Nuts and Volts - July 2012

TECH KNOWLEDGEY

EVENTS, ADVANCES, AND NEWS

2012

■ BY JEFF ECKERT

WORLD’S LARGEST DIGITAL CAMERA

ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY

The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope is still in the design and evelopment phase, and full implementation is several years away. However, the goal is to build a facility in northern Chile that will photograph the entire sky every week via a wide-field reflecting telescope, capturing "the widest, fastest, and deepest view of the night sky ever observed.” According to a project press release, "Its deep and frequent cosmic vistas will help answer critical questions about the nature of dark energy and dark matter, and aid studies of near-Earth asteroids, Kuiper belt objects, the structure of our galaxy, and many other areas of astronomy and fundamental physics."

At the facility's heart will be an advanced digital camera designed at the SLAC National Accelerator Lab ( www.slac.stanford.edu) in Menlo Park, CA. The device isn't exactly your typical Canon Sure Shot, as it will be about the size of an average automobile and weigh about three tons. The detector will be made up of a mosaic of 16 Mpixel detectors providing a total of about 3. 2 Gpixels. This translates into about six million gigabytes of data per year, which is going to take some pretty serious storage capacity. The camera recently was granted "Critical Decision 1" approval by the DOE which means that the LSST project can move to the engineering design, schedule, and budget phase. If all continues as planned, construction on the telescope will begin in 2014. To follow its progress, visit www.lsst.org. ▲

■ The LSST camera measures approx. 1.6 × 3 m ( 5 × 10 ft) and can capture 3. 2 billion pixels.

Courtesy of LSST Corp.

CONTROL EVERYTHING FROM YOUR SMARTPHONE

Back in 1999, RFID guru Kevin Ashton coined the term "Internet of Things (Io T)." The concept basically refers to a world in which virtually everything we use on a daily basis has its own Internet address and at least can be tracked and — in many cases — controlled from afar. A decade ago, it seemed like a rather futuristic and complicated concept. But hang on to your hat, because it's coming at us very quickly. One implementation takes the form of the JenNet-IP network software layer, originally developed by Jennic Ltd. JenNet-IP — based on the 6Lo WPAN standard — is fully IPv6 compliant and makes it possible to establish two-way communication and control to a network of up to 500 devices, ranging from light bulbs to air conditioning systems in the home.

Two years ago, the company was acquired by NXP Semiconductors ( www.nxp.com), formerly known as Philips Semiconductors. Not so coincidentally, NXP is a world leader in chip sets for near-field communication and energy management, so there is a logical pairing of its GreenChip technology and smart lighting. Later this year, the company plans to launch a certification program for JenNet-IP and "announce its roadmap for the open source release of JenNet-IP, as well as the retail availability of the first Internet-enabled lamps." What comes after smart bulbs? One can only imagine. A white paper published by Cisco predicts that 50 billion devices will be connected to the Internet by 2020 — more than six times the expected world population. According to Cisco, "As cows, water pipes, people, and even shoes, trees, and animals become connected to Io T, the world has the potential to become a better place." To download the paper, just aim your browser at www.jkeckert.com/iot.pdf. ▲