Researchers at North Carolina State University in Raleigh have constructed an antenna that can be lengthened—or shortened—to adjust their frequency using liquid metal.
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Antenna’s can steal your smartphone’s secrets
The processors in smart phones and tablets leak radio signals that betray the encryption keys used to protect sensitive data.
Gary Kenworthy of Cryptography Research held up an iPod Touch on stage and looked over to a TV antenna three meters away at the RSA computer security conference last week. The signal picked up by the antenna, routed through an amplifier and computer software, revealed the secret key being used by an app running on the device to encrypt data. An attacker with access to this key could use it to perfectly impersonate the device he stole it from—to access e-mail on a company server, for example.
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Spray-on antenna for low power wireless everywhere
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4efE_gO9lFo&hd=1[/youtube]
There may be a simple solution to your lack of a wireless signal soon. Scientists have developed a spray-on coating that can boost your phone’s reception, make your home amplify signals instead of attenuating them, or even turn a tree into a transmitter.
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Parasitic Fly Could Help Revolutionize Antenna Technology
Ormia ochracea is a small parasitic fly best known for its strong sense of directional hearing.
It’s no surprise that many bugs have excellent hearing thanks to finely honed antenna. Checking out the giant antenna on the tiny bug above, it seems no surprise that they can hear surprisingly well. In fact, some insect antennae are so powerful, engineers haven’t yet been able to come close to mimicking nature. And that’s especially when it comes to small, directional antennae. It’s one thing to have whip-like “ears” like the bug above, but what stumps engineers is making very small, but very acute sound sensors. Yet a minute fly — with minute antenna — is about to change that, and help revolutionize how we built these structures.
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Study Finds Cellphone Use Tied to Changes in Brain Activity
Researchers from the National Institutes of Health have found that less than an hour of cellphone use can speed up brain activity in the area closest to the phone antenna, raising new questions about the health effects of low levels of radiation emitted from cellphones.
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