Ashutosh Sabharwal (via Rice University)

Full duplex Wireless Communication means getting your cake while you're eating it too. Ashutosh Sabharwal, a brilliant professor from Rice University, has made an amazing breakthrough in wireless data communications world of possibilities. The concept is like two people screaming at the same time in a large arena very far away from each other, but how can they hear each other? The answer is canceling out the sound of the screams coming from the sender so that the only sound they can hear is the sound of the other person's voice.

Sabharwal explained, "We send two signals such that they cancel each other at the receiving antenna -- the device ears. The canceling effect is purely local, so the other node can still hear what we're sending." These extra antennas send out canceling frequencies from the sending receiver.

Sabharwal continued, "We repurposed antenna technology called MIMO, which are common in today's devices. MIMO stands for 'multiple-input multiple-output' and it uses several antennas to improve overall performance. We took advantage of the multiple antennas for our full-duplex scheme, which is the main reason why all wireless carriers are very comfortable with our technology."

Rice University's idea was conceived and tested some months ago.

Now the team is back with a new goal, Sabharwal stated that their technology could be added to all cell towers, and no additional structures will be needed.  They have already "attracted the attention of just about every wireless company in the world." No wonder, the possibility of doubling the data throughput is quite exciting.

This technology will not be available until carriers upgraded their speed to "4 1/2G" or "5G" speeds, but the team is hopeful that this will be available in the next couple of years. Sabharwal is head of the WARP project at Rice University the acronym WARP stands for wireless open-access research platform. This enables them to be able to experience full-duplex wireless communication.

Eavesdropper

Add a little art-deco, some solar panels, and a special battery and starts inductively charging devices. Panasonic is releasing a small charging table, which looks like something that belongs at a coffee shop, sometime this year in Japan. The key to this table, no need for 3rd party adapters and accessories. The inductive charging coupling circuit will be built into the battery. Place a phone on the table, it will charge. Place a bare battery on the table, it will also charge. Panasonic may produce batteries for the world's most popular phone to work with their table, and the tech may be licensed out. The solar panels allow the table to be moved anywhere. However, in most cases outdoor tables have umbrellas over them. However, some indoor light energy could be recovered by these tables.

The table was demonstrated at the Retail Tech Expo in London. Another example of the new environmental conscious Japan.

Eavesdropper