Canon Radio Flash Trigger Patent?

[Canon Rumors]

Radio Ga Ga

See USPTO Appl. No. 12/700,098

Photography Bay has uncovered a patent for what appears to be radio based flash triggers from Canon.

It’s an obvious evolution and much needed feature in todays DSLRs.

The patent application tells us that Canon’s proposed wireless flash system is based off of the IEEE 802.15.4 standard, which is more commonly known as a wireless standard applied for low-rate wireless personal area networks operating at 2.4GHz, 915MHz and 868MHz.  The 802.15.4 standard is the basis for the likes of the ZigBee specification, which these little chip antennas use to garner an impressive range of 300 feet (using the 2.4GHz band).

This is not a whole lot different in concept from the good ole 802.11 WiFi; however, power management, critical latency and cost are key concerns in the 802.15.4 standard, which makes it a seemingly ideal fit for something like TTL flash radio communication.

Read More: http://www.photographybay.com/2010/08/16/canon-working-on-built-in-radio-triggers-for-wireless-flash/

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[Bob Howland]

Please, please, PLEASE let this be true! This type of flash system would solve so many problems for me, and I'm certain that I'm not the only one.

[that1guy]

That would be really cool!  So, not only wireless, but TTL might be possible?  Sweet!

Couple questions...do we know when the patent was applied for and does anyone know, on average, how long it takes from the time of patent to when we see technology in a device?  I know that every patent doesn't always make it to production, but I'm just trying to figure out a loose timeframe.  Anyone ever watch that kind of thing?

[kubelik]

is this talking about having the radio triggering system directly built into the flash unit itself?  that would be so much easier than having to have the additional radio-popper attached to the flash unit, and would make a lot of strobist-type setups that much easier (like the ezybox and foursquare)

the linedrawing for the model cracks me up, it's like straight out of my first-grade notebook

[Sebastian]

Well, about time...

As far as speedlights are concerned, Canon has been way back behind Nikon for years. Hopefully, Canon will soon put this into real products - the sooner, the better.
And I really hope this wont be only built into new flashes and bodies but there will be extra add-on units for older speedlights cameras. I wouldn't be very keen to replace four flashes and a brand-new camera - for that my 15 bucks-per-piece YongNuo China-made remote triggers are working way to well...


Regards,

Sebastian

[gabriele]

Does this mean new flash units have to be built to accept this new triggering system?
I recently upgraded from a Cactus V4 trigger system to a PiXeL Knight TR-332 which is wireless E-TTL,
seems very very interesting even if not super user friendly but awesome for its price especially compared
to Radio Poppers and Pocket Wizards. Have to experiment a little bit more with it since I really had not
much spare time since I got them.