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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'."
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.
"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.
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!
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
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
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'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
It's a good way of getting rid 90% of the mindless drivel that floods through the hundreds of channels.
Deleted
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
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.
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.
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?
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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!
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
Ah but you're making the fatal assumption that if intel develops it, they will deploy it. Intel developed USB, and then sat on the finished product, too afraid to break the tried and true compatability (or in compatability) of other formats. Apple came along, took USB from them, and made it work. They forced people to adopt, and it was for the better. You're also assuming that just because Apple is investing currently in BlueTooth, that they won't adopt a different tech down the road.
T Money
World Domination with a plastic spoon since 1984
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
Batteries are a limiting factor, but they're not that big a deal.
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.