"WIRELESS: Avnera chip provides multi-point HD audio connections"

Eliminating that tangle of wires behind your stereo system and home theater will get a lot easier in 2010, when several new wireless technologies will compete to cut-the-cable, starting with Avnera's new wireless HD audio system (being sold at Best Buy). Look for wireless everything in 2010. R.C.J.


Avnera Corp. has unveiled what it touts is the world's first multi-point to multi-point wireless audio chip. AudioMagic is a second-generation mixed-signal technology that enables up to 10 devices to send and receive wireless HD audio. By comparison, Broadcom and Kleer offer single-stream CD quality wireless (44.1 kHz, 16-bit) audio chips for wireless headphones using Bluetooth or with proprietary wireless protocols, but Avnera's chip is the first to connect multiple audio sources to multiple audio speakers with HD quality (96kHz, 24-bit) audio.
Full Text: http://bit.ly/5cPNiU

#WIRELESS #ENERGY: "Recharging Just Got Automatic"

Most of us have to lug along a different wall wart for each wireless device we want to recharge, but an emerging standard interface will soon allow a common station to recharge all. The Wireless Power Consortium's Qi standard promises to enable any smartphone, tablet, digital camera or similar rechargeable mobile devices to use the same wireless recharging stations--just set your device on the black pad and it automatically recharges through the air inductively: R. Colin Johnson


Wireless rechargers cut the last cord to tablets by recharging merely by lying then on a specially wired surface. Source: Freescale Semiconductor

Here is what EETimes says about wireless recharging:Wireless inductive battery rechargers already cut the cable to many devices such as electric toothbrushes, but because there were no standards in place until recently, they still require a proprietary recharge station. Now that the Wireless Power Consortium has over 100 members for its Qi standard, analysts predict the time is ripe for a global wireless charging market, which is expected to exceed 100 million units annually by 2015, according to IMS Research (Austin, Texas).
Further Reading

"CHIPS: SiLabs debuts wireless microcontrollers"

Every wireless device is getting smarter so why not combine the radio-frequency (RF) circuitry with the processor. "Can do" said Silicon Labs this week at Embedded World in Nuremberg, Germany. Look for wireless electronic devices to get smaller and lower power as a result of wireless microcontrollers. R.C.J.


Silicon Laboratories Inc. mated its family of wireless transceivers to its line of ultra-low-power microcontrollers to create a family of a dozen wireless microcontrollers. Silicon Labs claims its ultra-low-power family of 8051-compatible microcontrollers already had the industry's lowest active current consumption, and its lowest sleep current. Plus its line of wireless transceivers already offered +20 dBm output power without an external PA and -121 dBm receiver sensitivity. Together with an on-chip dc-to-dc converter for operating at .9 volts, the new Si10xx family of wireless microcontrollers is claimed to increase the lifetime of the battery powered RF devices using it by five times.
Full Text: http://bit.ly/bttAAc

"WIRELESS: transceiver-on-chip now possible"
A research team from Michigan-based universities says it has succeeded in integrating the last two components needed to create a one-chip wireless transceiver. "Our research group picked up the challenge to integrate the last two off-chip components onto a wireless transceiver," said Michael Flynn, head of the wireless-interface group at the Wireless Integrated Microsystems Engineering Research Center (WIMS ERC) at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor). "Thanks to Kamal Sarabandi, we have demonstrated a Zigbee [2.4-GHz] wireless link using our 1-centimeter-square slot antenna and thanks to probably the world's foremost expert on RF MEMS [microelectromechanical systems for radio frequencies], Clark Nguyen, we have also developed a wineglass-like resonator to replace the off-chip quartz crystal. "Now all the wireless components can be on one chip � enabling everything from hearing aide-sized cell phones to smart dust," said Flynn. Kamal Sarabandi, a member of the WIMS ERC, is director of the Radiation Laboratory at the Electrical Engineering Computer Science (EECS) College of Engineering at the University of Michigan. Clark Nguyen, who developed the wineglass resonator, is an EECS associate professor. "Sarabandi's group has been talking to Intel about commercializing the antenna design in wireless laptop computers, and others have been showing interest in the wineglass resonator," said Flynn.
Text: http://eet.com/article/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=26805541

#WIRELESS: "Wireless Implant Meters Drug Doses"

Smart medical implants can now dispense drugs into the bloodstream as a result of wireless signals sent to it from the doctor's office.

MicroCHIPS has developed an implantable medical device which allows repeated wireless drug delivery in lieu of injections. (Photo courtesy of M. Scott Brauer)


A thumbnail-sized microchip containing multiple drug reservoirs has now passed clinical trials in which a wireless signal was used to release precise daily doses, instead of requiring patients to inject themselves with the drug. The technology could help patients who require frequent or daily injections.

Studies have shown that many medical patients do not take their meds on schedule, especially when they are feeling good and think they no longer need them. Unfortunately, many drugs today need to be taken regularly and in precise doses in order to maintain their long-term therapeutic effect. As a result, many new technologies are being tried that prompt the patient, via email or telephone reminders, to administer the drug themselves. Others have tried using smart pills to wirelessly notify the doctor when a specific drug has been taken.

The new approach that has just passed clinical trials in Denmark uses a smart microchip implant that stores daily doses of drugs, then automatically dispenses them in response to a wireless signal sent by the attending physician on the Medical Implant Communication Service (MICS, frequencies band between 401- and 406-MHz). As a result, patients can receive regular, precise doses of their medicines in perfect compliance with their doctor's instructions.

"It can be very difficult to get patients to accept a drug regimen where they have to give themselves injections," said MIT professor Michael Cima. "This avoids the compliance issue completely, and points to a future where you have fully automated drug regimens."

The smart implant is manufactured by MicroChips Inc. under a license from MIT where Cima and fellow professor Robert Langer have been developing the idea for several years. Now that the clinical trials have been successful, the company is increasing the number of doses each chip contains as well as creating a variety of different sized reservoirs so that all the different drugs a patient takes can be held by a single smart implant.

"You can deliver multiple drugs [using] remote control," said Langer. "You could literally have a pharmacy on a chip."
The successful clinical trials showed no adverse side effects, but in fact showed a significant improvement in the accuracy and timing of the doses given, compared to depending on patients to administer the drugs themselves. The trials administered a drug for osteoporosis, but any patient with chronic diseases, regular pain-management, or other drugs that need to be taken daily could benefit from the implant.

The smart implant can be injected under the skin in the doctor's office in about 30 minutes using a local anesthetic and lasts about four months before needing to be replaced. Each dose is held in a reservoir capped with platinum/titanium which melts when it receives a signal using the MICS wireless network protocol. The test chips only held 20 doses, but the production models now in development will hold hundreds of doses. Eventually MicroChips plans to develop even smarter models that can administer drugs in response to on-chip sensors, such as a glucose sensor for diabetics.

MaxArias #Ferroelectric F-RAM Wireless Memory Debuts from #Ramtron

Smart memory chips with wireless reception enable novel electronic devices to perform simplified remote data collection tasks. Look for a new wave of smarter mobile data collection devices over the next few years. RColinJohnson @NextGenLog


Here is what Ramtron says about its wireless FRAM memory chips: Ramtron International Corporation (Nasdaq: RMTR), a leading developer and supplier of ferroelectric-based low-power memory and integrated semiconductor products, today announced the availability of commercial samples of its F-RAM enabled MaxArias™ wireless memory devices. Ramtron’s MaxArias wireless memory products combine the low power, high speed, and high endurance features of nonvolatile F-RAM memory technology with industry standard wireless access to enable innovative mobile data collection capabilities. MaxArias is ideal for a wide range of applications such as high-value asset tracking, manufacturing and maintenance history collection, and smart utility metering, among others.
Full Text: http://bit.ly/NextGenLog-a1fD

#WIRELESS: "Internet of Things M2M Beating HIV"

The Internet of Things is using machine-to-machine (M2M) communications to preventing HIV infection in thousands of African children, according to Sequoia Technology Group Ltd which is using Telit Wireless Solutions' cellular modems to create life-saving applications in a project funded by the Clinton Foundation and Mozambique Ministry of Health.


Here is what Sequoia Technology says about its life saving technology: Machine-to-machine (M2M) communications technology is saving tens of thousands of infants from mother-to-child HIV infection in Africa. Based in the UK, Sequoia Technology, an M2M company, along with its longtime technology partner Telit Wireless Solutions, has developed a way for rural medical clinics in Africa to wirelessly receive HIV test results of expectant mothers within days of testing, a first for many rural villages. This has allowed mothers with HIV-positive results to begin anti-retroviral drugs much earlier in their pregnancies, reducing the chances of transferring the virus to their newborns from 40 percent to less than 1 percent. Nearly half of babies born in Mozambique with HIV die in the first two years of life.

Funded by the Clinton Foundation and Mozambique’s Ministry of Health, the HIV Early Infant Diagnosis Project saved an estimated 20,000 babies from infection in just the first six months of its launch. The successful and unique program is now being expanded to nine other African nations including Kenya, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Uganda and others.

Sequoia Technology developed a small, inexpensive printer incorporating SMS (short message service) wireless protocol used for mobile phone text messaging. Utilizing the GC864-Quad V2 wireless modules from Telit Wireless Solutions, the SMS printers are connected to a complex GSM cellular gateway that allows lab results to be wirelessly and securely sent to printers installed at the rural clinics. The GC864 modules are one of the smallest GSM/GPRS quad-band modules with industrial connectors in the market.

Lidington added that the advanced monitoring software included with the system can be a powerful tool for health ministers to track where illnesses are appearing and apply medical resources accordingly.

Nearly 400 clinics in Mozambique are now outfitted with the 12-volt printers for their low cost, simple operation and security.

Further Reading

"WIRELESS: Broadcom, Hillcrest team on wireless motion sensing"

Gesture recognition using an in-air 3D pointer could become the substitute for the traditional remote control, substituting on-screen menus for all those tiny button you need to push today. Look for buttonless remote controls using wireless connections on many consumer products in 2010. R.C.J.


Targeting the Internet TV crowd, wireless chip maker Broadcom has formed a joint venture with Hillcrest Labs to make wireless gesture recognition chips. Hillcrest's MEMS-based technology will be integrated with Broadcom's wireless Bluetooth chips. Hillcrest's Freespace motion control and pointing technology, exemplified by its Loop in-air gesture recognition device, earned a Consumer Electronics Show Innovations 2010 Design and Engineering Award. Other companies that have licensed Hillcrest's Freespace technology include Eastman Kodak, Logitech, Universal Electronics and ZillionTV.
Full Text: http://bit.ly/5llItT

#WIRELESS: "Smarter Sensor Nets Monitor Any Environment"

Paolo Dionisi Vici (left), associate research scientist in the Department of Scientific Research at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Hendrik Hamann (right), research manager at IBM, discuss the environmental sensor network for preserving art. (Source: IBM)

Wireless sensor networks originally designed to monitor data center server farms by IBM are being deployed in new environments where they repurpose software analytics and cloud computing capabilities to solve a wider array of societal problems. Wireless sensor networks, composed of nodes called “motes,” can monitor local environmental factors like temperature, humidity, barometric pressure and even corrosion, sending a constant stream of data to analytic software running on cloud computers. Originally developed to prevent maintenance headaches at data centers, IBM is now repurposing them to solve a variety of societal problems, such as preserving irreplaceable works of art.

“Migration of this approach to other industrial and public spaces can employ a vast variety of networked sensors,” said Hendrik Hamann, research manager at IBM Research. “Whether it be an art object or any other monitoring criteria within a building or a campus, building operators need to gain a better understanding of the environmental conditions that are impacting their spaces.”

Wireless motes are already deployed worldwide in many data centers, providing smart real-time monitoring of server farms that typically reap more than 10 percent savings in continuous energy consumption just weeks after installation. Using IBM’s Data Center Monitoring and Energy Management (MMT) software, analytics are already on the job streaming sensor data from data centers and related installations, such as at AT&T’s Telecom Central Offices.

Motes can house any type of sensor, even specialty sensors such as high-precision accelerometers for seismic monitoring, but for monitoring indoor environments the sensor complement typically includes temperature, humidity, pressure and in some cases corrosion sensors. The data from these motes is typically streamed to cloud computers running Java-based real-time analytics that model the environment with physics, then provide operators with 3D visualizations showing maps of the parameters. For instance, a thermal map could illustrate in-tolerance temperatures as “blue” and out-of-tolerance hot spots as red, with yellow and orange showing the gradients in between.

One of its first pilot projects is at the New York Metropolitan Museum, where a wireless sensor network is monitoring the environment at The Cloisters exhibit—a branch of the museum devoted to art and architecture from 12th through 15th century medieval Europe.

“This pilot project has the potential to become an important tool in the Metropolitan Museum's ongoing efforts to achieve the best environmental conditions for the works of art in our care," said Paolo Dionisi Vici, associate research scientist in the Department of Scientific Research at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

IBM’s wireless sensor network time-stamps each sensor reading, then feeds the results to cloud computing resources, which provide the analytics and real-time visualizations. Currently using 100 sensors, the pilot project is slated to eventually be expanded to thousands of sensors throughout the main museum at Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street, where they will measure temperature, humidity, air flow, contamination levels, light levels, and whether doors are open or closed.

The museum is also working with IBM to define smarter types of corrosionlike sensors that can sense actual changes in the materials of which art works are composed, potentially heading off damage to century-old works even before analytic models have incorporated that avenue to deterioration.
Further Reading

Visible light illuminates a new approach for #wireless comms

Wireless used to be synonymous with RF (radio frequency) but no more. Now the National Science Foundation, major universities and their industrial partners worldwide are turning those LEDs everyone is switching to for illumination into data hubs--whether they are in you home, business, car or where ever. Look for visible light communications to enable wireless networking in locations where RF is prohibited (hospitals) or inconvenient (signage) over the coming decade. R.C.J.


With preparations well under way for a societal shift to solid-state lighting based on high-output LEDs, a proverbial light bulb has appeared above the heads of some forward-looking engineers. Their proposal: Why not switch the LEDs on and off so fast the eye cannot tell, in order to use them to transmit data too? With enough advance work, every new LED light fixture could also be wired into the network backbone, accomplishing ubiquitous wireless communications to any device in a room without burdening the already crowded radio-frequency bands. Visible light communications (VLC) is being refined by industry, standards groups and well-funded government initiatives. And the stakes are enormous, since the traditional lighting market is measured in trillions of dollars and the transition to solid-state has already begun. This year, LED lighting will account for more than a $1 billion market, with projected growth to about $7.3 billion by 2014, according to Strategies Unlimited (Mountain View, Calif.). Most of those apps will not attempt to replace other wireless technologies, such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, WiMax and LTE, but will aim for niches that are not well served by RF wireless today-from hospitals and aircraft, where RF can interfere with signals in life-critical equipment, to robots that could navigate halls for mail delivery using virtual signposts in overhead lighting, or signage that could supply additional information when a phone camera is pointed it...
Full Text: http://bit.ly/NextGenLog-bQxr

#MEMS-Packed #Smartphones Creating World's Biggest Wireless Sensor Net

Micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) impart the smarts in smartphones, but have also created the world's fastest growing wireless sensor network. Look for an expanding palette of applications harnessing the wireless sensors in smartphones for everything from earthquake prediction to smog alerts. RColinJohnson @NextGenLog


Freescale's MEMS accelerometer houses the MEMS chip (right) alongside its CMOS circuitry (left) in the same package.

Here is what EETimes says about smartphones as wireless sensors: The ever-expanding ecosystem of smartphone apps owes a great deal to MEMS sensors. Indeed, smartphones, with their always-on Internet access and growing complement of sensor technologies, are quickly becoming the planet’s premier wireless sensor network. MEMS sensors in mobile handsets are allowing apps that not only dazzle users but could one day monitor the pulse of the planet. Apple began the revolution by equipping the iPhone with an accelerometer to switch its display automatically from portrait to landscape orientation. The competition quickly followed suit. Now Apple has a storeful of novel apps that exploit the iPhone’s accelerometer for gaming, health monitoring, sports training and countless other uses thought up by legions of developers...
Full Text: http://bit.ly/NextGenLog-apu9

"CHIPS: Wireless USB chip debuts"

Startup Artimi Inc. (Santa Clara, Calif.) has unveiled a WiMedia-compliant dual-mode wireless USB and Bluetooth chip at the Globalpress Electronics Summit. Including both a media-access controller (MAC) and programmable applications processor, Artimi's A-150 chip is intended to help OEMs add WiMedia-based wireless USB and Bluetooth 3.0 communications capabilities to devices. The dual-mode chip provides up to 480-Mbit/s wireless communications to peripherals, adding just 60 milliwatts of power consumption to handheld devices. For older peripherals, thumb-sized USB devices with a A-150 inside can be plugged into the existing USB port to turn it into a wireless peripheral.
Text: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=197700469

#WIRELESS #ENERGY: "Wireless Energy Cuts Cord"

Batteries are the bane of wireless devices which must be periodically tethered to a power cord to recharge, but the Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies claims to have the answer--wireless energy transfers using a rotating magnetic field. R. Colin Johnson


With the aid of magnetic coupling, power can be transmitted wirelessly from a transmitter to a receiver module. The prototype with the transmitter can be attached to the belt. Source: Fraunhofer IKTS

Here is what Fraunhofer IKTS says about their invention: Cell phones and flashlights operate by battery without trouble. Yet because of the limited lifespan, battery power is not a feasible option for many applications in the fi elds of medicine or test engineering, such as implants or probes. Researchers have now developed a process that supplies these systems with power and without the power cord.

For more than 50 years, pacemakers have set the rhythm for many hearts. The engineering of microelectronic implants has since advanced by leaps and bounds: they have become ever-smaller and more technologically sophisticated. The trend is moving toward miniaturized, intelligent systems that will take over therapeutic and diagnostic functions. For example, in the future implantable sensors will measure glucose levels, blood pressure or the oxygen saturation of tumorous tissue, transmitting patient data via telemetry. Meanwhile, medication dosing systems and infusion pumps will be able to deliver a targeted release of pharmaceutical substances in the body, alleviating side effects in the process.

All these solutions are composed of probes, actuators, signal processing units and electronic controls – and therein lies the problem, too: they must have a power supply. Batteries are usually ruled out because of their limited durability – after all, implants stay inside the body for years. Currently, radio wave-based (HF) and inductive systems are most commonly in use. However, these exhibit differences in efficiency based on location, position and movement and are also often limited in range. Soon, a new power transfer system should circumvent the limitations of previous methods. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems IKTS in Hermsdorf succeeded in wirelessly transmitting power from a portable transmitter module to a mobile generator module – the receiver.

The generator module can be traced any time – regardless of power transfer – with respect to its position and location. So if the generator is located inside a video endoscopy capsule, the images produced can be assigned to specific intestinal regions. If it is placed inside a dosing capsule, then the active ingredient in the medication can be released in a targeted manner.

How does this new, already patented system work? In the transfer module, a rotating magnet driven by an EC motor generates a magnetic rotary field. A magnetic pellet in the receiver connects to the alternating exterior magnetic field and as a result, is set in rotation itself. The rotational movement is transformed into electricity, thus the power is produced right in the generator module. “With magnetic coupling, power can be transported through all non-magnetic materials, such as biological tissue, bones, organs, water, plastic or even a variety of metals. Moreover, the magnetic field produced has no harmful side effects on humans. It doesn‘t even heat up tissue,” says Lausch, highlighting the advantages of the system.

Because the modules available as prototypes are scalable in terms of range, size and performance capacity, they can be used for more than medical technology applications. They can also supply power wirelessly to hermetically sealed sensors – such as those inside walls or bridges. This makes them suitable for use in mechanical engineering and plant construction and in the construction industry. Other conceivable applications include the charging of power storage units and activation of electronic components.

Using a hip implant as a demonstration tool, Lausch and his team will demonstrate how their wireless power transmission system functions at the Hannover Messe from April 23–27 (Hall 13, Booth C10). As used here, the technology electrically stimulates the ball-and-socket joint to stimulate the growth of cartilage and bone cells.
Further Reading

"WIRELESS: Startup tries proprietary path to wireless hi-fi"

Touting a successful pairing of wireless and hi-fi audio, fabless chip vendor Avnera Corp. (Beaverton, Ore.) today will announce chip sets for wireless audio connections in the 2.4-GHz band that outperform data-oriented wireless connections in range, freedom from interference, automatic network configuration and full CD-quality sound. But the proprietary approach means the chip sets are not interoperable with other brands.
Text: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=202404450

#CLOUD: "Technology Transforming IT in 2012"

Smartphone and tablet mania will transform the IT industry in 2012 by redistributing the wealth among cloud-based services accessed using ubiquitous WiFi and 4G wireless connections.



As users shift from desktop PCs and laptops to tablets and smartphones as their main computer, the IT supply chain will shift from stand-alone devices with expandable local memory to lighter mobile platforms that dovetail with novel new cloud services.

Ultrabooks will capture 43 percent of global notebook PC shipments in 2015, up from 2 percent in 2011 and 13 percent in 2012, according to IHS iSuppli.

Manufacturers of semiconductors, storage devices, displays, wireless connectivity and manufactured electronics are scrambling to keep up with the massive shift from desktop and laptop computers to smartphones and tablets, according to IHS iSuppli (El Segundo, Calif.), which predicted 10 major transformations for 2012.

1) Cloud Services to Dominate: Just as Apple seems to have anticipated first the smartphone and then the tablet markets with its iPhone and iPad, respectively, Apple's iCloud seems to have anticipated a mass migration to cloud-based services that enable small mobile devices to outperform traditional desktop and laptop PCs. The devices that bundle the most desirable cloud services will win in 2012, according to IHS iSuppli.

2) Generation Gap Widening: Younger users are already increasingly turning to smartphones and tablets as their main computing device, a trend that IHS iSuppli predicts will expand to older age groups until mobile devices become the predominant method of accessing the Internet.

3) Wireless Business Models Reign: As users increasingly access the Internet from their mobile devices, novel new business models that capitalize on ubiquitous wireless connectivity will emerge. Examples include buying devices that offer their favorite sports live, rather than on TV, to coupon and other buying services that aggregate savings opportunities.

4) LTE to Mushroom: As buyers clamor for faster connections to their cloud-based services, the 4G wireless standard called Long-Term Evolution (LTE) will finally begin to dominate, according to IHS iSuppli, which predicts that LTE subscribers will grow from 12 million in 2011 to over 60 million by the end of 2012.

5) ODMs Shifting to Clouds, Too: Today, the majority of laptop computers are actually manufactured by contractors called original device manufacturers (ODMs), who in 2012 will begin shifting their business to making tablets and the cloud-based servers to which they connect.

6) Intel Losing to ARM: As users shift to less expensive computing devices like smartphones and tablets—as opposed to desktop and laptop PCs—the x86-based processors made by Intel will increasingly lose ground to cheaper, lower power processors licensed from ARM. In 2012 Windows 8 will accelerate this trend by running on ARM as well as x86. IHS iSuppli predicts that ARM-based PCs will rise from just 3 percent in 2012 to more than 22 percent by 2015.

7) Ultrabook Saves Intel's Bacon: Intel's ultrabook specification was already anticipated by Apple in its line of MacBook Air computers. In 2102, a half-dozen traditional laptop makers turn to making MacBook Air-like ultrabooks running Windows 8, ditching the optical drive, slimming down with flash instead of hard disks and extending the battery life. IHS iSuppli predicts that Intel-based ultrabooks will soar from less from 29 million units in 2012 to over 136 million units by 2015.

8) Memory Shifts to Flash: Most smartphones, tablets and ultrabooks are too small and lightweight for the memory slots necessary for DRAM upgrades. This is depressing sales of memory upgrades. Instead, the devices will gobble up high-performance flash memories both for hard-disk replacement and as caches to speed up disk access. IHS iSuppli predicts that flash-based solid-state drives for cache in ultrabooks will rise from half a million in 2011 to over 22 million in 2012.

9) Hard Disk Drives Shrink to Grow: The hard-disk drive (HDD) market is dangling from a thread regarding the shift to smaller mobile computers. To keep pace, HDDs will have to slim down from 9.5 millimeters in 2011 to 7 millimeters in 2012, and eventually to 5 millimeters in order to stay competitive.

10) Higher-Fidelity but Smaller Screens: Just as Apple anticipated the smartphone, tablet and ultrabook, the company has also anticipated a move to higher-fidelity, but smaller displays, with its Retina display for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

#ALGORITHMS: "Medical Privacy Secured on Smartphones"

Anti-cloning encryption technology is being used to secure validated medical data, which can only be accessed by an attending physician or the patient.



The U.S. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) mandated that medical data be standardized for easy exchange between institutions, but was crafted before the proliferation of smartphones and other wireless access devices. To protect standardized medical records from being hacked--while simultaneously securing confidential communications of medical advice to patients on their smartphones--is the aim of a new genre of anti-cloning encryption algorithm.
Smartphones and tablets have given health care providers, including attending physicians, a wireless portal into medical databases. In fact, according to some industry estimates, more than 50 percent of the U.S. population will have smartphones by the end of 2011, a percentage that will grow to more than 70 percent by 2013.

MobiSecure Health’s mobile technology supports secure data messaging such as alerts, question/response and advanced questionnaires.
Unfortunately, most of the security measures already in place for HIPAA-compliant databases assume that access will be from computer terminals that are secured by virtue of being on-site. Today, however, physicians expect access from wireless devices. In addition, app-generation patients expect medical professionals to offer smart software that can give advice and reminders about specific directions they are supposed to be following. Both require a new generation of anti-cloning technologies to insure that HIPAA-compliant databases are not exposed by hackers gaining access through wireless devices.
Many U.S. service providers are addressing the need to integrate wireless access into HIPAA-compliant databases, but Diversinet Corp. (Toronto) claims to have a unique approach to the mobile-health care--what it calls "MobiHealth"--that locks secure medical data to a specific mobile device. Diversinet's end-to-end MobiSecure solution--based on Open Authentication (OATH)--secures messaging, and on-the-go storage of personal health data.
Diversinet's unique patented technology (U.S. Patent No. 8,051,297) locks data to a specific mobile device by using its serial number to generate a unique encryption key. As a result, even if medical data is cloned to another device and the hacker steals the user's password, access to the data will still be denied by decryption algorithms which combine the password with a device's serial number to derive the correct decryption passkey.
Other solutions require that user's be online to access medical data, but Diversinet's MobiSecure solution enables both doctors and patients to store and view medical data on their smartphones--Apple, Android or BlackBerry--even when no network access is available.
Merck--the pharmaceutical giant---recently chose Diversinet's solution as a part of a deal with MiHealth Global Systems to promote MobiSecure to Canadian doctors. Part of that effort includes the ability to prompt patients to take their medications on time and to follow other directions, which are securely loaded into the patient's smartphone and accessed with an app.
Further Reading

"SENSORS: New York bridge to get wireless monitor"

Monitoring the structural integrity of New York state bridges could become a model for wireless sensor networks nationwide. Researchers at Clarkson University will make New York the first state with a 24/7 wireless bridge monitoring system. The state will spend up to $500,000 to deploy the first wireless sensor network for monitoring bridge stress. The project is being funded by the New York State Energy and Research Development Authority. Clarkson University has also begun working with TransTech Systems Inc. (Schenectady, N.Y.) to craft a commercial version of Janoyan's group's wireless bridge monitoring system.
Text: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=201500113

"WIRELESS: WiMax-based service integrates cellphone, TV"

WiMax technology could deliver the last mile of wireless broadband service as an alternative to cable and DSL, beginning with network deployment in 2009, according to executives at this week's Cellular Telecommunications & Internet (CTIA) Wireless Conference (April 1-3). The WiMax Forum said it expects to certify 100 WiMax mobile devices in 2008. It said more than 260 service providers would begin deploying WiMax services in 110 countries by 2010. San Diego-based NextWave Wireless Inc. demonstrated MXtv at the CTIA conference in Las Vegas. MXtv is a television broadcast capability that WiMax network operators can add to conventional cellular-type WiMax networks. NextWave Wireless also showed several WiMax reference-design prototypes, including a pocket digital video recorder (DVR) and announced that it was sampling a new higher-performance, lower-power combo WiMax/Wi-Fi chip set for OEMs.
Text: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=207000993

"ENERGY: MIT claims advance in wireless power transfer"

Researchers are claiming that the obstacles to wireless power transfer can be overcome—at least at distances up to 12 feet. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced the development of wireless power beacons on Tuesday (Nov. 14) at the American Institute of Physics' Industrial Physics Forum in San Francisco. MIT claims that historical obstacles to wireless power transfer through space are surmountable, and perhaps enable the wireless recharging of batteries. Called "nonradiative resonant energy transfer," the technique harnesses omnidirectional energy beacons without the requirement for unobstructed line-of-sight. The technique wastes no energy and is eco-friendly, MIT claimed. In MIT's scheme, power from energy beacons would pass through everything but their intended targets by virtue of resonant power antennas tuned to the power beacon's frequency, ensuring that little energy is lost or would adversely affect the environment.
Text: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=194300318

"WIRELESS: Portland deploys mobile WiMax"

Service provider Clearwire Corp. offers 4G wireless connections via mobile WiMax to 1.7 million potential subscribers in Portland Ore. The "Clear wireless network" launched this week includes over 300 cellphone towers equipped with WiMax basestations which cover most of the Portland metropolitan area. Subscribers would pay $20 to $50 per month for access to wireless broadband via USB modems for mobile users or using a WiMax-enabled Ethernet router.

BOTTOM LINE: WiMAX has a two year head start on the mobile phone carrier's preferred voice-over-IP solution called LTE (Long Term Evolution) that leverages existing 3G cellular network infrastructure, but which will not be widely available until 2011. The speed at which WiMAX is adopted, and the availability of WiMAX-enabled handsets, will determine whether LTE and WiMAX coexist or obsolete one of the other.

Text: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=212701149
Audio: http://homepage.mac.com/guitarmedia/interviews/rcjClear-09-01-07.mp3
Video: WiMAX Deployed in Portland Ore.
Video: Clear Demos WiMAX Modems
Video: Video Chat with Portland Mayor