In the era of instant information and music streaming, Radio is still one of the strongest communication channels to date. It’s interesting to note that this year, we celebrate the 120th anniversary of the first transoceanic radio transmission. Guglielmo Marconi, who is often credited as the inventor of Radio, created what he called “the wireless telegraph” while living in his parents’ attic back in 1895. The patency was hugely debated over the ’40s against Nikola Tesla. 

During its inception, radio technology was limited to communication with ships in case of an emergency. However, a lot of things have changed since then. New technology has made Radio more of a social channel to draw the audience closer than ever. Today, people listen to the Radio on the internet (learn more here), the radio-twitter and radio-TikTok binomial is quite strong and increasing by the minute. Below is an overview of the timeline of Radio;

BEFORE 1920

The evolution of the Radio is a fascinating one that changed how the world connects and communicates. Before the 1920s, communication via Radio was not so clear; hence the operators depended on the use of Morse code messages. This was essential and quite useful in contacting ships that were out at sea.

WORLD WAR I

With World War I, the importance of Radio became apparent. The military exclusively used it for operations, and it became an invaluable tool for sending and receiving messages. Following the war, civilians began to purchase radios for private use. Radio became a source of entertainment, and gathering in front of the Radio was a common occurrence. Across the U.S and Europe, several small stations began transmitting using technologies that had been developed during the war. The technology needed a radio transmitter and receiver that was relatively simple to make. Some amateur households began making their own home-built radio receivers, which caused a huge problem to manufacturers who were already selling pre-made units.

WORLD WAR II

During World War II, the way Radio was used changed the world. With the help of journalists, Radio relayed news of the war to the public. The government also used Radio as a rallying source to gain public support for the war. After the war, radio stations began to focus more on playing the music of the time. Music and Radio continued to grow until the two became synonymous with one another. FM radio stations began to overtake the AM stations as new genres of music began to emerge.

THE PRESENT

To date, Radio has greatly transformed society. It’s hard to come around anyone who has not used or seen a radio during his or her life. Radio has become this huge technological device that has helped provide entertainment as well as communication throughout different cultures. Although early network programming focused mainly on music, it soon developed to include other programs such as talk shows. Today, traditional Radio has become a thing of the past giving birth to an entire field of electronics. The Radio has become a common household fixture and continues to steadily evolve to keep up with the current technology. Wireless technology made what Radio is today. Short-range and handheld types of radios are widespread in the market for improved communication.

User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) have come along a long way in all embedded devices. But despite all the advancements in technology and hardware, specific challenges arise when creating medical device UI. Small errors, while interacting with the UI of devices like kiosks, vending machines, or smart fridge screens can be neglected or used in other ways. 

However, when interacting with a medical device, say an infusion pump, there is no room even for the smallest or the most marginal error. 

Common design mistakes in medical devices can include dim screens leading to an inaccurate reading of medicinal data, small figures and decimal points, not perfectly sized keys for keyboard punches, etc. Hence, designing the perfect UI for medical devices requires countless hit and error trials, test runs, prototypes, and more to make that one medical device UI that actually works. 

Medical device UI is more of customer safety than customer experience. Hence, here are a few tips to create the best medical device UI: – 

Keep your audience in view

The medical world reaches far beyond expert doctors and trained professionals. Your medical devices will come in contact with caretakers, training nurses, and maybe even the patient itself. Hence, while creating the UI, you need to have your audience in perspective. 

Consider if the device user will be a trained person or a caretaker with minimal training and what amount of calls of action, they will require to achieve the most accurate result with the device. It is essential to see if the medical device will be used in specialized areas like an MRI room or operating theater, or if it will be used in the clinic of a general practitioner. 

If your audience is likely to have more untrained people, make the design intuitive to follow. Also, ask specialized doctors what features will be highly necessary to include in the medical device UI. 

Seamless communication with developers and consumers

Now that you have an idea of what your audience requires, it is time to implement it into the medical device’s design. Yet, your ongoing project might need several modifications, alterations, and other amendments that will continue to arise. Hence, you need to have open communication channels with your developing team, engineers, and others who thought behind the UI design. 

Maintaining interactions with your consumer end is equally important, too. As the receiving end might deem fit several alternatives while will enhance the User Experience, you should have several open channels that allow easy conversations between your developer and the consumer market. A balance in between the prototype created by engineers infused with the features that the consumers require will ultimately be the best medical device UI ever.

Crank Software’s Storyboard allows you to make ample use of both these tips and create your medical device UI accordingly. The software’s development and design teams work separately on the same code base and are always available for discussions and iterations. As you go through your audience and create a design, you can easily import it from Photoshop and animate objects for user experience. The intuitiveness of a medical device UI is their specialty. 

Screen density and usage

The layout of medical devices requires enough screen space to help the users distinguish the information shown on the screen and take prompt actions. A densely packed screen with a lot of information can add to a break in the set of events and require the users to spend a lot of time getting used to the screen. 

A clustered screen can be made more user-friendly by reducing the amount of information displayed and reducing text density by making lines more straightforward and shorter. Secondary data can always be displayed on demand if needed, and the size of logos can be decreased. 

Text alignment

Most developers go for Middle-aligned text, which might look neat and appealing if in small quantities. But, if there is a page full of information and lines, the text needs to be left-aligned, so there is a better sense of lines ending and starting. 

Remember that UI in medical devices needs to be more inclined towards ease of use rather than prettiness. Hence, the developers should lay the objects in a grid rather than irregular screens irrespective of however pretty they look. 

Color schemes and contrast

Bright screens with enough light to help read text easily are always the best choice for screens. The UI can have options to change screen brightness. The colors displayed for on-screen icons should not be distributed on a vast spectrum. 

A general color scheme with not too bright and easily distinguishable colors are the best pick. It will be better if the text color sharply contrasts with the background so that the user can easily read it. 

Fonts and Icons

When choosing the fonts for the medical device UI, it is beneficial if the font is small enough not to clog up the screen and let display more options, but not so little that the user faces difficulty in reading the text. Fancy, cursive fonts are a big no for medical devices. Easy to read fonts that are publicly considered appealing should be the top pic. 

Icons for the display need not be too showy, but again, they should be informative enough. A standard color scheme for background and icons can help harmonize the whole screen and make the user experience more comfortable. 

Conclusion

Advanced medical device UI can help eliminate numerous errors and increase user-end quality. These few tips can help you host a plethora of medical devices with the utmost excellent UI designs. 

Imagine catching up on the long-pending tasks of the month with a vanilla latte in your favorite coffee shop. What an amazing feeling of ease? Right? But you may not realize the presence of a scoundrel on that public Wi-Fi with their jaws open to snap at any given opportunity of lurking around you while you balance your account. We all have been warned of the threats on public Wi-Fi as we use it for sensitive purposes. Nevertheless, what exactly are those risks, one should be mindful of? 

Risks of Public Wi-Fi: 

Public Wi-Fi is a great convenience that keeps you connected to the online world at no monetary cost. It also enables you to do little tasks effectively like calling an Uber or sharing your location with some friends etc. However, utilizing the same to share sensitive information or to access your bank account online can prove to be quite perilous.

Unencrypted Networks

We all have a fair idea of what encryption means. It is nothing new and has rather been around for a long time now. Previously important messages were encrypted in such a way that only the receiver and sender could decrypt it. The same technique is being integrated into our new, technologically advanced systems whether it is a router or computer. 

The information sent from your machine to the router is typically encoded so that no one can eavesdrop. Most of the routers are shipped with their encryption switched off. An ordinary technical assistant would have no idea about the encryption mode; however, an IT professional would. If an IT professional sets the network there are fair chances that they enable encryption mode. Otherwise, may God help you! 

Now all the internet service providers themselves are stressing over the importance of security and are offering their own security suites to facilitate the customers. They also offer an end-to-end encryption feature in order to ensure security. I found out about the Internet service provider’s security features in the quest for an effective ISP. All the ISPs such as Spectrum internet itself are going the extra mile to deliver a secure and protected network environment to their clients by offering their secure public Wi-Fi hotspots.

MitM (Man-in-the-Middle) Attacks

The most common threat discovered on the public hotspots is of Man-in-the-Middle attacks. If I define man-in-the-middle in layman language, I would say it is technical eavesdropping to gain a peek into someone’s data or online conversations. When a computer or mobile phone makes a connection with public Wi-Fi and transfers data from one end to another, the vulnerabilities of public Wi-Fi are exploited to sneak into the transmission. Therefore, what we consider private may not remain as private or confidential on public Wi-Fi. 

Malware and virus distribution

A software vulnerability is basically a security loophole or fault spotted in the operating system or software program. Many hackers exploit the software vulnerabilities to slip malware into your machines without you recognizing it. Hackers can optimize on such opportunities by targeting the connected machines via some piece of code to inject the malware on to these devices. 

Malicious Hotspots

Many hackers and cybercriminals utilize the potential of malicious hotspots for the Man-in-the-middle attack. This “internet access point” trick people into connecting to a network that the user considers legitimate but is actually a malicious one. 

A quick example of it. You are staying at a hotel with their Wi-Fi by the name: “Hotel Days Inn”, the cybercriminals might set up a malicious hotspot by utilizing the name of the hotel, let us say “Hotel Days Inn Wi-Fi”. One can easily take it for the hotel’s Wi-Fi and unknowingly connect with the malicious hotspot. The information on your connected machines will be compromised at the very spot. The hackers will be able to view all the sensitive information available on your system through it. So, know exactly which Wi-Fi is provided by the facility before making any connection. 

A lot of people are not aware of what the technology inside their car actually does. If you happen to know that your car has more than one function then you might want to think about installing the latest technology.

You might already have heard that an internal combustion engine is the core of all cars. It also happens to be one of the oldest methods of generating electricity, as well as a major contributor to global warming. In other words, the internal combustion engine needs to be replaced as a technology for transportation – sooner rather than later.

Another technology used in cars today is the electric motor. Electric motors are becoming more popular because they are much more efficient. They can be used in hybrid cars, and will even power some electric cars that will be available next year. Although this type of engine is becoming more common, you might want to look into the internal combustion engine.

Another technology you can find in your car is the airbags. Some cars do not have them, and others include them. Even if the airbags are present on your car, they are just not that effective. You should take the time to install new ones if you want your car to work as efficiently as possible.

With the complicated nature of modern automobiles, maintenance and repair can become a headache. Luckily, you don’t need to know how to repair a Mercedes just to drive a Mercedes. An extended auto warranty might be just the thing for you. See a long mercedes extended warranty best price article from Olive and decide if it’s the right choice.

The internet has been a great resource for learning more about what is going on in cars today. There are a number of blogs on topics such as the technology inside your car, as well as information that will be beneficial to those who drive. When looking into your car’s latest technology, take the time to read through some of these blogs.

Your local library might be a good place to start looking for information on the latest technologies. Your library will also have books that are devoted to technology. If you happen to be interested in books on these topics, consider getting some of them on car technology. You can also go online and look through books written on these topics.

If you happen to know someone at your local auto dealer, they can tell you which features are included in the car they have and give you the scoop on what the most popular options are out there. In some cases, the most popular features can be included with the regular price of your car.

No matter what you choose to do, keep the above-mentioned items in mind when looking into your car. These tips should give you a better idea of what you can do with the technology you have in your vehicle.

Some of the more recent cars have a small computer in the dashboard that monitors everything in your vehicle. Most of the time, this computer will work to help with keeping track of your fuel economy, and to help keep your speed from exceeding your maximum speed limit. Most of these computers are very small but are usually included in the dash of most cars.

Airbags are another great example of the technology inside your vehicle. Airbags are small and inflatable devices that are designed to prevent injuries in case of an accident or if your car breaks down in the middle of the road.

Many safety systems on the newer vehicles can monitor the weather outside and alert the driver to any road hazards. For example, an alarm system may sound an alarm if it detects ice on the road. These are the same systems that could alert the driver of rain or snow on the road. In addition, the steering wheel warning device, which is built into many cars, is used to warn of potential mechanical problems in the car.

Some other types of car’s electronics are also integrated into your car. The navigation system allows the driver to know where they are, when they need to turn their cars off, and when their vehicle needs to be towed.

Many vehicles today are equipped with GPS capabilities. GPS allows you to see where you are going and how fast you need to turn. to get there. With some of the newer vehicles, the map system that was installed can even determine the quickest way to get to a destination.