here are links to some slides: Three Centuries of UWB Antennas Near-Field Wireless Technology The Time Domain, Superposition, and How Electromagnetics Really Works A couple […]
Last week, I traveled to the Allerton Park and Retreat Center to present a new paper on fundamental electromagnetic physics at the 2014 Antenna Applications Symposium. My paper, “On Energy Flow in Standing Waves,” analyzes and explains the propagation of energy in a variety of standing waves. The conventional point […]
The Heaviside Memorial Project successfully raised funds and completed the restoration of the memorial to Oliver Heaviside and his family in the Paignton Cemetary near Torquay, Devon. Details and additional photos of the unveiling ceremony are available at their web site. The group, organized by the Newcastle Electromagnetics Interest Group […]
He developed the theory of transmission lines, coined such terms as inductance, impedance, and admittance, and rewrote James Clerk Maxwell’s awkwardly expressed equations into the vector form familiar to any student of electromagnetics. Today, Oliver Heaviside’s neglected tombstone is barely legible and is beginning to lean. Chris Spargo and Professor […]
Yesterday, UWB pioneer Time Domain announced their acquisition by a private equity group led by Bonaventure Capital and Fidelis Capital. Time Domain did not disclose the terms of the transaction. Additional details are available in a statement from the company and in coverage from the Huntsville Times.
I’ll be presenting my short course on UWB antennas at the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Symposium (APS) in Memphis, TN on Sunday July 6. This is the first time I’ve been back to IEEE APS since 2007, and my short course includes some interesting revisions from the second edition of […]
One benefit of working at Q-Track is the opportunity to collaborate with talented people for whom radio is a passion, not just a profession. This past weekend, my Q-Track colleague, Mark Brown [N4BCD], participated in the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) “Field Day.” The weekend-long exercise tests the ability of […]
Near-field wireless technology is an emerging area of great importance in Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). Specific applications include low frequency (LF) and high frequency (HF) RFID, Near-Field Communications (NFC), Near-Field Electromagnetic Ranging (NFER), and wireless power transfer. This talk discusses the origins of near-field wireless, surveys applications, presents near-field links […]
From Scientific Papers of James Clerk Maxwell, vol 2, LIV, p.311 (Proceedings of the Royal Institution of Great Britain, vol. VII, 1876). Emphasis added inn bold. I HAVE no new discovery to bring before you this evening. I must ask you to go over very old ground, and to turn […]
PBS Frontline offers a comprehensive and chilling account of the birth, growth, and evolution of the surveillance state. This is a must-see documentary that puts together all the pieces I only thought I understood from 9/11 to Edward Snowden’s leaks. Here’s Part 1. The second part airs this evening.
The 2014 Atlanta Objectivist Society Conference (ATLOSCon) is coming up over Memorial Day weekend. The annual event brings together over sixty attendees for an action-packed program of lectures, workshops, and activities. The fun kicks off the evening of Thursday May 22, and concludes Monday May 26. I’ll be presenting a talk […]
I didn’t have time to address a few additional points in my previous post on creativity and innovation. In this post, I wanted to sumarize the evidence underlying my claim that most of innovation results from industry reworking, improving, and advancing existing technology and not from the direct application of […]
This evening, I will be presenting a talk “Some Thoughts on Creativity and Innovation” at Neurostimulation: Stimulating change in patient care by 2024 sponsored by Cambridge Consultants. If you are surprised why an RF scientist with expertise in antennas and near-field wireless systems is speaking at a conference on neurostimulation, […]
Roger Bowley of the University of Nottingham demonstrates a dramatic increase in the range of your car’s ~315MHz key-fob merely by holding it to his head (H/T Glenn Wolenec).
Auburn University recently announced that the RFID Research Center will be moving to Auburn from the University of Arkansas. Here’s a summary of coverage: RFID Journal | Arkansas RFID Research Center Moving to Auburn University RFID 24-7 | New RFID Lab will focus on the store of the future Birmingham […]
The Hugo-nominated short story “Opera Vite Aeterna (epub, mobi)” by Vox Day touches on questions of immortality and religion in the context of a well-crafted tale of friendship, loyalty, and betrayal. My review includes many spoilers, so I strongly recommend you read it yourself, before continuing – after the break.
Some interesting and informative links from around the net: Via The Art of Manliness, here’s “How to Survive a Lightning Strike,” “Why I Am Not An Environmentalist: The Science of Economics Versus the Religion of Ecology,” by Steven E. Landsburg, excerpted from The Armchair Economist: Economics and Everyday Life, Sean […]
Writing an engaging and interesting book on a technical subject poses a significant challenge. Dive too deeply into the technical minutiae and you risk boring non-technical readers. Skim too superficially and you fail to do the subject justice. In his new book, You Are Here: From the Compass to GPS, […]
The last couple of weeks were action packed. Two weeks ago, I spoke at the Texas Wireless and Microwave Circuits and System Symposium at Baylor University in Waco (see my post “Demystifying Electromagnetic Superposition“). Last week, I joined the Q-Track team in Orlando for RFID Journal Live, our industry’s leading […]
The Q-Track gang is in Orlando, Florida this week for RFID Journal-LIVE, the world’s premier conference and exhibition focused on radio frequency identification (RFID) and its many business applications. The tradeshow is underway April 8-10, 2014, at the Orange County Convention Center, located in Orlando, Florida. More about that later. […]
This afternoon I will be presenting an invited talk at the 2014 Texas Symposium on Wireless & Microwave Circuits & Systems at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. In my talk, Demystifying Electromagnetic Superposition (slides), I will examine the interesting behavior of electromagnetic waves when they superimpose or interfere with each […]
Blogging has been taking a back seat to everything else in my life, lately. This week, though, I have a variety of interesting and exciting developments to share. Today’s news is an update on the indoor location company I co-founded, Q-Track. The good news began a few month ago in […]