In another demonstration of digital-signal-processing capabilities, Michael Masterman, President of Extreme Endeavors (Philippi, WV) showed how sensors built into firefighters’ protective gear can save lives. The sensors provide information about motion, heart rate, and other vital signs. But to measure these characteristics, the equipment must remain unobtrusive and must require no sensors directly attached to the firefighter. Instead, the protective suit incorporates sensors that pick up vital signs and process them through a Texas Instruments DSP chip. Masterman stressed the challenge of extracting useful information from an ambient environment—inside the suit—where noise can occur only 20 dB below the measures characteristic. First, the DSP technology will take data from the suit and extract the heart rate--using mathematical computation information--from noise 100 times greater than the heart beat itself, said Masterman. Second, the DPS chip provides a software-defined radio so you do not need separate components for a radio; it’s all in the chip. The radio will communicate vital signs to nearby personnel-monitoring equipment.
During a demonstration of the wireless technology, a firefighter performed simulated activities as Texas Instrument Developer Conference participants observed suit and firefighter conditions displayed on a large PC display. According to Masterman, many fatalities occur because firefighters over-exert themselves and have no way to monitor their conditions. The final Extreme Endeavors will include a small display that firefighters can monitor as well as a wireless link that will let supervisors and chiefs monitor the conditions of their fire company’s people.
The Department of Defense and the Office of Naval Research are funding the design of Web applications that will help protect and police coastal waters.
This year, when Indy teams search for a competitive edge on the track, they're going to have to dig deeper into the mechanical aspects of the car than ever before in the history of the race.
A new process for laser-welding large-scale, steel-aluminum foam sandwich structures for lightweighting ships, which eliminates intermetallic phase, has been demonstrated.
Against a backdrop of mounting product complexity and a need to keep a lid on development costs, companies are recognizing a need to make simulation a more integral part of the design process. In response, vendors in the CAD world are building out CAE functionality as part of their CAD suites while simulation vendors are building tighter integrations to leading CAD tools. Keith Meintjes, Ph.D., Practice Manager, Simulation and Analysis at CIMdata, Inc., joins Design News CAD Editor Beth Stackpole in this radio program to explore the new face of integrated CAD and CAE, how companies are benefitting from this tighter partnership between platforms, and how integrating CAE earlier in the development cycle pays off in optimized product designs.
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