-February 2009-
- I Can Feel It Tracking Me Right Now
- “The Darker Side” Just Got A Little Heavier
- Embedded Library Collection Wish List
- Parallax Joins Circuit Cellar; Provides Robot Challenge Prizes
I Can Feel It Tracking Me Right Now
By Sean Donnelly, Publisher—Circuit Cellar
When I first walked into Circuit Cellar headquarters, I found myself
standing directly under a conspicuous black module. A telescoping antenna
seemed to drill downward toward my eyeballs as I peered upward. Like any good
New Englander all too familiar with the danger of falling icicles, I stepped
back from what could be immediate peril. Then I started to wonder… what the
heck is this thing, anyway?
Circuit Cellar founder Steve Ciarcia was
quick to explain. I was looking at a proprietary receiver module for a
people-tracking system. There was no reason to be alarmed. This was the
remnants of a doomed project from about a dozen years prior to my arrival. And
it wasn’t Steve’s intent to track everyone’s whereabouts in the building so he
could crack down on water cooler gossip. Simply put, what better way was there
to test out the tracking system than to enlist the services of staff members and
put it through real-world tests in an office environment?
Keep in mind, this was years before standard RFID implementations, and the concept needed to utilize available technology. Although this wasn’t an HCS project, the boxes on the ceiling held an RF receiver and an HCS MCIR board, which served as a convenient RS-485 converter. Each receiver was spaced about 20’ apart. The transmitters, which looked like key fob devices, were actually pocket-resident RF transmitters.
Problem #1:
While current RFID tags need not contain their own power sources, the
transmitter system being tested sucked down batteries faster than anyone wanted
to replace them. Today’s energy-harvesting technology could have offered a
solution to this problem, especially when the target being tracked is an active
human with plenty of kinetic energy. But such advances weren’t available at a
time when coin-cell batteries were the be-all, end-all energy solution for
portable low-power devices.
Problem #2: The
beauty of current RFID systems today is that most people, save tech savvy design
engineers like yourself, are totally oblivious to the fact that this tracking
technology can be found just about everywhere. The ability for both the RFID tags
and readers to blend in with a consumer’s surroundings is extremely important
to widespread acceptance. Compare the invisibility of a bullet-proof RFID tag
to the ever-present sensation of a key fob transmitter dangling off your belt. On
top of this, having to hand over your key fob each week for battery replacement
would have seemed a bit too “1984.”
Steve’s interest in this system first started because of Bill Gates. Back when Bill was first building his 50,000 sq ft house and Steve still had Ciarcia Design Works, someone from Microsoft contacted Steve about doing a people-tracking system for his house. The units on the Circuit Cellar ceiling were a couple of experiments while Steve toyed with the idea. The problem then, as it continues to be today, is battery power!
While Circuit
Cellar doesn’t have any plans to track its staff with the latest RFID advances,
there must be myriad companies that do just that. In work environments where
security isn’t a factor, I wonder how many employees would have put up with key
fob tracking. Thanks, Steve, for leaving that project in permanent limbo. But
next issue, I will address Circuit Cellar’s virtual punch clock ;-)
“The Darker
Side” Just Got A Little Heavier
Circuit Cellar is proud to announce that Robert Lacoste,
author of Circuit Cellar’s bi-monthly column “The Darker Side,” is creating a
book by the same title. The book, which is slated to be published by Elsevier,
will encapsulate some of Robert’s best pieces from Circuit Cellar along with
new work that follows in “The Darker Side” tradition of demystifying “black
magic” electronics engineering. Watch
future News Notes editions for information regarding publication date and
availability.
Embedded Library
Collection Wish List
As many of you know, Circuit Cellar the magazine started as Circuit Cellar the Steve Ciarcia
column in Byte magazine in the 1980s. Steve used these early columns to help
assemble a number of books related to his brand of embedded application
articles. Despite the age of the material in these titles, it is quite amazing
how many inquiries Circuit Cellar headquarters receives about purchasing these
out-of-print titles.
Starting with the next edition of News Notes, Circuit Cellar will be releasing digital editions of the following titles: “Build Your Own Z80 Computer;” “Ciarcia’s Circuit Cellar” (all volumes).
Problem: What exactly does the following circuit do?
Where might it be used?
Solution: The 74LS161A is a 4-bit binary counter that’s wired to count repeatedly from three to 15 and start over again, giving a total of 13 states. The QB output pulses three times during this 13-state sequence, so the circuit overall is multiplying the input clock by a factor of 3/13.
The interesting
thing about this particular ratio is that, given the input clock of
16 MHz, the output has a frequency of 3.6923 MHz, which is just 0.16%
high relative to a standard data rate generator crystal frequency of
3.6864 MHz. Therefore, this circuit can be used in lieu of a separate
crystal for generating the 16× clock required for standard serial I/O port data
rates up to 230.4 kbps.
Think You Have a Great EQ Challenge of Your Own?
E-mail your best EQ question and
answer to eq@circuitcellar.com. The best EQs will be published by
Circuit Cellar. Authors of the top four EQ picks will receive an Atmel
In-Circuit Emulator mk-II.* All published EQs will earn the author a
Certificate of Appreciation from Circuit Cellar.
*EQ award of Atmel In-Circuit Emulator mk-II: recipient
responsible for any applicable duties and taxes. No cash alternative. Awards
will be made at sole discretion of Circuit Cellar editorial staff. By
submitting an EQ Q&A, Circuit Cellar is granted the right to publish the
submitted material and the author’s name. Submissions must be original (not
published in print or online previously). Offer valid through 3/31/09.
Parallax Joins Circuit Cellar; Provides Robot
Challenge Prizes
Circuit Cellar and the organizers of the 16th annual Trinity College Robot Competition are pleased to welcome Parallax Inc. as a crucial prize sponsor for this must-see event. Parallax, which has been producing high-quality microcontrollers since 1987, is a favorite resource for robotics enthusiasts around the world. To learn more about this event, please visit http://www.circuitcellar.com/absolutenm/anmviewer.asp?a=367&z=1
Pictured below are a few of the Parallax competition prizes, including the Scribbler Robot, Boe-Bot Robot Kit, and the BASIC Stamp Activity Kit. www.parallax.com
Circuit Cellar’s annual readership poll indicated that while many of you find use for multi-media venues, certain content is best expressed in text and with static high resolution images. Much of this is true for the depth and detail surrounding embedded application articles. However, that doesn’t stop our authors from joining the youtube generation and posting visual updates to their projects.
To help authors and readers alike find all of these Circuit Cellar-related youtube videos, a channel has been created at www.youtube.com/circuitcellar. We will be adding to this on a regular basis and encourage your submissions. Whenever appropriate, some of these videos that are most related to Circuit Cellar content will be hosted through youtube’s embedded player directly on Circuit Cellar’s site at www.circuitcellar.com/featuredvideo.
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