"They don't use wireless energy."<p>Please tell me more about your magical energy-free signal propagation!<p>In all seriousness, Shannon's entropy limit only applies to a single variable, modulated at a certain frequency. The only reason we apply this limit to radio is because we treat each radio frequency in a given zone as a single variable. In fact, you're perfectly free to use directed antennas or interferometry to establish multiple communication variables on the same frequency.<p>Ah, and indeed, at 1:19, Perlman mentions each cell phone on a separate spatial domain.<p>Since they say it's a single cell phone antenna, I'm guessing we're looking at multiple towers and interferometry between them, possibly taking advantage of the intensity dropoff with distance and timing data for spatial discrimination.
I very much hope I'm wrong but it sounds pretty fishy to me. When the guy in the audience asked the question about what modulation this new radio uses he got a marketing babble answer unworthy of a university audience.<p>Working in sensor networks we could really use one of these breakthrough technologies and in the past year or two I've heard at least three vendors give the exact same pitch but as of today there's no technical detail that gives me much hope.
So are we supposed to believe that incumbent tech companies have no investments in new tech?<p>Canon is not working (or already passed) on the same stuff as Lytro?
Samsung is not working (or already passed) on the same stuff as Nanosys?
Cisco (or whoever) is not working (or already passed) on this type of stuff?<p>Anybody have examples of modern (within 10 years) stealthy startups/incubators that invented new hardware that revolutionized something?
Seemed more like a plug for opposition of America Invents Act than some new wireless tech to me..<p>Not to say they haven't made some astounding break-through, but I didn't get the impression that they revealed anything of substance. They claim to have some experimental radios working that are able to beat Shannon's law, but reveal no details around it.
I'm really excited for the potential of wireless technologies like this to break the last mile death grip companies like AT&T and Comcast have. We are at the point where spectrum regulation/management isn't even necessary, except for legacy devices.
I think the meaning of 'law' has been lost here. When I was doing my masters in Info./Comm theory I remember coming across a much ridiculed paper that claimed to break Shannon's law. It was pretty funny but of course I can't find it now since a google search only turns up hits for this.