Wi-Fi

For the last 4 years, high-end audio brand Devialet has been working to make the kind of impressive sound delivery found in its extraordinary Phantom speakers portable. The fruit of that labor is now available as the room-adapting 360-degree Mania.

If someone were planning on burglarizing a building, it would help if they knew where valuable gadgets such as smart TVs were located. A drone equipped with a cheap "Wi-Peep" device could allow them to do so, by seeing through the building's walls.

We've already seen systems that wirelessly transmit data via patterns of flickering light. A Saudi Arabian team has created a less energy-intensive alternative, that could use modulated sunlight in place of traditional Wi-Fi.

Last year, the Raspberry Pi Foundation launched the first product based on silicon that was developed in-house. Now the Pico microcontroller has been upgraded with built-in Wi-Fi for running new Internet-of-Things projects.

Because GPS doesn't work indoors, it can be difficult for robots to determine where they are within a structure. A new system could help, by using a building's existing Wi-Fi access points to guide wheeled or walking robots.

SpaceX has found a new home for its satellite-powered internet, inking a deal with independent air carrier JSX to offer onboard Wi-Fi to customers later this year, making the airline the first to carry SpaceX's Starlink internet service.

It feels like Wi-Fi 6 only just got here, but of course technology marches ever forward. Wi-Fi 7 is on the horizon already, and MediaTek has now announced the first live demos of the next-gen tech, which should be much faster than what we’re used to.

Back in 2015, the Raspberry Pi Foundation launched a $5 project board called the Pi Zero for entry-level tinkerers. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capabilities were added in 2017 for an extra five bucks, and now the Zero W has entered its second generation.

Ikea has teamed up with Sonos to add another product to the Symfonisk range that debuted in 2019 with a table lamp/speaker combo and a standalone streaming speaker. This time the collaboration has merged a picture frame with a Wi-Fi speaker.

Researchers have demonstrated a new approach to harnessing the power of ambient radio waves, developing a novel chip that can convert Wi-Fi signals into power for a small LED, and possibly other small electronics and sensors.

Everything needs to be online nowadays, from vending machines to smart speakers, but that costs in terms of bulk and energy use. Now researchers have come up with a chip that gets devices connected with 5,000 times less power draw than normal.

Utilizing a new technique, ordinary wall-penetrating Wi-Fi signals could reportedly now be used to identify a person within a house.