5/12/2009

LPTV licensees are signing on for a proposal which will not only cover the cost of making the transition to DTV, but provide them with a major revenue stream more or less indefinitely. The project is moving ahead rapidly.

We first learned about Cellular Terrestrial Broadcasting Networks (CTB Networks) at the Community Broadcasters Association (CBA) gathering in the Las Vegas Hilton during the NAB Show. The presentation by CTB Networks Managing Director Vern Fotheringham was the last of the evening, but grabbed the attention of many of those present. In short, Fotheringham was proposing to have his company pay for their transition from analog to digital and then share the profits going forward from CTB’s cellular-like underlay to deliver wireless broadband along with their DTV signals.

Sound too good to be true? CBA Vice President of Technology Greg Herman told us he held back on endorsing the project until he could see a demonstration of the technology – that it was really possible to hand-off a DTV broadcast signal just like a cellular telephone call. He witnessed just such a demo in Portland, OR a few days before the NAB show and got onboard. CTB Networks’ patent-pending technology is based on the FCC’s authorization of Distributed TV Transmission Systems to reuse the same channel over and over in a market, much like a cellular telephone system.

CTB Networks’ business plan is to provide a broadband IP pipe in addition to DTV. The LPTV owner will retain control of their license and programming. Their share of the broadband payment pie will be in proportion to the amount of their 6 Mhz of spectrum made available to the broadband service locally because it is not needed for their DTV broadcasting.

Fotheringham told RBR/TVBR that in order to move forward with the project, his company will have to have critical mass on a national scale. When we checked back this week, he said CTB Networks has been doing very well in gathering letters of interest from LPTV owners. In fact, he said, there has been as much interest from what he termed “first tier” markets as from “second tier” ones.

CTB Networks plans to have demonstrations of its Distributed TV Transmission System up and running in Portland, OR and Washington, DC by Q4 of this year. Initially, they will only involve the DTV distribution system and some VOD capability. Ten additional markets, yet to be identified, are also to be built-out with the “overlapping big cells” by the end of this year.

As all that goes on, CTB Networks will continue to ramp up its fund-raising from investors to build out and launch its national broadband system, using the trade name VyAire, based on the partnerships with LPTV licensees. Fotheringham assured us the technology would work just as well with full-power stations, but his company is focusing on LPTVs because the full-power stations have already made the digital transition – or will have by next month.

Vietnamese mobile operator Vinaphone, a subsidiary of state-owned telecoms group Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications (VNPT), has contracted US equipment supplier Motorola to expand its GSM network, Viet Nam News reports. Under the agreement, Motorola will deploy an additional 3,000 base station transceivers in the next two years to expand the cellco’s 2G coverage and increase capacity in the country’s southern and northern provinces, including the cities of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. ‘With a strong relationship stretching back some twelve years, we are very pleased to continue our long-term cooperation with Vinaphone and to be able to ensure mobile users in Vietnam continual access to high quality mobile services,’ commented Ray Owen, general director of Motorola Vietnam, adding, ‘The new deployment will extend coverage and increase the capacity of Vinaphone’s GSM network, meeting the rapidly growing demand for mobile communications services in the country.’

In a separate story, Hanoi Moi reports that Vinaphone added ten million mobile subscribers during 2009, bringing its total customer base to 26.7 million. The company expects subscriber growth to slow to around five million during 2010.

Industry:

The Wireless Power Industry is just in the beginnings of what is undeniable an extremely large opportunity. Just in the US alone, the Consumer Electronics Industry is a $170 Billion market. It is called the Electronics Industry because every product in that industry requires electricity to work. Considering all things electronic need power, wireless power is destined to create an industry with in extraordinary large market cap. This is unique in the world. Most companies enter into an established market with a clear understanding of the industry. In the case of wireless power, the technology is creating the industry and will prove to be as successful as other technologies that have created their own market. For example, the Automobile Industry, the Aerospace Industry, the Computer Industry and even the Cell Phone Industry.

Other Technological Approaches:

All other technological approaches to wireless electricity are quasi omni-directional. However, there is a fundamental drawback to these approaches – The Inverse-Square Law. This law states that to achieve the same power level at twice the distance one needs to input four times as much energy at the source. This makes any technology that is omni-technology subject to drastic power loss and efficiency loss at great distances.

Magnetic Resonance: Employs near field inductive coupling through magnetic fields, which interact far more weakly with surrounding objects, including biological tissue. It is not known exactly why this technology had not been developed. Researchers attribute it to various reasons ranging from the limitations of well-known physical laws, to simply a lack of need.

Inductive Coupling: The action of an electrical transformer is the simplest instance of wireless energy transfer. The primary and secondary circuits of a transformer are not directly connected. The transfer of energy takes place by electromagnetic coupling through a process known as mutual induction.

Radio Frequency (RF): A transmitter broadcasts a low-power radio (RF) signal at a specific frequency across several feet of empty space. A receiver built into one or more remote devices captures enough energy to continuously recharge batteries, or to power devices directly.

Microwave: Wireless Power Transmission (using microwaves) is well proven. Experiments in the tens of kilowatts have been performed at Goldstone in California in 1975 and more recently (1997) at Grand Bassin on Reunion Island. These methods achieve distances on the order of a kilometer.

Power Beam Competition:

NASA has a great interest in the Power Beam concept for both terrestrial and space based applications. As part of their Centennial Challenges, NASA sponsors The Spaceward Foundation which manages the Power Beaming (Climber) Competition. The purpose of this competition is to power the Space Elevator from the surface of the earth allowing it to be powered continuously as it ascends into outer space.

This is a great example of more worldly applications for wireless power technology and is a testament to just how versatile this technology can be. For more info, please click here.

In the beginning:

Nikola Tesla is the godfather of wireless power. A genius before his time, he invented such technology as wireless communication (radio), AC electrical distribution and wireless power back in the early 20th Century. While developing technology for wireless electricity, his funding was unexpectedly taken away when his investors learned he wish to provide the electricity for free. If not for the greed of his financial backers, we would have wireless power today. This is an great injustice inflicted on the world and we at PowerBeam seek to remedy this injustice.

There is a huge variety of different operating principles for RFID systems. The picture below provides a short survey of known operation principles (The numbers refer to the relating chapters in the book).

The most important principles - ‘inductive coupling’ and ‘backscatter coupling’ are described more detailed below.

Inductive Coupling (3.2.1)

An inductively coupled transponder comprises of an electronic data carrying device, usually a single microchip and a large area coil that functions as an antenna.

Inductively coupled transponders are almost always operated passively. This means that all the energy needed for the operation of the microchip has to be provided by the reader. For this purpose, the reader’s antenna coil generates a strong, high frequency electro-magnetic field, which penetrates the cross-section of the coil area and the area around the coil. Because the wavelength of the frequency range used (< 135 kHz: 2400 m, 13.56 MHz: 22.1 m) is several times greater than the distance between the reader’s antenna and the transponder, the electro-magnetic field may be treated as a simple magnetic alternating field with regard to the distance between transponder and antenna (see the chapter “Physical Principles – Transition from Near Field to Far Field” (4.2.1.1.) for further details).

A small part of the emitted field penetrates the antenna coil of the transponder, which is some distance away from the coil of the reader. By induction, a voltage Ui is generated in the transponder’s antenna coil. This voltage is rectified and serves as the power supply for the data carrying device (microchip). A capacitor C1 is connected in parallel with the reader’s antenna coil, the capacitance of which is selected such that it combines with the coil inductance of the antenna coil to form a parallel resonant circuit, with a resonant frequency that corresponds with the transmission frequency of the reader. Very high currents are generated in the antenna coil of the reader by resonance step-up in the parallel resonant circuit, which can be used to generate the required field strengths for the operation of the remote transponder.

The antenna coil of the transponder and the capacitor C1 to form a resonant circuit tuned to the transmission frequency of the reader. The voltage U at the transponder coil reaches a maximum due to resonance step-up in the parallel resonant circuit.

As described above, inductively coupled systems are based upon a transformer-type coupling between the primary coil in the reader and the secondary coil in the transponder. This is true when the distance between the coils does not exceed 0.16 l, so that the transponder is located in the near field of the transmitter antenna (for a more detailed definition of the near and far fields, please refer to the chapter “Physical Principles”).

If a resonant transponder (i.e. the self-resonant frequency of the transponder corresponds with the transmission frequency of the reader) is placed within the magnetic alternating field of the reader’s antenna, then this draws energy from the magnetic field. This additional power consumption can be measured as voltage drop at the internal resistance in the reader antennae through the supply current to the reader’s antenna. The switching on and off of a load resistance at the transponder’s antenna therefore effects voltage changes at the reader’s antenna and thus has the effect of an amplitude modulation of the antenna voltage by the remote transponder. If the switching on and off of the load resistor is controlled by data, then this data can be transferred from the transponder to the reader. This type of data transfer is called load modulation.

Picture above: If the additional load resistor in the transponder is switched on and off at a very high elementary frequency fH, then two spectral lines are created at a distance of ±fH around the transmission frequency of the reader, and these can be easily detected (however fH must be less than fREADER). In the terminology of radio technology the new elementary frequency is called a subcarrier. Data transfer is by the ASK, FSK or PSK modulation of the subcarrier in time with the data flow. This represents an amplitude modulation of the subcarrier.

Backscatter Coupling (3.2.2)

We know from the field of RADAR technology that electromagnetic waves are reflected by objects with dimensions greater than around half the wavelength of the wave. The efficiency with which an object reflects electromagnetic waves is described by its reflection cross-section. Objects that are in resonance with the wave front that hits them, as is the case for antenna at the appropriate frequency for example, have a particularly large reflection cross-section.

Power P1 is emitted from the reader’s antenna, a small proportion of which (free space attenuation) reaches the transponder’s antenna. The power P1′ is supplied to the antenna connections as HF voltage and after rectification by the diodes D1 and D2 this can be used as turn on voltage for the deactivation or activation of the power saving “power-down” mode. The diodes used here are low barrier Schottky diodes, which have a particularly low threshold voltage. The voltage obtained may also be sufficient to serve as a power supply for short ranges.

A proportion of the incoming power P1′ is reflected by the antenna and returned as power P2. The reflection characteristics (= reflection cross-section) of the antenna can be influenced by altering the load connected to the antenna. In order to transmit data from the transponder to the reader, a load resistor RL connected in parallel with the antenna is switched on and off in time with the data stream to be transmitted. The amplitude of the power P2 reflected from the transponder can thus be modulated (à modulated backscatter).

The power P2 reflected from the transponder is radiated into free space. A small proportion of this (free space attenuation) is picked up by the reader’s antenna. The reflected signal therefore travels into the antenna connection of the reader in the “backwards direction” and can be decoupled using a directional coupler and transferred to the receiver input of a reader. The “forward” signal of the transmitter, which is stronger by powers of ten, is to a large degree suppressed by the directional coupler.

The ratio of power transmitted by the reader and power returning from the transponder (P1 / P2) can be estimated using the radar equation (for a more detailed explanation, please refer to the chapter 4 “Physical Principles” of the RFID-handbook).

Continue with “Frequencies for RFID-systems”

by Gary L. Peterson

(Original Post)

It is possible that Nikola Tesla is best known for his remarkable statements regarding the wireless transmission of electrical power. His first efforts towards this end started in 1891 and were intended to simply “disturb the electrical equilibrium in the nearby portions of the earth… to bring into operation in any way some instrument.” In other words the object of his experiments was simply to produce effects locally and detect them at a distance. By 1899 the electrical potential of his transmitter had increased to the point that more room was needed for the sake of safety. This and other considerations led him to temporarily shift his wireless experiments to a location just outside of Colorado Springs.

At this Colorado “Experimental Station” Tesla had some early success in wireless power transmission. One photograph shows that “a small incandescent lamp was lighted by means of a resonant circuit grounded on one end, all the energy being drawn through the earth [from a nearby transmitter].” In 1907 he even went as far as to make this statement:

“… to make the little filament glow, the entire surface of the planet, two hundred million square miles, must be strongly electrified. This calls for peculiar electrical activities, hundreds of times greater than those involved in the lighting of an arc lamp through the human body [a far more spectacular demonstration]. What impresses him most, however, is the knowledge that the little lamp will spring into the same brilliancy anywhere on the globe, there being no appreciable diminution of the effect with the increase of distance from the transmitter.”

It is not at all clear that Tesla was referring to effects produced by his large Colorado transmitter. It is quite possible that he was writing about what he felt could be done with an even bigger transmitter such as the one that he was developing in New York. If the Wardenclyffe communications facility had been finished, the 187 foot tall mushroom-shaped tower would have permanently housed a set of large coils including an immense helical resonator that would have served as the main transmitting element. Directly below the wooden tower there was a 120 foot shaft where deep underground Tesla had installed a radial array of iron pipes that served as a connection between the oscillator and the earth.

The Wardenclyffe plant was a major milestone in Tesla’s researches into the application of alternating electrical currents to wireless communications and power transmission, an effort which drew a considerable amount of Tesla’s attention during the period between 1891 and 1912. In the article “The Future of the Wireless Art” which appeared in Wireless Telegraphy & Telephony, 1908, Tesla made the following statement regarding the Wardenclyffe project on which he was then working:

“As soon as completed, it will be possible for a business man in New York to dictate instructions, and have them instantly appear in type at his office in London or elsewhere. He will be able to call up, from his desk, and talk to any telephone subscriber on the globe, without any change whatever in the existing equipment. An inexpensive instrument, not bigger than a watch, will enable its bearer to hear anywhere, on sea or land, music or song, the speech of a political leader, the address of an eminent man of science, or the sermon of an eloquent clergyman, delivered in some other place, however distant. In the same manner any picture, character, drawing, or print can be transferred from one to another place. Millions of such instruments can be operated from but one plant of this kind. More important than this, however, will be the transmission of power, without wires, which will be shown on a scale large enough to carry conviction. These few indications will be sufficient to show that the wireless art offers greater possibilities than any invention or discovery heretofore made, and if the conditions are favorable, we can expect with certitude that in the next few years wonders will be wrought by its application.”

In the end, Tesla was never able to complete the Wardenclyffe plant, although he was able to conduct some performance tests. Nevertheless, if the above stated predictions were to be true, an interesting feature of Tesla’s World System for global communications, had it gone into full operation, would have been its capacity to provide small but usable quantities of electrical power at the location of the receiving circuits. He predicted that further advances would have permitted the wireless transmission of industrial amounts of electrical energy with minimal losses to any point on the earth’s surface. Had he been able to complete the prototype station on Long Island and use it to demonstrate the feasibility of wireless power transmission then a plan would have been implemented for the construction of a pilot plant for this larger system at Niagara Falls, site of the world’s first commercial three phase AC power plant.

1. TRANSFORMER comprising:
a. Thick Coil of short length and few turns, which acts as the primary in the transmitter and as the secondary in the receiver.
b. Thin Coil of longer length and many turns, which acts as the secondary in the transmitter and as the primary in the receiver. This coil would be 50 miles in length or one fourth the wavelength of a lightwave whose circuit was 185,000 miles long.
ac. Magnetic Core attached to the earth and elevated terminal.
2. POWER SOURCE deriving energy from coal or a waterfall.
3. GROUND CONNECTION.
4. CONTAINER OF LIQUID AIR (-197°F) which causes “an extraordinary magnification of oscillation in the resonating circuit[s].”
5. ELEVATED TERMINAL or bulbous top for accumulating stored charge. To obtain highest possible frequency, a terminal of small capacity (like a taught spring) and high pressure is employed.

Figure 1. The sending and receiving magnifying transmitters are built essentially the same way. The length and size of the tower and transformer is in a harmonic relationship to the electromagnetic properties of the earth. It has a multipurpose function. Standing k waves generated in resonant relationship to known earth currents could be used as carrier frequencies for transmitting electrical power.

Real scientists have known for centuries that the earth is a giant electromagnet having a North and South magnetic pole. Tesla was using this knowledge to broadcast electricity just like radio and TV waves are broadcast.

The stationary earth is a giant electromagnet and absorbs millions of volts daily in the form of lightning.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - After relying on a pacemaker for 20 years, Carol Kasyjanski has become the first American recipient of a wireless pacemaker that allows her doctor to monitor her health from afar—over the Internet.

When Kasyjanski heads to St. Francis Hospital in Roslyn, New York, for a routine check-up, about 90 percent of the work has already been done because her doctor logged into his computer and learned most of what he needed to know about his patient.

Three weeks ago Kasyjanski, 61, became the first person in the United States to be implanted with a pacemaker with a wireless home monitoring system that transmits critical information to her doctor via the Internet.

Kasyjanski, who has suffered from a severe heart condition for more than 20 years, says the device has given her renewed confidence and a new lease of life, because if her pacemaker were to malfunction or stop working, only immediate action would save her life.

“Years ago the problem was with my lead, it was nicked, and until I collapsed no one knew what the problem was, no tests would show what the problem was until I passed out,” she told Reuters Television.

Dr. Steven Greenberg, the director of St. Francis’ Arrhythmia and Pacemaker Center, said the new technology helps him better treat his patients and will likely become the new standard in pacemakers.

He said the server and the remote monitor communicate at least once a day to download all the relevant information and alert the doctor and patient if there is anything unusual.

“If there is anything abnormal, and we have a very intricate system set up, it will literally call the physician responsible at two in the morning if need be,” he said.

The wireless pacemaker, made by St. Jude Medical Inc., received FDA approval in July.

“It is a tremendous convenience for the patient from even interacting with a telephone to call the doctor,” he said.

“On a larger scale it enhances our ability to pick up and evaluate any problems with their pacemaker and certain other rhythm disorders that could be potentially dangerous or life threatening in ways we really could not do before.”

Kasyjanski, an account clerk, said it was frightening initially to be the first American patient to be implanted with the device but her fears have slowly been replaced by a sense of relief, knowing that her heart is under constant surveillance.

“Deep down I feel like I have gotten another chance,” she said. “Right now I feel like this is a new lease on life and I am here for my two children and my grandchildren and, God willing, I will be here for many more years to come.”

There are more than 3 million people internationally with pacemakers and 600,000 more are implanted each year.

Greenberg said wireless technology was likely to become far more common in patient care, and give physicians time to focus more on their patients as opposed to routine tests.

“In the future, these pacemakers may be placed not just for people with slow heartbeats. We may be monitoring high blood pressure, we may be measuring glucose, we may be monitoring heart failure,” he said,

“There are literally dozens of physiological parameters that now, with this wireless technology, we can leverage for the future of monitoring. So it is not just a rhythm monitor but a disease monitor.”

During his keynote at CTIA, Scripps Health’s Dr. Eric Topol outlined a top ten list for conditions and diseases that are already benefiting from wireless health services or soon will. Here’s Topol’s Top Ten (in alphabetical order) with a figure of the number of Americans affected by each condition or disease. Did he miss any notable opportunities?

Top Ten Targets for Wireless Medicine

• Alzheimer’s: 5 million Americans. Wireless sensors can track the vital signs of patients as well as their location, activity, and balance.
• Asthma: 20 million Americans. Wireless can track the respiratory rate and peak flow so patients can use inhalers before an attack occurs.
• Breast Cancer: 3 million Americans. Women can use a wireless ultrasound device at home and send the scan to the doctor–won’t have to go in for a mammogram.
• Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder (COPD): 10 million Americans. Wireless can monitor FEV1, air quality and oximetry.
• Depression: 19 million Americans. Wireless can monitor medication compliance, activity and communication.
• Diabetes: 21 million Americans. Wireless can monitor blood glucose and hemoglobin.
• Heart Failure: 5 million Americans. Wireless can monitor cardiac pressures, fluids, weight and blood pressure.
• Hypertension: 74 million Americans. Wireless can continuously monitor blood pressure and track medication compliance.
• Obesity: 80 million Americans. Wireless scales can track weight and wireless sensors can track calories in/out and activity levels.
• Sleep disorders: 15 million Americans. Wireless sensors can monitor each of the phases of sleep for quality of rest, detect apnea and track vital signs.

Newly developed non-invasive sensors, coupled with body area networks via smart phones or gateway receivers to transmit data over the internet, have the potential to transform medicine according to Eric Topol M.D. As the Director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute, and the Chief Medical Officer at West Wireless Health Institute, he presented his ideas on the future of wireless and medicine on June 25th at the National Center for Research Resources Telehealth meeting held at NIH.

Dr Topol demonstrated the use of “smart band-aids” that are disposable and inexpensive to produce. They can track 24/7 most physiological parameters, including ECG heart rhythm, respiratory rate, blood pressure, temperature, EEG and sleep cycles, calories taken in and expended, pollen counts, air quality forced expiratory volume, position activity, and more.

He continued to say “Remote mobile monitoring can be transformative in preventing hospital readmissions for congestive heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and several other key chronic medical conditions. Medications can be tagged with micro sensors that are digestible and can be activated wirelessly or a drug could be given in a precise dose via a polymeric delivery transmitted through the skin at the moment of wireless activation.”

He pointed out that some of the key possibilities for using remote monitoring are for patients with chronic diseases particularly if the patient has multiple problems, or to use in the instances when physicians are dealing with high risk pregnancies, or perhaps be used as a personal emergency response system for the elderly in their home.

He explained how the Wireless Health Institute (WWHI) a new non-profit research and education institute located in San Diego California is one of the first medical research organizations dedicated to research on the use of wireless technologies.

WWHI has just announced that they will be doing clinical trials on their remote heart monitoring system using “Band Aid” like patches to send readings real time via a Bluetooth connection to the patient’s smart phone. The trial is designed to clinically validate remote wireless monitoring technology to proactively manage heart failure patients.

“Congestive heart failure is one of the largest and most problematic diagnoses in medicine today but fortunately heart failure is prototypic for remote wireless monitoring”, said Topol. The Institute will be collaborating with Corventis, Inc., on their first clinical research program with Dr. Topol leading the effort along with Don Jones, Vice President of Health and Life Sciences at Qualcomm and WWHI’s Chief Wireless Officer.

The trial is going to study CHF to find ways to prevent hospital readmissions. Participation will be offered to the sites supported by the NIH’s Clinical and Translational Science Award National Consortium consisting of 38 prestigious academic medical centers in the U.S. It is anticipated that this trial will be one of many trials.

In addition to the NCRR meeting, Dr. Topol delivered a keynote address on June 24th at a technology and policy forum on mHealth solutions hosted by CTIA-The Wireless Association. The Forum was held on Capitol Hill so that Congressional members, Obama administration officials, and medical and policy experts were able to have information on all the mobile medical applications available and understand how tremendous cost savings can be achieve with wireless health solutions.

Viettel ranks highly among telecom companies

HA NOI — Viettel ranked 36th among 746 telecom companies worldwide in terms of the number of subscribers, said Wireless Intelligence.

The global database of mobile market information said that with nearly 28 million subscribers at the end of June, Viettel was fourth among the region’s 51 telecom services providers.

If growth rates continued, Viettel would beat its target of joining the world’s 30 top providers by 2015.