Lio
g0ran
"In 2025, Garmin announced that they would end their certification for ANT+ devices, blaming changes in wireless communication regulations. This is likely to lead to future devices dropping ANT+ support in favour of BLE."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANT_(network)
I believe that's what the author was referring to when describing it as failed, but yes, this could've been worded better.
Lio
Aha! OK that's sad news but makes perfect sense. Thanks.
SuperNinKenDo
The ANT+ article was really interesting and it seems like a real shame that it's going the way of the dodo. Now I know what those little status symbols are on some of the gym equipment. Seems like a great protocol for the use case, but nit massively surprising it couldn't survive on that niche alone. Shame.
derbOac
My impression was part of the issue was ANT is a proprietary Garmin protocol and so never really gained traction or imprint beyond those devices. Without meaning to sound too critical or supportive of BLE, I think something more open would be better for that area anyway.
themafia
> refrigeration. Samples being shipped to the lab and reagents shipped out to clinics were both temperature sensitive. Providers had to verify that these materials had stayed adequately cold throughout shipping and handling, [...] Moreover, Stevens imagined that these sensors would be in continuous communication. There's a lot of overlap between this application and personal area networks (PANs), protocols like Bluetooth
I like the low-fi solution personally:
https://www.ipack.com/warmmark-temperature-indicator-short-r...
https://www.ipack.com/coldmark-temperature-indicator-10c-50f...
IgorPartola
That will tell you if the item is spoiled, not alert you that it is on its way to being spoiled. Very different use cases and outcomes.
jjmarr
> I have at least a few readers for which the sound of a man's voice saying "government cell phone detected" will elicit a palpable reaction.
Can this be recreated as an audio clip for jumpscaring former govt employees?
quamserena
Why not just rip the audio file off? Would make for a funny DC request
Edit: On second thought this could be an OPSEC problem. Sorry but I don’t know if anyone can help you :(
themafia
If I were the president I would install this on random doors in the White House as a prank. It would be fun to watch the NSC fumble for their phone when walking into the oval.
arcanemachiner
I love this blog author's writing style. It's very engaging, and draws me into subjects I would otherwise have minimal interest in.
Definitely gonna check out some more of their posts later.
krogenx
Are there any places where a hobbyist could purchase a tag or reader?
jethro_tell
Seems doubtful as this guy has spent a lot of time wigg the this and can’t get one.
Antibabelic
Why can't the manufacturers market "smart guns" outside the US? Surely, the NRA's grip isn't world-spanning.
aloha2436
The US is the largest market for firearms, so the NRA can use the threat of boycotting a manufacturer within the states to prevent the technology gaining traction elsewhere.
Antibabelic
Aren't there manufacturers that only really target local markets that could profit from this technology, e.g. in China, ex-USSR or South America?
anonymous908213
To profit, they would first have to sell the goods. Who is actually in the market for a smart gun? Consumers aren't, surely. There is virtually no upside to your gun tracking you, at your own expense of buying a more complex piece of tech to boot. So that leaves something like (apparently) New Jersey where the government would compel purchases of smart guns because they were interested in the tracking. But eg. China simply don't allow citizens to purchase guns period. There may be some application to applying it to state-owned firearms to track military and police usage, but deploying that at Chinese scale would be an extremely expensive endeavour for what appears to be a solution in search of a problem. Not to mention the biometric lock concept, if implemented, is introducing an entire new axis of unreliability to a life-or-death tool.
xixixao
I could not locate credible evidence of a major firearm manufacturer that completely refrains from selling into the U.S. civilian market. (ChatGPT)
Glock, Koch, Taurus, even Czech Zbrojovka all sell to US.
Kalashnikov can’t atm, but also probably doesn’t share the safety concern.
numpad0
The tech just isn't there; hand-held guns don't benefit from a computerized firing system at all. So any smart feature on human sized guns and less will be totally removable addons, and that completely defeats its purpose.
Many tanks and planes do have smart guns. Electronic firing control with additional software features that impede firing are beneficial and totally fine at that scale.
xixixao
I see at least two problems with smart guns though:
1. Temper resistance is not temper impossibility 2. If a tag allows tracking, bad actors might track good actors?
atemerev
There are barely any civilian gun markets outside the US. US is really really unique in their relationship to guns.
setopt
This. There’s many countries that allow civilians firearms (e.g. Canada and much of Europe), but generally for hunting purposes and thus more likely to be rifles and shotguns than concealable handguns.
rhinoceraptor
I would imagine that any manufacturer being seen doing so, would face US consumer boycotts.
refurb
The correct answer is - all the designs so far aren’t great.
The military would love a smart gun to cut down on accidental discharges. Cops would love it to stop weapons being used against cops.
The issue is that it has to have a very high reliability (you don’t want it to fail to fire while a suspect is shooting at you). And not much point if it only works “sometimes” with unauthorized users.
skinkestek
Because it’s just a bad idea.
Most of the world doesn’t need that whole setup because:
- Our cultural baseline around firearms is completely different. Countries like Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, Austria, and the Czech Republic have plenty of guns at home - and historically, a lot of them were actual assault rifles, not “looks-spicy” semiautos.
- We treat guns like weapons. They live in safes, not nightstands, and kids get taught safety early, the same way you’d teach them not to put a fork in a power supply.
throw-qqqqq
> Countries like Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, Austria, and the Czech Republic have plenty of guns at home
None of those countries are anywhere near US levels of gun ownership. See the table here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estimated_number_of_civilian_g...
USA has 120 guns pr 100 citizens. Of the countries on your list, Finland is next with 32. Denmark has 10.
> and historically, a lot of them were actual assault rifles
Fully automatic weapons are not legal for civilians in Denmark at least.
Many semiautos are also banned. Semiauto shotguns must be restricted to hold only two shells and you need a special license even for that.
I don’t disagree with your general point, but you’re not making a good comparison IMO.
iviv
> Fully automatic weapons are not legal for civilians in Denmark at least.
Same in Finland.
atemerev
The Swiss do have a lot of guns at home. However, you cannot carry (or even transport guns that are not discharged). Just take them at a shooting range - a popular pastime for Swiss people.
tonyhart7
smart guns is future dystopian
actionfromafar
regular guns is current dystopian
tonyhart7
so knife is past dystopian????
baiac
Regular guns in the hands of the people is the opposite of dystopian.
macleginn
Any idea where the name came from?
pnut
Google says
> RuBee is an acronym for "Radio U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing",
Weirdly not related at all to Zigbee's naming origins, in spite of their technological similarity.
jadamson
RuBep? As ever, the fastest way to get a correct answer on the internet is to post an incorrect one:
> The Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers Inc., the international governing group for such technology, has designated P1901.1 as the technical designation given to the RuBee technology, which was named RuBee by Visible Assets. "There is no real reason we named it RuBee," said Mr. Stevens. "It actually was named after the song 'Ruby Tuesday.' It just sounded good."
https://theproducenews.com/print/pdf/node/1355 (PDF)
I'd assume "ZigBee" was also an inspiration.
petesergeant
> the firearms lobby is very influential on police departments, as are police unions which generally oppose technical accountability measures
A lot of what’s wrong in surprisingly few words
DeathArrow
Can someone explain how communication can take place using only magnetic fields? I thought that communication requires electro magnetic waves which require an oscillating electro magnetic field.
johncolanduoni
A changing magnetic field will always induce an electrical field and vice-versa. Even just moving a magnet with your hand will generate an electrical field. Near-field effects of an antenna still involve this interaction.
The key to the resistance of very long wavelengths of EM radiation (or equivalently, very slowly varying electric/magnetic fields) to attenuation when traveling through a metal is the nature of the way metals expel electric fields (they don’t generally block magnetic fields). When you apply a static electric field to a thin conductor, electrons will be pulled away from one side and toward the other such that the field inside is zero. However this migration of charges will actually result in the electric field on the far side of the metal being nearly the same as the field on the side closer to the source!
If the wavelength of some EM radiation is much longer than a metal obstacle is thick, the fact that the electric field is excluded from the interior of the metal won’t matter much. Even if the metal wasn’t there, the electric field strength wouldn’t vary much over that distance, and on the other side of the metal the induced charges will restore the roughly “correct” field. Since the magnetic component won’t vary much over that distance either, the fact that there’s no varying electric field inside the conductor to reinforce the magnetic field won’t significantly attenuate it.
If you’re familiar with Faraday cages, this will sound all wrong. Isn’t it long wavelengths they can block, and short wavelengths they can’t? This true when dealing with EM radiation in the “normal” radio bands and higher, but it turns out their ability to attenuate radiation falls off in the other direction too (once wavelengths get extremely long). When dealing with EM properties of materials, there are a huge number of different effects that apply in different circumstances, and it’s easy to forget one and confuse yourself.
1116574
I went into a slight hunt for more knowledge after reading this, and long story short you need to search NFMI (near field magnetic induction)[1]. As far as I can see from my limited reading the main use case of the tech is nfc (near field comm) and true wireless earbuds.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near-field_magnetic_induction_...
DeathArrow
Thanks, this will be an interesting read.
drewlesueur
I like the Univers-like font on this page.
jtvjan
i'm a little bit sad the kernel diagram background is gone
b7kich
.kk
> Long ago I wrote about ANT+, for example, a failed personal area network standard designed mostly around fitness applications.
I didn’t know ANT+ was “failed”, I use it all the time with my Garmin products. It’s cheap and it works better than Bluetooth.
I have ANT+ cadence and heart rate sensors. Lights, camera, Varia radar and power meter.
Some of that can be done with Bluetooth but realistically not all at the same time.
Anyone that’s run a smart trainer in a group with others will know that ANT+ is generally more reliable than Bluetooth too.
Apple refuse to support ANT+ so I need a dongle for my Mac and it’s the reason I don’t have an Apple Watch. No biggie.