CELLULAR TELEPHONY AN IMPLANTABLE THE MAN WHO MADE WORKING WITH MUST DIE! OPTICAL SENSOR THE CRYOTRON OCULUS RIFT Steve Perlman says This microlab will How Dudley Buck’s See the new he’s got a better idea get under your skin invention lives on development kit at P. 13 P. 48 P. 54 SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG FOR THE TECHNOLOGY INSIDER | 04.14 WE TEST DRIVE CHEVY’S BRAWNY CORVETTE STUNNER HONDA’S BRAINY ACCORD HYBRID MERCEDES’S ALMOST AUTONOMOUS CAR PORSCHE’S 608-HP SPEED DEMON " I get what I need to keep my line running, when I need it. It's great to be an engineer." Your one-stop source for INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS For Industrial Automation and Control, we have the products & solutions you need from the most trusted brands. Featured product: Thermal Imager newark.com | 800.463.9275 (99W5456) 04a.Cov2.NA.inddNewark_Fluke FLK-TI400_IEEE 2 Spectrum.indd 1 3/7/141/24/14 10:16 4:50 AMPM FEATURES_04.14 38 48 54 58 A Lab Dudley Buck 911 for the TOP TEN TECH CARS on Fiber and the 21st Century This year self-driving technology has not only begun How we’re shrinking Computer Redesigning emer­ to dazzle in luxury models but also to trickle down chemical laboratories That Never Was gency calling to work to the mass market. Robocars now offer advice when onto optical fibers with wireless and to make better Superconducting com­ Internet distress calls. the driver nods—and take over the wheel if a crash diagnostic tools. puters in the 1950s? By Richard Barnes is unavoidable. by lawrence ulrich By Jacques Albert By David C. Brock & Brian Rosen On the Cover Illustration for IEEE Spectrum by Chris LaBrooy GM SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG | NORTH AMERICAN | APR 2014 | 01 04.Contents.NA.indd 1 3/13/14 9:26 AM Infi nite Designs, One Platform with the only complete system design environment NI LabVIEW is the only comprehensive development environment with the LabVIEW system unprecedented hardware integration and wide-ranging compatibility you need to meet design software offers unrivaled hardware any measurement and control application challenge. And LabVIEW is at the heart of integration and helps the graphical system design approach, which uses an open platform of productive you program the way software and reconfi gurable hardware to accelerate the development of your system. you think–graphically. >> Accelerate your system design productivity at ni.com/labview-platform 800 453 6202 ©2013 National Instruments. All rights reserved. LabVIEW, National Instruments, NI, and ni.com are trademarks of National Instruments. Other product and company names listed are trademarks or trade names of their respective companies. 11215 12115 Infinite Designs Ad_US.indd 1 6/25/13 12:01 PM 04a.p2.NA.indd 2 3/12/14 4:32 PM DEPDEPAARTMERTMENNTS_04.14TS_01.13 082713 Online News Resources Opinion Spectrum.ieee.org 5G Service on 4G Phones? The Video Visionary Spectral Lines The Self-Driving Car Artemis Networks says its tech could Patrick Griffis’s mission is to To better serve readers wanting That’s Already Here send data capacity through the roof. convince an entire industry to association news, IEEE Spectrum Take a tour of the self­driving By Ariel Bleicher change its ways. By Susan Karlin launched The Institute in 1977, systems that are already a newspaper covering all things available in vehicles you 18 Tech Tracks Mystery Methane 29 Review: Las Vegas’s Museum IEEE. By Kathy Kowalenko Pretz can buy—for a price. Find out 20 Five Imaging Start­ups to Watch of the A­bomb Age how they work, what’s next, 22 Biochip vs. Superbug 32 Hands On: An Acoustic Delay­ 04 Back Story and how they’ll only get better 24 The Big Picture Line Memory 06 Contributors at making driving easier, safer, 76 Dataflow: Predicting Virality 36 Technically Speaking smarter, and less boring. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES Tech Insider / Webinars The Institute Available at spectrum.ieee.org/webinar Available 07 April at theinstitute.ieee.org New Features for Microwave, RF and Optical TRANSPORTATION ELECTRIFICATION This special Simulation in CST Studio Suite 2014—1 April issue of The Institute delves into the technologies behind electrified New Features for EDA/EMC Simulation in transportation, how electric components are making even today’s CST Studio Suite 2014—2 April gasoline­powered cars safer and more efficient, and how electric New Features for Low­Frequency Simulation batteries and fuel cells will make hydrogen­powered vehicles possible. in CST Studio Suite 2014—3 April This edition also includes IEEE products, conferences, and standards W that are helping electric vehicles get even more traction. Smart Materials With COMSOL Multiphysics—10 April M B IBM RATIONAL SMARTER PRODUCTS HOW TO GET HIRED Power electronics engineers are in high demand as http://spectrum.ieee.org/static/ibm­rational­smarter­products cars become more electrified. Find out how to break into the automotive industry. N EW PRODUCT RELEASE LIBRARY http://spectrum.ieee.org/static/new­product­release­library AUTONOMOUS CArs Three IEEE Fellows pioneered the technology that will pave the way for cars that drive themselves. IS NETWORKS; GABRIELA HASBUN; HASBUN; GABRIELA NETWORKS; IS IEEE SPECTRUM M (ISSN 0018-9235) is published monthly by The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. All rights reserved. © 2014 by The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc., 3 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10016-5997, U.S.A. Volume No. 51, issue No. 4, North American edition. The editorial content of IEEE Spectrum magazine does not represent official positions of the IEEE or its organizational units. 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For more information, visit http://www.ieee.org/web/aboutus/whatis/policies/p9-26.html. SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG | NORTH AMERICAN | APR 2014 | 03 04.Contents.NA.indd 3 3/13/14 9:26 AM BACK STORY_ EDITOR IN CHIEF Susan Hassler, [email protected] EXECUTIVE EDITOR Glenn Zorpette, [email protected] EDITORIAL DIRECTOR, DIGITAL Harry Goldstein, [email protected] MANAGING EDITOR Elizabeth A. Bretz, [email protected] SENIOR ART DIRECTOR Mark Montgomery, [email protected] SENIOR EDITORS Stephen Cass (Resources), [email protected] Erico Guizzo (Digital), [email protected] Jean Kumagai, [email protected] Samuel K. Moore (News), [email protected] Tekla S. Perry, [email protected] Joshua J. Romero (Interactive), [email protected] Philip E. Ross, [email protected] David Schneider, [email protected] DEPUTY ART DIRECTOR Brandon Palacio, [email protected] PHOTOGRAPHY DIRECTOR Randi Klett, [email protected] AssOCIATE ART DIRECTOR Erik Vrielink, [email protected] AssOCIATE EDITORS Ariel Bleicher, [email protected] Rachel Courtland, [email protected] Celia Gorman (Multimedia), [email protected] Eliza Strickland, [email protected] AssISTANT EDITOR Willie D. Jones, [email protected] SENIOR COPY EDITOR Joseph N. Levine, [email protected] C OPY EDITOR Michele Kogon, [email protected] EDITORIAL ReseARCHER Alan Gardner, [email protected] It’s a Tough Job, but EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, SPECTRUM RADIO Sharon Basco AssISTANT PRODUCER, SPECTRUM RADIO Francesco Ferorelli, [email protected] Someone Has to Do It ADMINISTRATIVE AssISTANTS Ramona Foster, [email protected] Nancy T. Hantman, [email protected] CONTRIBUTING EDITORS n a fairly regular basis, it’s really fun to be Lawrence Evan Ackerman, Mark Anderson, John Blau, Robert N. Ulrich. Here you see him draped on a newly released Porsche 918 Charette, Steven Cherry, Peter Fairley, Mark Harris, David Kushner, Robert W. Lucky, Paul McFedries, Prachi Patel, Spyder at a Formula One test track in Spain, where he put the Richard Stevenson, Lawrence Ulrich, Paul Wallich “carbon-fiber phantasm” through its paces. But he’s writing for D IRECTOR, PERIODICALS PRODUCTION SERVICes Peter Tuohy EDITORIAL & WEB PRODUCTION MANAGER Roy Carubia IEEE Spectrum’s annual Top Ten Tech Cars, where the point is SENIOR ELECTRONIC LAYOUT SPECIALIST Bonnie Nani neither speed nor swoopy lines but technology. SPECTRUM ONLINE Not that there’s anything wrong with speed and swoop, of LEAD DEVELOPER Kenneth Liu WEB PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Jacqueline L. Parker O course. But in this case, the technology really is stunning. The MULTIMEDIA PRODUCTION SPECIALIST Michael Spector Spyder is a plug-in hybrid—a half-gasoline, half-electric chimera that can EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Susan Hassler, Chair; Gerard A. Alphonse, Francine D. Berman, go many miles on battery power alone, emitting hardly more carbon than Jason Cong*, Sudhir Dixit, Limor Fried, Kenneth Y. Goldberg, Bin He, Robert Hebner, Chenming Hu*, Grant Jacoby, a Toyota Prius and getting the kind of mileage that a family breadwinner Christopher J. James, Norberto Lerendegui, John P. Lewis, could love. But in this Porsche, that eco-friendliness is paired with Steve Mann, Jacob Ostergaard, Umit Ozguner, John Rogers, Jonathan Rothberg, Umar Saif, Gaurav Sharma, Takao Someya, unparalleled ferocity. Think tiger in house-cat clothing.