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Intel Promises UWB Products By 2006
prostoalex writes "Ultra WideBand radio is a technology that allows transmitting huge amounts of data over a short distance at very low power. At Intel Developer Forum this week Ben Manny, director of wireless technology development at Intel Research and Development, promised market deployment of UWB-based solutions by 2005-2006. Possible applications of UWB can be discovered in this article that also refers to UWB as 'Bluetooth on steroids'."
In my opinion i dont think bluetooth was very successful, atleast not where i live.
Goodbye (thank God) data cables of all sorts.
If your bitterest enemies are people who hack the heads off civilians, then I would say you're doing something right.
stream hi-res pr0n to my laptop.
If it was hard to write it should be hard to read.
Braised Ox Penis is actually a delicacy in some parts of the world.
You could've hired me.
"This is the captian speaking. Our monitors have detected someone in first class using a UWB device, so as per international law we have jettisoned the entire first class cabin to ensure the saftey of this aircraft. The remaining delicacies not already consumed by said criminals will now be distributed by the flight attendants. Thank you for your attention."
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
You, too, can clobber every radio and cellphone within 20 feet!
Disinfect the GNU General Public Virus!
can be taking down planes
Jesus saves souls and redeems them for valuable cash prizes
Yup now we know Star Trek had it again... Just hold the tricorder near the computer and everything zips over.
I see this being useful in pda sized devices. move your home movies from one place to another, from you cam corder to your computer to your pda photo/video album
What I can't wait for is technology like this to become common place and I can't wait to see what uses we'll find for it that no one has thought of just quite yet.
So far I see using the home computer as you storage area and editor for the data that is used by devices to start and being able to transfer the data easily will be a big step in that direction.
See the Pictures of the Flood of '08
Does this mean I can get rid of all my video switches and just connect the keyboard and mouse to the monitor and connect to whichever CPU I want?
That would kick ass.
I belive this is also the technology that the regulators in the UK want to ban laptops on planes due to.. seems to interfere with this needless things like traffic control systems..
So if you wanted to turn this into a wireless network, you'd have to put base stations at every 10 feet?
And if you want to turn it into Wireless USB 2.0 - you can now broadcast your color print jobs of confidential documents from a corner office and have joe hacker on the opposite side of the wall eavesdropping the "connection"?
I think I'll keep my cables for now.
$ man woman *
-bash:
Can we get rid of this expression? Please? It's, like totally, from the 1980's. It's so aniquated and cliche'd that's it's not funny (literally anf figuratively).
A better 21st century expression would probably "Bluetooth on a double-hit of Viagra".
Hilary Rosen's speech was about her love of money and her desire to roll around naked in a pile of money.
"By applying UWB wireless technology to cable TV operating systems, it is possible to double capacity. Thus a system that currently offers customers 100 channels could
increase options to 200 channels."
That is exactly 100 times more channels on my behalf and I allready watch too much TV. How many days can one fit in one?
Look a monkey!
I can't think of an article it would be more appropriate for. ;)
But just up the power of the transmitter to a gigawatt or so, and then you might have something! Safetey, schmaftey! Once we're all wearing those lead-lined trousers and codpieces everything will be perfectly safe.
Roving Web-Teleoperated Robot
These things kick out enough noise to severely impact anti-collision warning systems, so we'll all have to leave the laptops in the overhead compartments now.
t er ference.idg/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/ptech/03/14/UWB.in
http://www.idg.net/go.cgi?id=437026
So what is the effective range, Mbs, etc?
The government has a defect: it's potentially democratic. Corporations have no defect: they're pure tyrannies. -Chomsky
Available in all areas of the country EXCEPT silicon valley and outlying areas.
somebody goofed with the 10ft, it's actually 10 METERS. about 30ft.
Oh yeah. it is wireless.
So,that means there is some type of receiver with a fair amount of processing power to turn that lovely EM burst back into nice clean digital data.
A receiver in every device, and of course a transmitter as well which uses that same processing power to turn digital data into EM bursts.
So, no more cables to hook up your monitor or speakers or other devices. There are some definite possibilities for convergence between HDTV and computer monitors here - why continue to build TV tuner circutry into your video display device? after all, you don't have built in FM tuners in every speaker.
BUT:
This sure sounds like just the sort of massive technological change that is exactly what the DRM people are looking for to piggyback Pay-Per-Everything onto. Certainly there will be plenty of processing power to implement some nasty strong encryption scheme in the UWB hardware.
You either believe in rational thought or you don't
The Technical Research Centre of Finland has developed a somewhat similiar (or at least remotely related) tehcnology for about 17 GHz wireless networking. Those who are interested of this thecnology might want to check out http://www.vtt.fi/vtt/new/new109.htm (or http://www.vtt.fi/vtt/uutta/uutinen409.htm in Finnish).
So my USB keyboard will be connected at around 500Mbps. About how many words a minute does that come out to?
Of course, you'll need all that keyboard bandwidth to type all the passwords. Because all your new wireless UWB devices will need to be password protected so they don't accidentally work on your neighbor's computer. On startup you'll log on to every individual computer component, each of wich will be scattered about the room (speakers on ceiling - zip drive on top of blender - DVD drive in sock drawer).
USB 5.0 will solve this password issue by providing a sleek insulated "password transfer conduit" that connects directly to your PC, interfacing, for security reasons, with each peripheral directly.
The angel in the oatmeal.
I'm fairly certain that UWB devices will see the light of day, but let's not forget the oodles of previous technologies that could've, should've, but never did make the imapact that were promised.
I'm not saying UWB is vaporware, though. It'll just have (greatly) limited application unless much of our other wireless technologies change before then too (which is unlikely- eg, look at how slowly DTV is replacing analog TV, or how slowly G3 mobile phones are taking hold here in the states)
It would be nice if I could install a new HDD just by plopping it on top of the computer desk or shoving it in a drawer near the tower.
I've played booster for this before, but the industry just hasn't reacted in any sort of reasonible way. Instead, we've seen mutant solutions like cell phones will sub-par digital cameras built in (which is, to me anyway, pretty much useless).
So, once more with feeling, here is my dream: I want a personal network that moves with me. I want to be able to have the various personal devices I'm carrying at any given time detect each other and communicate (securely) and to act in a way which raises the value of the whole beyond that of just the components.
I want to take pictures with my digital camera and have them stored on my iPod. I want my cell phone to detect this and use idle time to send bits back to my home computer (maybe the pictures could show up in email or something). I want to use my PDA to sort through my MP3s and have them play on wireless headphones. I want to use my PDA to get a real-time account balance (again, via my phone, which is more of a communication hub) when I'm trying to decide how much to spend at lunch.
I don't want a *wearible* computer. I want my computer to be the sum of my devices.
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
Is this like how they promised my company they would have Itanium servers shipping in May 2000 and 18 months later we were still waiting and very angry at the lies and continual BS they were feeding us?
It's a good way of getting rid 90% of the mindless drivel that floods through the hundreds of channels.
Deleted
The scary bit for me are not the admittedly awesome communications aspects of UWB, but the radar applications (see FAQ page linked to above).
Low cost devices that can image through walls? Through the walls of MY house? No thanks!
I mean, really? What does it give me in 4 years that I don't already have? Can I connect my keyboard and mouse at gigabit speeds? Better brush up on my typing then.
Bluetooth gives me fast enough connections for keyboard, mouse, data to my pda, GPRS phone. I can use wireless networking 802.11b and better for higher bandwidth and slightly longer distance connections.
All this and it doesn't pollute the background noise level the way UWB does.
I think Intel are just royally pissed that they didn't think of Bluetooth and are now trying to rain on the parade.
Deleted
This is great news, but I fear that somehow a division will form in who actually adopts this. It is being developed by Intel, so obviously windows machines will support it, and linux, etc will as well. My greatest fear is that Apple will -not- for some reason, or Intel won't want to give it to them. The Bluetooth features of MacOS 10.2 are pretty suave... I'd even say it makes me want to get more devices that can actually use it. Effortless synchronization of information, and the likes, is really cool. If all of the major "players" adopt this as a universal standard, and all the devices play nicely together across all platforms, I think this will be nearly revolutionary as far as how technology is used in our lives. However, if only certain platforms and devices support it, it's just another trend.
-agent oranje.
Does the following sound anything like a promise, or more like a vague prediction?
"We expect initial market deployment of standards-based UWB solutions to be sometime in the 2005-2006 timeframe," said Ben Manny, director of wireless technology development at Intel Research and Development.
There are reports that UWB interferes with the collision detection systems in airplanes. If this is true laptops, PDAs, etc. will be banned from flights :(
Any electrical engineer would tell you that bluetooth is nothing like UWB. Infact it's the exact opposite technology.
Bluetooth is based on narrow-band which is *A LOT* different technically.
I'd get into it but then I'd get flamed for posting a lesson.
-- dK
My dedicated wireless (3Mbps) is good for about 10km and has to be line of sight. I'd rather have the same speed over a longer distance with no LOS conditions.
If they can talk to toher devices, can't they talk to toher motherboards? If so..... Imagine a beuwolf cluster of these guys!!!!
NO! NO! Please don't mod me, I'm too young to die a troll. *click* Oh the pain, the pain...
I have the same dream you've got, with the extension that I shouldn't have to walk back to my desk to do 'real' work- we need better devices that can serve, whole or in part, as fully portable workstations. For me, that basically means a decent keyboard and a passable printer, which we've had, sort of, in the form of the Psion Series 5 and the Citizen PN60i. Problem is, the Citizens are a dead product, and nobody's even considered people might want to do heavy document-editing from their pocket.
But anyhow, that's not my point here. The point is there's one other unfortunate roadblock- batteries. When you have this wireless device-cloud, everything needs to be powered seperately- your headphones, your iPod, your keyboard/powerglove/whatever...
That's a lot of cash to Duracell, or a big mess of wall-warts.and charging stands. Anyone else think we should move to smart inductive-charging mats?
There's a few papers and other interesting bits on UWB and localizer technology at the AEther Wire & Location, Inc. Homepage
It increases the level of background noise, everything has to shout louder to be heard. 802.11b is simply the 1st of many faster wireless protocols and was only used as an example.
Bluetooth already removes most of the cables from my kit.
I ask again, what does UWB give me 4 years from now that I don't already have?
Deleted
MM
--
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My AV center (receiver, CD player, tapedeck, turntable(!), amp, DVD player, VCR, TV) has a veritable rats nest of cables behind it. I'm afraid to reach in to get the dust bunnies out. With low-power UWB devices, we won't have to mess with cables all these cables! This, along with UPNP (or UDDI or whatever the hell they'll come up with to corner the market), and I won't even have to configure anything!
NASA recently did some testing with UWB devices on, in and around aircraft. The results are pretty scary. GPS receivers just stopped working, no surprises there. The real scare came from the way TCAS reacted... the displays just went blank.
The NASA tests prompted aviation administration to bring up the possibility of banning *all* laptops from flights in the UK on the basis that some laptop manufacturers propose to install UWB capability in laptops.
Since the airlines are in the business of flying people about, not providing free emissions testing on electronic equipment to all comers, the only logical, practical route is to ban all laptops and other UWB-possible devices from all flights.
There's still work to be done before UWB gets off the ground, literally.
Granted, most radio astronomy locations are purposely removed from populated areas. However, what happens when millions of these things are in use? All those "low power" levels they are talking about will add up to one giant batch of noise. I can see extraterrestrials writing off earth as that "noisy interfering planet." :)
From Google's cache (since the original is gone), Aviation Today, Avionics: Unremitting UWB Issue
I'm sure MS and the RIAA will make sure it includes DRM and is Palladium compliant before allowing this to become nationaly adopted.
The firm has applied for an array of patents to cover its wired UWB technology and apparently is the only company to use this approach
I've noticed a disturbing feeding frenzy for UWB patent applications similar to the internet business models. Somehow I can't believe that feeding the UWB signal down a cable TV transmission line instead of an antenna is a non-obvious patentable idea.
Here's a current list of some of the patents around UWB. Notice that only a few groups hold almost all of the cards:m l
http://www.aetherwire.com/CDROM/General/titles.ht
The FCC is considering laws to not allow laptops on planes anymore because of ultra wide band interfering considerably with the GPS systems that are on planes. This will be a huge problem, since so many people these days get a considerable amount of their business done on laptops while on planes. Case
I think my principles are reachin' an all time low
God Almighty.
Guess what? I can't think of a good but idiotic fast food analogy - but if I ate at BK I'd be more afraid that it might have , y'know MSG in it.
Seriously. Intel already has quite a history of promoting DRM and other initiatives deigned to prevent free use of technology. Remember the chip ID number a few years back? How about their more recent annonuncement of hardware support for DRM. (Last time I checked UWB would require hardware) Will the chips have "surplus" processing power to handle some sort of DRM enforcement encryption scheme? No - because the DRM enforcement will be part of the base design. USB and Firewire hardware is already shipping and DRM was not included in their specifications. A 3-4 year lead time suggests plenty of time to make sure that every UWB compliant chipset will include hooks for DRM as part of an overall "secure communications protocol" (note to the tinfoil hat people, this secure protocol will have a backdoor bigger than the goatse guy (supply yer own darn link) - strictly for the War on Terror y'know)
And once again, remember the big news here in comparison to USB or Firewire is that it is wireless. That means all new hardware to take advantage of it. New speakers, new monitors, new video cards, new keyboards, new mice, new PDAs, and so on. (I'm sure I don't have those in actual order of adoption - cut me a little slack OK?)
Some folks are happy over the idea that there will be no more need for umpty trillion cables. I am too. Just think how much money a UWB solution can shave off the Bill of Materials for those items. Heck, I probably have over 300 dollars worth of freaking cables in my home office. My concern is that the "standard" will incorporate something that will pretty much make DRM mandatory and that it will do so completly without discussion.
And another thought which occurred to me. If this is all embedded in the chipset, will it provide a neat little endrun on Microsoft's patent on DRM in the operating system? (It is Saturday - I don't remember if I'm supposed to hate MSFT today - I can't hate the MPAA cause it is movie day... darnit we need a banner on slashdot to tell us where we want our hate to go today)
You either believe in rational thought or you don't
The FAA is already considering banning ALL laptop use aboard airplanes, when these chip come out. Reason being, the flight crews are not going to be saddled with determining if your laptop has UWB.
source: AVWEB
hahahaah! mod this freak up as +5 funny!