The presence of electronic devices in automobiles has been increasing rapidly in the last few years.  Cars have evolved from being purely mechanical; consisting of an internal combusting gasoline engine, a battery, a starter, transmission, chassis and wheels, to having several electronic controllers monitoring and performing different tasks.

These days, there are areas where the different components of a car are catalogued under:

• Safety
• Carbody
• Interior
• Powertrain
• Chassis
• Infotainment

Under Safety we find devices such as airbag controllers.  Airbag controllers constantly monitor the acceleration of the vehicle through sensors located in different parts of the car.  The data received from these sensors is used to execute algorithms to determine if the car has been involved in an accident.  Furthermore, the airbag controller uses data from other sensors such as the position of the seats, the state of the seatbelts; either buckled or unbuckled, the type of passenger, among others.  For example, during a minor collision event, the algorithm will decide to deploy the front driver and passenger airbags because of the negative acceleration detected in a short period of time, however, after the controller reads the data from the occupant detection sensor, it decides to not deploy the passenger airbag because the sensor is reporting that a child is present.

One nice device under Chassis is a window controller.  This controller monitors the force of the window motor to detect if something is blocking the movement while closing.  When the controller detects that the force goes above the normal limit, it takes control of the motor and starts moving the window to the opposite direction (open).  This prevents having someone’s hand or head pinched by the window.

Under the Interior area we find the instrumentation such as the gauges that provide readings of speed, oil pressure, fuel levels, etc.  Most modern cars also come with message centers where different information about device’s status can be displayed.  Some messages centers also allow changing the language in which the messages are displayed as well as the measurement units (from miles to kilometers, for example).

There are several other devices that control some of the functionality in today’s cars such as immobilizer systems to prevent unauthorized starting of the engine, battery managers, engine management systems, tire information, anti-lock brake systems.  There is also exciting new technology under development such as devices to help avoid collisions by monitoring other vehicles under the blind spot, devices to keep the car inside a lane in the event the driver is falling asleep, etc.  Many new features will be available in the near future that will help make the roads a safer place.

Breast Cancer Detection

Breast cancer is the most common among women.  The number of affected women has been increasing, especially younger women.  There are different techniques used to detect this cancer.

Mammograms are the most common procedures used to diagnose women.  Mammography uses X-rays to take a picture of the inside of the breast.  This technique has shown to not be the most efficient in terms of accurately finding the disease, and that is why physicians recommend following with ultrasound, MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) or SPECT (Single Positron Emission Computed Tomography) studies; doing this increases significantly the chances of finding a tumor.

Research is currently being done for new ways to diagnose breast cancer.  Diffusion imaging has been used to diagnose younger women (for whom mammography normally fails more to properly diagnose tumors in comparison to older women).  Diffusion imaging uses the movement of water molecules in the region examined.  The approach is to detect the movement behavior of the molecules inside the breasts to detect tumors.  Tumors can be recognized because they work as obstacles in the movement path of the water molecules.

Movement can also be obstructed by normal bodies such as proteins, cell membranes, and other micro-bodies.  However, the effect on the movement varies for each of these obstacles, thus, inspecting the behavior of the water cell movements when an obstacle is found helps determine if the obstacle is a cancer tumor or something else.

Regular mammography studies are performed during a scheduled physician’s visit on women who reach a certain age (usually later 30’s).  Women must also regularly perform self exams at home which consist of examining the breasts by visually inspecting, touching and gently pressing them to find any anomalies or lumps.  Information on how to do these exams can be obtained from your physician or the internet (search for “breast self exam”).

MAMMOMAT Novation S machine developed by Siemens.

Impact of Software in our Lives

Software is sometimes difficult to understand for most people; software is not something you can see or touch, but it is present in many devices that we use everyday.  Some of these devices have user interfaces where we can actually interact with the software, for example, by choosing from a menu of possible inputs, pressing buttons to increase or decrease the temperature in a refrigerator, playing our favorite music CD, sending e-mail to our friends, etc.  Software is present in computers, cellular phones, kitchen appliances, traffic lights, airplanes, cars, medical devices, and any other electronic device that you can think of.

Since software controls the behavior of these devices, that we trust, and that we use to manage our everyday’s activities; it is important that software functions as it is intended.

If software does not work as expected we will encounter annoyances while using them, for example, if suddenly your phone does not work because the software stopped working correctly, you will not be able to make the calls that you need from that phone, however, most of the time, we have access to at least another phone somewhere else, so this is an inconvenience. 

There are other times when a malfunction in the software results in more than just an inconvenience; such are the faults in medical equipment, airplanes or any other devices that have a direct effect in our lives.  There have been cases when people have died because of faulty software: the software defects in the Therac-25 radiation therapy machine resulted in patient deaths in the 1980s.  In 1996, the European Space Agency's prototype Ariane 5 rocket was destroyed less than a minute after launch, as a result of a software fault.

Because of this it is really important to make sure the software functions as it was designed to.  Doing this is most times difficult because it involves extensive testing and development coordination, however, software has been the topic of wide research and discussion by both the public and private sectors, and there are currently processes in place to guide a team in the development of software.

It is a good idea to consult an expert if you are involved in writing software but are not experienced in the processes.  There are plenty of resources and companies that specialize in providing assistance, consult with them before moving forward.