A Laboratory of the Future Human Experience
Freaky Fashions.
The next generation of communications systems could be built with a sewing machine. To make communications devices more reliable, Ohio State University researchers are finding ways to incorporate radio antennas directly into clothing, using plastic film and metallic thread.
Continue reading… “Antennas in Your Clothes? New Design Could Pave the Way”
Professor Manos Tentzeris displays an inkjet-printed rectifying antenna used to convert microwave energy to DC power.
Researchers have found a way to capture and harness energy transmitted by such sources as radio and television transmitters, cell phone networks and satellite communications systems. By getting this ambient energy from the air around us, the technique could provide a new way to power networks of wireless sensors, microprocessors and communications chips.
Wireless industry is looking into smaller antennas, some tiny enough to hold in a hand.
As cell phones have spread, so have large cell towers — those unsightly stalks of steel topped by transmitters and other electronics that sprouted across the country over the last decade.
Continue reading… “Wireless Industry Planning a Future Without Cell Phone Towers”
A cell phone that never needs recharging might sound too good to be true, but Nokia says it’s developing technology that could draw enough power from ambient radio waves to keep a cell-phone handset topped up.
Continue reading… “Nokia Developing A Cell Phone That Never Needs Recharging”
From mundane traffic overpasses to marvelous feats of soaring engineering, bridges are something we tend to take for granted – until something goes wrong that is. A team from the University of Michigan is leading a five-year, $19 million project to engineer an intelligent infrastructure monitoring system designed to prevent tragedies like the collapse of the Interstate 35 West bridge over the Mississippi river in 2007 in which 13 people were killed and 145 were injured.
Continue reading… “Intelligent Bridge Monitoring System To Prevent Tragedies”
Ever wondered how Santa Claus can travel around the world in just one night on his reindeer-pulled sleigh and deliver toys to all the children?
The cell phone industry’s obsession with ever thinner handsets has been a boon for gadget packrats, but has mostly failed to keep delivering “fun” designs.
There’s no shortage of demand for faster wireless, but today’s fastest technologies–Wi-Fi, 3G cellular networks, and even the upcoming WiMax–max out at tens or hundreds of megabits per second. So far, no commercial wireless system can beat the raw speed of optical fiber, which can carry tens of gigabits per second.
Continue reading… “Faster Wireless to Compete with Speed of Fiber”