Wave to Your TV: Welcome to the Future of Wireless

With wireless technology becoming increasingly faster, one can't help but to imagine what the future has in store. For one professor at Georgia Tech, the future is just too far away.

As Joy Laskar stands before his students, he swipes his hand over a handmade receiver and waves to a nearby television screen. He smiles and tells his students that he has just moved a full-length movie from a portable media player right onto a television set. (Source: usatoday.com)

While the entire concept seems ridiculously magical, Laskar argues that researchers have been temporarily derailed by beliefs that change will come in the form of WiFi and Bluetooth technology. The Georgia Tech prof tells his students that these two forms of wireless are ideal for zapping small amounts of data between gadgets, but do little in the way of transferring high-definition videos, large audio libraries and other massive files.

For Laskar and his team of researchers at Georgia Tech, the gateway to faster technology comes with high radio frequencies when moving large data files over short distances. These frequencies use a 60 gigahertz band and have been a relatively untapped resource. Most analysts believe that radio frequency technology will one day eliminate the need for WiFi and Bluetooth altogether, though both remain the most viable and popular versions of wireless technology. (Source: usatoday.com)

Laskar also believes implementing radio frequency technology will happen sooner than later, because many outside factors, like government grants, are a non-factor.  Why? Because the radio bands being used are unlicensed. Also, since the range is less than 33 feet, interference is minimal and the transmissions appear more secure.

A similar short-range technology, known as ultra-wideband, is just now reaching the market. It exploits a different unlicensed band, using up to 10.3 gigahertz. (Source: cnn.com)

Toshiba recently introduced laptops with built-in UWB chips that can communicate wirelessly using a docking station.

As it stands, the current maximum speed of UWB is roughly 480 megabits per second, equivalent to a high-speed computer cable. The high radio frequencies that will use a 60 gigahertz band promises to work at much higher speeds. (Source: cnn.com)

How does Laskar respond to this breakthrough in wireless technology? He not only intends, but promises to "crush the wired competition".