The Consumer Electronics Association looked in-house for two industry standards programs that it is promoting via its CESpec operation at the 2014 International CES.
The Driver Device Interface Working Group currently has 29 company members. It is working on guidelines “to develop industry standards and/or best practices for designing CE products to help maximize driver safety while in the car” AKA “distracted driver.” The goal of the group is to finalize a practice to be called “Guidelines for Reducing Visual-Manual Driver Distraction During Interactions With Portable or Handheld Electronic Devices.”
Working group Chairman James Tranchina, vice president of engineering at Voxx International, said, “I am thrilled that our efforts to address driver distraction have been selected for the CESpec program … The work we’re doing is important to all drivers and featuring it at the largest annual tradeshow in the U.S. will help us get the word out.”
While the connected car and all its connected parts are seen as an area of future growth, the current connection of everything via the Internet, the so-called “Internet of Everything,” is currently happening right now. This year’s International CES is thriving upon it.
And as seemingly every electronic device being manufactured or on the drawing board is to be connected to the Internet, there needs to be a way to address that device and for that device to speak with other devices. Several years ago it was acknowledged that the then contemporary Internet addressing system, IPv4, was ultimately limited in the number of addresses so a larger system was proposed, IPv6.
But making IPv6 happen isn’t as simple as flipping a switch. Getting manufacturers and service providers at all levels onto the same page is the goal of the IPv6 Working Group, co-chaired by Hans Liu, director of software architecture, D-Link Systems and Dan Torbet, director of system engineering, ARRIS.
IPv6 is a work in progress. Liu said, “Our goal is to help speed this transition by providing guidance to consumer equipment manufacturers to ensure their products make maximum use of IPv6.” Torbet added, “The more IPv6 capability is implemented in consumer products, the more efficiently Internet service can be delivered to consumers.”
Projects picked for CESpec are expected to be completed in time for roll-outs at the next International CES.
