New study of antenna Omnidirectional clothing weaves

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Antenna, a bit like underwear. All their needs, but you typically want to hide them, and when you have a problem with them, it gets embarrassing. Since we lost sliding nub and previous years on our antennas, telephones and radios, antennas and more and more integrated with the construction of the device, but sometimes it is not advisable to do so.

Take our clothing, for example. As a rule receive antenna to play nice with bending and restructuring has led to a decrease in performance (and then there's these things). But from the Ohio State University to the next big step towards the creation of a sweater.

They have thin, flexible plastic substrates and etched brass on him, forming a kind of flow easy antenna. Then they wove this thread four panes waistcoat: front, rear and both shoulders. The controller about the size of a deck of cards was mounted on the belt. This device keeps track of the signal from each antenna and switch between them on the fly to keep these bars. During the tests it performs much better than the existing style of whip antenna. Most importantly it allowed secure connection regardless of the direction of person faces.

It's not quite ready for the deployment of a banana Republic just yet, but there are a lot of applications. Chen ChiChih, one of the researchers, said: "our primary goal is improving the reliability of communication and mobility of soldiers, but the same technology can work for police officers, firefighters, astronauts – people who need to keep their hands free for important work". A good signal can mean the difference between good and bad copies when the building goes down and smaller footprint means one more device or log can be another tool a soldier or a fire. I think this can be useful for espionage and police work, though. No more wires sticking out to breast secret guy.

It's not cheap: tech costs about $ 200 per person for implementation, which is probably from NASA'S budget. Researchers believe they can reduce the price and eventual integration of antennas with normal clothing for security purposes.

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