Plans2Reality

Electronica 2008, Day 2: Wearable Tech

There's a lot of buzz around wearable tech at this year's Electronica. Of course, in many ways we already have wearable tech, from Bluetooth headsets to armband-iPods to Wii game controllers.

But the technologists are pushing it further. Sensor nets are being used to monitor precise body movements to aid in exercise. Several companies have developed materials that generate electricity from random movement or heat.

Who knows what we'll be wearing in a few years? Something that charges all the other gadgets we own, for sure.

Electronica 2008 - Day 1

Munich - while the mood is a bit subdued, attendance is good and there is more hope than worry in the air. Much of the emphasis this year is on 'green', and not just eliminating lead. Ultra-low-power radio technologies are everywhere; some are even 'zero-power'. EnOcean, for example, has developed energy-harvesting technologies and combined them with sensors and radios. Of course, it's not truly zero-power, but the point is that it harvests the energy it needs, rather than requiring a battery.

This may spell the end of Grenley's Law #2: every wireless devices you own adds two wires to your desktop.

In other news - literally - the amount of press coverage and news in English has increased noticeably. It's rare now to see a vendor who doesn't have English product information; and the press are putting out English show dailies. E&E to Go was a leader in this, but now Markt&Technik, who publish the best-read daily, have added English as well. (Way to go, H, and nice work, D!)

US companies should consider carefully whether to attend, and to exhibit, at Electronica. For IC, passives, and the rest of 'real electronics' it has clearly emerged as a world show, and the world leader. Half of attendees are non-German.

All for now - time to hit the road for day 2!

Why the iPhone?

In a word, functionality and integration. OK, that's two words.

Any number of reviewers have commented that there are other phones with the same, even more, features. Heck, even my Treo 650 matched the feature list, except for GPS.

But functionality is more than features - and this applies to ALL products, not just phones or Apple stuff. Once upon a time I designed advanced RF test equipment. We had to construct a user interface simple enough for the salesman to demo, yet powerful enough to do what a real working engineer would expect. It's not easy.

Put down your matrix of competition, your bullet lists, and pick up your product. Does it work?

Put yourself in the shoes of your real-world customer: can you use this thing in the field? I once saw a product intended to be mounted up in the air, on a pole. It weighed about ten pounds. It took two people to attach the device to a pole. Two people do not fit in a bucket truck, folks.

Back to iPhone: one of the reasons it works so well is the seamless integration with all the apps on the Mac - address book, calendar, etc. I just dock the thing at night and I'm done.

Is it perfect? Not quite. More on that in another post.