New Faster, Low-Power Wi-Fi Chip Developed For Wearable Devices
The challenge for Tang and his colleagues was that the wearable device is not the only object in a room that reflects signals - so do walls, floors, ceilings, furniture, and whatever other objects happen to be around.
The chip in the wearable device needs to differentiate between the real Wi-Fi signal and the reflection from the background.
To overcome background reflections, Tang and Chang developed a wireless silicon chip that constantly senses and suppresses background reflections, enabling the Wi-Fi signal to be transmitted without interference from surrounding objects.
They tested the system at distances of up to 20 feet. At about 8 feet, they achieved a data transfer rate of 330 megabits per second, which is about three times the current Wi-Fi rate, using about a thousand times less power than a regular Wi-Fi link.
A base station and Wi-Fi service are required for the system to work. To compensate for low power drain on the wearable, the computer or other technology it's communicating with must have a long battery life or be plugged in.
There are a multitude of potential applications for the new technology, including in space. For example, astronauts and robotic spacecraft could potentially use this technology to transmit images at a lower cost to their precious power supplies. This might also allow more images to be sent at a time.
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