Wireless Technology Blog

I think radio systems that work radio to radio, without bases, or towers, at discrete frequencies, and low power similar to the way the internet works, will be very desirable systems.

Such systems are already desirable to the military, and for companies who want to communicate within themselves without paying "rent".

I myself think well of offerings from a particular radio company that goes in and out of internet computer systems to basically accomplish what Dr. David Cleevely seems to be suggesting.

Since I have not gotten my hands on their systems, of course my knowledge is not fully realized.

Further since I don't work for this company, it is probably alright for me to mention the name of it in a post. Fast Radios, is the company I am thinking about.

Frankly I myself expect to be dead by 2050.

Dr. Cleevely is probably right that due to bureaucratic resistance to change, or innovation, that it will take another 41 years to realize what could be done tomorrow.

I think the growth of radio frequency control and data sharing will be greatly influenced by and will tend to rack the improvements and breakthroughs in battery or power supply technology. It's about eliminating the tangle of wires. Control is only part of that problem. Power transmission is the other part that RF cannot practically overcome.

Ed Weldon

Yes "radio" has and will continue to impact our lives where numerous radios will make our lives more convenient.

In today's level of understanding of RF energy and physics, the theoretical limit of RF data capacity is 1 bit per electron.

The vision is that radio/wireless/communications will evolve the human interface in that the gap between thoughts and hardware will be bridged. No more keyboards, texting, etc. The radio like signal created by the human brain will be harnessed to advance new concepts such as remote control, creating manuscripts, and communicating with one another.

THOUGHTS?

I doubt if any of us will live to see direct connections such as that to human brains in the mainstream of consumer products.

In the lab? Very likely but at a fairly crude level. We're already seeing experimental setups to help profoundly handicapped people communicate with the outside world using crude control functions. But I think we are a long ways away from manuscript creation without some interface between the brain like eyes and a visual image to create actual words out of symbols.

Ed Weldon

Yes "radio" has and will continue to impact our lives where numerous radios will make our lives more convenient.

NO... The breakdown and (for 99% of us) imposibility of fault finding or repairing these numerous radios will make our lives more stressful and frustrating
Call me an old cynic if you like..
'Del, you're an old cynic!

Del

Del -- I think you're on to something there. Perhaps the "Breakthrough" will be a social rejection of complexities in our lives.

Ed Weldon

I agree, and I would add the crowding of the spectrum.

___________________

From here is the devil's advocate speaking:

On the other hand I remember when a 1200 baud modem was, 25years ago, the king. Than it came the DSP and, on the same narrow 3KHz bandwidth, was transmitted info at over 100 Kbaud.

Now they are talking 40GBits and more (not on phone line.....yet:-)

The spectrum for cellular phones went from GHz to 5GHz (I think).

The electronics gizmos will be so cheap that nobody will have to repair them. Just replace them.

My experience with wireless and many previous failed examples around the world leave me with a bad taste in my mouth regarding this technology. Too many people with their own agendas have resulted in royal messes when it comes to wireless communications. Case in point : The Royal Ottawa Mental Health Center located in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. They experienced more down time in the first week of operation than in 10 years of operation using wired Ethernet networking. Two years after implementing the wireless network, they still have daily problems with either the wireless VOIP telephones and or the computer links. Since Nortel seems to be going down the tubes, they have been forced to replace the 2002 VOIP phones in a panic situation (crisis management). The choice of wireless networking for VOIP and computer links was the worse decision administration ever made.

They could have had gigabit data rates to the desktop and much better security with wired technology but now the're stuck with maybe 1 megabit per second data rates under worse case conditions. VOIP dropped calls, clipping using the Nortel 2002 and 2211 phones are common ( voice communications are critical, yet the problems continue).

I hope I live until 2050 but never live to see the day when wireless technology floods our airwaves as much as they predict.