Slashdot Mirror
Radar/Wireless Transmitter on a Chip
dganapa writes "Researchers at the California Institute of Technology, headed by Dr. Ali Hajimiri, have developed a low-cost radar system on a silicon chip. The entire system has been designed from the ground up on silicon, thus leading to reduced cost as well as robustness in response to design variations and changes in environment. The chip runs at a staggering speed of24 GHz (enabling it to transfer data as fast as the main network of the Internet) and can soon lift wireless, high-frequency communication to a whole new level. The radar as such is not as powerful as a conventional radar but because of its cost-effectiveness, a number of them can be coupled together to perform really well. A related NY Times article is here. A recent article from Slashdot shows that radar technology is increasingly being implemented in the automobile industry. This current chip is sure to be much more successful than its predecessors as far as the automobile industry is concerned, but whether or not its processing speed will become important in the computer industry remains to be seen."
With the phases array, they should be able to measure the side of the object. Of course you are right that a cloud of pebbles could cause braking, but that might be ok.
It could be a component, but only one piece. The really tough part if creating the software that intelligently drives. There are so many oddball cases you have to deal with in driving that it will be a very long time before this is possible.
Look how much trouble the teams are having putting together vehicles to race each other at 30 MPH on a closed course in the DARPA challenge. Many of them are using radar in conjunction with laser and visual systems in order to put together a world-view, and they are still having major problems running a course without other drivers.
Now add in all the erratic drivers, random animals, and kids running out into streets, and I don't think we are even close to having self-driving cars.
24 GHz would be a cycle time of 41.7 ps. For just about everyone, that's longer than the setup time plus hold time of a flop, making it impossible to do any logic in any given cycle. There is also the possibility of only listening to every other clock, but then it really wouldn't be 12 ghz.
Unless someone's at least ten years ahead in tech out there?
That's because you're probably not staying to the right. Quit shitting your pants because of what the other drivers think. If you're on the right lane, they have plenty of other lanes to drive like a dumbass.
The problem with this RFID concept is the price to adoption is in the $0.10 range which is a hard thing to do. Also the antennas for these are like 3" long pieces of plastic.
I don't see what having a strong RF field generator on chip does? See, how they work is low/no power needed on-chip which is then excited by RF field and the chip replies with a signal which identifies it. What good does an on-chip "interrogator" do? And how exactly does help this adoption along?
Good point, but over here you get screwed over if you even go 4 kmh ( roughly 2,5 mph ) over the limit. They don't care if you're overtaking at the moment or not. Besides, the police are supposed to keep speeding under control where relevant, not where it is most profitable.
It's quite a riot over here in the NL, where our goverment and police ( on all levels ) are practically conspiring against people with cars. Instead of maintaining control at essential points where people might actually be in danger from speeding traffic, ( such as elementary schools near long straight roads, faciltities for deaf or blind people, playgrounds, parks, roads adjacent to residential areas... ) they clock for speeds at places where, for example, the usual 120 kmph changes into 100 kmph for some reason no one understands in the first place. You see the 100 sign, you let go of the gas and less then a second later you see a flash in your rear view mirror and find yourself EUR 48 poorer then before.
Also common around here are the roads with nonsensical speed limit. Why just 80 on a long straight road with clear and largely empty banks on either side and at least 50m away from the nearest house? The road isn't too busy and everyone wants to get to his/her destination in time. But you can NOT take advantage of this because as soon as you go 84 kmph, you've lost EUR 23 to some idiot dressed in blue. Meanwhile, on the less-busy parallel road just 5m from the houses, someone goes 100 kmph, nearly kills a playing kid and doesn't get fined because it's not profitable enough to station someone over there.
I do not know what is worse: the fact I have to pay extra taxes because of poor laws in this country, ( Especially regarding highways when compared to Germany, where you can go as fast as you want during certain times iirc... ) or the fact officials downright LIE to us and STILL claim it is all for "safety" and not to just rake in some extra cash. Now this all might be very different where you are, but over here it tends to piss people off. Including yours truly.
Hate me!
Imagine placing these chips on top of light poles every 1/2 mile on big city highways. Now enable them to relay information to each other and broadcast it via Bluetooth or something like that.
In your car have a GPS map that has wireless capability to these units. You can get a real-time traffic density map of the city and decide if you want to take the freeway home or take another route...
Seems like a pretty easy app to set up also.
"In like 5 years they'll like have software that can download movies." Lars Ulrich, Metallica
I didn't see anything in the article that referred to power output - maybe I just missed it. But I think that there may be lots of applications where the kind of power you are thinking about isn.t needed, Military units need maximum range, and range is often hundreds of miles. But to spot another car in the fog all you need is a hundred yards or so.
And the beam-focusing aspect means that 100 mW can go a long way.
I was thinking that the communications aspect may be the big payoff, think what this would do for a cell-phone. No external antenna, and the comm beam always aimed in a direction other than the user's head. Cuts the radiation exposure by orders of magnitude. Of course you might not want to step in from of one...
To hear the gods laugh tell them your plans.
From David Syes
I think I coined this first: Body Aura-Mour...
Imagine this being used on soldiers' ensembles... you could wear a weapons system that tags friends' IFF transponders to reduce fratricided (accidental or intentional, to prevend fragging the 2/LT);
It could be used to locate and link up with allies, or to sneak up on unsuspecting targets in almost any kind of weather.
Moreover, it could help police and firefighters. Ever more frightening, school kids could me made to rent them and affix them to their uniforms. Now, roll call will have a whole, umm, new dimension.
But, it could also be used to help people avoid being horned when the bull races occur. But, I guess that would take the fun out of being rammed in the rear or the spine or gut.
BodySAR--- Body Synthetic Aperture Radar... Interesting applications...