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

Some of the dishes in the SETI array

Due to funding issues, SETI (search for extraterrestrial intelligence), shut down almost six months ago. The search had come to an end. The 42-antenna Allen Telescope Array (ATA) in Northern California went dark.

Despite Stephen Hawking warning us all to stay quiet, since a possible intelligent life form that hears our calls may want to plunder our lush orb, the SETI Institute set up a website to collect donations in June of 2011. (SETIstars.org) To this point, they have raised $226,406 of the $200,000 needed to reopen the two-way comm to the cosmos.

Now reaching the goal, SETI is scheduled to restart operation in September 2011. The donation line remains open, but how long the doors remain open is another issue. SETI Institute CEO Tom Pierson stated that ATA's long-term success may come with a slight re-purposing of the array. The Institute is trying to solicit the U.S. Air Force to use the array for orbital debris tracking. It would track in the day, and talk to E.T. at night. 

I am with Stephen Hawking on this one. I expect the worst from an E.T. encounter. However, if the Air Force does use it for debris tracking, I will send some money their way. The future of space flight might literally be blocked by the shell of space garbage circling the planet.

Cabe

SETI donation fun facts:

● Among the donators was celebrity Jodie Foster, who played a SETI researcher in the movie "Contact."

● Larry Niven, writer/creator of "Ringworld."

● Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders, who travelled around the moon in 1968. Attached to his donation Anders wrote, "It is absolutely irresponsible of the human race not to be searching for evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence."

Finally, per item RFID tagging, UHF tags to be exact. Can you go through a checkout without putting all your items on the conveyor belt? ABI Research things it will happen soon. Bill Arnold of ABI says, "RFID systems allow apparel retailers to get a better handle on inventory, reducing costs and preventing out of stock situations that result in loss of sales. The growth in retail item-level tagging is huge, both in shipments and in total spending. The average growth rate is close to 60% for the next three years. In fact, the number of tags that will be used for retail ILT in apparel alone is likely to exceed the total number consumed over the past five years for all RFID markets combined."

Major retailors are pushing hard to use RFID. We will see more security use and checkot use later in 2011. Tyco Retail Solutions and Checkpoint are leading the way.

Eavesdropper