What is UX (User Experience)?
According to ISO 9241-210, user experience is defined as "a person's perceptions and responses that result from the use or anticipated use of a product, system or service". User experience includes all the users' emotions, beliefs, preferences, perceptions, physical and psychological responses, behaviors and accomplishments that occur before, during and after use.
To verify that TV RF signals could function well anyplace and anywhere, TV related companies frequently conduct field tests over the world, equipped with their own products and equipment by consuming much time and money. Aiming to help partners resolve difficulties of field test, the engineering service expert, Allion Labs started to consolidate and update streaming data periodically over the world several years ago. Upon customer’s requests and test requirements, Allion Labs team members would record TV signals in different kinds of environments or several countries and send the purchased TV products back from locals. The collected signal data can help customers test timely signals, process product verification, detect errors, and save time and cost.
Before every single field test trip, Allion labs team members do put much efforts into the preparation, such as map, GPS setting, route plan, and the working places for recording and so on. Allion Labs perfectly understands the signal integrity and its effectiveness will vary with venues and environments surrounded by buildings. Signal noise interference usually occurs in a big city and strong signal is always being detected closer to TV signal towers. Signal inconsistence could be easily found in the suburbs. Besides, concerning a variety of recording places and a full-ranged TV streaming data, Allion Labs would conduct indoor cable TV recording through cooperating with local contact windows. It takes at least one month to arrange, discuss and simulate tests to make a trip happen.
Real challenges always come after the departure, particularly for those unfamiliar countries. Passing through the customs is the first challenge. In some developing countries, the customs would be picky or extort our members intentionally. Occasionally, it took certain tax fee to allow testing equipment brought in those countries. During the field test, it’s easy to encounter interrogation by the police due the specialty of equipment. In addition, recording equipment requires lots of power to function. To purchase bulky power suppliers or the batteries is a normal case. Meanwhile, for comparing test results, our team members have to deliver TV products with local specifications back to Allion Labs for customer reference. Time limitation, language barriers, transportation arrangement, and product selection will affect the schedule. A field test trip seems more difficult comparing with the convenience of Taiwan or the developed countries.
We always do the best to plan a trip, and understand the local situation and culture. Under any unfamiliar condition, emergency makes our members out of blue. Asians are sometimes the targets for bandits or gangsters. A field test is full of tasks and challenges.
Illustration One：Terrestrials of Global Digital TV Signals
Allion Labs would analysis and review the integrity of data, classify patterns and parameters in sequence, and do the filing. TV signals will vary by time and next generation techniques will be born anytime. For instance, for embracing the coming of 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil and stimulating buying power of TV products with 4K signals, Japanese government is said to implant 4K TV signal step by step, starting from satellite, and then widely spread in digital broadcast. It is expected to broadcast real-time FIFA World Cup Brazil. For assuring the product specifications to fill in the physical environments, 4k related developers need to synchronize TV signal without time difference.
A full range of TV streaming data is part of Allion Labs assets and services which we will keep update for customers on regular basis. The data has incorporated signals of North America, Middle and South America, Europe, Japan and China; meanwhile, Allion Labs is also expanding signal territories of the other countries. Our own central signal generator conducts simulating and testing signals for TV manufacturers. The generator is able to send global broadcast signals, standard analog and digital images, in order to simulate the function of tested products in specific environments. The collected signals in Allion Lab are: DVB-T2/DVB-T/DVB-C, ATSC/SCTE, ISDB-T, DTMB- NTSC, SECAM, PAL, PAL/SECAM, ATSC-MH and CMMB. In our signal testing lab, Allion Labs could proceed different local tests on products, and simulate user scenarios.
As a professional of engineering validation and consulting, Allion Labs can provide the complete global streaming data, and conduct any random test of stability, compatibility and energy management of smart TV and Energy Star America Plan. In addition, Allion Labs’ one-stop testing and validation services can save time and money for each customer. We could provide scenario stimulation based on User Experience (UX) and offer competitive analysis. Based on these, customers are able to improve quality platforms, enhance product usability and get Allion Labs’ best support in each development stage.
Alliance for Wireless Power (A4WP) has launched its certification mechanism,“Rezence”, the official brand of wireless power technology in CES 2014. Apart from overcoming the first generation material and distance limitation issues, the optimized magnetic resonant techniques of Rezence empower multiple devices to charge simultaneously within a wider and longer charging distance and also provide more flexibility to increase wireless power scenarios. However, A4WP and PMA (Power Matters Alliance) signed a cooperating memorandum, together working on the development of two charging modes. The news is undoubtedly a bombshell for WPC (Wireless Power Consortium) who has comparative advantage of membership and product numbers in the wireless power market. To get more details of developments of the three dominating wireless power alliances, please refer to the link of Allion Labs technical trend, “Wireless Charging Powers Up Unlimited Future.”
An intensively competitive era comes along with the three dominant competitors arise. Technical theories of the three wireless alliances are originally different. Incompatibility among alliances and products perplexes and limits the consumer market. As to the wireless industry, the issue impedes the developments of both magnetic induction and magnetic resonance; it may lead wireless charging standards into a hydra-headed situation.
The current trend indicates that WPC has the most members and smoothly pushes the schedule to the market. Besides, WPC is undertaking the standards for wireless charging, striding into the potential magnetic induction and magnetic resonance futures. Its aggressive movement inevitably threatens A4WP, the magnetic resonance advocate and PMA, supporting magnetic induction individually. The threat indirectly created the cooperation opportunity between A4WP and PMA, accelerating the technology incompatibility and trying to balance the situation dominated by WPC.
It’s worth mentioning that the standards for wireless charging “Qi,” promoted by WPC, has its limitations of distance, below-5W charging, frequency overlapping with some other applications, easy to interfere with, and the inefficiency and the instability of the whole operation process (Upon this issue, Allion Labs has evaluated the performance of WPC wireless chargers, please refer to the complete report link: The New Era of Unlimited Battery Charging Technology: Allion Wired & Wireless Charging Test & Evaluation Report). On the contrary, through alliances, A4WP and PMA have turned to high frequency channels, taken advantage of Bluetooth 4.0 and Near Field Communication (NFC) techniques, and contributed to the development of multi-mode. In particular, A4WP is the first regulator of magnetic resonance, initiating the standards for wireless charging “Rezence’ while PMA provides the indoor convenience for the users in Starbucks and McDonald’s by widely installing the wireless charging pads. In other words, two alliances take the lead in wireless charging for the end-user market. Based on optimized compatibility of interaction and simplified techniques, A4WP and PMA signed up the preliminary cooperating agreement to create a win-win situation for the industry.
The collaboration agreement indicates:
- PMA will adopt “Rezence,” A4WP’s technique of magnetic resonance to the transmitter and receiver no matter if they are single mode or multi-modes.
- A4WP will adopt the standards for magnetic induction, simultaneously support multiple modes on magnetic inductive and resonant charging.
- A4WP and PMA aim to manage the whole wireless charging service by co-working on research and development of open network API.
Consequently, A4WP and PMA will share the charging techniques of magnetic induction and magnetic resonance with each other. User scenarios of magnetic resonance applications include long-distance charging, for example, electronic car charging, while magnetic induction can backup portable devices, such as the most common devices or car devices.
None the less, the corporation of two parties may not guarantee uniform techniques and standard specifications. To some extent, the techniques of magnetic induction differentiate from that of magnetic resonance. The frequency issue is the first consideration. A4WP operates on high frequency channel, 6.78 MHz and plans to establish 13.56 MHz multiple frequency. The frequency channel used by PMA is from 200 to 400 kHz. It is obviously difficult to converge the two different frequency channels. Secondly, the principle of magnetic resonance applied by A4WP should work at certain distance; however, the practical and the longest distance is 10 cm which is no significant differentiation from the magnetic induction. The technology still remains to be seen.
The reputation and capability of testing and validation solutions prompted Allion Labs to be invited by A4WP to the plugfest event. Through the event, Allion Labs provided critical issues by exchanging different point of views with A4WP and participating companies. These issues are not only helpful information but potential risks for the developers. Any protection mechanism for safety issues, for instance, extra object detecting, temperature and weight should be taken into consideration. Since A4WP intends to manage power with the combination of the advanced technology of magnetic resonant charging and Bluetooth, it is expected to open a new page in the future. When several portable devices are charging in the same area, the portable devices could connect the transmitter of the charger through Bluetooth. Once one device is full-charged, the transmitter could stop power supply through Bluetooth and distribute power for the other devices. This way could upgrade power management efficiency of TX.
It seems like the right time for A4WP to promote its standards for wireless charging, “Rezence.” As we know, communication protocol issues exist between Rezence and Bluetooth connections. Developers might seek assistances to improve its quality and efficiency from a professional certification lab in the future. Concerning WPC, except for its Europe and America market, WPC has a possibility to win the ticket in Asia due to the favors of Japanese companies. A4WP should be aware of the changeable market. As an expert of wireless charging testing and authorized Bluetooth Qualification Test Facility (BQTF), Allion Labs will keep focusing on the market dynamics and the latest related news.
Another CES has come and gone and, undeniably, wearable technology, in the form of a variety of smart bands, smart watches and even smart glasses, will be absolutely the major focus of CES 2014. Functionally, wearable technology that doesn’t fall into categories, such as smartphone and smart TV with the emphases of software and hardware innovation, is talking about the applications of our daily lives and consumer markets including healthcare and fitness. Wearable technology, started in 2013, is an exploding product category, which we can find whether IT brands or sports brands have announced as the mainstream consumer products in 2014. According to the report from IMS Research (as shown below), 14 million wearable devices were estimated to have been shipped in 2011 with almost $2 billion in revenue. However, the market size and the share are projected to seem significantly different by 2016, when 171 million devices will be shipped to achieve up to $6 billion in revenue.
The applications of wearable technology, related to wireless transmission Bluetooth, data processing and detector sensor, have developed to collect, record and manage the data of user’s breathing, heartbeat, pulse, temperature, blood pressure and other physiological responses, sending to his/her smartphone or cloud service afterwards. Thus, Bluetooth technology especially for Bluetooth 4.0 which is famous for low power consumption and able to run streaming data in the low-energy mode for a long period of time, making Bluetooth 4.0 perfect for wearable technology. To ensure the quality of Bluetooth, the relevant certification process has become the critical issue. As the BQTF (Bluetooth Qualification Test Facility) accredited by Bluetooth SIG, Allion is going to provide the vendors with further assistances in conducting certification process, executing interoperability testing, making debugging analysis and providing real-time consultation service.
With the market saturation of smartphone, wearable devices are expected to hit different market without cutting-edge production technology and cost, and to meet the requirement of user experience and user scenario. We can say that CES 2014 could be also called “The wearable technology show” where many IT brands and sports brands including Sony, LG, Nike and Adidas have launched their own wearable devices.
The Smart Band, launched by Sony Mobile, comes in rubber material with the core to connect with the smartphone and tablet PC apps via Bluetooth. The follows of Smart Band could be the life-tracking of heart rate, pedometer and even for marathon. As shown above, Smart Band incorporates with a removable core which is capable of tracking your motion anywhere. Because Smart Band has no built-in display screen, the control and the interaction of smartphone becomes extremely important when users receive calls, messages and listen to the music.
LG’s Lifeband Touch is also a fitness tracker with built-in OLED touch screen by using Bluetooth to connect with smartphone to keep track of time, heart rate and related fitness records. Like Sony’s Smart Band, Lifeband Touch offers the basic features, including incoming call notifications, music playback and so on. In particular, LG’s innovative HRM (Heart Rate Monitor) earphones are not only for listening, but also feature PerformTek sensor technology which can more accurate measure blood flow signals, metabolic rate and maximum oxygen consumption (VO2 max) rate.
Because wearable technology is on the verge of becoming a multi-billion dollar industry; in addition to the IT industry, the global sports brands such as Nike and Adidas also announce the debuts of their own wearable devices. Overall, their market and functional positioning is more oriented toward fitness monitoring system, focusing simply on daily activity tracking and training strategy for the active runner who wants to track and record specific workouts. It’s worth noting that the future intelligent clothing called “Smart Textiles” will be embedded digital components with small computers or detector sensors to track more precise physiological coverage of the whole body; meanwhile, user can completely control the real-time physiological and physical activities.
Wearable technology is going to be a buzzword into the market inevitably. Allion has been keeping up with the times and showed concerns about the trend and development of smart watch (please refer to our competitive analysis test report, “New Friend on Wrist: Smart Watch Test Report”). Our insight is that the certification and validation processes of wearable technology are very essential to ensure its software and hardware integration and interoperability. Different from the past user scenario of IT industry, the vendors have to consider how to integrate the user experience with wearable device so that wearable technology could be a Cyborg with both organic and mechanical parts of human beings.
