Wireless carriers love to talk about a Spectrum Crunch. Like oil, wireless spectrum is a finite resource. Companies like AT&T warn that smartphone proliferation is eventually going to leave those “wells” dry. Carriers’ answers to the problem usually involve government (less regulations, and more federally-owned spectrum released). However, researchers at U.C. Riverside have another solution: make those networks more efficient.
Posts tagged "wireless"
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Researchers promise doubled wireless spectrum efficiency →
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Quadcopter prototype provides wireless charging for sensors in remote locations →
Researchers in Nebraska are developing a new use for quadcopters by turning them into a portable power source. The NIMBUS Lab has developed a prototype that uses a process called coupled magnetic resonance to transfer energy between two coils — one on the copter, and the other on whatever it is that needs charging. Right now the prototype can provide about five watts of power from 25 centimeters away, which is enough to power an LED bulb. Eventually the process could give unmanned aerial vehicles the ability to recharge the batteries of sensors found in remote locations, such as underwater or underneath a bridge. If nothing else, it’s certainly a better use of a quadcopter than nearly hitting the drummer of The Roots.
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Revolutionary chipset for high-speed wireless data transfer →
NTU and I²R scientists invent revolutionary chipset for high-speed wireless data transfer, new microchip that can transfer data the size of 80 MP3 song files (or 250 megabytes) wirelessly between mobile devices, in the flick of a second, 1000 times faster than Bluetooth.
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Researchers boost efficiency of multi-hop wireless networks →
Multi-hop wireless networks can provide data access for large and unconventional spaces, but they have long faced significant limits on the amount of data they can transmit. Now researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a more efficient data transmission approach that can boost the amount of data the networks can transmit by 20 to 80 percent.
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Neutrinos send wireless message through the Earth →
Just as neutrinos look likely to lose their faster-than-light crown, these subatomic particles have a new claim to fame as part of a wireless communication system that could potentially send messages directly through the Earth’s core.
A team at Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois have successfully used a beam of the near-massless particles to transmit the word “neutrino” to a detector 1 km away, including a 240-metre journey through solid rock.
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Highways to wirelessly charge moving cars →
A Stanford University research team has designed a high-efficiency charging system that uses magnetic fields to wirelessly transmit large electric currents between metal coils placed several feet apart. The long-term goal of the research is to develop an all-electric highway that wirelessly charges cars and trucks as they drive down the road.
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‘Wireless’ humans could form backbone of new mobile networks →
Members of the public could form the backbone of powerful new mobile Internet networks by carrying wearable sensors, according to researchers from Queen’s University Belfast.
The novel sensors could create new ultra-high-bandwidth mobile Internet infrastructures and reduce the density of mobile phone base stations. The engineers from Queen’s Institute of Electronics, Communications and Information Technology (ECIT), are working on a new project based on the rapidly developing science of body-centric communications.
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Wireless Electricity – No More Cables, Never Plug in Your Phone or Laptop Again →
Remember how you used to have to plug in the internet cord to get online? And then one day, you didn’t need to anymore because your laptop started magically connecting to the internet through the ether. That same thing is about to happen to electricity.
More than a hundred years ago Nikola Tesla embarked on a quest for wireless electricity, and these days (or should I say currently), researchers at MIT are very close to bringing that dream to life. In the near future, you can say good bye to wires and flat batteries.
Back in 2007, an MIT team managed to wirelessly power a light bulb at a distance of two meters. Using a technique they named Resonant Energy Transfer, they were able to “beam” electricity through the air. The concept is similar to that of induction stoves, which also is a wireless transfer of energy through use of the magnetic field, but obviously that electricity doesn’t travel very far. What’s different about RET is that it stretches the distance between power emitter and receiver, in this case up to a couple meters.
Research progress with RET is accelerating, a Witricity company has launched, and soon this technology will greatly improve our everyday lives.
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Lastest graphene research could lead to improvements in bluetooth headsets and other devices →
Researchers at the UC Riverside Bourns College of Engineering have built and successfully tested an amplifier made from graphene that could lead to more efficient circuits in electronic chips, such as those used in Bluetooth headsets and toll collection devices in cars.
