/ciol/media/agency_attachments/c0E28gS06GM3VmrXNw5G.png)
Follow UsAparna Lal of CIOL spoke to about their 'wearable electronics' initiative, NID cards it is doing for the Indian Defence and the company's plans for India.
Infineon Technologies headquartered in Germany is a technology lifestyle solutions provider, which focuses on developing cutting edge solutions for modern day lifestyles. It has a significant market presence in India and is among the top 10 semiconductor players providing product design and development for a wide range of customers in the computing, automotive, smartcard, consumer electronics and communications industries.
About Infineon's 'Wearable Electronics' initiative
Infineon Technologies and O'Neill Europe, a leading provider of high-quality sportswear and sports gear, unveiled the result of a joint product development project. Adapted to withstand raw snowboarding environments, functions such as "mobile telephony by Bluetooth" and "MP3 player" are integrated into the sportswear. The outstanding innovation from O'Neill's 2004/05-winter collection for the technologically clued-in snowboarder is named "THE HUB".
The Infineon research team has developed voice controlled MP3 players that are directly integrated in the fabric of clothing and is packaged to withstand washing of the clothing without being damaged. The integrated components are encapsulated in robust plastic enclosures.
Woven into THE HUB snowboard jacket are electrically conductive fabric tracks, which connect the chip module to a fabric keyboard and built-in speakers in the helmet. The chip module contains a full-featured MP3 player and a Bluetooth module via which the snowboarder can control a mobile phone. If the snowboarder wants to make a phone call, the stereo system acts as the headset. The microphone is integrated in the collar of the jacket.
Recent studies by the Venture Development Corporation have predicted worldwide sales worth over 1 billion Euros for the "intelligent textile materials" market by 2007. Since presenting its technology Infineon has discussed projects with more than 200 companies from the textile industry. Clothing companies have definitely seen the vast potential and possibilities.
Infineon and IPv6
IPv6 is expected to be a key enabling technology for the next generation Internet which allows communication and computing anywhere, any time and in a secure manner. IPv6 enables a wide range of new exciting applications for business, personal, home and mobility use. We aim to be a winner in the next generation communication and computing.
About Supercomm 2004 and 21st Century Lifestyle, Infineon has been projecting
SUPERCOMM is the world's largest annual all-inclusive exhibition and conference for communication service providers and private network managers.
SUPERCOMM 2004 featured a special wireless pavilion and a number of major individual exhibitors showing wireless solutions including Wi-Fi, Wireless Broadband, Rural Telephony, Wireless Local Loop and Satellite Communications. Held in Chicago, the vibrant center of American commerce, SUPERCOMM remains the one must-attend communications marketplace for products, services, ideas and solutions.
In the past, products and applications mainly drove customer's demand. In the future the individual needs will progressively determine the new technology trends. People increasingly ask for technology solutions to live their individual lifestyle (e.g. communication, work, security, leisure time, health and mobility). Infineon aims to be the No. 1 semiconductor solutions company providing technology solutions for the 21st century lifestyle.
Java based National ID cards
NID stands for National ID card. It is easy to install Java on smart cards, but depends on the application. We are currently developing a health card for the Dept of Defence. The card includes personal information, medical history, and dependant's information of the Defence personnel. This is India's largest smart card project. It is a first time project with the Indian specification of the operating system and we are the technology providers.
We are approaching the Government through various forums like SCAFI to finalize the specs of the NID in consultation with several system integrators and card manufacturers.
Infineon is the number one in security and chip card area. We provide chips, which meet the highest security levels.
Plans for India
Our software development competence centre in Bangalore focuses on developing cutting edge technologies and plays a vital role as a Global Center of Competence for software to provide support for the business groups; Automotive and Industrial, Secured Mobile Solutions and Wireless Communications, world wide. We currently employ about 300 top of the line IT professionals. About 80% of our professionals work in software development, while the rest are in IC design and tools development.
The ID card is used in identification for voting, bank account etc. These cards are easily readable, involve less documentation, minimize fraud, speeds up the process etc.