14 DAY TRIAL // Artimi claims that it developed a blazing-fast wireless USB (WUSB) technology for digital cameras which, if all works well, could be reaching the market within a year and even become industry's standard within a couple of years time. The enhanced WUSB technology will allow users to quickly transfer pictures from digital cameras to PCs (or PictBridge printers), without the need to carry and use wires.
WUSB is actually a short-range, high speed wireless extension to the USB 2.0 standard, which combines the trusted speed and security of wired technology with the hassle-free wireless standards. WUSB takes advantage of the ultra-wideband (UWB) wireless technology, capable of transferring up to 480 Mb/s at distances of at most 3 m, and as much as 110 Mb/s at up to 10 m. Apart from digital camera integration, WUSB could find its way into game controllers, printers, scanners, MP3 players, speaker sets, hard drives, flash drives, and even HDTVs and input devices, as well.
"The cost of adding the Wireless USB function to a camera will initially be around $25 added on the price of a camera, which initially will make it a standard feature on cameras priced over $250, but within 3 years the additional price will be less than $10, which will then make it a standard feature on all but the cheapest cameras," declared Artimi CEO , Colin Macnab. "Neither Bluetooth, nor WiFi can download 1 Gigabyte without completely discharging the battery of available cameras."
In recent years, the adoption of proposed WUSB technologies has suffered some setbacks due to both technical issues and disputes between some of the major companies involved in its development. Artimi hopes that within the next year most of the impediments will be resolved and WUSB will take its place alongside its acclaimed USB 2.0 elder brother.