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RF-Blocking Wallpaper
spitefulcrow writes "Silicon.com is reporting on a new application for RF-absorbing materials: Wallpaper that blocks Wi-Fi. BAE, the British defense contractor, has announced that the same material used to foil radar by stealth bombers can be used to selectively block certain frequencies and prevent wireless networking signals from entering or exiting a building. Is this the next take on lining the walls with lead?"
Ok, its nice. This wallpaper blocks a lot of RF radation (sic). This means that you can not use WLAN, cellphones and terrestrial TV/Radio. Is this really what you want?
It's what defense contractors, the government, and businesses worried about industrial espionage by employees, want.
And given that Witchfinder General Ashcroft and Big Blunkett are in power, I'm sure it will not only sell well, but be heavily subsidized by government, and probably required on certain government contractors.
Opinions on the Twiddler2 hand-held keyboard?
A conductive mesh layer in some wall paper.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
This means that you can not use WLAN, cellphones and terrestrial TV/Radio. Is this really what you want?
Quoth the article:
The company has produced panels using the technology to produce a screen that will prevent outsiders from listening in on companies' Wi-Fi traffic but let other radio and mobile phone traffic get through.
Tarsnap: Online backups for the truly paranoid
Oh how I would love that application of it in Norway. Unfortunately it's not allowed. The "problem" with this solution is that if there happens an accident - one "should" be able to call the norwegian equivalent of 911.
I think it sucks too.
"Rune Kristian Viken" - http://www.nwo.no - arca
Quite usefull for setting test environments as well. In fact, extremely useful if you are working on cellular infrastructure or any other radio equipment that operates in a licensed band.
Baker's Law: Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it
http://www.sigsegv.cx/
June 18 2004, by Ron Coates
UK defence contractor BAE Systems has developed a stealth wallpaper to beat electronic eavesdropping on company Wi-Fi and wired LANs. The company has produced panels using the technology to produce a screen that will prevent outsiders from listening in on companies' Wi-Fi traffic but let other radio and mobile phone traffic get through.
The FSS (Frequency Selective Surface) panels are made in the same way as printed circuit boards - layers of copper on Kapton polymer - and used on stealth bombers and fighter jets. They come in two varieties: passive, which is effectively permanent, and active, where various areas can be switched on and off to enlarge or limit the area of the network.
The panels are 50 to100 microns thick and can be applied to most surfaces including glass. A company spokesman claimed that they also helped reduce "noise" in buildings where a number of companies operate their own separate LANs.
BAE Systems developed the new material with 145,000 of funding from the Radiocommunications Agency, which is now part of Ofcom. BAE says the material is cheap and it will be developing it commercially through BAE's corporate venture subsidiary.
There is no timescale for its commercial availability.
Copper cables are far too easy to detect and physically tap. For really sensitive applications fibre-optic cables are used. A classic text book example being the use of fibre optics to link up scud missiles launchers in Iraq.
OpenBSD has built-in support for IPSec, so it was quite easy to setup for WiFi. The OpenBSD firewall at home is functioning as an access point, and only IPSec related/authenticated traffic is allowed. So when I boot up the older laptop - that is also running OpenBSD - I'm up and running securely. And fast, since no encryption is done on the WiFi chipset, and thus freeing the chipset for handling packets only.
OpenBSD really makes it straightforward to setup a secure, functional and stable home gateway.
* FOOTNOTE: The American spelling** of aluminum is used here. If you are searching for more information on aluminum, be aware that the British spell it "aluminium" (and pronounce it accordingly).
** HISTORICAL FOOTNOTE: Aluminum was originally named "alumium" by Sir Humphry Davy, who later changed it to "aluminum" (perhaps in an attempt to make it more Latinized since alumen is Latin for alum, the aluminum compound that the name is derived from). The British (and allied English speakers) shortly thereafter changed the name once more, this time to "aluminium" so that it would again match the pattern of most other elements (helium, sodium, etc.), while the North Americans eventually decided to keep the second, slightly more traditional name. I predict that North Americans will adopt the more regular "-ium" spelling by the year 2050, prompting the British to start calling it "alumininium". At that point debate can begin on changing "platinum" to "platinium"
;-)
There is much cruelty in the universe, John.
Yeah, we seem to have the tour map.
Frankly, WIFI in a hospital could be overkill. If you're doing a hospital right, just wire each room.
I was at a hospital the other day and they have terminals in each room. Doctors can log in, take notes, issue orders all from a terminal.
A mobile WIFI PDA can get lost or stolen, which is bad if you want to stay compliant with HIPAA and retain your JHACO certification.
Sure, Spock and McCoy use the tricorder when they're on the planet, but when they're in Sick Bay, McCoy always uses that computer screen behind the bed. Just another example of how we're converging on the star trek universe. (Wake me when we get to women in velour miniskirts).
My father is a blogger.
The FSS, or frequency selective surface, which is used in the panels described in the article works as a frequency selective filter to an electromagnetic wave. The one by the british firm is used as a stop band filter, which lets everything except WiFi-frequencies pass. It is also possible to make FSS which works as pass-band filters, usually for radar applications. (Stealth planes incorporates FSS in order to have a reflecting surface for the enemys radar, but which is still transparent for the planes own radar.)
So it is very different from ordinary aluminium foil. Foil wallpaper and window treatments have been available for quite a while, both for security applications and for people concerned about electromagnetic radiation. But these blocks all frequencies.
Reading The Fine Article is naturally out of the question, this being /., but it would have told you that the FSS (Frequency Selective Surface) panels can be applied to many surfaces, including glass. One must assume that it does not significantly deteriorate your ability to look through the glass, since it was specifically mentioned.
The pattern of most other metals, not most other elements. Every element ending in -ium is a metal except helium. The latter was first observed on the sun, via spectrometry, and was believed to be a metal, so it was named "sun metal" in Latin. By the time it was found on earth, it was too late to change the name.
rj
What about if the doctor went to the cinema and the local cell transmitter went down? Cell-phones have no SLA (service level agreement), so a doctor has no guarantee that he will get service in the cinema anyway.
Plus when I worked in a cinema here in the UK, we had a scren that was underground, and you couldn't get reception there _ever_!
The way I see it, if a cinema puts up a notice saying that cellphones are not allowed in the auditorium, then there's nothing wrong with them using technology to inforce it - it's no different than having the usher(s) kick people out that use them.
" To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research. "
Wrapping the whole places in tinfoil would work nicely as well, as long as you don't leave any holes. No need to go to anything as heavy as lead, unless you're trying to block things like X-rays or gamma rays.
For trivia buffs: The reason aluminum foil has a shiny side and a flatter side is that it is rolled into shape. The process involves passing what starts as an ingot through many sets of rollers, each set spaced closer together than the last. When the rollers get very close, they tend to flatten out against each other and jam. Someone had the bright idea to fold two sheets together and run them both through the last set of rollers at once, then peel them apart. Thes lets the last set of rollers be spaced as far apart as the next-to-last set. Nowdays, it is likely that precision controllers and better manufacturing tolerances would let us make aluminum foil with both sides shiny, but why bother?
Don't get me started about Oreo cookies and what the little points are for.
Who is John Cabal?
-ium vs -um in Latin doesn't have anything to do with the elements being metals or not. Just look at the names of the different elements and you'll see a heap of non-metals ending in -ium: Hydrogenium, Oxygenium, Nitrogenium...
while just as many, or even more, metals end in just -um: Ferrum, Cuprum, Plumbum, Hydragurum, Aurum...
That's nice. Put your phone on vibrate. When it rings and says "Home" (or worse, the sitter's cell phone #) get up, go into the hallway, and answer it.
That's what I do.
But it wouldn't work if theaters blocked RF.
Really, there's no reason for parents and others to lose the ability to be contacted during a movie and, as you pointed out, there's no reason for that ability to disturb others, either.
The problem of phones ringing during movies is a social problem, not a technical one.
Incidentally, for well over half a decade people went to the cinema, dinner, etc and left their kids behind with a sitter
True, but parents have much more peace of mind knowing that they can be contacted, if it's necessary. And there's no reason to take that away just because *other* people are inconsiderate.
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