Low Wi-Fi signal? A new technology wants to put an end to the “headache”
Walls will not be an obstacle for your Wi-Fi in the future
How many times have you had a weak signal on your Wi-Fi , even when you have tried many times to improve the network. After all, many people are investing in wireless mesh networking solutions to solve the issue of “dead spots” in their home, that is, where the Wi-Fi signal is weak.
But can you imagine if there was a technology in Wi-Fi that completely eliminated the barrier of walls ? This is exactly how a group of scientists from Austria, specifically from the Vienna University of Technology and the University of Rennes, found it, as Newsweek reports, describing in detail a method of eliminating reflections from dense materials.
In the paper they published entitled “Anti-reflection structure for perfect transmission through complex media” they describe their solution, how the anti-reflection coating on glasses works.
The coating allows light to pass through the lenses more freely and thus prevents light from bouncing off the lenses causing reflections. Similarly, scientists use a special coating to allow Wi-Fi radio waves to easily travel through solid materials.
“You have to first simply send certain waves through the medium and measure exactly how those waves are reflected by the material ,” said Michael Horodynski, one of the authors of the paper, and continues to say: ” We were able to show that with this information , a corresponding compensating medium can be calculated for each medium that scatters the waves in a complex manner, so that the combination of the two mediums allows the wave to pass completely “.
To put it more simply, scientists were able to mathematically calculate how radio waves travel through a material and then use this information to create a substance that allows for the avoidance of reflections.
They first experimented with microwaves, sending them through a “metal waveguide” that was filled with small objects made of metal and Teflon. Only half of the microwaves made it through, while the rest were reflected. Then, the behavior of the microwaves through the waveguide was measured and an anti-reflection area was created. In the next test 100% of the microwaves passed through it.
This technique could be used not only for better Wi-Fi reception, but also for various other already existing radio waves, such as cellular or even telescopes that use radio waves to discover distant objects in the universe.
