How does an aeroplane’s ‘black box’ work?

After doing a little research, I can now tell you (basically) everything you ever wanted to know about black boxes…

In the average commercial aircraft, you’ll find the presence of multiple (usually four) microphones in the cockpit at any given time. They are located in the pilot and co-pilot’s headsets, as well as in the cockpit itself. Not only do these microphones record conversations between the pilots and cabin crew, they also record any ambient noise (such as switches being thrown or sounds generated by technical issues). The microphones all connect to the cockpit voice recorder (CVR), a master unit that stores the last 30 minutes of sound. The tape operates on a loop, essentially erasing itself every half hour.

This device is known colloquially, but a little misleadingly, as the ‘black box’ (it is usually quite brightly coloured in order to make it easier to find in the unlikely event of an accident). Another device also referred to as a ‘black box’, is the flight data recorder (FDR), which automatically records data regarding the plane’s flight path, speed and movements in the air. Although the devices are distinct from one another, the information they record goes to the same place and is used for the same purpose, thus their shared name of ‘black box’.

In recent years, manufacturers have moved away from magnetic tape-based CVRs and FDRs and towards ‘solid state technology’ boxes. These improved devices store the relevant data on memory boards, which can hold up to two hours of cockpit recording and 25 hours of flight data. The solid-state devices are also sturdier than their tape-based counterparts.

Crash survivable memory units (CMSUs), are large cylinders that back up all the relevant data and are designed to withstand extreme heat, pressure and violent impact. They are typically contained within the box itself. In the more severe accidents, the CMSU is all that survives of the black box.

The black box, then, simply records all the relevant data before an accident occurs. This serves to provide engineers with an explanation for a crash, as well as providing investigators and regulators with the same information.

So there you have it, of course, a lot of information is stored in an aircraft’s black box (much more than I’ve detailed here), but as a general example, that’s what it is and how it works. Hope that helps. 

How does an aeroplane’s ‘black box’ work?

Storage Spaces, 2 way Radios used in Warehouse Operations

Most of us don’t really think about it, but warehouses play an important part in our lives. When we shop at a supermarket, visit an electronics store, or order online from a major retailer, we are buying items that, at one time or another, have to be stored somewhere.

Its not just completed products, either. Once an item has been manufactured, it must then be stored before transit, meaning that most factories incorporate a considerable amount of space to the storage of completed products, ready for shipping.

The modern warehouse is a vital component in the supply chain process. As a result, a good, well-run warehouse facility is becoming increasingly important to long-term business performance. Warehouse operations have a direct impact on the availability and quality of the product itself and, as a result, one of the first steps on the road to customer satisfaction is a strong, well-organized warehouse staff.

How do the managers keep the staff so collaborative? Via the use of two-way radio communications, of course.

Warehouses employ thousands of people nationwide and it is of absolute importance to the managers of these facilities that those people are contactable, safe and kept up-to-speed with any relevant information. This is entirely possible only with modern two-way radio systems.

It is not uncommon for a warehouse employee to walk the equivalent of seven to fifteen miles a day and, as a result, the job can be strenuous and stressful. Quick, reliable communication is essential to keep employee supervisors apprised of any medical problems that may arise as a result of a tough working day.

Regular, reliable communications in all areas of the warehouse are of paramount importance to the overall running of the facility (as well as to the profits of the parent company). Management, staff, production, stores and sales need to be informed about any problems as they occur; the company also needs a regular, speedy and accurate stock inventory provided to them at regular intervals.

A successful company is like a well-oiled machine and good, clear communications are key when it comes to ensuring that all of those proverbial cogs are greased up and working in the proper manner. Two-way radios are portable, durable and feature crystal clear audio, allowing for fast, accurate messages to be sent over large distances with maximum efficiency and minimum fuss.

We don’t often stop to consider how important warehouses and their dedicated staff actually are, but we really ought to. Warehouses are just another complex, yet vitally important operation made simple by two-way radios. 

Storage Spaces, 2 way Radios used in Warehouse Operations

A bone conducting earpiece, what makes it unique to other types

Music is a large element of everyday life also it may be for almost as long as Human beings have now been on this earth. I often point to a finding of a 40,000-year-old flute dating back to that ice age as evidence for this, but truthfully, all the evidence you’ll need is all around you, every day. We remember ballads and music long after the folks who initially composed them have died and rotted away (a thought which I find curiously reassuring) plus the music industry, like it or hate it, is actually a big business.

On the other hand, while the ice age musicians probably survived during a world of stark brutality, frozen, dull wastelands and harsh, ‘kill or be killed’ inter-cave politics, they by no means had to deal with road works, transport lorries, screaming toddlers or drunken rabble-rousers on their way to the stag evening. Lucky buggers.

Today’s listener has to accommodate all that plus much more, which can make listening to the music not just difficult, but also dangerous.

Now, though, contemporary science has stumbled over a means in which you can still listen to your favorite tunes, even if you’re wearing earplugs (no, I’ve not been sniffing discarded paint cans once more). It’s called bone conduction tech and no, despite the slightly strange name, it in truth doesn’t hurt…

Based on recent fields of study, contact with any noise over 100 Dbm wears away a film known as a myelin sheath and leaves your middle ear prone to problems like tinnitus and temporary deafness, which can be the start of much more momentous problems. Bone conduction technology has been made to bypass the most sensitive parts of your ear and reduce the chance of inner-ear harm.

How? Well, in order to understand that, we have to first understand how our ears actually work. (HERE COMES THE SCIENCE-Y BIT) Basically, sound travels though the air, these sound waves are intercepted by several structures in the ear and are finally translated and transmitted into our brains (if it helps, imagine it like the encoding/decoding of digital information, such as that which guides the actions of a wireless mouse).

The sound waves first encounter a bit of cartilage (yes, the same stuff that a shark’s skeleton is formed of), which allows to focus the sound, this known as a pinna (but you can call it your outer ear without looking too silly).

After that, the sound waves pass into your middle ear, it is filled up with air and also contains both your auditory canal plus your eardrum (my little brother burst his when he was little and almost burst mine crying about it). The eardrum vibrates, passing the sound through to the ossicles, that are three small bones (that are actually pretty necessary to the sense of steadiness, I am told). These tiny bones transmit the signal to the cochlea, that’s a fluid-filled infrastructure that ‘encodes’ the indicators for our noggin to ‘decode’.

Bone conduction technology vibrates the bones of the skull, sending the sound directly to a cochlea and bypassing the remainder of the ear entirely. The nerve impulses transmitted to the mind are exactly the same, but the sensitive instrument of our ear doesn’t need to deal with the hassle of, to cite Anchorman’s Brick Tamland “LOUD NOISES!”

This process appears to be totally safe; in fact, the famously deaf composer Beethoven applied a elementary version of this process in order to compose his most famous works. He attached a rod between his piano and his head and, as such, was able to listen to the music he was playing.

So here you go, rather then exposing your delicate ears to louder and louder volumes, to drown out the background noise, you can instead stick your earpugs in and play your music at the correct volume. Make no bones about it (groan!)

for more information on the full range of bone conductor earpieces visit earpieceonline.co.uk

A bone conducting earpiece, what makes it unique to other types

Storage Spaces, 2 way Radios used in Warehouse Operations

Most of us don’t really think about it, but warehouses play an important part in our lives. When we shop at a supermarket, visit an electronics store, or order online from a major retailer, we are buying items that, at one time or another, have to be stored somewhere.

Its not just completed products, either. Once an item has been manufactured, it must then be stored before transit, meaning that most factories incorporate a considerable amount of space to the storage of completed products, ready for shipping.

The modern warehouse is a vital component in the supply chain process. As a result, a good, well-run warehouse facility is becoming increasingly important to long-term business performance. Warehouse operations have a direct impact on the availability and quality of the product itself and, as a result, one of the first steps on the road to customer satisfaction is a strong, well-organized warehouse staff.

How do the managers keep the staff so collaborative? Via the use of two-way radio communications, of course.

Warehouses employ thousands of people nationwide and it is of absolute importance to the managers of these facilities that those people are contactable, safe and kept up-to-speed with any relevant information. This is entirely possible only with modern two-way radio systems.

It is not uncommon for a warehouse employee to walk the equivalent of seven to fifteen miles a day and, as a result, the job can be strenuous and stressful. Quick, reliable communication is essential to keep employee supervisors apprised of any medical problems that may arise as a result of a tough working day.

Regular, reliable communications in all areas of the warehouse are of paramount importance to the overall running of the facility (as well as to the profits of the parent company). Management, staff, production, stores and sales need to be informed about any problems as they occur; the company also needs a regular, speedy and accurate stock inventory provided to them at regular intervals.

A successful company is like a well-oiled machine and good, clear communications are key when it comes to ensuring that all of those proverbial cogs are greased up and working in the proper manner. Two-way radios are portable, durable and feature crystal clear audio, allowing for fast, accurate messages to be sent over large distances with maximum efficiency and minimum fuss.

We don’t often stop to consider how important warehouses and their dedicated staff actually are, but we really ought to. Warehouses are just another complex, yet vitally important operation made simple by two-way radios. 

Storage Spaces, 2 way Radios used in Warehouse Operations

The headphones revolution: bright colours, street styling spark new craze

Anyone considering buying headphones for a young relative this Christmas, take care before splashing out the £150 or more that the most fashionable – the Beats, or Skullcandy, or Urbanears models – can cost.

Each brand marks them out as one of a “tribe”, regardless of sound quality. Whereas 20 years ago the most important thing for a teenager was the brand of trainer on their feet – Nike, Reebok or Adidas – now it’s the brand covering their ears that matters.

Beats headphones, with their red cord and large “b” on the earpieces, began appearing in music videos in late 2008, largely through the efforts of the company’s co-founders, the rapper Dr Dre and the music entrepreneur Jimmy Iovine. That sparked rocketing sales to a teenage demographic looking for a new way to distinguish themselves out from their peers.

In doing so, Beats’ emergence showed that high-priced headphones would sell, becoming as much a fashion accessory as a gadget, commanding prices over £200 – a bracket previously reserved for the audiophile niche.

A decade ago, the white tendrils of an iPod’s headphones might have marked the wearer out as trendy; nowadays it makes them just one of the crowd, and Apple’s in-ear headphones are too common to bother with. A teenager wanting to stand out needs something big – and bold.

“Companies like Beats and Skullcandy have realised that kids today want something that looks better, over questions of sound quality,” says Sam Ruffe, who works at The Kinc, a marketing agency whose clients include Skullcandy.

And those kids (or their parents) will pay: worldwide, the market for headphones will be worth over £5bn ($8bn) this year, with 284m units shipped, according to the consumer consultancy Futuresource; over-ear headphones grabbed half of sales. And Beats alone will grab around £1.25bn – while the total market is forecast to grow by 5% annually for the next five years.

Skullcandy was originally designed for skiers and snowboarders, by Rick Alden, who got the idea on a chairlift in Park City, Utah. Starting in 2003, he managed to persuade skating and skiing shops to stock the product, which became known as an “extreme sports” brand.

Urbanears, meanwhile, brought Scandinavian design and a flourish of colour to the burgeoning headphone market, releasing two “collections” of headphones a year in limited-edition colours.

The continued success of Beats brought competition as these other brands began chasing the new demographic of people willing to spend money to wear their branding choice on their ears. Skullcandy moved off the slopes and into the high street. Now, they are more likely to be seen on the bus than on the piste.

Audiophiles aren’t impressed by the brigade of bolshy Beats products, which often pride bass and look over acoustic refinement. “I just bought a set of the Beats Solo HD headphones – it’s a Christmas gift for my 13-year-old daughter,” Chris Miller, a software engineer, told the Guardian, adding: “I think they are overpriced and you are paying a premium for the brand name. They aren’t bad, but I have headphones that sound better for half the price that I paid for the Beats.”

Sound quality, though, isn’t necessarily the point – which may have been missed by more traditional “audiophile” brands such as Germany’s Sennheiser, the Dutch brand Philips and the American Bose, who were caught unaware that colouring the earpiece and cord green or red could affect sales as much as their sound quality.

Andy Watson of Futuresource says you might struggle to tell some headphones apart at the factory. “With everyone owning the same generic-looking personal audio player or mobile phone, it’s the headphones that do the differentiating. There is certainly cachet and brand equity attached to many of the brands, beyond their intrinsic value. Much of it is about positioning a lifestyle rather than a product.”

Yet the growing tribalism of headphone ownership has led to derision in some quarters – such as the blog “Long Way From Compton”, which features pictures of people wearing Beats headphones, and measuring the distance from there to the notorious gang-ridden Los Angeles district from which Dr Dre emerged.

It’s in the can

Beats Studio

Arguably one of the headphones that kicked off the large and colourful trend, the original Beats by Dre headphones drove appeal through product placement in music videos. Pushed by the music marketing powerhouse of Dr Dre (pictured above) and Jimmy Iovine, Beats brought big, aggressive bass-y sound at a big price and made it fashionable.

Bowers & Wilkins P5

Proving that expensive, fashionable headphones could sound good, the Bowers & Wilkins P5 ooze luxury and sound great, with excellent noise isolation and good range, which makes the equally pricey Beats sound downright mediocre.

Bose QuietComfort

The commuter’s favourite, Bose took noise-cancelling technology – which silences the outside world by blasting sound waves to cancel out the noise leaving only the music audible – and made it popular. On their third revision, the Bose QuietComforts are still the active noise-cancelling headphones to beat for many.

Sennheiser Momentum

Long-standing quality audio company Sennheiser was late to the stylish headphone game, but its Momentum series combines a sophisticated look with top-notch acoustics.

Starck

A collaboration between the French designer Philippe Starck and the Bluetooth specialists Parrot, Zik headphones are some of the best wireless headphones around, with intuitive touch controls, active noise-cancelling, and sound profiles and acoustics that can be modified with iPhone and Android apps.

Skullcandy Crusher

Battery-powered bass means that the Crusher gives real wallop to what otherwise might just be loud music. Cavernous earpieces (made of “soft touch” leather) also come with a powered mini-amplifier, foldable hinge (for storage) and a microphone and remote on the detachable headphone cable. CA and SG

Source – http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/dec/06/headphones-market-beats-by-dre

The headphones revolution: bright colours, street styling spark new craze

How does bone conduction work?

Bone conduction headphones (commonly referred to as ‘Bonephones’) are actually really clever. In order to best explain how they work, I’ll need to take you on a journey into the Human ear…

No, not literally. That would be disgusting.

OK, so you know how sound travels through the air? Surely you must have done that science experiment at school where you hear sound disappearing into an airless vacuum? Yup, it’s just like that.

Anyway, the sound waves come into contact with your outer ear structure, or pinna. Then, the sounds pass into your middle ear, which is filled with air (obviously). The sound travels through your auditory canal and then your eardrum. Your eardrum then vibrates, an action that passes the sound to your ossicles.

Now, the ossicles are three tiny little inner-ear bones and their job is to translate the sound to the cochlea, a fluid-filled structure that in turn ‘encodes’ the sounds in order for our brains to ‘decode’ and process them.

It’s actually quite a ride, when you think about it.

So, bone conduction headphones bypass the pinna, the auditory canal and the eardrum and take the vibrations directly to your ossicles, quite literally rattling your bones. From there, the ossicles transmit to the cochlea and the process carries on as usual.

That’s basically it.

It is actually a good way to listen to music if you have hearing problems and it has the added bonus of being effective whilst the listener has earplugs in, or even when he/she is underwater.

I had my doubts about the safety of this technology when it was first announced, but it has been out a while now and has been pronounced as safe by medical experts. In all probability, bone conduction is actually better for your ears than regular headphones are.

To quote, um, myself, in an article I published a few months ago:

“According to recent studies, exposure to any noise over 100 decibels wears away a membrane known as the myelin sheath and leaves your inner ear susceptible to problems like tinnitus and temporary deafness, which can be the beginning of even more serious problems. Bone conduction technology has been designed to bypass the most sensitive portions of your ear and reduce the risk of inner-ear damage”. 

How does bone conduction work?

On The Air, In The Air Radios and Air Travel, an inseparable Mix

Radios are a Vital Tool for Air Travel. At London Heathrow airport, for example, three hundred companies employ some 80,000 people every day, whilst 65 million people leave from, arrive at, or pass through the airport. In the face of such staggering humanity, fast, efficient communication becomes paramount.

Medical personnel need to be notified quickly in case of an accident. Security guards must be able to respond and react to any potential threat as swiftly as possible. Other, daily issues such as reuniting lost children with their parents, locating missing luggage and the inspection of imported goods, must also be dealt with in a clear and professional manner.

Without a reliable network of two-way radios, the entire daily operation of any airport would be next to impossible.

Today, most modern airports have switched from having individual radio networks specific to each company, to the employment of more integrated solutions. In 2000, the engineering firm Arup was employed by BAA to make these changes possible at Heathrow, specifically in Terminal 5. According to the firm’s official website,

“Previously at Heathrow, individual mobile operators had installed their own infrastructure, resulting in duplication and proliferation of infrastructure across the airport, standards of installation that varied, unreliable records, and unsightly clutter to the terminal landscape”.

Eventually, the site continues,

“It was jointly agreed by BAA and Arup that the most appropriate solution for the new terminal was common infrastructure that could be shared by multiple parties”.

The changes at Terminal 5 proved to be a success. These days, most airports follow this model of radio communication. The benefits are enormous. Airports are running smoother than ever thanks to improved cross communication between individuals and departments (everything from catering, flight and cabin crew to cleaning staff, border controls and freight handling).

Two-way radios are superior to mobile phones for these tasks because they are instant. Also, there are very few lapses in signal and they are sturdy enough for use in almost any environment.

Think of your mobile: if you came upon an accident right now and you wanted to call somebody and report it, you would be dependent on a multitude of factors, wouldn’t you? Do you have signal? Do you have credit? Will they even pick up the phone at their end? However, a two-way radio eliminates most of these problems. The operator simply presses the button to talk and awaits the reply. Easy.

Two-way radios cover a large area, can be used on secure channels and are cost effective solutions to communications challenges presented by organizations such as Heathrow.

The benefits of a two-way radio system have been well known for a long time, it is a system used by police, the armed forces, building contractors, security firms and, of course, cab drivers, the world over. Plus, the technology isn’t upgraded too often, so there’s not much risk of your purchase becoming obsolete by the time you put down your deposit.

In a very real sense, airports would struggle to complete one outgoing flight a day without two-way radio technology. 

On The Air, In The Air Radios and Air Travel, an inseparable Mix