Traffic Jam? Bored Kids? Don't Worry—As Long As MOST Is On Board

By Mark David, October 09, 2008

As a father in a family that has spent a lot of time on the road, particularly round-tripping on Route 80 from Ohio to New Jersey for just about every holiday, I know from experience that multimedia in the car can be a lifesaver! With my th

Drivers Get An Assist In The Not-So-Blind Spot

By Mark David, December 03, 2007

From alertness-assistance to traffic-sign recognition, activesafety systems are revolutionizing the world of automotive electronicsâ??redefining the driver/car interface and promising a vastly safer driving experience. For 2007, we r

Going On Vacation? Don't Forget Your Battery Charger

By Mark David, August 02, 2007

I just returned from a two-week family vacation driving through Italy and Greece, exploring the roots of Western civilization. While I was on the road, I realized how power-addicted we Westerners have become, as each night's rest stop included

Puerto Rico—A Shining Star Of Aerospace Engineering

By Mark David, July 19, 2007

Even as Congress debates immigration reform and Homeland Security looks to erect a virtual fence on our southern border, the populace of the U.S. is inexorably changing. More than 12% of our residents are foreign-born, the highest percentage in nearly

Smart Meters Could Revolutionize Summer Living

By Mark David, July 05, 2007

It’s summertime, but the living isn’t easy. All the talk about global climate change— coupled with soaring summer electric rates—is keeping me from keeping my cool. According to the Edison Electric Institute (EEI),

Inconvenient Or Not, Environmental Awareness Will Drive The Industry

By Mark David, June 29, 2007

While the scientific community has moved toward a consensus on global warming, some Electronic Design readers remain dubious. I know this because each time I've written something on the subject, I've gotten an e-mail earful from the skeptics. Perh

Can Gaming's Powerful Pull Get Kids Into Engineering?

By Mark David, June 21, 2007

It may seem ironic that today's most advanced chips are designed for what some might say is our most trivial of pursuits—gaming (see "Games Flourish In A Parallel Universe,"). Yet video games exert a powerful force, not only in the world of el

Following Engineering Passions Earns Admission To The Lunatic Fringe

By Mark David, June 07, 2007

At a Texas Instruments media and analyst event last month, I found myself sitting in a suburban Dallas movie theater wearing 3D glasses and eating tortillas with TI's Principal Fellow Gene Frantz, the "father of the DSP." As you may recall, the first

Tell The Sound Man To Crank It—Electronic Earplugs Are Ready

By Mark David, May 24, 2007

I recently saw Prince in concert at 3121, the Las Vegas club customized for his show. Having seen a couple of his arena shows, I already knew that Prince was one of the best live performers out there. The opportunity to see him up close was definitely

Into The Nano Frontier—Closer Than You Might Think

By Mark David, May 10, 2007

Getting ready for the annual NanoBusiness Alliance conference, I finished shaving and slathered my skin with nanoparticle-enhanced sunscreen. I pulled on some nanofiber-coated pants, finished getting dressed, and headed out to my car, which gleamed t

The Top 100 Employers In Electronic Design

By Mark David, May 10, 2007

Lists are wildly popular throughout the publishing world. Take the Fortune 500, which is highly influential in business. Others have a real impact on our daily lives—Money's Best Places to Live, U.S. News' Best Colleges list, and Consumer Repor

M2M Revolution Continues At ESC 2007

By Mark David, April 27, 2007

The buzz surrounding current Internet growth is all about Web 2.0 and user-generated content—YouTube videos, MySpace profiles, the blogosphere. It's a fun, consumer-centric party. But the next wave, machine-to-machine (M2M) communications, prom

Everything That’s Dis-Integrated Gets Put Back Together Again

By Mark David, April 12, 2007

As electronic design becomes more complex and divides into increasingly esoteric sub-specialties, new opportunities arise for "re-integration" to bring all the outsourcing back together into a logical and efficient development flow. In fact, re-integr

Get Kids Involved In Electronics Before We Become Extinct

By Mark David, March 29, 2007

I just finished reading through dozens of your responses to Communications/Test Editor Lou Frenzel's online commentary, "Whatever Happened To The Electronics Hobbyist?" Lou really struck a chord, as so many of you have followed a parallel path from h

Keyless Access May Be In Your Future With Everyday Biometrics

By Mark David, March 15, 2007

For decades, biometric identification has been the province of high-security applications. Retinal reflection and hand geometry, for instance, are used to lock down top-secret government and financial facilities. Yet simple technologies like fingerpri

Focus On Power-Efficient Design To Help Stop Global Warming

By Mark David, March 01, 2007

This year's One Powerful Issue takes on special significance given the widespread worries about global warming. With last month's unsettling report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, energy efficiency is now sizzling on everybody's fr

Chips In The Board

By Mark David, February 15, 2007

At December’s Printed Electronics USA?conference in Phoeniz, Ariz., Nokia new technology manager David Lu outlined his company’s innovative embedded implementation of radio-frequency identification (RFID), putting an RFID chip inside a pc boar

EPCglobal's Gen 2

By Mark David, February 15, 2007

Developed by the EPCglobal industry group, the Electronic Product Code (EPC) Gen 2 standard defines the physical and logical requirements for a passive-backscatter, interrogator-talks-first (ITF), radio-frequency-identification (RFID) system operating in

What About Security?

By Mark David, February 15, 2007

You may have heard about how researchers at the University of Massachusetts tested contactless Visa, MasterCard, and American Express cards by skimming sensitive data from wallets and purses. The homemade device was put together from off-the-shelf parts.

Active RFID Tag Suppliers

By Mark David, February 15, 2007