What's New @ IEEE in Wireless

June 2006 Volume 7, Number 6

IN THIS ISSUE:
1. Scaling the Mobile Internet: "IEEE Communications Magazine"
2. Lester Eastman Conference Returns to Place of Origin
3. Wireless Networks Enable Long-Distance Eye Care in India
4. "Proceedings of the IEEE" Unveils New Look and Features
5. Call for Papers: Packaging Concerns for Wireless Communication
6. Wizard of Watts: James D. Meindl Receives 2006 IEEE Medal of Honor
7. Mobile Web-Based Agents As Gateway to Services
8. Replacing MP3 Bluetooth With Nordic's RF Chipset
9. Share Your Photos of IEEE Events

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1. SCALING THE MOBILE INTERNET: "IEEE COMMUNICATIONS MAGAZINE" REPORTS
This month's issue of "IEEE Communications Magazine" (v. 44, no. 6) reports on the growing (although as-yet undefined) field of mobile Internet applications. The seven articles in this special feature cover topics such as Ipv6, scalable QoS-Aware mobility, network architectures, and mobile number portability. Preview the guest editors' introduction online: www.comsoc.org/livepubs/ci1/public/2006/jun/index.html

2. LESTER EASTMAN CONFERENCE RETURNS TO PLACE OF ORIGIN
The 2006 IEEE Lester Eastman Conference on High Performance Devices returns to its original location of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, USA. The conference was originally titled the Biennial IEEE/Cornell University Conference on High-Performance Devices but was renamed after its creator Lester Eastman in 2002. The conference will cover a variety of topics including nanoelectronics, microwave MEMs technology, speculative concepts and more. The conference is cosponsored by the IEEE Electron Devices Society and takes places from 2 to 4 August. To register to attend, or for more information, visit: lec.iiiv.cornell.edu/lec2006/

3. WIRELESS NETWORKS ENABLE LONG-DISTANCE HEALTH CARE
New technology based on Wi-Fi networks allows eye doctors to interview and examine patients in five remote clinics via high-quality video conferencing, according to the technology's developers at University of California, Berkeley, and Intel Corporation. The low-cost connectivity links rural clinics with doctors at Aravind Eye Hospital in southern India, researchers say, using high-speed links to screen patients. Standard Wi-Fi range is limited to about 200 feet, according to the system's developers, who created software to overcome range limitations, combined with directional antennas and routers to send, receive and relay signals at network speeds of up to six Megabytes per second at distances up to 40 miles (100 times faster than dial-up speeds, and 100 times farther than regular Wi-Fi). Read more: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-06/uoc--nlw060606.php

4. "PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE" UNVEILS NEW LOOK AND FEATURES
Readers of this month's issue of "Proceedings of the IEEE" (v. 94, no. 5) may notice a few changes, as the flagship journal of the IEEE unveils a new design and several new features. The journal has expanded its table of contents to aid readability, increased its use of color and photographs, added a section for reader comments, and modernized the design throughout. Subscribers can check out these changes (as well as the issue's focus on next-generation optical networks) through the IEEE Xplore digital library: ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/tocresult.jsp?isnumber=34274

QUOTE OF THE MONTH:
"Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten." ~ B.F. Skinner

5. CALL FOR PAPERS: PACKAGING CONCERNS FOR WIRELESS COMMUNICATION
The 2006 IEEE Electrical Performance of Electronic Packaging (EPEP) conference is now accepting paper submissions on topics including power distribution and package resonance, packaging concerns for wireless communication: design and modeling, RF/microwave packaging structures and their electrical performance, and experimental characterization techniques. The paper submission deadline is 10 July. The conference takes place on 23 to 25 October in Scottsdale, Arizona, USA. For more information: www.epep.org/papers.html

6. WIZARD OF WATTS: JAMES D. MEINDL RECEIVES 2006 IEEE MEDAL OF HONOR
James D. Meindl may have won the 2006 IEEE Medal of Honor, but that is not the only reason why he is a happy man today. Meindl, who is now a professor of microelectronics at the Georgia Institute of Technology, reflects on a life that has been full of excitement and joy in this month's issue of "IEEE Spectrum" (v. 43, no. 6). This excitement is something that he hopes to pass on to the students in his classrooms, his colleagues in research labs, and even the bellhops at hotels. Meindl's "most thrilling moment in engineering work" was at the 1969 ISSCC when his colleague's blind daughter demonstrated a device they had invented that took a picture of letters on a page and then translated it to a tiny pad of vibrating pins allowing her to read. Read about Meindl's journey to becoming the "Wizard of Watts" in the June issue of "IEEE Spectrum" at: www.spectrum.ieee.org/jun06/3646

IEEE members and online subscribers can find IEEE papers by James D. Meindl using this search string: ieeexplore.ieee.org/search/authors.jsp?key=meindl

7. MOBILE WEB-BASED AGENTS AS GATEWAY TO SERVICES
Web services, acting independently of mobile devices' operating systems, may enable users to access desktop applications via mobile devices, researchers say in "IEEE Internet Computing" (v. 10, no. 3), eliminating cross-platform integration problems through wireless portal networks, wireless extended Internet, or peer-to-peer networks. Mobile agents, autonomous programs that gather information or accomplishes tasks without human interaction, are deployed in handheld devices in one of two ways, according to researchers: on platforms that allow mobile agents to run on them directly; or on devices that can access and use remote mobile agents running on wired networks. The former method allows local execution, useful for high-end devices, especially when the network connection is unreliable, researchers say, while the latter method is beneficial for devices with limited processing power and memory. Read more: dsonline.computer.org/portal/site/dsonline/menuitem.9ed3d9924aeb0dcd82ccc6716bbe36ec/index.jsp?&pName=dso_level1&path=dsonline/2006/06&file=w3bener.xml&xsl=article.xsl&

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8. REPLACING MP3 BLUETOOTH WITH NORDIC'S RF CHIPSET
While Bluetooth is a suitable means for transferring information from one laptop to another, when used to stream audio from an MP3 player to wireless headphones, it tends to result in poor quality sound. Borgue Strand of Nordic Semiconductor suggests that Bluetooth was never meant to perform such duties, and proposes several alternatives to optimize the link between music players and headphones. To begin, Borgue discusses replacing Bluetooth with Nordic's own RF chipset, the nRF24Z1, which has a higher data transfer rate at 4 Mbit/s, and consumes half the power of comparable Bluetooth 1.2 chipsets. Instead of relaying compressed data across the wireless link, Borgue also suggests decompressing the MP3 data in the player and streaming the uncompressed audio information to the receiver in the headphones. Battery life is another problem with Bluetooth, since devices must maintain synchronization to avoid re-linking delays, whether they are in use or not. The nRF24Z1, says Borgue, remains at a given carrier frequency for 2.9 ms, and when content is not streaming, allows the device to enter an energy-conserving sleep mode. Read more: www.wirelessnetdesignline.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=188702145

9. SHARE YOUR PHOTOS OF IEEE EVENTS
Got IEEE photos? Share them with the world at the new IEEE photo group on Flickr.com. Check out the pictures posted so far at: www.flickr.com/groups/ieee/

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Contributing Editors: Diana Fuksin, Robert J. Howe, Brian Pedersen, Ryan Thomas, Cari Wolfert

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