What's this? WiFi on an SD memory card!

Stuart Corner
Friday, 25 June 2010 15:56

Your IT - Entertainment

Toshiba and Singapore-based Trek 2000 International have teamed up to develop an SD memory card with WiFi functionality enabling SD-enabled digital cameras to upload their images wirelessly.

They have launched an industry forum with the comprehensive if cumbersome title of the "Standard Promotion Forum for Memory Cards Embedding Wireless LAN" to promote the technology.

According to Toshiba "Once in a camera, a card can recognize and communicate with the same type of card in another camera (on a one-to-one basis), and users can exchange photographs quickly and easily. It also allows users to upload and download photographs to and from a server without any need for a cable connection or transfers of the memory card."

The card will be compliant with the SD memory card standard, and will support IEEE 802.11b/g WiFi. It will also have 8GB capacity and able to transfer both JPEG and RAW images, the two most widely used digital formats.

Toshiba and Trek say they will invite the participation of digital camera manufacturers and other interested parties in promoting the card, and in exchanges of technical information toward establishing standard specifications and expanding the use of the card.

Toshiba's announcement refers to the card in the present tense, suggesting it is already available, but it has given no clear indication of current, or future availability.