Bench Talk

Buyers of smart consumer goods, wearable medical devices, and IoT edge devices want designs with small sizes, high performance, low power, high levels of integration, and low cost. However, only the correct type of microcontroller can meet these criteria.

A new generation of portable medical devices is on the way with capabilities that could dramatically change the way diagnostic and treatment is done outside the hospital setting. In fact, when portable medical devices have access to recent health and wellness information, like that available from wearable devices, it becomes practical to provide a wide variety of treatments in the home instead of in the hospital or with a doctor visit. Now, I’m not talking, at least not yet, about do-it-yourself brain surgery, but there are a wide variety of medical devices that can help us respond to emergency situations to save lives. Let’s see just how close to do-it-yourself brain surgery we can come.

Open source is part of some totally cool ideas. The NFC ring by Jon MecLear, funded by crowdsourcing, is one example of how technology migrates into every area of our lives. NFC stands for Near Field Communication. This ring looks like a wedding band. But think about how easy it would be to wear a ring that could replace the fob to unlock your car, automatically unlock your smart phone or tablet when you pick it up, and unlock your front door.