If you've ever worked while resting a laptop computer on your lap, you know that computers emit heat, and the more powerful the computer, the greater the heat produced. This is a problem because electronics really don't enjoy elevated temperatures. A hot computer is a slow computer or, worse, a computer that will cease functioning.

Pampering Penguins in the Pittsburgh Zoo Nov 1, 2006 By: Dirk Kalp, Walter D. Tauche

The world's 17 species of penguin are indigenous only to the Southern Hemisphere, including the Antarctic. Gentoo, Macaroni, and King penguins are anything but native to Pittsburgh, PA, but nonetheless are very much in their element at the Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium, thanks to a sophisticated system of sensors and a wireless network that keeps everything in balance.

Three major wireless communications protocol rivals have made new moves in home automation , while energy-harvesting pioneer pursues its own path to the building market.

While the ZigBee specification has been ratified, the product certification process is yet being developed. Still, vendors continue to fill the pipeline with products that are "ZigBee ready"—i.e., conform to the IEEE's 802.15.4 standard—and to make other announcements that will position them as leaders in this space.

In compliance with the time schedule established many months ago, the ZigBee Alliance (www.zigbee .org) has ratified the first ZigBee specification for wireless data communications. ZigBee is the only standards-based data communications protocol specifically designed to enable low-cost, low-power, wireless sensor networks. The spec finalization is the culmination of two years of worldwide development and interoperability testing by the more than 100 member companies within the ZigBee Alliance, and it promises to make wireless sensing and control networks a widespread reality. In fact, that ratification was the basis for rosy projections of wireless sensor growth that futurists and market researchers have made. For instance, ON World Inc.'s (www.onworld.com) projection of 465.58 million RF modules implemented for sensor networking by the year 2010 was based on the assumption of Q4 2004 ratification of the ZigBee spec. And by the way, ON World estimates that ZigBee-based modules will account for nearly 78% of..

It's happened. The event upon which rosy projections of wireless sensor growth is based—completion of the ZigBee spec—has taken place. If the futurists and market researchers are right, we're about to rocket up the hockey-stick slope to wireless utopia.

It's happened. The event upon which rosy projections of wireless sensor growth is based—completion of the ZigBee spec—has taken place. If the futurists and market researchers are right, we're about to rocket up the hockey-stick slope to wireless utopia.