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- Hacker News
- > the maximum achievable throughput is 26 bps at 1.5 m and goes down to 22 bps at 4.5 m.
And when there are more than one transmitters in real world conditions instead of anechoic chamber?
It's cool and all and if this work is for it's own sake, for the sake of research, no issues. But otherwise, I struggle to think of practical use cases. I grant that my imagination may be deficient.
by frumiousirc - A cacophony of meaty slaps in morse-code.by analog8374
- Magic, got it.
(I am floored that this works. This is amazing.)
by pockybum522 - 26 bps at 1.5 m: And what exactly do we expect to carry with this communication channel? If you add horned antennas it becomes a ridiculous design just to gain a few more bytes. If you add antenna arrays then it's no longer cheap. Your transmitter's output power is basically hard limited by Boltzmann constant, so just increasing range means you will have a bad time decoding it. Digital tricks, cryogenics... maybe a few more bytes, but is it enough?
I'm really struggling to see if this can be useful for anything. Dicke radiometer reference is cool, though.
by moezd - This is extremely strange. Shouldn't this be impossible by the second law of thermodynamics?
Receiving more energy when a resistor in thermal equilibrium is connected to an antenna seemingly implies that energy gets transferred from an antenna with a resistor to a an antenna without a resistor, even at thermal equilibrium.
Maybe we'll later find it's an experimental subtlety, like the faster than light neutrinos.
by mitxela - I’m away from computer so only skimmed the article until I noticed they use the ADG90x RF switch family.
IIRC that family has a single positive supply rail, and they make a nagative rail internally. The advantage is easy of implementation but you also inject some noise depending on switch position. Is this dealt with in the pub?
by chicken-stew