Electronic Everything!

Cypress Semiconductor Corp. has launched a programmable product for data communication over existing power lines. The Powerline Communication product leverages the programmable analog and digital resources of Cypress's PSoC programmable system-on-a-chip architecture. It integrates multiple functions beyond communication, such as power measurement, system management and LCD drive. In addition to its flexibility and integration, the product offers greater than 97% packet success rates without retries and 100% success rates with retries built into the solution's coding, according to Cypress. It also offers the flexibility to communicate over high-voltage and low-voltage power lines for lighting and industrial control, home automation, automatic meter reading and smart energy management applications.

Google PowerMeter allows consumers to access their power consumption data through a secure, Web-based iGoogle™ gadget. As a Strategic Partner, Microchip incorporated the recently announced Google PowerMeter API to create a Reference Implementation, which makes it much easier to develop products that are compatible with Google PowerMeter. Microchip's Reference Implementation demonstrates the device's activation, data transmission and status messages using readily available Microchip development tools. It can be used as a template for developers' own designs.

Anyone can bake a cake, but while some chefs bake dry, uninspired bricks of dough, there are other chefs who make cakes we would die for. The ingredients may be the same, but the outcomes are so very different. This is also the case between average electronic products and world-class, market-changing products. One of the most recent technical sensations is the capacitive touch screen. But what makes some touch screen-based products amazing, while others get such poor reviews?

I remember when, a decade ago, Kevin Warwick, a professor at the University of Reading, in the U.K., implanted a radio chip in his own arm. The feat caused quite a stir. The implant allowed him to operate doors, lights, and computers without touching anything. On a second version of the project he could even control an electric wheelchair and produce artificial sensations in his brain using the implanted chip. Warwick had become, in his own words, a cyborg. The idea of a cyborg -- a human-machine hybrid -- is common in science fiction and although the term dates back to the 1960s it still generates a lot of curiosity. I often hear people asking, When will we become cyborgs? When will humans and machines merge? Although some researchers might have specific time frames in mind, I think a better answer is: It's already happening. When we look back at the history of technology, we tend to see distinct periods -- before the PC and after the PC, before the Internet and after the Internet, and so forth -- but in reality most technological advances unfold slowly and gradually. That's particularly true with the technologies that are allowing us to modify and enhance our bodies.

French service robotics company Robosoft has introduced a robot called Kompaï designed to assist elderly and disabled people and others who need special care. The mobile robot talks, understands speech, and can navigate autonomously. It reminds people of meetings, keeps track of shopping lists, plays music, and works as a videoconference system for users to talk with their doctors, for example. The video below is pretty awesome. It shows a senior at Broca Hospital, in Paris, interacting with the robot after receiving only a few minutes of training. The man asks the robot about the time, date, and whether he has any appointments that day; Kompaï gives answers in a computerized voice.