Slideshow: Plant Safety Takes Center Stage in Factory Automation Blog 1/30/2012 23 comments Safety networks have become more complex, and have actually become simpler and easier to deploy for plant operators. This slideshow highlights developments in plant safety with an emphasis on integrated safety networks.
MEMS Gains Respect at CES 2012 Blog 1/19/2012 14 comments As the MEMS industry spans a myriad of industries and markets, the future of MEMS in consumer electronics will enable a myriad of functionality, applications, and personalization.
CES: Nest Thermostat Aims at Smart Home Blog 1/12/2012 11 comments The Nest is a sleek-looking digital thermostat which can actually "learn" its owners' schedule and then continue to regulate temperature to suit the user's preferences and patterns.
MEMS Will Set the World on Fire Blog 1/6/2012 9 comments Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) were in focus at the Seventh Annual Livingston Nanotechnology Conference, with the news that the US has a competitive advantage in advanced manufacturing in nano- and, to some extent, microtechnology.
Does Machine Vision Need 10-Gigabit Ethernet? Blog 12/12/2011 12 comments Some machine vision vendors have begun talking seriously about running GigE Vision-equipped cameras and other hardware over 10GigE backbone links in video networks.
Top 5 Robotics Trends of 2011 Blog 12/7/2011 27 comments The five most important robotics trends of the past year enable volume manufacturing and aim at further integration of robotics with machine vision and automated systems.
Composite Aircraft Repair Advances Blog 12/6/2011 13 comments Ease of repair is reportedly one of the main reasons Bombardier Aerospace has chosen not to use carbon- or glass-fiber composites in the main fuselage of its composite-heavy CSeries aircraft.
3D Inspection Cutting Automotive Defects Blog 11/18/2011 12 comments 3D machine vision techniques are taking on an increasing role in automobile production lines in a bid to up overall production quality and cut defects.
Industrial Distributors Face Integration Challenge Blog 11/8/2011 9 comments Distributors in the industrial, automation, and mechanical engineering sectors are having to adapt to changing requirements among customers as engineers try to differentiate their designs through performance boosts, faster manufacturing cycles, and the need for easier maintenance.
Slideshow: Garmin GPS Teardown Blog 11/7/2011 5 comments Design News' sister company, UBM TechInsights, examined the Garmin GTU 10, a relatively small GPS tracking device.
Silicon Careers: Where Are the Jobs? Blog 10/13/2011 5 comments EETimes has prepared the Silicon 60 Career Issue, a searchable digital guide to up-and-coming startups in the global electronics industry.
Video: My Chevy Volt Deep Dive Blog 10/10/2011 22 comments The Volt is an astonishing vehicle -- a lot of fun to drive, yet stingy in its use of energy. Whether or not you want to pay more than $40,000 for it depends on your definition of luxury.
Safety Is Basis of TI's Hercules MCUs Blog 9/26/2011 2 comments TI’s Hercules line of safe microcontrollers features comprehensive diagnostic and self-testing capabilities built into the hardware.
China's Rare Earth Export Cutbacks Raise Alarms Blog 9/22/2011 20 comments Prices for rare earth elements, an important component electromechanical products, have jumped by at least an order of magnitude in the past year as a result of export cutbacks from China, the world's largest source.
So What's an 'Embedded System,' Anyway? Blog 9/21/2011 10 comments IDC says 1.8 billion embedded systems will ship this year, generating $1 trillion in revenue. Is its definition of the market so broad that we must reconsider what does and doesn't fit in its boundaries?
Thermal Bandits Beget Shrinking Chip Packages Blog 9/9/2011 3 comments The driver of efforts to shrink the package size and power consumption of semiconductor chips is usually assumed to be consumer devices, but it's really Internet communications.
Rare Earth Shortages Revive Alternatives Blog 9/6/2011 9 comments Rising concern over China restricting exports of rare earth elements has caused the industry to revisit older magnetic materials from the mid-20th century, such as aluminum-nickel-cobalt compounds and thin films of iron and nitrogen.
Hackers Probe Medical Implants Blog 8/25/2011 7 comments Attendees of Black Hat Technical Security Forum seem to be leaving computers behind and probing arcane security concerns. But the hacking of a microcontroller-powered medical implant may not be as crazy as it sounds.
Wireless Sensor Nets Make Better Economic Case Blog 8/23/2011 11 comments Wireless sensor networks are more reasonable to deploy in many vertical domains than they were a decade ago, but market analysts say the jury's still out on which domains will see sensor networks become commonplace soon.
Arduino Open-Source Controller Platform Gains Ground Blog 8/8/2011 6 comments Arduino has become the classic bottoms-up open hardware enabler for the type of home hobbyist who has worked with development kits ranging from Lego Mindstorms to open ARM and FPGA kits.
Embedded Multicore Goes Mainstream Blog 7/26/2011 4 comments Multicore designs of four or more processors on a single chip are cheap enough for embedded and industrial applications, but not all multicore processors are appropriate for the task.
3D Printer Kit Ordering Woes Blog 7/21/2011 6 comments Guest blogger and additive manufacturing maven Todd Grimm describes the sometimes frustrating process of ordering a kit to produce three-dimensional parts from common plastics.
A New Modeler From Spatial? Blog 7/19/2011 6 comments Spatial's recent announcement of its Convergence Geometric Modeler may not be a major product release, but it's still big news.
Are Smart Grids on the Verge of Viability? Blog 7/12/2011 5 comments California utility "grand plans" headline a summer of new smart grid activity, but have we really seen much progress since the 2008-2009 boom and bust?
How Engineering Progress Precipitates Crime Blog 7/11/2011 4 comments Innovation is occurring so rapidly that criminals are often able to exploit vulnerabilities before they’re even known to the manufacturer or designer.
Engineers Need to Think More Creatively Blog 6/30/2011 9 comments German engineer Sylvia Monsheimer says that additive manufacturing technologies free engineers from the burden of worrying about manufacturability.
SCADA: The Next Secure Generation Blog 6/23/2011 7 comments Security concerns help drive new SCADA systems vastly different from earlier industrial-control networks for power plants, water systems.
Smith Electric Vehicles teamed with Trans Tech Bus to roll out a 42-passenger, 26,000-lb electric bus called the Newton eTrans, which it hopes will change the way children get to school every morning.
Doug Conner's self-starting, solar-powered Stirling engine runs all year when the sun is visible from the sculpture’s location. The engine can shut down when the sun isn’t visible, and it can restart by itself when the sun comes back up.
Thanks to embedded electronics, medical devices are getting smaller and smarter than ever. Pacemakers and implantable defibrillators are now able to call physicians. MRIs, CT scanners, and ultrasound machines are gaining mobility. And the venerable Band-Aid may soon be able to detect illnesses ranging from fevers to heart arrhythmias. On February 21, join Design News senior editor Charles Murray for a wide-ranging discussion, "Embedded Angles for Medical Products," which will explore the latest developments in medical electronics. The discussion will examine advances in medical device technology and offer an inside look at the embedded electronics behind it.
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