the timboucher experience

Posting this as a follow-up to my recent image threads relating to model-controlled aircraft. Garrett wrote to me about a memory from a few years ago, someone talking to him about using ham radio (tv frequencies) to control cameras connected to balloons. The FCC has many regulations regarding the use of ham frequencies to control model aircraft. Still not sure how that applies to military UAV drones, but that’s probably restricted information.

Garrett also posted on something really awesome-sounding: GNU software radios, which is quite close to some of the visions I’ve had about a sort of ideal electronic device I’d like to have…

Software radio is a revolution in radio design due to its ability to create radios that change on the fly, creating new choices for users. At the baseline, software radios can do pretty much anything a traditional radio can do. The exciting part is the flexibility that software provides you. Instead of a bunch of fixed function gadgets, in the next few years we’ll see a move to universal communication devices. Imagine a device that can morph into a cell phone and get you connectivity using GPRS, 802.11 Wi-Fi, 802.16 WiMax, a satellite hookup or the emerging standard of the day. [...]

Cell phones are a great convenience, but the features your phone supports are determined by the operator’s interests, not yours.

A centralized system limits the rate of innovation. We could take some lessons from the Internet and push the smarts out to the edges. Instead of cell phones being second-class citizens, usable only if infrastructure is in place and limited to the capabilities determined worthwhile by the operator, we could build smarter devices. These user-owned devices would generate the network. They’d create a mesh among themselves, negotiate for backhaul and be free to evolve new solutions, features and applications.

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• I’m dreaming of a service…