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Are Drone Deliveries on the Radar? How long will it be before delivery drones fill the skies? Image source: paxabay.com I love reading science fiction books and watching science fiction movies. This year I will be celebrating the 21st anniversary of the 21st anniversary of my 21st birthday (think about it), and it's amazing to me how many of the technology concepts I used to read about in my formative years -- literally the stuff of science fiction -- have come to pass, albeit not Read Article

The Shrinking Manufacturing Cycle Traditionally, an engineering cycle has been considered to be on the order of 18 months. That’s the time between generations of products, whether it’s a new processor or a new Internet appliance. Today, a company that operates on an 18-month cycle is considered slow within many industries. If you have a lot of competitors, their release cycles are likely out of phase from yours. For example, if there are three companies serving an application Read Article

Quit Bouncing Around Bounce on a single-pole, double-throw (SPDT) switch with normally closed (NC) contact opening and normally open (NO) contact closing (Image source: David Ashton) In an earlier column -- Say "Hello" to the LogiSwitch Workbench -- I introduced a rather clever shield for the Arduino Uno. This little scamp allows you to break out all of the Arduino's analog and digital input/output (I/O) pins, along with the 5V, 3V3, and GND pins, to three full-size Read Article

All Hail the Evo Compute Module The Evo Compute Module (small board) mounted on an EvoTray (larger board) (Image source: Alorium Technology) I was just chatting with my chum Jason Pecor at Alorium Technology. We bounced around from topic to topic with the agility of much younger men. At some stage in our conversation, Jason mentioned a forthcoming product called the Evo Compute Module, which really grabbed my attention. I'll tell you all I know in a minute (it won’t take long) Read Article

Say "Hello" to the LogiSwitch Workbench The LogiSwitch Arduino Uno Workbench Proto-Extender Kit (Image source: LogiSwitch.net) As the Indian novelist Savi Sharma once said, "Everyone has a story." While this is undoubtably true (my mother certainly has lots of them), it's also true that some peoples' stories have more richness and complexity than others. Take my chum, Mike Pelkey, for example. If you perform a Google Search on "BASE Jumping" -- that is, parachuting from a fixed Read Article

Steaming Hot Steampunk Bruce Rosenbaum astride the Hendrick's Gin Grand Garnisher (Image source: ModVic.com) There is an ever-increasing interest in steampunk these days, and a lot of people dabble in various flavors of this genre, but it's rare that you run across someone who makes a living creating steampunk artifacts. Before we proceed, perhaps we should take a step back and remind ourselves that steampunk started out as a subgenre of science fiction or science Read Article

Wearable AI Voice Recorder Is Shipping Use a Senstone and never miss a flash of creative genius again (Image source: Senstone.com) Were you ever a fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG)? If so, you may recall that the Starfleet officers and enlisted personnel wear small communicator badges on their left breast. These devices are presented in the shape of the Starfleet insignia and are activated with a light tap. They also incorporate a universal translator, which comes in handy Read Article

SoC FPGA Boasts RISC-V Processor Well, the current "hot off the press" (don’t burn your fingers") news is that the folks at Microchip Technology have just unveiled the details regarding their forthcoming PolarFire SoC FPGA family boasting a hardened real-time, Linux-capable, RISC-V-based microprocessor subsystem. If you are "in the know," you should be jolly excited by now. On the other hand, there's so much going on these days that it's easy to let things fall through the Read Article

Webinar on XR | Think AR on Steroids Making the business case for XR (Image source: XR Intelligence) Do you remember when the internet first reached the popular consciousness with the release of the MOSAIC web browser circa 1993? A couple of years later, even though almost everyone was aware of the internet by that time, many companies -- including large, multibillion-dollar concerns -- were still debating internally whether it was worth spending their time and resources on having Read Article

8-Bit Micros are Alive and Kicking The NUCLEO-8S207K8 board boasts a 32-pin STM8S207K8 MCU (Image source: STMicroelectronics) I just heard from the guys and gals at STMicroelectronics (ST) that they are "making design starts using 8-bit STM8 microcontrollers (MCUs) faster, more affordable, and more accessible for creative minds of all types by introducing new development boards in the easy-to-use Nucleo-32 form factor." We will return to consider these little rascals in a moment Read Article

A Retro-Computing Christmas Sinclair 48K ZX Spectrum computer (1982) (Image source: Bill Bertram/Wikipedia) It's starting to look a lot like (a retro-computing) Christmas. I understand why many younger readers cannot imagine a world before today's incredibly powerful computing and gaming systems with their high-resolution graphics subsystems. We all enjoy these systems, but those of us who are more... let's say "seasoned"… remember the raw excitement we felt just to own any Read Article

WifiWall Technology Protects Against Cyberattacks Do you travel a lot? If so, do you use your smartphone, tablet, or notepad computer in airports or hotels? Even if you aren't a road warrior, do you use any of the aforementioned devices in public places like coffee bars? WiFiWall 5.0 Traveler (Image source: WiFiWall.com) In my case, I would answer with a resounding "Yes" to all the above. Of course, just about everyone these days knows that public Wi-Fi is subject to nefarious folks mounting all Read Article

Python Dragging Students into STEAM CodeBot. Image source: Firia Labs I have a friend. It's true. I'm not joking. Settle down. Look -- I'm not going to continue until you cease squirming in your seat and stop giggling. That's better. Now, if you're quite finished, we'll continue. We'll call my friend David (because that's his name). David is one of the cleverest guys I know. He has a size-16 brain -- the type with the go-faster stripes painted down the side. He has expertise with Read Article

Design Isn’t Easy The Sandman Doppler Alexa-enabled alarm clock (Image source: Palo Alto Innovation) The fact that design isn’t easy may not strike experienced engineers as being hot news, but younger members of our profession may not have seen the memo. Even something that sounds simple, like an alarm clock, can pose unexpected challenges. I know whereof I speak, because I've been waiting to take delivery of my new alarm clock for more than two years as I pen Read Article

Say Hello to the First Space Tow Truck Artist's impression of MEV-1 (silver) attached to communications satellite (copper) (Image source: Northrop Grumman) Things are moving quickly in space these days (no pun intended). I like to think that I keep my ear to the ground, but I was surprised to discover that Northrop Grumman's Mission Extension Vehicle-1 (MEV-1), whose mission is to essentially act as a space tow truck, successfully launched a week ago. Riding on top of a Russian Proton Read Article

Augmented Reality is Poised to Change the World Imagine 50,000 fans streaming HD video on 5G phones (Image source: pixabay.com) One of the big topics on everyone's lips at the moment is the forthcoming deployment of 5G smartphones and infrastructure. As I wrote in my 5G Meets 50,000 Fans at Super Bowl 2025 column on EEJournal.com, I was idly watching some adverts on television when I saw one showing people streaming video from an American football match. This set me to wondering what the Read Article

Chirp Unlocks the Power of Sound Chirp sends data seamlessly over soundwaves (Image source: chirp.io) According to the Wikipedia, a chirp is a signal in which the frequency increases (up-chirp) or decreases (down-chirp) with time. It’s also the name of a rather interesting company, whose website can be found at Chirp.io I don’t know about you, but – until recently -- if someone were to ask me how to transmit data from one device to another, my knee-jerk reaction would have been Read Article