Engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (MIT CSAIL) have developed a "smart surface" called RFocus that "can act as a mirror or lens" to focus radio signals to desired devices.
Currently, there is a certain problem with providing a stable wireless connection to miniature devices, in which there is practically no place for antennas. The smart surface RFocus can fix this, an experimental version of which increases the average signal power by almost 10 times, while doubling the channel capacity.
Instead of a few monolithic antennas, RFocus developers used over 3000 miniature antennas, supplementing them with the appropriate software, due to which they managed to achieve such a significant increase in signal strength. In other words, RFocus functions as a beam controller placed in front of end client devices. The authors of the project believe that such an array would be relatively inexpensive to manufacture, since the cost of each miniature antenna is only a few cents. It is noted that the RFocus prototype consumes less energy compared to conventional systems. It was possible to achieve a reduction in energy consumption due to the exclusion of signal amplifiers from the system.
The authors of the project believe that the system they have created, which is produced in the form of βthin wallpapersβ, can be widely used, including in the field of the Internet of Things (IoT) and fifth generation communication networks (5G), providing amplification of the signal transmitted to end user devices. When exactly the developers expect to bring their creation to the commercial market is still unclear. Until that moment, they will have to finalize the design of the final product, making the system as efficient and attractive as possible for potential buyers.
Source: 3dnews.ru