Sensors Magazine articles from October 2005

Sensors Magazine archives from October 2005

Potential demonstrated.(National Instruments Corp.'s user conference)(Editorial)
October 1, 2005... By themselves, sensors are nothing but little bundles of potential. That's why implementation demos are so inspiring and idea-provoking. For me, the most exciting demonstration at NI Week 2005, National Instruments' (www.ni.com) 11th...

Intel research pairs more sensors with more capable processing.(Business Sense)
October 1, 2005... Besides being the world's largest chip maker, Intel Corp. (www.intel.com) is also known to be an active researcher of wireless sensor technologies and applications. Why? Because the company sees a future filled with sensors that will require...

Progress for process.(Business Sense)
October 1, 2005... Recently completed enhancements to the Electronic Device Description Language (EDDL) promise to enable standardized device configuration, allowing easy visualization and configuration of installed HART-enabled intelligent devices. "The...

MEMS Makers ...(Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems)(Brief article)
October 1, 2005... Microfabrica (www.microfabrica.com), provider of the 3D microdevice manufacturing technology EFAB, and MOSIS, which offers low-cost prototyping services for MEMS and microdevice development, have launched a contest: the EFAB Access Design...

... and MEMS Markets.(Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems)(Brief article)
October 1, 2005... The MEMS market, says research firm In-Stat (www.in-stat.com), will grow over the next few years at a CAGR of 19.87% to nearly 6 billion units in 2009. The projected growth continues a trend: Funding for MEMS companies increased by 43.9% in...

Calendar.(Brief article)(Calendar)
October 1, 2005... InfraMation 2005 October 17-21, Las Vegas, NV www.inframation.org NI Days Conference and NI Technical Symposium October 2005 through May 2006 84 cities and 40 countries www.ni.com/nidays, www.ni.com/techsym ...

Help for hide and heart.(Research and Developments)(ElectroNeedles)
October 1, 2005... Part of the misery of being diabetic is having to prick your finger or arm for glucose-level testing. And haste prevents waste when it comes to diagnosing a heart attack. Sandia researchers led by Jeb Flemming are developing diagnostic...

Everyone in the pool: heads up!(Research & Developments)(Inview smart goggles)(Brief article)
October 1, 2005... Dedicated lap swimmers just have to know their daily distances in the pool. But are they going to concentrate on swimming or counting? Katie Williams, an industrial design grad student at London's Brunel University has come up with a way to...

Keep pistols in the proper palms.(Research and Developments)(survey on usage of Smart Gun by children)(Smart Gun built-in intelligence)(Survey)
October 1, 2005... Shortly before we received news of the Smart Gun project outlined below, we read a newspaper article from the Associated Press and learned that ~1.7 million children in the U.S. live in homes with unsecured, loaded firearms. The report was...

Short takes.(James Montgomery Doohan)(Adrian David Cheok invented Touchy Internet system)(Brief article)
October 1, 2005... Every Trekker will have heard that James Montgomery Doohan, who portrayed Chief Engineer Montgomery Scot (Scotty) in the original Star Trek series, has left this ship. He was a Canadian rather than a Scotsman, served in the CRAF, and saw action...

Logging space data.(SpaceShipOne)
October 1, 2005... SpaceShipOne, the first privately funded aircraft to make the [62.sup.+] mile trip to outer space, was not like anything that had been built before. So it looked improbable that any COTS test equipment would be able to handle the vast amount of...

Hands off the fixtures!(AppSnaps)
October 1, 2005... Thank goodness for public restrooms! But yet, most of us would rather not touch the communal objects in them. Fortunately, many of these facilities now offer automated flushing, soap dispensers, and faucets. TT Electronics OPTEK Technology...

Robotic rack-picking.(robotic autoracking systems)(Brief article)
October 1, 2005... Assembly operations that require picking randomly placed components off shipping racks are tough to automate. But that's what two U.S. automakers wanted to do. Automation specialists from Comau Pico (Southfield, MI, www.comaupico.com) evaluated...

Trick or treat!--Seasonal sensing.(Hands-on sensor engineering)
October 1, 2005... Halloween is almost here, so I have to get ready for all the little characters who will show up at my doorstep looking for a handout. What does Halloween have to do with sensors? Logistics. Some trick-or-treaters ring my doorbell, others rap on...

Get a jump on easy access to cross-platform power.(Enterprise intelligence from your sensors)
October 1, 2005... Powerful data-sharing technologies are now at your disposal to make your job easier and your operations more effective. One of these rising stars goes by the name Web services. Web services are platform-independent, self-contained applications...

Antenna sharing, the WiMAX buzz, and IEEE 802.xx.(Mesh, Mobile, M2M-what do you want to know?)
October 1, 2005... Dear Wise Guy, My setup includes two remote sensor nodes that I'd like to communicate with their respective base stations. The nodes are from different manufacturers and don't work together, but they do operate at the same frequency. Can I...

Coriolis mass flowmeters--filling key process needs: coriolis flowmeters, once limited to pure, clear liquids, are now satisfying the more difficult requirements of the process industries.(Coriolis metering technology )
October 1, 2005... Measuring mass flow rate offers potential for improvements worth thousands of dollars in industries such as chemical, food and beverage, pulp and paper, petroleum, pharmaceuticals, and in water/wastewater treatment facilities. Although great...

Electrical impedance--what lies beneath: understanding impedance unlocks a broad range of sensing capabilities.
October 1, 2005... You all remember Ohm's law and the definition of electrical resistance as the ability of a circuit to resist the flow of electrical current. Although useful, Ohm's law applies to only one circuit element and assumes it to be an ideal resistor....

Choosing a data logging system: decisions, decisions. The main problem facing plant engineers and systems integrators is choosing the right system solution.
October 1, 2005... Choices for logging systems are expanding all the time, and defining your application and finding a logger to match it, rather than fitting your requirements to a given logger, dictates the best selection. Take care not to over-specify because...

More fieldbus power for hazardous location applications: wondering if you can connect all your devices to a fieldbus and keep them running? The High Power Trunk concept might be your answer.(INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS)
October 1, 2005... Process industry engineers who use fieldbus in their hazardous location applications (Class I, Division 1 and Class I, Division 2) are looking for additional power that will let them connect more instruments to their fieldbus segments. Three...

Measuring viscosity with a surface acoustic wave sensor: a new solid-state viscometer combines the desirable features of resonators and delay lines to offer a wide dynamic range in a single unit.(SENSOR TECHNOLOGY AND DESIGN)
October 1, 2005... Viscosity, the resistance of a liquid to flow, is an important measurement requirement in industrial process control and OEM applications. Viscosity describes the retarding force that is proportional to the rate of deformation. This so-called...

Product news.
October 1, 2005... Product News is but a sampling of the many, many products we've seen recently. The ones included this month reflect a trend, are different enough to make me sit up and take notice, or are nice implementations of current technology. At the...

Correction.(Correction notice)
October 1, 2005... In the August issue of Sensors, p. 24, Figure 7, two values were incorrect. The range for magnetostriction is 0.50 in.-90 ft.; that for encoders is 0.50 in.-6 ft.

RFID Applications, Security, and Privacy.(New to Bookshelves!)(Brief article)(Book review)
October 1, 2005... RFID Applications, Security, and Privacy Editors: Simson Garfinkel and Beth Rosenberg Publisher: Addison-Wesley ISBN: 0-321-29096-8 This hardcover book consists of thirty-two chapters, each dealing with some aspect of RFID; how it...

The Engineering Tool Box.(Mel's Picks)
October 1, 2005... For a quick refresher on the various types of flowmeters and other flow-and process-related topics, take a gander at The Engineering Tool Box. Here you'll find short tutorials on how the various flowmeters work, how to choose the best flowmeter...

High Tech Services.(Mel's Picks)
October 1, 2005... High Tech Services, a systems integrator specializing in industrial, laboratory, and process automation, has a wonderful Web site covering pretty much everything automation. I'm going to highlight the industrial networking and communication...

Eugene Mirman.(Mel's Picks)(Website overview)(Brief article)
October 1, 2005... In honor of Halloween later this month, I give to you the Marvelous Crooning Child, an extremely odd Web site wherein a photo of a large-eyed child croons today's tunes in a piping voice. Yes, I know it sounds weird. The site is the brainchild...

Quote of the month.(Mel's Picks)
October 1, 2005... McCabe's Law: Nobody has to do anything. Charles McCabe (1856-?)

How do you feel about the extension of daylight saving time due to take effect in 2007?(Quick Poll)(Brief article)
October 1, 2005... How do you feel about the extension of daylight saving time due to take effect in 2007? 37% I'm in favor. 33.3% I'm opposed. 20.3% I don't much care. 9.2% I'm conflicted. Quick Polls are posted on the Sensors Online site...