Developed a cheap way to amplify a Wi-Fi signal ten times

MIT came up with a “smart surface”.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory has developed a way to amplify a Wi-Fi signal by almost ten times.

Modern devices with their miniature dimensions leave very little space for placing antennas, complicating the task of providing a good signal. It was this problem that MIT scientists tried to solve.

They developed the so-called “smart surface” RFocus. The prototype of such a surface, in fact, consists of more than 3 thousand miniature antennas. According to the developers, in combination with special software, the solution provides maximum signal reception.

It is planned that such an array of antennas should be relatively inexpensive – a few cents for each antenna. In addition, compared to “conventional” systems, the solution consumes less energy, since it does not require additional amplifiers that consume a lot of charge.

Such a solution can be especially useful for the Internet of Things devices. However, the development stage is still far from the commercial stage.