More than two years after the FCC approved rules for a new Medical Body Area Network (MBAN) service in the 2360-2400 MHz band, the rules have yet to be finalized and no patients are benefiting from wireless body sensors approved by the FCC. The FCC’s work on MBAN demonstrates the sometimes extremely slow pace of making FCC spectrum reallocations a reality, industry officials say.
More than two years after the FCC approved rules for a new Medical Body Area Network (MBAN) service in the 2360-2400 MHz band, the rules have yet to be finalized and no patients are benefiting from wireless body sensors approved by the FCC. The FCC’s work on MBAN demonstrates the sometimes extremely slow pace of making FCC spectrum reallocations a reality, industry officials say.
More than two years after the FCC approved rules for a new Medical Body Area Network (MBAN) service in the 2360-2400 MHz band, the rules have yet to be finalized and no patients are benefiting from wireless body sensors approved by the FCC. The FCC’s work on MBAN demonstrates the sometimes extremely slow pace of making FCC spectrum reallocations a reality, industry officials say.
Sensorstream, which calls itself a “struggling” San Francisco-based startup, sees a $1 trillion opportunity in smart watches and their ecosystem of components, its founder, Tom Rapko, told us. Sensorstream just landed a design patent from the Patent and Trademark Office for a circular smart watch case that’s buttonless with interior threading “to support an upgradable modular electronics package,” and the company is looking for partners, Rapko said. “The wearables business is going to go the way of a garage startup” reminiscent of Apple’s founding, Rapko said. “Even though the Valley is hugely software-centric, I think there’s a huge opportunity in the hardware space for wearables, and in particular, smart watches,” he said of developer work currently happening in the Silicon Valley on behalf of wearables. Rapko thinks smart watches will “drive disruptive innovations in social networking, entertainment and commerce,” he said. Sensorstream’s smart watch case is called Pi, the company said. It differs from traditional watch cases in that it’s devoid of all external buttons, to protect it from the elements, it said. The threaded design on its interior promotes adaptability to modular electronics that can be fitted in and enhances “the ergonomic contours of the smart watch to hug the wearer’s wrist for enhanced stability,” it said. Smart watches have the “potential to rival” or exceed the most successful consumer electronics “ever released” in terms of fast adoption rates, Rapko said. Form factors “will help shape consumer adoption of smart watches,” he said. “Aesthetically, we feel a circular display is superior to the dreary square. Frankly, the end game is fusing the look and feel of a Swiss luxury watch with the core functionality of a smart phone.”
Sensorstream, which calls itself a “struggling” San Francisco-based startup, sees a $1 trillion opportunity in smart watches and their ecosystem of components, its founder, Tom Rapko, told us. Sensorstream just landed a design patent from the Patent and Trademark Office for a circular smart watch case that’s buttonless with interior threading “to support an upgradable modular electronics package,” and the company is looking for partners, Rapko said.
Sensorstream, which calls itself a “struggling” San Francisco-based startup, sees a $1 trillion opportunity in smart watches and their ecosystem of components, its founder, Tom Rapko, told us. Sensorstream just landed a design patent from the Patent and Trademark Office for a circular smart watch case that’s buttonless with interior threading “to support an upgradable modular electronics package,” and the company is looking for partners, Rapko said.
The imminent arrival of Dolby Atmos-enabled AV receivers (AVRs) is eliciting cautious interest from speaker makers who could benefit from a bump in speaker sales if the technology spurs consumers to upgrade their home theater systems. At the same time, speaker makers have seen a dramatic shift away from standard 5.1 surround-sound system sales in recent years as consumers have opted for a simpler single-enclosure soundbar to replace thin sound from flat-panel TVs.
The FCC Monday quietly released the last of the big items approved at the FCC’s May 15 meeting -- new mobile holdings rules (CD May 16 p5). The FCC posted the item on its Web home page Tuesday. The FCC previously had released only a short fact sheet explaining the order (http://fcc.us/1h5tojV).
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler is proposing a two-stage process for the forward part of the TV incentive auction, industry officials said Friday. The first phase is an unrestricted “put up or shut up” phase, officials said. If bids reach a still-to-be-defined threshold, then Verizon and AT&T could effectively be limited to bidding for a limited amount of “unreserved” spectrum, in what one official said would be a “cage match” contest between the two wireless heavyweights. The proposal doesn’t mention AT&T or Verizon but specifies carriers that own more than a third of the sub-1 GHz spectrum in a market, so that the restrictions could apply to other carriers as well, officials said.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler is proposing a two-stage process for the forward part of the TV incentive auction, industry officials said Friday. The first phase is an unrestricted “put up or shut up” phase, officials said. If bids reach a still-to-be-defined threshold then Verizon and AT&T could effectively be limited to bidding for a limited amount of “unreserved” spectrum, in what one official said would be a “cage match” contest between the two wireless heavyweights. The proposal doesn’t mention AT&T or Verizon but specifies carriers that own more than a third of the sub-1 GHz spectrum in a market, so that the restrictions could apply to other carriers as well, officials said.