Faster Wi-Fi in works to transfer data

Faster Wi-Fi in works to transfer data

By GREG BLUESTEIN, Associated Press Writer Sun Sep 2, 2:43 PM ET

ATLANTA - With a wave of his hand over a homemade receiver, Georgia Tech professor Joy Laskar shows how easily — and quickly — large data files could someday be transferred from a portable media player to a TV.

Poof! "You just moved a movie onto your device," Laskar says.

While Wi-Fi and Bluetooth have emerged as efficient ways to zap small amounts of data between gadgets, neither is well suited for quickly transferring high-definition video, large audio libraries and other massive files.

Laskar and other scientists at the Georgia Electronic Design Center have turned to extremely high radio frequencies to transfer huge data files over short distances.

The high frequencies — which use the 60 gigahertz band — have been a mostly untapped resource. Researchers say it could one day become the conventional wireless way to zap data over short distances.

"There will be a constant pressure for speed and it will never cease," said M. Kursat Kimyacioglu, director of strategy and wireless business development at the semiconductor subsidiary of Philips Electronics NV. "We need much faster wireless data networking technologies to make much faster downloads and back-ups and higher resolution HD video streaming possible."

The center has already achieved wireless data-transfer rates of 15 gigabits per second from a span of 1 meter. That would mean a download time of less than five seconds for a DVD-quality copy of "The Matrix" or other Hollywood movies.

A cheap chip would launch a new round of competition for the technology, said Anh-Vu Pham, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of California at Davis.

"The technology is there, it just requires a little more work," he said. "If the radio can be deployed, you'll have a lot of applications — from HDTV to flash drives — without using any type of cable. Once you solve that problem, you open up so many applications."

"You're talking about moving gigabits in seconds, your whole iPod library, your whole video library," said Laskar. "This has the potential of becoming the de facto way of moving this information on and off the devices.

"With this type of technology, you can compete — and pretty much crush — the wired competition."