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Consumer Electronics (consumer + electronics)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Information Science and Computing	27%
Polymers and Materials Science	18%

Selected Abstracts

Field Reliability Prediction in Consumer Electronics Using Warranty Data

QUALITY AND RELIABILITY ENGINEERING INTERNATIONAL, Issue 4 2007
Roxana A. Ion
Abstract In innovative fast product development processes, such as consumer electronics, it is necessary to check as quickly as possible, using field data, whether the product reliability is at the right level. In consumer electronics, some major companies use the Warranty Call Rate (WCR) for this purpose. This paper discusses extensively the theoretical and practical drawbacks of the WCR. Subsequently, it is demonstrated, using a Weibull failure distribution, that only a few months after product launch, say three months, the warranty data offer the opportunity to estimate the parameters of the failure distribution. Of course, this requires that the warranty data are available in the quality department. Unfortunately, for some companies the field feedback information process from the repair centres to the quality department causes a delay of several months. These companies have to speed up their field feedback information process before they can fully take advantage of the proposed estimation procedure. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

The challenge of hazardous waste management in a sustainable environment: insights from electronic recovery laws

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2005
J. Halluite
Abstract New and pending regulations requiring product take-back by manufacturers at the time of disposal are intended to create a new era of industrial ecology and environmental sustainability. However, the intended benefits of the current legislation can be confounded by obsolescence in product design based upon advances in science and technology and also by the introduction of more environmentally benign product designs. Recent changes in legislation are identified and, based upon an extensive industry survey, their resultant likely impacts on consumer electronics are considered. This industry study illustrates that unless the impacted products simultaneously possess both stable designs and input requirements then significant secondary environmental issues related to the waste storage will be encountered. Inherently, these issues cause serious societal problems when hazardous substances are involved , which is the case with many products from the electronics industry. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source]

Foldable Printed Circuit Boards on Paper Substrates

ADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS, Issue 1 2010
Adam C. Siegel
Abstract This paper describes several low-cost methods for fabricating flexible electronic circuits on paper. The circuits comprise i) metallic wires (e.g., tin or zinc) that are deposited on the substrate by evaporation, sputtering, or airbrushing, and ii) discrete surface-mountable electronic components that are fastened with conductive adhesive directly to the wires. These electronic circuits,like conventional printed circuit boards,can be produced with electronic components that connect on both sides of the substrate. Unlike printed circuit boards made from fiberglass, ceramics, or polyimides, however, paper can be folded and creased (repeatedly), shaped to form three-dimensional structures, trimmed using scissors, used to wick fluids (e.g., for microfluidic applications) and disposed of by incineration. Paper-based electronic circuits are thin and lightweight; they should be useful for applications in consumer electronics and packaging, for disposable systems for uses in the military and homeland security, for applications in medical sensing or low-cost portable diagnostics, for paper-based microelectromechanical systems, and for applications involving textiles. [source]

AAA architecture for mobile IPv6 based on WLAN

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NETWORK MANAGEMENT, Issue 5 2004
R. C. Wang
Mobility support for Internet devices is quite important for consumer electronics. The number of the hand-held devices is growing quickly. However, there are not enough IP addresses for the number of the rapidly growing devices in the All-IP generation. Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) was therefore adopted to solve these problems. Our purposed structure is based on IEEE 802.11. However, IEEE 802.11 has a serious security drawback. Further, from the Internet Service Providers' point of view, accounting is a potential problem. A mechanism combining Mobile IPv6 and AAA based on IEEE 802.11 to overcome these problems is essential. Both Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) and IPv6 support IP security (IPsec) when data packets are exchanged across the IP network. IPsec operates at the IP layer. It can support system authentication and authorization, However, it lacks a system accounting function. Therefore ISPs cannot establish correct billing for their services. This is the reason why we chose to combine the wireless network and AAA functions. In this paper, the AAA mechanism is used to protect security, with the architecture having authentication, authorization, and accounting functions. We will discuss the benefits of AAA and state the reason why we choose to combine AAA with the mobility architecture.,Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

The effect of respondents' nationality and familiarity with a product category on the importance of product attributes in consumer choice: Globalization and the evaluation of domestic and foreign products

JAPANESE PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH, Issue 4 2001
Emmanuel Chéron
This study compared the perceptions of 376 Japanese and 191 Canadian consumers concerning the importance of different product attributes for categories of products at various stages of globalization. There was less multivariate statistical difference between the two countries for those products at a more advanced stage of globalization (consumer electronics and clothing vs. food). The joint effects of the degree of familiarity with the category of product and the country of the respondent on the importance of the product attributes were tested. The effect of familiarity was found to result in a significant statistical multivariate difference for the clothing category only. The observed statistical power of the effect of country of respondent confirmed that more statistical difference was apparent for the least globalized product. No multivariate significant statistical interaction was found between familiarity and country of respondent. Using a multi-attribute model, the evaluation of the three categories of product was computed for seven different countries of manufacture. Comparison of the total scores of each country for each product category for the Japanese and the Canadian samples confirmed that the most globalized product showed least difference in its evaluation between countries of manufacture. A well-known strong bias toward domestic products was, however, observed in both samples. [source]

Standardization of Network Technologies: Market Processes or the Result of Inter-Firm Co-operation?

JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC SURVEYS, Issue 4 2001
Bertrand Quélin
As recent studies on the evolution of a technology indicate, the role of a standard, or dominant design, is highly significant in a number of contemporary industries such as computer, telecommunications and consumer electronics. Following Katz' and Shapiro's pioneering works (1985), our paper rationally evaluates the concepts and results developed over the past ten years in this field. It is grounded on a typology of two types of models: the first is based on users' anticipatory behaviour, and the second, on the collaborative behaviour of existing firms. The article initially discusses the specificity of network technologies, then analyses market standardisation models, and finally, studies the different actors models. Our conclusion builds upon existing works in network technologies. We next propose a research agenda [source]

Perceived technology clusters and ownership of related technologies: The case of consumer electronics

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Issue 2 2009
Frank J. Van Rijnsoever
We contribute to the understanding of how technologies may be perceived to be part of technology clusters. The value added of the paper is both at a theoretical and an empirical level. We add to the theoretical understanding of technology clusters by distinguishing between clusters in perceptions and clusters in ownership, and by proposing a mechanism to explain the existence of clusters. Our empirical analysis combines qualitative and quantitative methods to investigate clusters of consumer electronics for a sample of Dutch consumers. We find that perceived clusters in consumer electronics are mostly determined by functional linkages, and that perceived technology clusters are good predictors of ownership clusters, but only for less widely diffused products. [source]

Biomaterials-based organic electronic devices

POLYMER INTERNATIONAL, Issue 5 2010
Christopher J Bettinger
Abstract Organic electronic devices have demonstrated tremendous versatility in a wide range of applications including consumer electronics, photovoltaics and biotechnology. The traditional interface of organic electronics with biology, biotechnology and medicine occurs in the general field of sensing biological phenomena. For example, the fabrication of hybrid electronic structures using both organic semiconductors and bioactive molecules has led to enhancements in the sensitivity and specificity within biosensing platforms, which in turn has a potentially wide range of clinical applications. However, the interface of biomolecules and organic semiconductors has also recently explored the potential use of natural and synthetic biomaterials as structural components of electronic devices. The fabrication of electronically active systems using biomaterials-based components has the potential to produce a large set of unique devices including environmentally biodegradable systems and bioresorbable temporary medical devices. This article reviews recent advances in the implementation of biomaterials as structural components in organic electronic devices with a focus on potential applications in biotechnology and medicine. Copyright © 2010 Society of Chemical Industry [source]

Field Reliability Prediction in Consumer Electronics Using Warranty Data

Towards a more systematic analysis of uncertain user,product interactions in product development: an enhanced user,product interaction framework

QUALITY AND RELIABILITY ENGINEERING INTERNATIONAL, Issue 1 2007
Yuan Lu
Abstract For highly innovative products the actual product use is often very uncertain. However, the uncertainty/variability in product use and its impact on product reliability has rarely been explored. The mismatch between the anticipated product use and the actual product use can lead to considerable unexpected technical and non-technical reliability risks. However, traditional reliability management techniques focus primarily on managing technical reliability risks. This situation results in an increasing amount of no-fault-found or fault-not-found reports in the highly innovative consumer electronics (CE) industry. Under the time-to-market pressure, it is increasingly important to take into consideration the significant factors that determine product use in the early product development process. In the Software Reliability Engineering (SRE) framework, a top-down approach (operational profile) is used to analyse the product use. However, an operational profile cannot be directly applied to analyse product use for CE products due to the differences between the reliability of software products and that of CE products. This paper proposes an enhanced framework to structurally analyse unexpected user,product interactions for highly innovative CE products. In this framework, the product, user and environmental conditions are used to analyse user,product interactions. This framework has been implemented to analyse user,product interactions by using data from a consumer test of a highly innovative CE product. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]