Technology

BOB O'DEA
Motorola Fellow

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"Connecting the physical world to the Internet will enable billions of things to collaborate and simplify our lives."

Making the world more intelligent
Dr. Bob O'Dea wants to make our world smarter. Seeing the physical world as a new frontier for wireless communications, he is enabling innumerable objects to communicate and collaborate with one another. His vision involves an automated world where machines, sensors and controllers help users manage many activities while also introducing new meaning to interactions with their environments. At Motorola, Bob leads a research team that is inventing new wireless platforms that address the unique requirements of the sensing and control environment. From minimizing device power consumption to establishing global standards to enabling networks that can morph in response to change, Bob is intent on connecting Motorola's communication technologies to the physical world.

Extending the Internet: Wireless is the enabler
The past decade will be remembered as the early age of the Internet. Millions of computers became linked together, enabling near-instant access to information and people throughout the globe. Bob believes technology is now on the verge of the next revolution — the extension of the Internet to the physical world. He sees a future where billions of devices attached to machines, objects and even living things will seamlessly connect to one another and the Internet. The resulting explosion in information, control and collaborative activity will likely bring new meaning to the phrase "connected world." Bob predicts that wireless technology will be a significant enabler in realizing this new era by providing connectivity to those devices and advancing seamless mobility.

Imagine machines talking to machines to build a product, vehicles talking to each other and roadside infrastructure to improve transportation and safety, sensors coordinating environments to adapt to user presence, and price tags talking to user credit cards in order to streamline store checkout processes-these visionary technologies are what the "X-Internet" aims to deliver. At Motorola, Bob has demonstrated many of these capabilities, which will then be tested in real-world trials. "As an example, within our neuRFon™ System we applied innovative ad hoc network protocols, self-locating algorithms and web-based user interfaces to provide workflow improvements on an assembly line, as well as optimized inventory management," says Bob.

What does Bob's work at Motorola mean?
It means people and industry will soon benefit from a new age of sensing and control. Users will no longer worry about managing overwhelming quantities of information; they will have seamless access to the information and control they care about the most. "Feeling secure, having your environment adapt to you, reducing personal time spent in queues and experiencing higher-quality products that minimize the need for human intervention — that's what seamless mobility will bring."

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Selected publications and Invited Papers

"Relative Location Estimation in Wireless Sensor Networks," Patwari N., Hero, A., Perkins, M., Correal, N., O'Dea, R., IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing in Networks, vol. 51, no. 8, August 2003, pp. 2137-2148.

"A Low-Cost Receiver Design for DSSS Location Systems", Shi, Q., O'Dea, R., Proceedings of the 2002 International Conference on Communications, Circuits, and Systems and West Sino Exposition, Chengdu, China, June 29-July 1, 2002.

"Energy Efficient System Design with Optimum Transmission Range for Wireless Ad Hoc Networks, Chen, P., O'Dea, B., Callaway, E., Proceedings of the 2002 IEEE International Conference on Communications, New York, April 28–May 2, 2002, vol. 2, pp. 945-952.

"Optimum Root Placement in a Multiple-Hop Wireless Network", Lee, H., Lee, C-C., Hester, L., O'Dea, R., Proceedings of the 2002 IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference, Orlando, Florida, March 17-21, 2002, vol. 2, pp. 819-824.

Related download

White Paper: X-Internet — Connecting the Physical World with the Cyber World (11 page PDF; 344 KB)