RIMM's LEGO Machines Test Blackberry

LEGO - my - Crackberry writes "Matthias Wandel is an engineer at Research in Motion (RIMM), the company that makes the Blackberry. What did RIMM turn to for testing the antenna reception of one of its 900MHz devices? LEGO machines. Specifically a device made of LEGO that could rotate a Blackberry about its horizontal & vertical axis in a pre-defined pattern."

The guy's a very busy genius

[Anonymous Coward]

Check out his site. He's been building amazing stuff for years. I first stumbled on it when I was researching spud guns. He even made his own pipe organ.

RIM

[Anonymous Coward]

I figure if you're going to write an article about RIM's activities, you had best get the name right. It is 'RIM', not 'RIMM'. Both the /. article, and TFA have it wrong....

I am astounded!

anon

Re:Surprised?

[Anonymous Coward]

Isn't it ironic that the same people who are so critical of a senator talking about "the internets" seem to be the same people who talk about "Legos".

Although strictly speaking, I think the trademark is LEGO i.e. all capitals.

Re:Time to start troll-modding use of "Legos"?

[Aladrin]

Or maybe we could just follow the guidelines of modpoints and use the for positive stuff most of the time, and negative stuff sparingly.

The real trolls are the ones who bother to get upset when they are called 'legos'. First, it doesn't matter. Second, it's still mainly a kid's toy, and kids call them legos. Third... We all grew up calling them legos before we learned to be grammar nazis. And finally... It's pointless to try to get people to stop when they KNOW it simply doesn't matter even a tiny bit.

And how are you helping the situation by adding in 'mod down the legos sayers' before the flamewar has even started. Isn't that just more pointless noise?

Here's an old tip for you, and everyone else: DO NOT FEED THE TROLLS.

Re:RIM

[kokaneek]

RIMM is their stock market symbol, so it is a valid name to call them by in my books.

Re:Surprised?

[markov_chain]

There is a project at UCLA to test multiple-in, multiple-out (MIMO) performance of 802.11n. They use Lego robots to adjust antenna spacing. Pretty cool stuff. Link to paper: pdf [ucla.edu].

(I'm not affiliated, just ran into that project while browsing)

Probably Avoids Interference Too

[Arguendo]

I'd bet one big advantage of Lego is that it helps avoid any RF interference caused by metallic structures. That's a big deal if your goal is to test the strength/efficiency/pattern of the radiation. In fact that may have been what gave him the idea to begin with.