Wireless

Diana Eng reports from Hamvention 2010

On May 14-16, 2010, over 15,000 ham radio enthusiasts gathered for the annual Hamvention in Dayton, Ohio. From the moment I drove up behind the creator of APRS (GPS for ham radio) there was something radio-related to see. It was like ham radio’s Maker Faire. I’ve captured some of the highlights in this video. There […]

iPad controlled video blimp

New York-based BREAKFAST fitted a BlimpDuino with on-board video and wireless control system and took it out for a spin at a party to interact with the crowd. Everybody’s favorite controller du jour, an iPad, was employed to orient the dirigible and act as a augmented display medium.

Maker Birthdays: Guglielmo Marconi

Maker Birthdays: Guglielmo Marconi

Born on this date in 1874, Guglielmo Marconi (Wikipedia) was a prominent early inventor in the development of the technology, then called “wireless telegraphy,” that today we know as radio. Even today, Marconi is commonly remembered as “the inventor of radio,” although the priority of other inventors–notably Nikola Tesla–is fairly well established. The debate over who is rightfully credited for the invention of radio has become known as “The Great Radio Controversy” (Wikipedia). Even so, there is no debate that Marconi’s achievements as an engineer, inventor, and businessman are of historic significance. He shared the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Karl Ferdinand Braun, “in recognition of their contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy.” Marconi died in 1937, aged 63.