Trucking Technology Alert - Oct. 11
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Both the online report and e-mail are sponsored by @Track Communications, a supplier of wireless communications and dispatch services.
Today's Technology Headlines:
- Truckers Hit High-Tech Road
- Devices May Provide New Internet Options
- Bluetooth Tries to Create World Without Cords
- Companies Improve Speech Recognition Technology
Truckers Hit High-Tech Road
High-technology is now being applied to the trucking industry. In the future, big-rig drivers can look forward to trucks equipped with electronic air brake monitoring, external video cameras, e-mail, infrared night vision, satellite navigation, an on-board computer, a system that warns a tired driver if the truck wanders out of a lane and a wireless global positioning system that can tell the driver's company exactly where its truck is located.Freightliner, for example, the largest truck manufacturer in the United States, will soon be offering a Truck Productivity Computer option on its trucks. The device, which fits into a standard radio dash slot, combines wireless communications, navigational devices, an old-fashioned AM/FM radio, with a processor that can handle inputs from digital cameras, bar code scanners, magnetic card readers, game controllers and a wide variety of other devices.
High-technology is expected to work extremely well with the new world of trucking, where the cost of storing and moving goods are managed down to the penny and down to the minute. Los Angeles Times (10/11/01) P. T1; Colker, David
Devices May Provide New Internet Options
A host of new devices may soon provide consumers with an alternative to cable and phone companies' high-speed Internet services.While few of these new technologies pose an immediate competitive threat to digital subscriber lines and cable modems, experts say technologies like fixed wireless, satellite, and fiber optics could take off in the near future. According to Andrew Lombard, chief executive of Dallas-based airBand Communications, which provides high-speed access to businesses over a fixed wireless network, the technical components for fixed wireless are all starting to come together.
The technology has been slow to emerge up until now, because the service requires costly equipment, and antennas have to have an unobstructed view of the transmitting device. Analysts claim, however, that more recent versions of the technology do not have such awkward requirements and are much simpler to install, making it likely that fixed wireless will take off.
Satellite companies have introduced two-way broadband dishes that provide speeds about half of what DSL and cable currently deliver. Their advantage, however, lies in the fact that every household in America has access to them. One technology that could blow away DSL and cable when it comes to things like speed and quality is fiber optics, which -- once it has been installed in most homes -- will offer enough bandwidth for phone calls, unbelievably fast Internet access, and hundreds of cable channels. Dallas Morning News (10/11/01); Bajaj, Vikas
Bluetooth Tries to Create World Without Cords
Bluetooth is attempting to make a world without cables, wires, and cords by attaching devices like computers and printers together a reality with its products, which are being built into FedEx's and UPS' systems.Bluetooth's technology, which cannot function as wireless LAN, operates by sending radio data signals between devices over nearly a 10-meter radius, and lets companies act more freely within their offices. UPS is currently planning on spending $100 million to integrate Bluetooth technology with its existing LANs, while FedEx has started experimenting with Bluetooth devices in its offices.
With the incorporation of Bluetooth technology, PDAs and cell phones could communicate with desk-top printers and other devices without using wired networks; and this technology will help push the use of cell phones as wireless Internet access points and increase business productivity up to 30%, said Kahler. InternetWeek (10/08/01) No. 881, P. 29; Tillett, L. Scott
Companies Improve Speech Recognition Technology
Technologists at IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center and other speech recognition labs are pioneering new software that makes the handheld computer a voice-computing platform.Such computers are able to both accept commands via voice input and reply to questions. Currently, IBM has succeeded in equipping Palm and Compaq PDAs and other handhelds with microphones, speakers, and extra processing power so that they can be operated without a stylus. This approach capitalizes on recent improvements in battery life and processing power in the small devices and is opposite the method used by Microsoft, which favors connecting handhelds via wireless to central processors that translate voice data.
Meanwhile, speech software company Voice Signal Technologies has succeeded in compacting its voice recognition software to about one megabyte of memory, letting handhelds process email dictation. New York Times (10/11/01) P. F1; Guernsey, Lisa
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