SNRC Seminar - Thomas Zimmerman, IBM - "Applications of Consumer Wireless Technology"

What began as a research project at the MIT Media Lab to instrument Yo You Ma's cello and enable magician Penn Jillette to play air drums, turned into a means to send data through the body. Using a small prototype transmitter (roughly the size of a deck of cards) embedded with a microchip, and a surprisingly simple receiver, we have demonstrated transmission of a preprogrammed electronic business card between two people via a simple handshake. However sending data through the body is tricky for it depends on geometry to break electrical symmetry. The commoditization of WLAN technology inspired the design a Mesh Network using 802.11b radios and Linux PC's to connect rural villages. Radio frequency key fobs and alarms protect our cars, but they can also be used to protect our laptops. When you want to be somewhere but you don't want to go there, why not send your wireless digital head instead? In my lecture I shall report on these research projects, demonstrating a wide variety of applications for inexpensive consumer wireless technology.