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Wireless-Friendly Microwaves
Makarand writes "According to this article on ABC News, scientists at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor have stumbled upon a simple and elegant solution to keep your kitchen microwave from
becoming a noisy nuisance to your home Wi-Fi network.
They found that they could focus the microwaves into a single frequency and
reduce noisy
microwave emissions by placing ordinary magnets in specific patterns along the magnetron .
New techniques to reduce microwave interference will be needed when
Wi-Fi enabled entertainment systems will allow digital audio and video to be transmitted
to different rooms of a house wirelessly. Packet drops in such a sytem would degrade the video and audio
experience."
I have big problems with the radio that the CIA implanted in my brain.
The summary sez:"Packet drops in such a sytem would degrade the video and audio experience."
I'm much more concerned with interference from my WAN slowing down or altering the cooking time of my microwave!
Geek1: Hey guys, want some microwave popcorn?
Geeks: Sure!
Geek1: OK, turn off all the 802.11 stuff so it will cook.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
They found that they could focus the microwaves into a single frequency
...
Why not go all the way and make the frequency and phase of the microwave oven's magnetron adjustable, add some kind of microcontroller to drive it, and a small cpu to implement the 802.11b stack. Then, from your laptop, run this script:
WIFI_IF=eth0
DATE=`date +%s`
while [ ! $TIMEOUT ];do
DATE_PREV=$DATE
tcpdump -i $WIFI_IF -c 1
DATE=`date +%s`
let TDIFF=DATE-DATE_PREV
if [ $TDIFF -gt 5 ];then
TIMEOUT=1
fi
done
echo "Coffee is hot!"
Ah, the marvels of technology
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
I'd be happy if my microwave just didn't whine and rattle because they didn't balance that turning thing
Think positive, this noise is actually a useful feature : when your oven becomes quiet, you know it's high time you cleaned the inside, because globules of sticky food are stuck in the rollers.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
Don't mess with magnets at home! I jest wraps my microwave in aluminium foil. If it's good enough for my head, it's good enough for my microwave. Not only does this stop interference with my WiFi, but the voices come in even clearer.
Nobody in their right mind would drink MICROWAVE COFFEE, right? Right??
But if you like it, you might as well boil your sport socks and underwear, add a dash of pergamot and enjoy a hot cup of "coffee".
...will finally be able to use Chris to wirelessly kill Lois in the new Family Guy season.
legacy microwaves
Now there's a phrase you'd only hear on slashdot.
Remember, it takes 42 muscles to frown and only 4 to pull the trigger of a sniper rifle.
Microwaves DO interfere with WiFi. Case in point, when my wife is cooking here egg rolls in the microwave, my WiFi signal drops to zero. The microwave finishes and poof...11mb connections. If I can connect, I either get really really really SLOW connections, or I have to be ontop of the AP....literally! 2.4 GHz is what many call the garbage band...you got cordless phones, cellphones are close to it, microwaves, WiFi (both a and g), video units, intercoms, and just about anything you can think of all fighting for spectrum. 5GHz is going to be no better. I am waiting to see if the either start cleaning up 2.4 GHz which would be REALLY hard, or ramp up or down the frequency. I thing the 1.2 GHz ham band would be a good candidate for refarming. From Ham use, it's not even close to being useful for public service and even if there are radios, there's usually noone there even during rush hour. The range would be a bit better then 2.4Ghz and they could totally reserve it for WLANS of all types. As a ham, I am not usually in favor of killing a band (more in favor of addding ham bands), but almost no friends of mine work 1.2GHz and I am sure all of them would like a better WLAN connection! ;)
Gorkman
WiFi is an unlicensed, "Part 15" system. It has to accept all interference from all sources.
I'm not going to pay $2 more for a microwave just so people who can't figure out how to run ethernet can avoid dropped packets every time I warm up my cocoa.
JD
Relax, you're on our list for an upgrade. We're going to put the specially placed magnets around the transmitter. That should fix it.
Our grey alien friends should be around tonight to pick you up (if they anal-probe you, that wasn't our idea).
(The cup holder already works great)
No mod points, no meta-moderating/Firehose/all the other free work Slashdot wants me to do.