Sometimes you see something which is so funny, mind boggling and interesting, even if there is no direct link to CAT-iq, that is should be mentioned.

Yesterday I saw a Pleo. Pleo is the first truly autonomous Life Form capable of emotions that allow personal engagement. Developed, produced and marketed by Ugobe.

UGOBE ’s multidisciplinary team has blended engineering, life sciences, philosophy, and artistic design and developed a unique set of core technologies. The company’s unique products, known as Life Forms, intend to blur the line between technology and life.

By integrating three disciplines—organic articulation with sensory response and autonomous behaviors—UGOBE aims to revolutionize robotics and transform inanimate objects into lifelike creatures. Inspired by its dream, the group coined the word ‘UGOBE’, which translates to: “You! Go and Be!” a creative reworking of Descarte’s “Cogito ergo sum”—“I think, therefore I am.”

SPIRIT DSP, member of DECT Forum has become a licensee of SPIRIT's proprietary low bit-rate voice codec, VoStoC, for built-in voice quality on its digital phone baseband processors and SoC (System on a Chip) solutions, through its acquisition of the former Cordless & VoIP terminals businesses of NXP Semiconductors.

DSP Group Inc. has a wide portfolio of SoC solutions for portable multimedia, short-range communication and VoIP applications. Last year, DSP Group, Inc. acquired the Cordless & VoIP terminals businesses from NXP to create a market leader in the cordless and VoIP residential telephony market. SPIRIT's VoStoC voice codec (http://www.spiritdsp.com/products/gateway/speech_codecs/vostoc) will be used inside DSP Group's digital phone baseband processors and SoCs for digital answering devices. SPIRIT's excellence in high-quality speech processing makes crystal clear voice possible across millions of communication devices.

As CAT-iq offers high-quality audio, this voice codec could be of valid for new to be introduced CAT-iq products.

• Worldwide digital set top box unit shipments reached 143 million in 2007, up sharply from 121 million in 2006.
  
• Satellite set top box unit shipments accounted for just over 50% of all global digital set top box unit shipments last year, while digital cable set top boxes made up 29% of total unit shipments.
  
• Worldwide digital set top box product revenues hit $14 billion in 2007, an increase of $3 billion over 2006 revenues.
  
• The market for semiconductor components inside digital set top boxes also grew significantly last year. The total value of semiconductors embedded in digital set top boxes increased to $7.7 billion in 2007.

This is not direcly relevant for CAT-iq as this standard doesn't support streaming video.

However. combinig both worlds, like is being done on a router (Wi-Fi and DECT today, Wi-Fi and CAT-iq tomorrow) opens new opportunities for hardware vendors, operators etc.

Besides this trend also means that fixed networks will keep their importance, and in some areas even will grow. 

Infineon Technologies AG announced a cost-effective DECT solution, which when combined with a DOCSIS® 3.0 chipset, produces a platform for North American cable service providers to deploy next-generation Voice-over-IP (VoIP) services operating over DECT 6.0 cordless telephones. The resulting platform, which combines Infineon’s COSIC™ modem and DUSLIC™-xT with Texas Instruments’ (NYSE: TXN) PUMA 5 chipset, enables system integrators to develop eMTA (Embedded Terminal Media Adapter) products that conform to the latest standards in DOCSIS 3.0 (Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification), and the latest DECT 6.0 / CAT-iq™ cordless telephony standards.

The new platform unlocks additional revenue potential for cable service providers by offering the benefits of a user-installable VoIP solution, which require no home phone wiring or truck rolls, with extended features that enable the provision of additional revenue-generating services to the end user. The consumer will benefit from interference-free cordless phones that offer wideband audio (“HD” sound) and support for multiple concurrent calls to separate external parties, along with new Internet-like applications on the handset, such as access to online address books, buddy lists, and stock and weather tickers. The eMTA with integrated DECT 6.0 is also capable of continued service during power failure since the base station is powered by the eMTA’s standby battery, and the handsets feature more than 170 hours of standby and over 15 of talk-time.

See the complete article here.

Single-chip solutions enables compact, cost-effective DECT handsets with CAT-iq support

SiTel Semiconductor and Siemens Home and Office Communication Devices today announced that Siemens' latest family of Gigaset DECT and CAT-iq cordless phones are powered by SiTel's SC14480 single-chip DECT / CAT-iq solution. Combining radio and baseband functionality in one IC, the SC14480 reduces bill of materials, assembly costs and system size. It is also the first single-chip DECT / CAT-iq solution to enter full-scale production.

Siemens is using the SC14480 in the handset, basestation and base with answering machine of four models in its Gigaset range. The IC allows standard DECT handsets to offer CAT-iq support. In addition, its impressive processing power means the new phones can offer 8 kHz voice enhancement and full duplex echo canceling for standard and wideband audio for the highest sound quality. The SC14480 also enables text-to-speech services and complete Midi functionality including 32 voices, wave table and FM synthesis.

See the complete article here. 

 The DECT Forum, the international association of the worldwide home communication industry, announces today that DECT 6.0 cordless telephony devices have reached a 53 % dollar share in the United States in May 2008 according to data from The NPD Group's retail tracking service.

"The home gateway is not simply a router, but a service enabler," explains Milan Erbes, ambassador for the HGI and Business Development and Standardization Manager for DS2. "The HGI focuses on the home gateway itself, but encompasses also the Home Network Infrastructure Devices as well, providing guidelines on remote access, parental control in the home, performance metrics, quality of service (QoS) and security."

Kurt Scherf, VP at Parks Associates, adds: "The deployment of home gateways is accelerating hand-in-hand with the rollout of triple play services."

HGI intends to address support for the SOHO environment, energy saving, extended QoS, diagnostics, Home Network Infrastructure Devices support, the Home Gateway and Network Termination two-boxes approach for Next-Gen Networks, Home Gateway resilience, IPv6 and the evolution of support to IPTV and IMS.

The HGI was founded and launched by nine telecom operators (Belgacom, BT, Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom, KPN, TeliaSonera, NTT, Telefonica and Telecom Italia) in 2004, and now has members from five continents.

source European Custom Installer

Earlier we spoke about UMA in this blog. We spoke about the possibility to integrate CAT-iq functionality in the mobile phone.

Sagem, a DECT Forum member, has developed and produced several mobile phones with UMA integrated. They recently introduced the third mobile phone with UMA.

Sagem's latest dual-mode handset, my519X, is now on the market and available to subscribers of Orange's 'unik' service. The new tri-band phone music phone has an MP3 player, measures 108 x 48 x 11mm and weighs only 89g.

The my519x is Sagem's third dual-mode handset to be sold by Orange for customers of its UMA-based service. Plus, it's Orange’s first music phone with UMA technology.

What about CAT-iq integration. Is this technical and commercial viable? 

At Redesignme, you can find another product/service application for CAT-iq. It's ideas is from the same innovator as the cat-entrance (see previous article in this blog).

This idea has to deal with health and weight in combination with online services. This is the idea.

It is obvious that the healthcare industry is working on these sort of products/services. And yes there is even an alliance for these companies, called the Continua Health alliance.

This is their aim: 'Imagine products so intelligent they help manage one's health at home. Imagine an alliance of the finest companies joining forces to improve the quality of people's lives. Imagine highly integrated systems that seamlessly work together.' This is their site.

CAT-iq would fit perfectly in this alliance, but they have chosen Bluetooth!!??

AN opportunity for DECT Forum to contact them and make them aware of CAT-iq.