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Imagineered Products
and Services
Examples of Imagineered Products &
Services
Updated on:
Monday, September 17, 2007 02:22 PM |
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Imagineered Products
& Services:
Examples of
Imagineered Products & Services
Introduction to Wind
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Internet Business
Ideas |
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This
section describes some products and service ideas that have either come from my
imagination as long as 40 years ago or are based on scientific research that hint at some
new products. Some of the ideas listed have since become commercially available. In
addition to the ideas listed below, I also have some more detailed discussions. |
WIDE AREA OPTICAL INFORMATION
BROADCASTING (36)
Radio frequency broadcast stations are closely monitored and governed by the FCC here in
the US. Most radio and TV stations are restricted to certain kinds of information that can
be transmitted. No such restrictions or licenses are needed for a broadcast station using
optical methods. For many years I attempted to get some communications companies
interested in the idea of optical information broadcast stations. The idea is to transmit
high speed digital data (up to 1Gigabit per second) from many transmitting towers
scattered around a large metropolitan area. Each tower might have an effective radius of 5
miles in all directions. Such a wide area would mean only 4 towers would be needed to
cover an area of 400 square miles. Since an optical broadcasting system and a radio
broadcasting system could coexist on the same tower, many new towers would not have to be
erected. Preexisting radio towers could be used. The light transmitters would also not
require any FCC licenses. So far, no federal agency has been assigned the task of
regulating optical communications.The light being
transmitted from the towers could originate from arrays of powerful lasers. Optical fiber
cables could carry the light from the ground based light emitters to the top of the
towers. The light emerging from the lasers would be powerful, but would be intentionally
spread out to insure it would always be eye safe. Since the laser sources would emit light
with very narrow wave lengths, the matching light receivers could use equally narrow
optical filters to select only certain laser colors or wavelengths. This technique is
called wavelength division multiplexing and has been used for many years in communications
systems using optical fibers. The technique could be so selective that the number of
different light channels that could be transmitted and received could number in the
hundreds. Using such an optical approach, the data rate from each optical transmitter
could exceed 100 billion bits per second. Such a data rate is far more than possible with
communications systems using transmission cables.
The main objection potential investors had
for my idea was the communications interruptions from bad weather. It is true that during
some heavy snow storms and thick fog conditions the reception of the transmitted light
signals could be blocked. But, overall I felt that people subscribing to such a service
could tolerate a few interruptions each year. In spite of my arguments, I was not able to
find any investors. So, it is hoped that someone reading this might someday consider the
idea and make it a commercial success.
TERABEAM
IS PROVIDING A SIMILAR SERVICE |
CIRCUIT PREVENTS CLIPPED
SYLLABLE IN VOX CIRCUIT (37)
Voice operated relays (VOX) have been in use for some time. These circuits allow
hands-free operation of a radio transceiver. Instead of pushing a button to turn the radio
transmitter on, the operator only has to talk into a microphone connected to the VOX
system. The circuit detects the onset of audio and automatically switches the system from
a receive mode to a transmit mode. However, the switch is not perfect and almost always
inserts a short delay. The delay is usually sufficient to cause the first syllable of the
first word spoken to be clipped off. Users have gotten around these annoying delays by
uttering a word such as ahhhh or even blowing a puff of air into the microphone before
speaking. I propose an add-on circuit that would eliminate the need for such measures. I
imagine a box that would be connected between the microphone and the microphone input of
the radio transceiver. There would also be a connection to the push to talk control input.
The box would contain a special electronic circuit that would use a bucket brigade charge
coupled device as an analog delay. When the person first spoke, a relay contact would
switch the transmitter on, but the box circuit would generate a short delay between the
actual speech into the microphone and the signals sent to the microphone input of the
transceiver. With this device, the transmitter would be switched on before the speech
signals arrived. This device would give hands free VOX operation without ever missing the
first syllable. |
EARTHQUAKE ALARM (38)
Virtually every home has a smoke detector installed. Some may also have carbon monoxide
and natural gas detectors. In those areas that are situated on unstable ground I propose
that an earthquake alarm should also be installed in every home. Perhaps the battery
powered device would sense the unique vibrations associated with an earth quake. Maybe it
would be hung on a wall and would sound an alarm whenever it sensed the onset of the
quake. Using a low power design, I imagine the device to operate for at least a year
before the single 9 volt battery would have to be replaced. As in smoke detectors, I think
an earthquake alarm could give a homeowner a few more valuable seconds which could save
his life. |
OPTICALLY LINKED ID BADGES (39)
Active radio frequency identification devices (RFID) have been around for a number of
years. These device use radio techniques to transmit a coded message to a nearby radio
receiver for processing. The information transmitted from the badges would let the system
know where the employee was located within a building and even allow those employees to
have access to certain areas. It could unlock doors and turn on computers automatically. I
imagine a similar system but one that uses an optical approach instead of a radio method.
The ID badge would contain a thin lithium battery. A tiny infrared light emitting diode on
the top edge of the badge would send a coded message to a light receiver mounted on the
ceiling of each room of an office building. The message transmitted would only have to be
about 60 or 80 bits long to be unique enough to identify the individual wearing the badge.
The messages would be transmitted in short bursts that may repeat 20 times per second. If
the light pulses were sufficiently short, the average current consumption for the badge
would be low. The short information bursts would also allow the system to deal with
multiple badges within one room. A data burst collision between two badges would be
quickly cleared using a program within the badge circuit that would generate a slightly
random time between the data bursts. With a carefully designed system, each badge might
operate for a year on one battery. |
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