Agreed, StandardFuture. This is impressive, but TV channels and signals are owned by TV broadcasters. So:
* Not only the FCC, but the NAB [National Association of Broadcasters] will be on this pronto.
* So, consider either:
___o Allowing the FCC to retain a channel for a few years of ambient backscatter experimentation and evaluation (funding a set of transmitters for a while, experimenting with what transmitter signal structure might allow wider ambient backscatter bandwidth and node-to-node distances), then offer it as a tax-supported service ( as with GPS ), or sell it, else
___o Having the FCC allow an interested private owner of TV channels privately experiment with ambient backscatter engineering as proposed (locally, multipoint-piggybacked over 8VSB TV), develop the technology, then license it.
* In no way am I intending to cast aspersions on the authors' achievements here; instead I am very, very impressed! It shows indefinitely durable (battery-less) RF networking having practical applications drawing only half a microwatt for 'transmission,' carrying a general purpose programmable microcontroller on board, using a passive method to modulate an ambient RF signal with a man-made signal below the by the intended (TV) signal. And using analog components where they give significant power advantages, while retaining programmability sufficient to support a networking stack. Wow.
Disclosure: I work in support of the Broadcast TV Industry
Edits: (1) Tax-supported is not 'free' (2) Clarify that ambient backscatter is multipoint, 12 orders-of-magnitude lower power, and distributed, in contrast to the single point of origin of the 8VSB TV transmission
* Not only the FCC, but the NAB [National Association of Broadcasters] will be on this pronto.
* So, consider either:
___o Allowing the FCC to retain a channel for a few years of ambient backscatter experimentation and evaluation (funding a set of transmitters for a while, experimenting with what transmitter signal structure might allow wider ambient backscatter bandwidth and node-to-node distances), then offer it as a tax-supported service ( as with GPS ), or sell it, else
___o Having the FCC allow an interested private owner of TV channels privately experiment with ambient backscatter engineering as proposed (locally, multipoint-piggybacked over 8VSB TV), develop the technology, then license it.
* In no way am I intending to cast aspersions on the authors' achievements here; instead I am very, very impressed! It shows indefinitely durable (battery-less) RF networking having practical applications drawing only half a microwatt for 'transmission,' carrying a general purpose programmable microcontroller on board, using a passive method to modulate an ambient RF signal with a man-made signal below the by the intended (TV) signal. And using analog components where they give significant power advantages, while retaining programmability sufficient to support a networking stack. Wow.
Disclosure: I work in support of the Broadcast TV Industry
Edits: (1) Tax-supported is not 'free' (2) Clarify that ambient backscatter is multipoint, 12 orders-of-magnitude lower power, and distributed, in contrast to the single point of origin of the 8VSB TV transmission