Have you ever looked at a device and wondered how they could possibly fit all those features and intelligence inside a single, tiny device? Chances are it's been happening more frequently, and there are no signs of slowing down.
Today, you already see products like credit cards with security chips inside or car tires that wirelessly communicate with the vehicle about road conditions, tire inflation and temperature.
Embedded solutions are everywhere, and most people don't even know it. Soon, even engineers won't be able to tell. In the next two years, various advances in embedded electronics will combine, creating some highly integrated products that look as though they lack all the necessary electronics due to the tiny nature of the circuitry in addition to the seamless integration into the product.
Electronics will soon be woven into everything we touch, including fabrics! The best (most unique) example of this can be seen today in Formula One racecars. These envelope-pushing engineers have come up with a solution to address the increase in weight caused by added electronics used to boost engine performance and add features like the KERS system.
To reduce weight, size and drag coefficient engineers found a way to embed a portion of the vehicle's circuitry into the lightweight carbon fiber frame. These circuits and devices are built for a couple hundred degrees of heat and serious vibrations at average speeds over 200 mph and 4g of acceleration.
Every year, more and more performance and adaptability are added to these racecars through embedded electronics. This is an extreme example, but, as you can see, this type of technology is already out there, and has been for a few years, showing that the technology could realistically be making it into more fiscally reasonable markets very soon.
Basically, there are two different types of deeply embedded solutions, all of which are invisible to the naked eye and have a lifespan measured in years. The first are intelligence adders, which appear in everyday objects enabling cool new features without any visible change in the form factor.
There will not be any new requirements or instructions for the user, and the device will just work with new intelligent features like wireless communication or biometric identification.
These include band-aids with heart monitors and wireless radios built-in to communicate with a cell phone or bedside instrumentation. The second are solutions enabled by deeply embedded technologies.
These applications will drastically improve our security and real-time knowledge of the world around us. This includes applications like sensors inside the walls of buildings and bridges to monitor the stress and condition of the structure without the need to ever change batteries or replace the devices.
