A dress that gradually disappears as you get a magic ball near to it? Yes, please. That’s exactly what Daan Roosegaarde, V2 Lab and Maartje Dijkstra have created, using a flexible plastic material and radio frequency technology. Very pretty too…
New Kinetic has an RF attachment accessory for the iPhone that gives it all the power of a universal remote, except way, way better. This is the universal remote we want.
There’s little stopping Bluetooth from making its way into more devices, but its battery drain is many times that of, say, tried and true IR. But a new, lower power Bluetooth is coming next year.
RF signal processors are pretty commonplace in consumer electronics. Which is exactly why it’s exciting that two MIT researchers have created a super-radio based around the function of the human ear that’s substantially faster and 100x more power efficient than today’s signal processors.
Living in an apartment building, I can spot about twenty active Wi-Fi networks at a time. And the worst part is that they can all see me, too.
Apple’s just filed a patent titled “Personal area network systems and devices and methods for use thereof” which is speculative, but basically offers us a sniff of how the future of gadget interconnectivity might be. Apple imagines small, intelligent and efficient RF transmitter-receivers that can handshake and pass data between gadgets and which are embedded everywhere, literally from your socks upwards.
What would a CEDIA floor walk be without stopping by Crestron, that company that will let you control everything in your house with sophisticated control devices, commanding a hefty price along the way. The company’s newest addition to its vast system of control processing equipment is the MLX-2, a $750 remote control that has two-way RF communication, opening up some intriguing possibilities.
Phonak have launched the world’s first in-ear RF receiver. The device supports multiple frequencies, comes bundled with a remote control and will be active for 13hours on a single battery.
The diminutive receiver, called Phonak Invisity, remains (apparently) completely invisible when in use. It is capable of picking up transmissions from mobile phones, walkie-talkies and specialized transmitters, with a range of 250m. Release and price information is not available as yet. We are hoping the device is completely invisible because if you are out to foil the next drug smuggling attempt and this thing drops out, well, you know what happened in Scarface. Messy. [Red Ferret] .
This is the Benefield Anechoic Facility in Edwards Air Force Base: the largest chamber of its kind in the world —a room in which RF and sound signals don’t bounce off the walls, so you can get clean radio frequency testing on all kinds of gear. In this case, electronic warfare systems in huge toys like Hercules, B-1B and B-2 bombers, Raptor fighters and all kind of airplanes.
