AltRed Wireless Center

Who says technology is pulling us apart? Researchers at Queen’s University Belfast are developing a new type of wireless network that’s all about bringing people together. You see, with body-to-body networks, the cellphone towers are people (to borrow a turn of phrase from the 1973 sci-fi film Soylent Green).Now don’t worry: body-to-body networks (or BBNs, as the cool kids call them) don’t involve radiating your body with radio frequencies. Instead, a person would simply have to have a sensor worn somewhere on their body, or even embedded inside their phone. These sensors would communicate with others within range to create an ad hoc network, eliminating the need for massive cellphone towers.Which is good since, despite their size, the towers we have now still aren’t enough. Big cities often face a backlog of users trying to send data through only a few towers, and the costs of maintaining them are often exorbitant. These towers would also need to be upgraded to keep up with 4G technologies. Luckily, the BBNs now being researched would work best in the areas most in need of them: crowded cities with lots of people trying to send lots of data. The closeness of the sensors would allow users to send data at lower power outputs, which would make batteries last for a longer time between charges.It certainly sounds tempting. What obstacles does this new technology face? First, it’s still in the research stages, so there’s no telling when this technology would be publicly available, and what it would cost. Second, it’ll take some fancy marketing to overcome the fears of those worried about cellphone radiation. However, a 2007 assessment by the European Commission Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks (SCENIHR) concluded that “exposure to RF fields is unlikely to lead to an increase in cancer in humans.” One concern raised by Kelly Hodgkins of IntoMobile.com is the possibility of someone writing an app to redirect information to a malicious server. Whether this would be a possibility or not remains to be seen.Previous technologies are still being considered, such as a change in material for metal antennas. Researcher at NC State in 2009 were working on a “shape-shifting antenna” that could be bent and stretched and still return to its starting shape. The material consists of a liquid metal alloy injected into an elastic casing, such as siliconethe casing material differs based on the desired qualities. In addition, there are other applications for this kind of antenna, based on the fact that a change in frequency would accompany any change in shape. This could be used in bridges and ships to monitor damages and alert engineers before tragedy hit.