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Turning Your Home Wiring Into a Giant Antenna
An anonymous reader writes with this IBT snippet: "Imagine if you could run a wireless sensor device for years without ever having to replace the battery. Turns out, the idea of a battery-less wireless device might not be too far off. Researchers at the University of Washington and the Georgia Institute of Technology developed a small node sized device that uses the residential wiring from a building or home and transmits information to and from almost anywhere else from within. The device is called Sensor Nodes Utilizing Powerline Infrastructure, or SNUPI. It uses basic copper wiring as a giant antenna to receive wireless signals at a set frequency. When the device is within 10 to 15 feet of electrical wiring, it uses the antenna to send data to a single base station." (For "node-sized," think "size of a breakfast cereal prize.")
here is one someone knocked up a 120 years ago.
They already get upset enough about HomePlug style ethernet-over-power devices.
"Attack", "rail". Expect a visit from a not-so-friendly representative of Homeland Security.
Your Best Friend and Big Brother,
The US Government
Yeah, negotiating right of way with the railroad company. Brilliant! Why didn't I think of that?
You should probably re-evaluate how you approach your rails, attacking them shouldn't be necessary!
IF this is widely adopted, place your bets on how long it takes for snoopers and sniffer to start stealing your sensitive data. I'm guessing a scant week after a city touts a complete success at a city-wide installation a report will come out on how a scammer scams that town out of kajillions.
Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'
I'd like to see one of those frenetically sealed batteries. Or maybe just see a video of the battery being sealed.
"When you sit with a nice girl for two hours, it seems like two minutes. When you sit on a hot stove for two minutes, it
These powerline 'type' technologies are like just bad bad news for Hams and shortwave enthusiasts as it wipes out the bands, unless notch filters are employed, which I doubt it.
Radio waves are already being generated by the wiring, albeit at much lower frequencies (e.g., 60Hz).
You insensitive clod!
Im sorry, what is a breakfast cereal prize?
It's something that you plug into your UCB port.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
I have been working in a DSL company a few years back. For DSL systems, the AM signals could be an issue since they can couple into the long twist pair lines and then, be fed into receiver. So far, I got the idea to utilize the long wires (phone lines, power line, etc) to perform short range radio communications or sensors with other devices. Problems? Many. Overall, it is very hard to control, i.e. taking a lot of noise/interference and emitting a lot of energy (could affect other devices).
^(oo)^pig~
For those of you who have never eaten or purchased pre-sweetened "kids" cereals, popular breakfast cereals marketed to children in the U.S. and elsewhere in the West often have a little toy stuffed in them. A famous (infamous?) example that may be an urban legend is a plastic whistle that once came in Cap'n'Crunch cereal boxes that (allegedly) blew a tone of 2600 Hz, the exact frequency needed to place free phone long-distance phone calls on AT&T's POTS network.
My blog
Be happy they didn't call this 'Sensor Nodes Utilizing Conductive Infrastructure' ... the short version of that would not be pretty. Come to think of it, the short version IS not that pretty :)
Veni, Vidi, Velcro!
How can this ever be approved? I imagine this can cause all sorts of problems. The power grid in a normal house is not designed for this, same thing goes for the ethernet over power crap. There are all sorts or regulations about keeping net pollution down, and using it as a transmission medium goes directly against this.
For "node-sized," think "size of a breakfast cereal prize."?
For those of us that haven't eaten cereal that comes with prizes for at least 40 years now, can you express that in more traditional units, e.g. volkswagens, libraries of congress, or common US coins? Alternatively, you you just give the fucking dimensions.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Actually that record is still being held by Arnold Rimmer in Red Dwarf, when he suggested to form the Comitee for Liberation and Integration of Terrorizing Organisms and their Reintegration Into Society.
In the UW paper, there was no detailed description of the powerline inside the test home. What was the wiring? I'm guessing it was NM cable (a.k.a. "Romex"), or wire in nonmetallic conduit. If a home is wired with wire in metal conduit or armored cable (f.k.a."BX"), the grounded metal enclosure probably has an adverse effect on performance of the SNUPI system.
i too sir know this shameful fact. :(
I don't have one, but I do remember them. The Wikipedia article on the cereal has citable references. And a little googling turns up photos of the whistle.
Free Martian Whores!
When I was in college, kids in the university's then-tallest building would not bother getting cable service, which the dorm was pre-wired for. But despite not having cable service, they plugged their TV's into the cable jacks anyway -- and it increased their OTA reception fourfold. The cable wires running through the building served as a huge 100-foot antenna.
Terrorists can attack freedom, but only Congress can destroy it.
Damnit. Gitmo again?
Hoist Number One and Number Six.