Connected World

Scientists urge governments to turn old TV frequencies into free “super WiFi”

Governments should sack plans to auction off old television frequencies to the highest bidder and instead use the bandwidth for free super-frequency WiFi if they want to boost the economy, scientists have said.

Old television frequencies are becoming available for other uses around the world, thanks to a switch from analogue to digital transmission.

However, while governments are for the most part auctioning these off to whoever is prepared to pay the most – usually mobile phone networks – they should instead be using the frequencies to create free-to-use, wide-range WiFi, scientists from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Germany have said.

This new “super WiFi” would have a far wider range than existing WiFi networks, which are mostly transmitted over wireless local area networks (WLAN) at frequencies of 2GHz or above.

laptop-wifi

WiFi transmitted over old TV frequencies could be transmitted at lower frequencies than traditional WiFi, resulting in a far wider area covered. This super WiFi’s coverage area could even be as big as several kilometres in radius, a massive improvement on existing networks.

This would mean that pricey mobile services such as 4G were no longer required, which the scientists believe would lead to more mobile internet use, and a wealth of economic benefits.

“Implementation of our approach would have far-reaching consequences,” said Arnd Weber of the Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS) at KIT.

“Individuals, institutions and companies would be far less dependent on expensive mobile communications networks in conducting their digital communication. This would also be of great economic benefit.”

In addition to providing direct, measurable cost savings, the technology could, according to the researchers, result in the development of a host of new technologies just as existing WiFi has.

It could also provide direct benefits during disaster scenarios, as a means of providing updates and enabling communication.

tablet-wifi

However, the big challenge here is convincing governments that this is the right move.

Many have argued they these frequencies are common property and therefore should be made available to the public free of charge, a view that has been opposition from a number of people, including the late Nobel Prize winning economist Ronald Coase.

Coase argued that the frequencies should be auctioned off to ensure they are most effectively used, and the money used by governments to fund other services.

Others have also argued that congestion would make these lower frequency networks unworkable, however Weber and his colleague Jens Elsner argue that it is possible to avoid such congestion with the right technological approach.

Ultimately, convincing governments will be a matter of showing that long-term economic benefits greatly outstrip the short-term financial gains of an auction.

While Weber and Elsner plan to make this case at the UN World Radiocommunication Conference next year, they will no doubt struggle to get many governments onboard.

In the long run, though, those of us living in areas where auctions have gone ahead could find ourselves quite jealous of the countries that choose the super WiFi option.

Featured image courtesy of gunes t, inline images courtesy of Mr. Theklan
Connected World

Keeping up with Moore’s law: Liquid light switch bridges the gap between light and electricity

Researchers from the University of Cambridge have demonstrated how to bridge the gap between light and electricity by building a miniature electro-optical switch.

The switch works by changing the spin, or angular momentum, of a liquid form of light by applying electric fields to a semiconductor device that measures around one millionth of a metre in size. The results, published in the journal Nature Materials, could enable the development of faster and smaller electronics.

In an attempt to address the disparity between the way in which information is currently processed and then transmitted, the researchers searched for ways to incorporate the electrical process with optical transmission. In order to process information, electrical charges must be moved around on semiconductor chips; but to transmit this information, light flashes have to be sent down optical fibres.

For the past 50 years, the number of transistors on a single semiconductor chip has doubled every two years, in an attempt to make electronics faster and more powerful. This observation was made in 1965 by Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel, and is known known as Moore’s law.

However, as these semiconductor chips keep getting smaller, scientists have to deal more and more with the quantum effects associated with individual atoms and electrons, and they are looking for alternatives to the electron as the primary carrier of information. This will enable us to keep up with Moore’s law and the need for quicker, cheaper and more powerful electronic devices.

Polariton fluid emits clockwise or anticlockwise spin light by applying electric fields to a semiconductor chip.

Polariton fluid emits clockwise or anticlockwise spin light by applying electric fields to a semiconductor chip.

Led by Professor Jeremy Baumberg from the University of Cambridge’s NanoPhotonics Centre, the researchers (in collaboration with scientists from Mexico and Greece) have built a switch that uses a new state of matter called a Polariton Bose-Einstein condensate to mix electric and optical signals, but while using only miniscule amounts of energy.

These condensates are generated by trapping light between mirrors spaced a few millionths of a metre apart, and then letting the light interact with thin slabs of semiconductor material. This creates a half-light, half-matter mixture known as a polariton. A Bose-Einstein condensate is a state of matter first predicted in 1924/25 by Satyendra Nath Bose and Albert Einstein.

Placing lots of polaritons in the same space can induce condensation and the formation of a light-matter fluid that can spin clockwise (spin-up) or anticlockwise (spin-down). When an electric field was applied to this system, the scientists were able to control the spin of the condensate and switch it between the two states. This polartin fluid emits light with the spin, which can then be sent through optical fibres, crucially converting electrical to optical signals.

“The polariton switch unifies the best properties of electronics and optics into one tiny device that can deliver at very high speeds while using minimal amounts of power,” commented lead author Dr Alexander Dreismann, from Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory.

“We have made a field-effect light switch that can bridge the gap between optics and electronics,” added co-author Dr Hamid Ohadi, Cavendish Laboratory. “We’re reaching the limits of how small we can make transistors, and electronics based on liquid light could be a way of increasing the power and efficiency of the electronics we rely on.”

Images courtesy of Alexander Dreismann

Images courtesy of Alexander Dreismann

The device currently works at cryogenic – or very low – temperatures, but the researchers are currently working on other materials that can operate at room temperature, with a view to commercialising their prototype.

Mass production and scalability issues will also have to be addressed, and the team is also exploring options to integrate the device with existing technology bases.

“Since this prototype is based on well-established fabrication technology, it has the potential to be scaled up in the near future,” said co-author Professor Pavlos Savvidis from the FORTH institute in Greece.
Green energy, Transport

Spark of inspiration: NASA’s move towards electric aviation

In a move towards a ‘greener’ aviation industry, NASA has selected five technology concepts for a two-year study that may well transform the industry in the next decade. Broadly aimed at reducing aircraft fuel use and emissions, three of the five topics selected are specifically aimed at the development of electrically-propelled aircraft.

The concepts, which were selected under NASA’s Transformative Aeronautics Concepts Program, are: alternative fuel cells; using 3D printing to increase electric motor output; the use of lithium-air batteries for energy storage; new mechanisms for changing the shape of an aircraft wing in flight and the use of a lightweight material called aerogel in the design and development of aircraft antenna.

These five will join the six selected last year in addressing NASA’s goals to cut fuel use by half, lower harmful emissions by 75%, and significantly reduce aircraft noise.

The focus towards electric aircraft obviously plays a significant role in achieving these aims and represents the potential for a huge shift within the field of aviation, mirroring the ecological intentions of companies like Tesla in the automotive field.

“There definitely was an emphasis in our selections on bringing forward activities that addressed a NASA aeronautics goal to reduce the carbon footprint of aviation during the 21st century,” said Doug Rohn, NASA’s manager for the Transformative Aeronautics Concepts Program within the agency’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate.

While all of the concepts put forward will contribute to reducing the environmental impact of aircraft, the wing mechanisms and antenna serve more as functional design improvements than the innovation of the other three concepts.

This may in fact make them more plausible for successful implementation, but it is to the electric aircraft we should look for the future.

Images courtesy of NASA

Images courtesy of NASA

The importance of the research being explored holds further value due to NASA’s own mandate that: “each study was required to be multidisciplinary, involve multiple centers, directly relate to addressing one or more of NASA aeronautics strategic research goals, and do all of this in a way that is transformative in pushing the state-of-the-art in aviation.”

The promise of multidisciplinary research is what elevates the programme, in that the concepts being explored may well hold the potential to transform industries beyond that of aviation. The lithium oxygen batteries alone are hugely important, given that they have the highest theoretical energy storage capacity of any battery technology.

The concepts are certainly ripe with the capability to change the field but their success is far from guaranteed. That said, the fact that they are being studied at all can be seen as very important. While these may fail, they may lead to further discovery and innovation in the future.

“Is failure an option? It depends on your definition of failure,” Rohn said. “We’re going to ask the questions and see if these ideas are feasible or not. A successful feasibility assessment may determine the concept won’t work.”

What’s with all the record breaking? How technology is boosting athletes’ Olympic dreams

Athletes are beating world records daily at the Rio Olympics, but technology’s influence on athletes’ performance isn't being scrutinised in the same way drugs are. We look at whether the next scandal in sport will be because of athletes’ souped-up kits

Feature Magazine, Sport

It’s fair to say that sport has a doping problem. From Lance Armstrong to allegedly 99% of Russian athletes, there are competitors out there who will do whatever it takes to win, even if that means breaking the rules and using performance-enhancing drugs.

But getting smacked up on steroids isn’t the only option for athletes who want to cheat.  Technology is increasingly being used to give competitors an advantage, but is using souped-up kits any better? For instance, the 2008 Beijing Olympics saw many swimmers sporting Speedo’s LZR Racer bodysuits. The suits hugged the body up to 70 times tighter than traditional suits, were engineered to repel water and gave the wearer extra buoyancy. Unsurprisingly, swimmers who wore them won 98% of all the swimming competitions at the games. The authorities deemed that this was technology doping and banned swimmers from wearing the LZR at the 2010 Vancouver Games. But clothes and helmets that boost aerodynamics in cycling or sailing harnesses that have nano-coatings to repel liquid are all still allowed.

Every athlete is looking to enhance their performance, to go faster and compete for longer than their rivals, and technology is as much a part of an athlete’s arsenal as training, nutrition and coaching. But unlike those other tools, which can only ever serve to optimise humans for competition, making them the best that they can be, technology has the potential to enhance athletes’ abilities beyond what nature has given them, which is pretty much the definition of doping, and that would be cheating, wouldn’t it?

A question of finance

People have a massive problem with traditional, drug-based doping, and it’s universally accepted that doping is wrong and athletes who are caught are deserving of our fury and scorn. But we happily accept that athletes gain advantages from technology, and these advantages aren’t open to all competitors. At Rio 2016, USA’s track and field athletes will wear Nike uniforms that incorporate AeroSwift technology that has been developed through hundreds of hours of wind tunnel testing. Clearly not every nation will have access to this kind of technology.

Anyone arguing that technological aids in cycling and swimming are unfair because of disparate access would need to interrogate the entire relationship between money and sporting success

If it’s because of finance that poorer nations don’t do well, or in some instance even bother competing, in sports involving a lot of technology, such as cycling, sailing and rowing, then it’s hard to argue that some competitors are gaining an unfair advantage. But where do we draw the line? Should richer countries competing in professional sports also be expected to scale back on coaches, nutritionists and sports science as well?

“One argument is that they [athletes kits] cost money and not everyone can afford them,” says vice-chair of the British Philosophy of Sport Association, Paul Davis. “While such an argument should not be dismissed, it seems inconsistent with a multitude of performance-relevant inequalities which are not held up as unfair. For instance, some but not others can afford state of the art equipment, some but not others can afford the best coaches and physicians, some but not others can afford expensive travel in pursuit of their ambitions and some but not others are in the right place and time for external funding.

“Therefore, anyone arguing that technological aids in cycling and swimming are unfair because of disparate access would need to interrogate the entire relationship between money and sporting success.”

Athletes or their toys

The Olympics are the pinnacle of many athletes’ careers, where all their hard work and honed abilities are showcased in front of an expectant public. While it’s understandable that athletes would want to enter the Olympic arena in equipment that gives them the best chance of victory, it’s important that it is the athlete’s actual abilities that separate winners from losers because no one wants the Olympic Games to be reduced to an arms race between various sporting brands.

“The idea here is that sport should be a test of ‘pure’ ability, therefore external factors which might affect performance threaten to mislead about who is the best, and so shouldn’t be allowed” says Davis. “The problem with this idea is, again, the difficulty of conceptualising and isolating the essence that is supposed to be personal ability. No one suggests that if hard training, effective diet, expert coaching or physician advice contribute to one’s success, then that success is not a genuine measure of one’s ability and should be struck off the record. Therefore, it isn’t clear why a performance-enhancing technological aid should be thought to provide a fraudulent result.

“There are other domains in which technological opportunism is not thought to threaten authenticity. The obvious example is music, where the use of technology might contribute to a result that inspires awe, and only among a very few to the reaction that ‘it’s just technology, it isn’t really them doing it.'”

Athletes watching athletes

Currently it is the responsibility of each individual sport’s governing body to decide whether technology doping has occurred. But should we expect more from the athletes themselves? If swimmers recognise that they are more buoyant because of a swimsuit, it’s reasonable to expect them to report this, rather than using the equipment and waiting for the sport’s governing body to rule that they gained an unfair advantage.

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No one wants to see the luddite Olympics where technology has no part to play in helping athletes, but where it is so blatantly enhancing athletes abilities beyond what they are actually capable of then they have to decide where the line is between being competitive and gaining an unfair advantage.

“There is a strong case that performers themselves should play a central role in determining policy. Performers are liable to have a different attitude to a policy that is chosen and not imposed,” says Davis. “We should not assume that there must be a one-size-fits-all approach. We might end up with precise permissions and prohibitions for precise reasons. There are, again, many different communities within a given sport, and it might be that, say, professional cyclists feel differently from amateur or that different age groups feel differently. If we end up with a situation which is messy-but-workable, then that perhaps reflects sport itself.”