back to article Sony to demo 'world's first' in-box wireless tech

Sony has developed a wireless communications technology designed to replace the cabling within gadgets rather than connections between devices. The technology operates within the 30-300GHz band. It's called the 'millimetre wave' zone, thanks to a wavelength of 1-10mm, but it's the frequency that matters since it's high enough …

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  1. Graham Dawson Silver badge
    Coat

    No wires? Great! One small problem...

    Presumably when they say "not wired together" they don't include the power cables in that definition? Otherwise...

    Yeah yeah, I know, pick pick pick.

    1. Sandtreader

      Powerline?

      My thought too - followed by the immediate chaser "so why don't they just send data over the power cables?". Or, hang on, maybe integrate power and data into the same cable. Then they could call it something like Universal Serial Bus. You heard it here last.

      Or maybe it's all going to be powered by Tesla coils...

  2. paul brain
    Thumb Up

    smart thinking

    I love and also dislike aspects of this.

    Love the thought process behind making modular components that could be replaced. In the new carbon economy, we'll all have do what we did in the past and repair what is broken , not throw it away. This is an excellent solution to a problem that will face us all in the not to distant future.

    Dislike the fact that it's based on wireless, even at extreme limited range up in the 100'sGHz, I always immediately start thinking 'Spooks' can eve's drop with super high powered gear. That being said , maybe they can already....

    1. peyton?

      Possibly...

      Depends on how thick ones tin-foil hat is:

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TEMPEST

  3. Rob Daglish
    Thumb Up

    Cool!

    I for one look forward to the day when I take the lid off some hideously expensive piece of kit to see lots of little satellite dishes pointing at each other! Just think how space-age it'll look in a 1980's sci-fi kind of way.

    Mind you, they don't have to do anything, so sony can just send me a few to stick inside my PC if they want and claim it as a success...

  4. Wize

    Won't there be a security issue?

    If you had this inside a PC, the data could be snooped with a near by receiver.

    1. Alex-TheManfromUncle
      Thumb Up

      Distance

      Think of it more like you would need to have your listening device within the workstation to be able to snoop the info being transfered. 14mm isn't that great a distance, and you would need to be within that 14mm radius to pick it up.

      Personally, thin kthis is an interesting idea, aside from Wize's (quite correct) security issue.

      There might be a use for this in the future, but it's far too early to say.

  5. LinkOfHyrule
    Thumb Up

    I thought this was a crap idea until...

    I thought this was a crap idea until I thought to myself, if they can combine this with some wireless power supply tech too to supply all the individual components/modules, it could potentially mean you could make consumer devices which literally just contain tons of loose components. Pick the device and give it a shake and it also doubles up as a funky babies rattle too! Or we could have HD TVs inside maracas even! The possibilities are endless. iMaraca anyone?

  6. Iain 15

    Insulated cases?

    Say you had two identical pc's next to each other on a desk, as is not unusual. Would this not confuse the internal comms? Do or are the cases need to be insulated (somehow?) against this?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Go

      Any case will do

      At the wavelengths they're talking about, the signal would be stopped by just about any case. About 1mm of plastic should do it.

  7. johnnytruant
    FAIL

    modular units in-box

    could shurely be achieved with, say, a plug and socket arrangement between modules?

    like, perhaps, a PC does right now.

    call me old-fashioned, but it seems to my brain that a ribbon cable or suchlike is cheaper - both in energy-use and production costs - than a fancy wireless transceiver any day. probably faster too. definitely more reliable.

    1. Adam T

      unconvinced

      It does sound rather counter-productive.

      And cheaper for Sony, doesn't mean cheaper for us.

      I guess it'll probably become more useful in a couple decades.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Terminator

    Faraday box to protect?

    Did they say anything about the security measures needed? Would a Faraday box (i.e. metal box around the circuits in question) be enough?

    Terminator, because he already has it ;).

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      I think that probably comes under the "EME shielding" umbrella

      (pun intended)

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Grenade

    sony

    That means that all the parts can be more expensive, and sonys warranty expiration detector module can tell which parts to die so it looks like a random problem.

  10. Bilgepipe
    Black Helicopters

    14mm

    Argh, the article clearly states a range of 14mm. Gordon Brown* can't listen in on you at that range, and neither can PCs interfere with each other.

    Reading comprehension fail.

    * Other Prime Ministers are available.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Coat

      14mm range..

      ..with the same consumer grade receiver. Considerably longer range with decent equipment, just as has been shown with WLAN snooping. What's the tiny wavelength equivalent of a Pringles tube?

  11. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Insects..

    Insects have "antennae", (or colliding Galaxies apparently) the word in this context should be "antennas"

  12. Psymon
    Thumb Up

    It would make for some pretty cool toys

    imagine intelligent lego bricks, or other component based toys using this tech.

    slap a few blocks together in the shape of a dog and watch it walk, type thing.

  13. Eddy Ito

    14mm!!

    When I started reading I thought this was a great feature but clearly it needs some work to be really useful. Exactly what wires are you going to replace with a range of 14mm? Great, they can transmit from one side of the "A" key to the other and with the right kit they might be able to reach the "F" key but even then they couldn't spell "fail". I suppose it might be a useful replacement for an opto-isolator.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    Seems a bit pointless...

    Why waste power sending and recieving over such short distances when you could use a simple two wire bus?

    If they really wanted to go truly wireless, then we already have electrically isolated components that use optical methods for transfer, e.g. smd lasers/leds.

    1. Paolo Marini
      Thumb Up

      direction

      as far as I understand, a laser sending/receiving system has to be "pointed" to each other, while the term wireless in more general meaning can take advantage of unidirectionality (transmits to and receives from anywehere)

  15. An nonymous Cowerd
    Coat

    pc's compromised

    the security buzz around French/Swiss Cybersecurité in November 2009 was that most PC's with wired keyboards TRANSMIT the key scan routines. Full plaintext was recovered in the basement of a 5th floor apartment block from a PC typing on the top floor. Mac's were slightly worse than bog standard PC's as the new thin alu block keyboard emits slightly more power than an el'cheapo plastic PC thing. The reason you haven't heard too much about this is that University of Lausanne where this research is being done was immediately (allegedly) hit by a lawsuit from the Wanking industry - oops spelling a bit off, must be my keyboard, - as the Uni claimed that A** machines were also susceptible. sorry trying again **M machines, last try *T* machines. Anyway, you need a National Instruments USRP software defined radio and a decent digital storage oscilloscope. Intentionally beaming nanowaves around INSIDE the box, or even around peripherals doesn't worry me in the least provided it is designed with some reasonable validation and authentication into the protocols from day one.

  16. Paul Donnelly

    Storms a'comin.....

    Now if only you could find metals that would solidify when an electric current was passed through them! You could combine a few footballs of it with a few bulgarian funbags of teeny tiny little computers that could communicate and behave as one big computer, with the ability to reshape itself!

    I fail to see why this wouldn't be the best idea in the world. Ever.

  17. Lionel Baden

    modular parts !!

    Yeah like heel they will

    i would love be able to fix my telly its broke heres a new chip just slot it in ....

    Like hell they will .....

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