A study by Pew’s Social & Demographic Trends Project reveals that when it comes to technology, Americans are changing their definition of necessity. The study asked 1,000 U.S. adults to name their necessities among such products as cars, clothes dryers, air conditioners, television sets, home computers, cell phones, microwaves and high-speed Internet, among others. The results: Clothes dryers, microwaves; air conditioners and televisions all dropped significantly in importance, while flat screen TVs, iPods, and high-speed Internet made very small gains. Microwaves dropped the most. Whereas 68% considered the microwave a necessity in 2006, only 47% labeled it necessary today. Similarly, clothes dryers dropped 17 percentage points and air conditioners fell by 16. Flat screen TVs meanwhile moved up by 3 percentage points and iPods moved up a single percentage point. So what’s the takeaway? It could be as simple as this: During a recession, less products are considered necessities. Pew says that this is the first year in a decade when Americans defined fewer products as necessary.
A massive engineering effort has produced a lightweight, high-strength body structure that will let Cadillac enter the compact luxury market segment this year.
If you design mechatronic systems and want to learn more about using microcontrollers (MCUs) in your applications, listen to our Design News radio program on Tuesday, Jan. 24, at 2:00 p.m. EDT.
Engineers who have equipped cars with cameras and collected millions of miles of data on crashes say that the key to distraction is visual, not cognitive.
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.
To save this item to your list of favorite Design News content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
If you found this interesting or useful, please use the links to the services below to share it with other readers. You will need a free account with each service to share an item via that service.
Tweet This
11 
