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USB To Go Wireless
Posted by
Zonk
on Wed Oct 18, 2006 04:22 PM
from the realizing-the-bluetooth-dream dept.
from the realizing-the-bluetooth-dream dept.
Troy Samuel writes "The WiMedia Alliance is planning to make the technology known as 'ultrawideband,' or UWB, work among a wide variety of consumer electronics devices. Various organizations, including the Bluetooth SIG, have chosen the WiMedia Alliance's version of UWB technology as the foundation for a next-generation short-range networking technology." From the article: "UWB technology can deliver data rates at up to 480 megabits per second at around 3 meters, with speeds dropping off as the range grows to a limit of about 10 meters. Real-world speeds will probably be a little slower, but this is as fast as the wired version of USB 2.0 and much faster than current Wi-Fi networks are capable of transmitting data. 'This stuff is plumbing,' Roger Kay, an analyst with Endpoint Technologies Associates, said of the newer-generation wireless technology. 'It's important that it be there, it's going to be handy for getting rid of cables hanging around your desk.'"
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Wireless Digital Monitor (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Wireless Digital Monitor (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
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I know crap all about monitors though...
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Of course it would be worth it! Consider the copper alone. Do you have any idea how much copper is in a two metre video cable?
[What? About enough to make 7 or 8 pennies? Are you sure?
Um... Nevermind.
Except... (Score:3, Informative)
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The answer is right there. 1600 x 1200 x 24 = 46,080,000 bits per frame (46Mb) - not including any overhead for packing/unpacking all this info. Now how many frames per second did you want?
Re:Wireless Digital Monitor (Score:5, Informative)
3 bytes * 1200 * 1600 = 5.76 Megabytes
Assuming a refresh rate of 50fps that's 288 Megabyte/second or 2.25 Gigabits/second A monitor's a rather pointless one though as it requires a cable for the power.
Parent
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Actually, no. Imagine having your CPU in the closet and only your monitor and peripherals at your desk. Or imagine having a monitor/peripherals in a totally different room of the house/office.
Even if it's only two feet away, wireless is nice for... well, for removing wires. Systems can be such a cabling mess. I'm much rather bath in the invisible waves than have to deal with that rat's nest.
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That goes against the fashion nowadays, I mean, everyone is coming OUT of the closet and you want to put the computer back in...
Re:Wireless Digital Monitor (Score:4, Funny)
So that's why my laptop keeps going dark whenever I move more than six feet away from my desk.
KFG
Parent
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It seems to me that most of this wireless craze is pointless for the exact same reason. Just how hard is it to plug your USB key into your computer anyway? And what exactly is the point of a wireless keyboard?
Re:Wireless Digital Monitor (Score:4, Interesting)
I for one would like a wireless USB connection so that I could do time-lapse webcam shots from my deck.
Why not have a webcam with 802.11? Instead of inventing a whole new technology and protocol, you'd just have to slap a 802.11 chip and transceiver onto a webcam, and make some software to allow it to be accessed over the network. Plus we already have WEP and WPA to handle security.
Cablebox to PC for extra data storage from my PVR (assume HDTV bandwidth could be sustained).
This is a perfect application for Wifi (or even wired ethernet for those that already have their homes wired with Cat5). The higher speed of this UWB only works if your computer is very close to your device; most people don't keep their TVs in the same room as their computer with lots of storage.
Wireless memory card readers,
What's so hard about plugging your memory card into a slot on your computer? Or having a wired reader plugged in all the time if you use it that much?
iPod/MP3/PDA sync'ing.
This sounds handy, if a bit lazy (again, how hard is it to plug in if you're already sitting there?). But isn't this what Bluetooth was invented for? Or is UWB really supposed to be the higher-speed replacement for BT?
As other pointed out, wireless video to the monitor when MPEG-like quality is sufficient. Have a decoder built into the display.
So you'd basically need a small computer inside your monitor to decode the signal, just so you can save the trouble of a single cord? Somehow I don't think there's that many people out there who will want to pay the premium price for this "feature" to make this a mainstream thing.
And yes, I'm not sure about wireless keyboards for desktops, but my HTPC (home theater pc) was wireless as I don't want to sit near the 100in screen.
Yes, wireless keyboards make sense here, but it seems the vast majority are sold to people who use them at their desk.
Parent
So it'll probbably be possible with this tech (Score:3, Interesting)
Wifi has, what, 11 channels? How many does wireless USB have?
Since the range on this is relatively tiny, you can probbably aggregate, say, 5 or 6 WUB channels into a single 2+Gbit channel to talk to your monitor. Sure, you'll be barred from putting more than 1 or 2 in close proximity, and yet... For the price of 5-6 transmitter chips at each end and a bit more core logic, a manufacturer can probbably piece this together t
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It's likely that could be cut down via lossless compression and of course, only sending areas that have changed.. however then the monitor needs a cpu to decompress the stuff, so we might as well just use a small form-factor pc running VNC over a wireless LAN
Depends on what you use it for (Score:2)
I know, that is not what you meant, but many of the solutions imply a "server" for your "client" screen, so there are some current examples.
But it doesn't work for "fast" stuff like video or games.
The big quesion, as someone else pointed out - how long is your "wireless" monitor going to run on batteries?
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certified wireless USB (Score:2)
Re:certified wireless USB--power anyone? (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
The problem with wireless devices... (Score:3, Interesting)
- Data security...
- wirelss interference from another computer
- wireless interference from other electronics and wireless devices
I am all for wireless devices that make sense. I sitll however use a wired keyboard and mouse on my desktop computer. On my laptop I use a bluetooth mouse to avoud the hassles of dealing with plugging and unplugging the mouse from the laptop.Re: (Score:2)
And you can solve this problem by leaving your USB mouse and keyboard plugged into a hub on your desktop, so you only have one thing to plug in. As a bonus, you could get a USB-powered laptop cooler with a built-in hub (like this one [newegg.com]), so you're not only cleaning up cable clutter, but also reducing heat-related stress on your hard drive. -- Paul
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*coughs*
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_power [wikipedia.org]
And
http://www.splashpower.com/ [splashpower.com]
There used to be a cool Wireless transfer microwave kit on ThinkGeek.com but I can't find it anymore...
My room mate has one of those tooth brushes that charges wirelessly which it pretty cool.
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That's not wireless. The toothbrush must sit in a base that's connected to an electrical outlet. The only thing "cool" about this is that there's no exposed electrical contacts on either the base or the toothbrush. This isn't wireless power transmission technology; it's a variation of a simple transformer, it's two inductors that are situated next to each other (when the toothbrush is in the holder), so that current
A good fit? (Score:2)
Re:A good fit? (Score:5, Informative)
symmetric peer-to-peer interfaces like that provided by Firewire.
Firewire actually has rather strong master/slave relationships; there's a tree, and a tree root, and a master node. But there's a negotiation process during hot-plugging which establishes the master/slave relationships.
One big problem with Firewire is that it doesn't have a notion of device ownership. You can plug two computers together with FireWire, and that will work if both machines support IP or Ethernet over FireWire. But plug a peripheral into the same bus, and there's no mechanism to allocate it to a unique host computer. You'll get a control clash.
Underneath, FireWire isn't really a "bus". It's actually a local area network, and its controllers work more like Ethernet controllers, with packets and buffer chains, than bus adapters.
The "bus" aspect is that there are defined packet formats for loading and storing 32-bit data items in a 64 bit address space. In practice, though, what usually happens is that at the host end, some code formats such a packet, saying "set bit 22 of register 0x2490 at node 3", and when that packet gets to node 3, some little CPU in the peripheral decodes the packet, acknowledges receipt of the packet, a switch statement decodes the "register" address, and code notes that bit 22 means "turn camera on". No status for this event comes back; the host has to send a packet to "read" some other device register to find out what happened.
Giving FireWire a "device register" model turned out, in the end, to be kind of silly. Something more like SCSI, with function codes and statuses, would have made more sense. (And, in fact, there's SCSI over FireWire.) You'd get back better status info, and devices which don't implement some functions would have a simple way to report that. This makes it easier to implement generic drivers, reducing the temptation to have to have a special driver for every manufacturer's device. And we all know where that leads.
So if you're designing something like this, don't go with a device register model. Anything smart enough to talk it will have a CPU, so use it.
Parent
Power (Score:2)
Wireless video/speakers? (Score:5, Interesting)
It would be nice if the only cables on my desk were power cables.
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Um why? One cable is fine but two is.... inconceivable?
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On my desk, there's three speakers: right, left, and a subwoofer (on the floor). I suspect many people have similar setups. The subwoofer has the amplifier in it, and is connected with special wires to the two speakers.
So you want to replace these wires from the amplifier with a wireless connection, and then put separate amplifiers in the speakers, and then add individual power cables to the speakers. Now I'll need three spaces on my power
Power? (Score:2)
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There is however a mouse that doesn't have this problem. The Logitech G7 Laser Cordless Mouse is perfect. It comes with two small Li-ion battery packs and a charging station. So while you are using
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Sweet, I just lost connectivity with my printer! (Score:5, Funny)
Wait, no, it dropped again.
I love this game.
New Security Question (Score:3, Interesting)
I assume there would be some encryption and passwords, but it's yet another security question to discuss.
powering USB devices (Score:2)
So, with some forward thinking... (Score:2)
Or am I full of crap?
Power Cables? (Score:2)
- Peace
Over My Cold Hard Mouse Talons (Score:2)
Never seen the point (Score:5, Insightful)
However, I draw the limit there. My keyboard, mouse, monitor, printer, external storage, and occasional other things are all wired. I don't have to keep track of batteries, and I don't get poor performance near the end of my battery life. It's all sitting on my desk not moving anyway, and there are only a few cords present on my desk - the rest are hidden behind the desk. I also like the tactile effort cords provide. When I plug my graphing calculator into my computer, when I stick a USB thumb drive in, when I connect my camera, when I plug in my headphones, or when I hook up a USB card reader, there's tactile feedback. I know I have just achieved something. I also don't find it terribly inconvenient to stick my flash drive into a front USB port.
There's more than just reliability and feedback, though. When I unplug my flash drive or external hard drive, I know that the devices are powered down and safe from snooping eyes, and not experiencing wear and tear. I also know that when I sit down at the computer lab with my flash drive in my pocket, the guy next to me isn't stealing my files. I understand that the connection between the computer and device will probably be encrypted automatically, so that's fine. But what about the connection process? If I have to go through a lengthly process to associate the device before I can use it (bluetooth), then I'm not really any better off than I was with wired USB. If I don't have to go through that process, what's stopping the guy next to me from doing it? And in the same computer lab, with USB my mouse isn't going to suddenly decide to associate itself with the computer across the way. Now, we could password protect the flash drive. However, and perhaps I'm alone on this, I'd rather not have a password on my mouse. And what if I replace 'mouse' with 'keyboard?' You can't password protect a keyboard.
probably a dumb question... (Score:4, Funny)
"Windows has recognised your UWB vibrator and is installing it now......"
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The keyboard uses two AA batteries (which can be rechargable) that last for many months of intensive use.
The mouse came with a rechargable battery. The receiver doubles as a recharging craddle for the mouse, I put it there when I go to sleep, or I'm leaving home. But even if I forgot to do it now and then, it's no problem, the mouse battery lasts for some days (it's optical, I imagine a analog mouse would consume less).
Yes, you're clueless (Score:2)
Note: Baud should not be confused with data rate in "bits per second" (or bytes per second, etc.). Each symbol transmitted can carry one or more bits (for example, 8 bits in 256-QAM modulation) of information. When each symbol is binary it carries just one bit, so baud and bit rate are equal. This is a cheap, simple encoding. However, it's common to make better use of channel bandwidth by encoding multiple bits per symbol.
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What the heck do you need a wireless mouse for, anyway?
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The geniuses doing it over there forget the fact that the usb dongles are mostly powered by the usb bus, now if they get wireless, they will all have to have power adapters or batteries & chargers. Still a mess.