Wi-Fi’s Newest Wonder: Holograms
Did you know that Wi-Fi can help you see through walls? As Mashable recently reported, a pair of researchers have developed a way to use Wi-Fi signals to create 3D hologram images of objects around a network. For the first time, Wi-Fi can now recreate large spaces in 3D hologram form — including people!
It works by capturing the Wi-Fi signals which, as they move, bounce off of people and objects. For now, the holograms are clearest for larger items. “If there’s a cup of coffee on a table, you may see something is there, but you couldn’t see the shape,” said Technical University of Munich physics student Philipp Holl, coauthor of the study, to Business Insider. “But you could make out the shape of a person, or a dog on a couch. Really any object that’s more than four centimeters in size.”
Thanks to Wi-Fi and the unlicensed spectrum that makes it work, finding a specific tool or piece of equipment in a factory, keeping an eye on your home, or locating and rescuing people trapped in buildings — among many other real-world uses of this exciting technology — will be much easier to do.
Innovations like this one help make the world better and open up new technological possibilities, but we can only benefit from them if there is enough unlicensed spectrum to go around. Policymakers, tech innovators, and wireless Internet equipment manufacturers need to work together to make sure that more unlicensed spectrum becomes — and stays — available. They also must ensure that technologies such as LTE-U stay out of Wi-Fi’s way, and that growing network traffic is managed effectively.
More Wi-Fi and more unlicensed spectrum means more opportunities for awesome technology like these 3D Wi-Fi holograms. Click here to show your support for Wi-Fi and unlicensed spectrum!
