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A few years ago, if you saw someone using a phone in an automobile, you would probably take a second look. Today you would scarcely notice. On any busy street you can see someone clutching a steering wheel with one hand and holding a cellular phone with the other.
Therein lies the problem.
While car phones seem to be the perfect marriage of mobility and communication, safety is becoming a major concern. Drivers using a cellular telephone in a vehicle stand a 34 percent greater risk of having an accident than other motorists, according to a study by the Rochester Institute of Technology that was cited in the Wall Street Journal on March 30, 1995.
Safety-conscious legislators are reacting. The British Parliament, for instance, recently passed legislation requiring that cellular phones in vehicles be dashboard-mounted, for hands-free operation. Similar laws or regulations are being considered elsewhere.
Almost everyone who owns a cellular phone can buy a phone cradle that allows hands-free operation. And many choose to do so. According to In-Stat Services, an industry market analyst, approximately 21 percent of cellular phone buyers worldwide also buy cradles, with this number increasing steadily.
Unfortunately, there are problems with hands-free cellular phone operation. The sound quality often is so poor that the caller in the vehicle must pick up the phone to be heard clearly. Until the sound quality in hands-free mode is as clear as in hand-held mode, cellular phones will not be used in their cradles, despite their advantages in convenience and safety.
TI is addressing this problem. The TMS320WP010 digital signal processor (DSP), which combines integrated circuit hardware with ROM-coded software, brings the convenience and safety of hands-free cellular phone operation together with the voice quality users are accustomed to in hand-held operation. The 'WP010 is a comprehensive digital signal processing solution that is essential to helping designers create enhanced products for the hand-held cellular market.
November 1995, vol. 12, no. 8