Yesterday’s post on Peter Massey’s Antenna Engineer’s Guide prompted me to think about about why I love antenna engineering. Massey is correct that antenna engineering does provide interesting and varied work, good pay, and job security. But one could say the same about many other jobs. Here’s a slightly edited […]
Electromagnetics
174 posts
I recently ran across a fantastic introduction to antenna engineering as a profession. Peter Massey compiled his Antenna Engineer’s Guide with an eye to helping students evaluate on antenna engineering as a career choice. Why chose antenna engineering as a career? Here’s Dr. Massey’s analysis: Interesting varied work. In many […]
Some wireless and RFID updates: U.S. Baby monitors cause interference in Japan. (H/T Steven J. Crowley) Two different perspectives on the history of RFID from Michael L. Davis at DefCon 17 and from SoftwareHelpOnline. I’m sorry to learn that David Schmarder is retiring. His business provided a valuable service by […]
On August 11, 2010, a major wireless milestone passed largely unnoticed: the end of a tumultuous twelve year regulatory process to authorize ultra-wideband (or “UWB”) wireless systems. The FCC ordered ET Docket No. 98-153 “TERMINATED.” By dismissing the last outstanding Petitions for Reconsideration, the FCC has finally and firmly secured […]
Here’s an interesting antenna idea: use a column of sea water as a monopole antenna: Hat Tip: Steve Werner.
The Boston Globe has a great article on Q-Track’s successful firefighter rescue demonstration at WPI earlier this month: WORCESTER — The blinded, disoriented firefighters who crawled up the stairs of a century-old brick building here recently had to find a missing colleague, and find him fast. Their only hope was […]
Last month, a Q-Track team traveled to the historic Safety Research Coal Mine in Bruceton, Pennsylvania to conduct RF propagation and performance tests on a Near-Field Electromagnetic Ranging (NFER®) Real-Time Location System (RTLS). We optimized the system for use in a mine environment in an effort funded by NIOSH. We […]
The organizers of Fifth Precision Personnel Locator (PPL) Workshop (held on the campus of Worcester Polytechnic Institute, or WPI, August 2-3, 2010) collaborated with the Worcester Fire Department to conduct realistic firefighter rescue exercises. All three systems tested enabled rescues substantially faster than the 24 minute unaided rescue baseline. The […]
In 1905, an obscure patent clerk in Switzerland wrote four scientific papers, any one of which would have guaranteed his future fame. The clerk’s name was Albert Einstein. His four papers: proposed that energy exists in discrete levels called quanta (the photoelectric effect), demonstrated that the microscopic quiverings of small […]
Back in July, a team from Q-Track Corporation traveled to Bruceton, PA, just outside Pittsburgh, to conduct RF propagation and performance tests on a Near-Field Electromagnetic Ranging (NFER®) Real-Time Location System (RTLS) optimized for use in a mine environment. The visit inspired this post about the history of the Bruceton […]
Here are a few RTLS and RFID news updates… Here’s a great article in xconomy|Boston on RFID innovator, ThingMagic. ThingMagic co-founder, Matt Reynolds, was one of the first to consider using low frequency signals for indoor location. He’s now a professor at Duke University pursuing an interesting line of research […]
The proceedings of the Fifth Precision Personnel Locator (PPL) Workshop, held on the campus of Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) August 2-3, 2010, are now available online. The agenda includes links to most of the presentations. A copy of Q-Track’s Firefighter Location and Rescue Equipment (FLARE) presentation (Near-Field Electromagnetic Ranging (NFER®) […]
Mark Papermaster, formerly Senior VP of Devices Hardware Engineering and in charge of iPhone4 hardware has left Apple. No word on whether his departure is more antenna fall-out. Here’s the Ars Technica coverage. As TechCrunch points out, “The iPhone4 Antenna Issue Won’t Die – Because Apple Won’t Let It.”
Our friends at CTIA confirm what I always suspected: that cell phone signals really aren’t likely to ignite gasoline. In fact, there is no documented case of a cell phone ignited gasoline fire. That myth has been thoroughly busted by the “Mythbusters” (Part1 Part2). This urban legend is also covered […]
From the “continuing-to-beat-a-dead horse” department, the antenna blogging world’s top story refuses to die: According to Simon Tonks, the consultant who led the testing, “Our tests indicate that the ‘death grip’ issue is real, and is worse for the Apple iPhone 4 than for other smartphones.” I summed up my […]
I’m with the Q-Track team at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, MA today attending the 5th Annual Workshop “Precision Indoor Personnel Location and Tracking for Emergency Responders.” Q-Track will be debuting our “Firefighter Location and Rescue Equipment” concept in a presentation at 11:20am (ET). I’ll provide addditional updates as time […]
Mathew Lasar writing over at Ars Technica has an update on San Fransisco’s new cell phone law requiring cell phone vendors to post Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) data for all models. The SAR is rate at which a phone can dissipate power as heat in the head of a user. […]
The *real* story behind Steve “Darth” Jobs and the iPhone incident, from this (Chinese?) animation (with English subtitles). The funniest aspect of this over-the-top animated “documentary” is that some of the anti-Apple ranting sounds just like this.
Apple has been justly criticized for not responding promptly to the iPhone’s antenna problems, and for problems in the way they handled the crisis. But with so many piling on Apple for their iPhone antenna problems, I’d like to reiterate and expand on what I said Monday: The antenna design […]
Apple’s competitors were not happy with Steve Job’s attempt to paint the iPhone’s antenna problems as similar to those faced by other smart phones. This Wireless Week piece presents feedback from Samsung, RIM, HTC, Motorola, and Nokia. An industry source I contacted declined to comment, saying his company’s testing was […]
Zebra Enterprise Solutions announced last week that they will be releasing the DART Ultra-Wideband (UWB) Real-Time Locating System (RTLS) this Fall. Zebra acquired UWB pioneer MSSI in 2008.
Apple resolved the iPhone antenna problem as anticipated on Friday by handing out plastic bumpers free to customers. The MSRP $29 bumpers are of negligible cost to the company and well worth the expense to solve the problem. The antenna design on the iPhone really is quite clever and innovative. […]
Apple will hold a press conference later this morning on the iPhone antenna problem. This comes in the wake of a Consumer Reports test confirming that the problem with the antenna and not just a software problem as Apple had originally claimed. When a finger makes contact with the gap […]
Gizmodo’s latest scoop – photos of a prototype iPhone 5 with improved antenna.This is a spoof, but it does raise interesting questions about the sacrifices accepted in antenna performance for the sake of aesthetics. I actually *would* do this to my cell phone because the factor of four improvement in […]