FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
2/5/04

"How Far Apart can Two Tiny Battery-Operated $1 Computers Talk?"
Researchers at UC Riverside will be conducting an experiment on Friday, February 6, 2004, starting at 1:00 p.m., to determine how far apart two tiny battery-driven $1 computers can talk over a wire. Initial experiments have resulted in the computers successfully talking for over 1/4 mile. They have acquired over a mile of wire now and will see if the computers can successfully talk that distance.

The experiment is part of a larger research project, known as "eBlocks," funded by the National Science Foundation. eBlocks are to be a set of electronic building blocks, consisting of sensors, outputs, and some other blocks, that regular people can connect together (like Lego blocks) to build useful systems around the home, office, store, etc. Blocks can sense things like motion, light, noise, temperature, switch positions, etc., and could communicate those items to displays, to the Internet, or even electric relays that control appliances. Each eBlock has a tiny $1 microprocessor powered by a 9-volt battery. The experiment is intended to determine how far eBlocks can communicate over a wire. The results will help determine the usefulness of eBlocks in different applications -- for example, whether one block in a building could talk to another block at the other side of the building over a very long wire. The experiment will also compare the distance with the distance that eBlocks can communicate wirelessly.

The experiment will be conducted at the soccer fields between the Student Recreation Center and the Surge building at UCR on Friday February 6, 2004 at 1:00 pm.

For further information, contact Susan Cotterell at susanc@cs.ucr.edu, or contact the project advisor Dr. Frank Vahid at vahid@cs.ucr.edu.